History 2P91: Changes to Religious Life I: Iconoclasm and Worship

The aim, first and foremost, of reform was not only to deal with what European christians believed, but with the ways they practiced or 'did' their religion - worship.  Doctrinal changes were focused on 'reforming' the ways people prayed and went to church.  Reformers sought a time in the where religious practices were not corrupt, and to restore 16th Century practices to that point because they were 'pristine' or 'godly'.  The Reformation of worship focused on two things - the removal of dangerous, idolatrous or sinful practices, objects and beliefs, and their replacement with godly, scripture-based, true forms of worship.  Of course reformers did not agree on what the primitive or 'historical' church had used, so there was much debate about what 'true religion' looked like.  Certain objects, such as images or clerical robes, were for some, a sign of good order - or 'proper' worship, and thus not a problem, whereas others - mainly Calvinists and radicals - saw all of the trappings of the medieval past as idolatrous and sinful.  What needed to be kept and what thrown away wasn't clear…

Additional Reading Lists

• Susan Arnoult, ''Spiritual and Sacred Publique Actions': The Book of Common Prayer and the Understanding of Worship in the Elizabethan and Jacobean Church of England', in Religion and the English People 1500-1640, ed. E. Carlson (Kirksville, Missouri: Thomas Jefferson University Press, 1998), 25-28.
• M. Aston, England's Iconoclasts: Volume I, Laws Against Images (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988).
• M. Aston, 'Iconoclasm at Rickmansworth, 1522: Troubles of Churchwardens,' Journal of Ecclesiastical History 40 no.4 (1989): 524-552.
• M. Aston, 'Iconoclasm in England: Rites of Destruction by Fire', in Bilder und Bildersturm im Spätmittelalter und in der Frühen Neuzeit, ed. Robert W. Scribner (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1990), 175-198.
• M. Aston, 'Public Worship and Iconoclasm', in The Archaeology of Reformation 1480-1580, ed. D. Gaimster and R. Gilchrist (Leeds: Maney Publishing, 2003), 9-28.
• M. Aston, 'Puritans and Iconoclasm, 1560-1660', in The Culture of English Puritanism 1560-1700, ed. C. Durston and J. Eales (London: MacMillan, 1996), 92-121.
• Judith Becker, Gemeindeordnung Und Kirchenzucht: Johannes a Lascos Kirchenordnung fur London (1555) und die reformierte Konfessionsbildung (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2007).
• H. Blake, G. Egan & J. Hurst, 'From Popular Devotion to Resistance and Revival in England: The Cult of the Holy Name of Jesus and the Reformation', in The Archaeology of Reformation 1480-1580, ed. D. Gaimster and R. Gilchrist (Leeds: Maney Publishing, 2003), 175-203.
• S. Bornert, La reforme protestante du culte a Strasbourg au XVIe siecle (1523-1598): approche sociologique et interpretation theologique (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1981).
• Christopher B. Brown, Singing the Gospel (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2005).
• W.E. Buszin, 'Luther on Music,' The Musical Quarterly 32 no.1 (1946): 80-97.
• C.C. Christensen, Art and the Reformation in Germany (Athens, Ohio: , 1979).
• P. Collinson, 'From Iconoclasm to Iconophobia', in The Impact of the English Reformation, ed. P. Marshall (London: Arnold Press, 1997), 278-308.
• John Craig, 'Psalms, Groans and Dogwhippers: the Soundscape of Sacred Space in Early Modern England', in Sacred Space, ed. Will Coster and Andrew Spicer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), .
• D. Cressy, 'Purification, Thanksgiving and the Churching of Women in Post-Reformation England,' Past & Present no.141 (): 106-146.
• B. Cummings, 'Iconoclasm and Bibliophobia in the English Reformation', in Images, Idolatry and Iconoclasm in Late Medieval England, ed. Jeremy Dimmick, James Simpson and Nicolette Zeeman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 185-205.
• Jeremy Dimmick, James Simpson & Nicolette Zeeman, 'Introduction', in Images, Idolatry and Iconoclasm in Late Medieval England, ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), .
• Eamon Duffy, Marking the Hours: English People and Their Prayers, 1240-1570 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006).
• Carlos M. Eire, 'The Reformation Critique of the Image', in Bilder und Bildersturm im Spätmittelalter und in der Frühen Neuzeit, ed. Robert W. Scribner (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1990), 51-68.
• Carlos M. Eire, War Against the Idols: the Reformation of Worship from Erasmus to Calvin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986).
• P.C. Finney ed., Seeing Beyond the Word: Visual Arts and the Calvinist Tradition (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1999).
