Puritan Iconoclasm During the English Civil War

Front Cover
Boydell Press, 2003 - 318 pages
An examination of Puritan iconoclasm, the reasons which led to it, and the forces which sustained it.

This work offers a detailed analysis of Puritan iconoclasm in England during the 1640s, looking at the reasons for the resurgence of image-breaking a hundred years after the break with Rome, and the extent of the phenomenon. Initially a reaction to the emphasis on ceremony and the 'beauty of holiness' under Archbishop Laud, the attack on 'innovations', such as communion rails, images and stained glass windows, developed into a major campaign driven forwardby the Long Parliament as part of its religious reformation. Increasingly radical legislation targeted not just 'new popery', but pre-Reformation survivals and a wide range of objects (including some which had been acceptable tothe Elizabethan and Jacobean Church). The book makes a detailed survey of parliament's legislation against images, considering the question of how and how far this legislation was enforced generally, with specific case studies looking at the impact of the iconoclastic reformation in London, in the cathedrals and at the universities. Parallel to this official movement was an unofficial one undertaken by Parliamentary soldiers, whose violent destructivenessbecame notorious. The significance of this spontaneous action and the importance of the anti-Catholic and anti-Episcopal feelings that it represented are also examined.
Shortlisted for Historians of British Art Book Prize for2003
Dr JULIE SPRAGGON is at the Institute for Historical Research, University of London.

 

Contents

Attitudes to Images from the Reformation to the Meeting of the
11
Long Parliament c 15361640
31
the Long Parliament and
61
The Enforcement of Iconoclastic Legislation in the Localities
99
The Response in London
133
The Reformation of the Cathedrals
177
Iconoclasm at the Universities
217
Conclusion
250
Parliamentary Legislation against Monuments of
257
William Dowsings Commissions
264
Index
305
Copyright

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