Commissioners were sent round the country to seize 'abused' images, relics and shrines, and record
the people's 'fond trust' in them. From Burton-on-Trent they sent St Modwyn, with her red cow and
her staff, which women in labour borrowed to ease their pain. At Caversham in Berkshire, they found
a piece of the noose which hanged Judas, and an angel with one wing which had brought to Caversham its proudest possession: the spear's head which had pierced Our Saviour's side. Now Caversham lost the mana or spiritual power of that sacred relic, so long in its keeping, and other places lost other treasures. A pathetic tally of the votive offerings found at the shrines was recorded.
The cynicism of the commissioners contrasted with the simple devotion of the people, who lost their
sacred treasures before they lost their faith in them. In most places the parishioners had looken on,
helpless, before the sacrilege; in some, the commissioners moved secretly, by night, for fear of resistance, just as the clandestine, unofficial iconoclasts did. The images of wood and stone could be
annihilated, yet the idols in the mind, the imagining of Mary with her child in her arms, which the most fervent and uncompromising reformers would come to condemn, remained. From the Bible the people must learn that God was a spirit, to be worshipped in spirit and truth.
Mainly I would like this blog to be about my favourite subjects throughout history, like the ancient egyptians, and greek mythology and stuff like that, but I am also a tv series and movie fanatic, so I thought that I'd probably include stuff about new and coming films and tv shows, and perhaps even my own personal online journal, so that everyone can read it.
Popular Posts
-
The town of Ireland were the heartlands of the Englishry. Their citizens spoke English, wore English dress, lived in houses like those in En...
-
Thomas Denys died for saying that the Eucharist was not 'The very body of Christ, but a commemoration of Christ's passion, and Chris...
-
The first Ango-Norman conquerors had been granted great lordships upon the ruins of the Irish supremacies. In Munster the Fitzgeralds becam...
-
The treason charges against Somerset were framed, so Warwick confessed later, but Warwick's guilt does not exculpate Somerset, who was n...
-
Thomas More warned good Catholics, complacent in their ancient faith, that the new heretics were few but formidable; as different from them...
-
But although the laity attended Mass frequently, they received communion rarely, perhaps only once a year, at Easter, after confession in H...
-
THE REIGNS OF EDWARD VI (1547-53) AND MARY I (1553-8) The accession of a baby queen, Mary, and...
-
'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.' This text, which opens St John's Gospel, was a...
-
In the summer of 1536, for the first time, the King used his newly assumed power to define doctrine, and many people believed that the Cath...
-
Richard's supporters were in disarray, not knowing whether to resist or to make terms with the new order. Some fought on, some were imp...
No comments:
Post a Comment