Iconoclasm, Iconography, and the Altar in the English Civil War

Abstract

On 16 January 1641 Anna Temple wrote from Broughton, Oxfordshire, to her daughter in Sussex: God is exceeding good to us every way, both body and souls, and hath done wonderful things among us already, and gives us hope of more, and that we shall see idolatry and superstition rooted out; and God’s ordinances set up in the purity and power of them. Altars begin to go down apace and rails in many places, and yours must follow if it be not down already. Let us labour to be thankful and continue our prayers, hold up our hands that Israel may prevail.