Who took the statues of people from the churches?

Question

Churches everywhere have empty 'shelves' where statues of people used to stand. Where I live is Beverley Minster in East Yorkshire, England and it still has the statues on the shelves. Why do they still have theirs and why did all the others get removed?

It's just the churches in England. 'Brother Ranulf', do you know why this didn't happen in Beverley?

Answer 1

It was not so much a question of what Henry VIII did (although there was some iconoclasm during his time), but rather the effects of the English Civil War. That was a religious war - between Catholics and High Anglicans on one side and Puritans on the other - the latter won and they believed in total plainness in churches. So when the Puritans won they went through the churches, smashing figures of saints, smashing much priceless stained glass and painting all the walls white. Personally, I prefer a plain English Church to the highly decorated Roman Catholic churches on mainland Europe. I could not believe my eyes when I first stepped inside a Catholic Cathedral. But that's a personal point of view. I wouldn't go round smashing churches up like my ancestors did. It was much like the Taliban blowing up the Buddha statues in Afghanistan, or the Azers destroying Armenian cemeteries and monuments in Azerbaijan. What a great deal of evil is done in thename of religion.

Answer 2

Some people are of the belief that a lot of church 'furniture' - statues etc., got removed and/or smashed up in England's churches during the time of the English civil war. Oliver Cromwell is usually blamed for this sort of thing.

In all likely-hood, anyone who could have afforded a statue of an ancestor in a church, is much more likely to have been on the side of the King and would probably have seen to it that the statue etc was removed from the church for safe keeping.

I'm not sure which cathedral it was, but one of them had it's magnificent Medieval rose window smashed up by the Round Heads. Afterwards all the glass was picked up by the people of the city and the rose window was remade later when things had cooled down a bit. The glass has been put back but not in its original format - so that now it is not a picture so much as a mix of coloured glass. Beautiful nevertheless.

Oliver Cromwell [otherwise known as crumb] had two slave ships built at Deptford not far from where I live. So much for him then! He don't get my vote, see!

Answer 3

All churches in England used to be entirely different than today. They were, up to the time of Henry VIII, all a part of the church of Rome (what we know today as Catholic); each had its own priest and each was the centre of everyday life for all English people.
Because few people could read, images of the lives of Saints or the Bible stories were painted around the walls inside a church, so that the priest could explain them clearly. There would be holy icons depicting Saints, or the Madonna and a large screen (the "Rood") carved with Christ on the cross. In niches around the church would be statues of important Saints or characters from scripture.
All of these things were destroyed by Henry VIII's officially-appointed thugs (called Commissioners) during the "Reformation", when the Church of Rome was abolished in England. Valuables were stolen, shrines and Holy relics destroyed, paintings either obliterated or covered with white plaster. Priests were thrown out or brutally totured and murdered if they protested.
This is how the "Church of England" began. This is also the origin of today's drab, dreary and colourless churches.

Answer 4

The English Reformation under Henry VIII

Answer 5

not sure how right this answer is but i believe during the 15 and 16 centuries a lot of churches had there statues smashed because of different beliefs (seem to remember it from school!)

Answer 6

Probably taken or smashed up during the reformation.

Answer 7

Are you referring only to churches in the UK, or worldwide?

As far as I'm aware, here in the US no such absence has occurred.

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Wotan