Reformation of Images

The Reformation of Images: Destruction of Art in England 1535-1660 by John Phillips, 210 pages

Over the course of little more than a century, beginning in the reign of Henry VIII and cresting under the Protectorate, religious art in England, ubiquitous in the Middle Ages, was sought out and destroyed in churches, marketplaces, and even in private homes.  As John Phillips relates, this destruction was driven by a complex set of religious and secular motives, chiefly the fear of idolatry, the rejection of matter in favor of spirit, growing suspicion of the human imagination, concern for public order, and simple greed.  He demonstrates how doctrines concerning the use and abuse of images were inextricably tied to other doctrines involving the sacraments, the ministerial priesthood, the cult of saints, the veneration of relics, monasticism, pilgrimages, and the entire social dimension of the Church.  The rejection of sacred images, or their acceptance, was thus emblematic of an entire worldview.

The first half of the book, covering the period up to the Elizabethan settlement, is solid, but has largely been superseded by Eamon Duffy's masterpiece The Stripping of the Altars.  The second half, discussing iconoclasm and the definition of Anglicanism as against Puritanism under the Stuarts and Cromwell, is equally good, and has not, to my knowledge, yet been surpassed.