Iconoclasts at Newstead Abbey, 1539
Iconoclasts at Newstead Abbey, 1539
The attempt to reform the Catholic Church in the C16, was not without its share of violence, opportunism, bigotry and hypocrisy on all sides. In England the central issue was the jurisdiction of the Pope over the country and its sovereign. Henry VIII’s desire for the annulment of his marriage led to the split from Rome, and the establishment of the Church of England, with the monarch as its supreme leader.
The priory of St. Mary of Newstead was emptied of its Augustinian monks in 1539, and sold on to Sir John Byron. This was part of Henry’s scheme to raise money and consolidate his power by dissolving the monasteries and taking their lands. To secure the support of the nobility, for his new role as Head of the Church, the king dividing the spoils with them.
The iconoclasm that accompanied these events was terrifying in its ferocity. Church statues, altars and furnishings were destroyed, paintings were hacked to pieces, and monastic buildings were for the most part raised to the ground. It amounted to state sanctioned vandalism on a grand scale.