• Bruce Gordon, 'Transcendence and Community in Zwinglian Worship: the Liturgy of 1525 in Zurich', in Continuity and Change in Christian Worship, ed. R.N. Swanson (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 1999), 128-150.
• I.M. Green, '"All people that on earth do dwell, Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice": Protestantism and music in Early Modern England', in Christianity and Community in the West: Essays for John Bossy, ed. S. Ditchfield (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001), .
• S.A. Hurlbut, The Liturgy of the Church of England Before and After the Reformation (Grand Rapids, Mich: W.B Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1941).
• R. Illing, 'The English Metrical Psalter of the Reformation,' The Musical Quarterly 128 no.1735 (1987): 517-521.
• W.R. Jones, 'Art and Christian Piety: Iconoclasm in Medieval Europe', in The Image and the Word: Confrontations in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, ed. J. Gutmann (Missula, Montana: Scolar Press, 1977), .
• Susan Karant-Nunn, Reformation of Ritual: an Interpretation of Early Modern Germany (London: Routledge, 1997).
• R. Kyle, 'John Knox and the Purification of Religion: the Intellectual Aspects of His Crusade against Idolatry,' Archiv fur Reformationsgeschichte no.77 (1986): 265-280.
• P. Le Huray, Music and the Reformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978 (orig. 1967)).
• T.H. Luxon, 'Calvin and Bunyan on Word and Image: Is There a Text in Interpreter's House?,' English Literary Renaissance 18 no.3 (1988): 438-459.
• Karin Maag, Worship in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Change and Continuity in Religious Practice (: , ).
• J. Maarbjerg, 'Iconoclasm in the Thurgau: Two Related Incidents in the Summer of 1524,' Sixteenth Century Journal 24 (1993): 577-59.
• J. Maltby, Prayer Book and People in Elizabethan and Early Stuart England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).
• R.K. Morris, 'Monastic Architecture: Destruction and Reconstruction', in The Archaeology of Reformation 1480-1580, ed. D. Gaimster and R. Gilchrist (Leeds: Maney Publishing, 2003), 235-251.
• Bodo Nischan, 'The exorcism controversy and baptism in the late Reformation,' Sixteenth Century Journal 18 no.1 (1987): 31-51.
• M. O'Connell, 'The Idolatrous Eye: Iconoclasm, Anti-Theatricalism, and the Image of Elizabethan Theatre,' English Literary History 52 no.2 (1985): 279-310.
• Helen L. Parish & William G. Naphy, Religion and Superstition in Reformation Europe (: , ).
• C. Peters, Patterns of Piety: Women, Gender and Religion in Late Medieval and Reformation England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
• V. Reinburg, 'Liturgy and the Laity in Late Medieval and Reformation France,' Sixteenth Century Journal 23 (1992): 526-547.
• T. Rosendale, ''Fiery Tongues:' Language, Liturgy, and the Paradox of the English Reformation,' Renaissance Quarterly 54 no.4, Part 1 (2001): 1142-1164.
• Robert W. Scribner, 'Reformation and Desacralisation: from Sacramental World to Moralised Universe', in Problems in the Historical Anthropology of Early Modern Europe, ed. Ronald Po-Chia Hsia and Robert W. Scribner (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1997), 75-92.
• Robert W. Scribner, 'The Image and the Reformation', in Disciplines of Faith: Studies in Religion, Politic, ed. James Obelkevich, Lyndal Roper and Raphael Samuel (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987), 539-550.
• Ramie Targoff, Common Prayer: the language of public devotion in early modern England (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001).
• G. Wagstaff, 'Music for the Dead and the Control of Ritual Behavior in Spain, 1450-1550,' The Musical Quarterly 82 no.3-4 (1998): 551-563.
• Lee P. Wandel, 'Envisioning God: Image and Liturgy in Reformation Zurich,' Sixteenth Century Journal 24 (1993): 19-40.
• Lee P. Wandel, Voracious Idols and Violent Hands (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
• P.W. White, Theatre and Reformation: Protestantism, Patronage and Playing in Tudor England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
• R. Whiting, 'Abominable Idols: Images and Image-Breaking under Henry VIII,' Journal of Ecclesiastical History 33 no.1 (1982): 30-47.
• J. Witvliet, 'The spirituality of the psalter: Metrical psalms in liturgy and life in Calvin's Geneva,' Calvin Theological Journal 32 no.2 (1997): 273-297.
• C.S. Wood, 'In Defense of Images: Two Local Rejoinders to the Zwinglian Iconoclasm,' Sixteenth Century Journal 19 no.1 (1988): 25-44.
• W. Young, 'The effects of the Reformation on church music in sixteenth-century Strasbourg,' Church Music 69 no.2 (1969): 16-24.

• There are no links