01 May, 2008

York - Superstitious pictures?

York has the greatest collection of maedieval glass in the country. Just why the iconoclasts didn't bother about the glass here when they did in other places is a bit baffling truly. It is said that the city surrendered to Oliver Cromwell and so the windows were spared but this is not accurate as it was Thomas Cromwell, King Henry VIII's commissioner who was the iconoclast, and there was nothing to surrender to. Perhaps the citizens of York were not great reformers. Anyway the picture shows the oldest glass in York in St Deny's church. See the following article on iconoclasm in the Mapping Margery Kempe website. Margery Kempe is the patron of this blog. http://www.holycross.edu/departments/visarts/projects/kempe/devotion/iconoclasm.html

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