Radicalism and reform
The sects promoted a new way of thinking, which implied rejection of state control, and which proved equally abhorrent to the new regime. But the seeds of a more secular form of worship were sown and would flourish in the later 17th century. Ecclesiastical architecture was no longer required to conduct a service, and the growth of movements dependent on meeting houses, preaching and gospel-inspired teaching can be traced to the Commonwealth installed in the aftermath of the Civil War.
'The man who typified the new Parliamentarian beliefs was the Huntingdon MP, Oliver Cromwell.'
The man who typified the new Parliamentarian beliefs was the Huntingdon MP, Oliver Cromwell. His organisation of the New Model Army, with its strict drills and discipline, coupled with prayer and worship, was responsible for winning the war and bringing King Charles I to trial. He naturally occupied a powerful position in the Army Council, the effective rulers of England after the purging of Parliament, and was in a key position to shape the religious future of the ensuing Commonwealth and Protectorate.
The rejection of monarchy and an Episcopal system of Church government after the execution of the king in January 1649 opened the floodgates for religious reform. A new wave of desecration followed, as images and relics that had escaped the Dissolution now found themselves without protection.
A parliamentary commission, led by William Dowsing, saw to it that English churches were cleansed of ‘superstitious’ pictures. The ornate interior of St George’s Chapel at Windsor, one of the finest examples of 15th-century architecture, was stripped bare and:
'The whole chapel so dismantled that, at the burial of Charles I, the former arrangement could not be recognised’. Annals of Windsor, RR Tighe.
The Governor of the Castle, Colonel Whitchott, was later forced to appeal to the House of Lords to raise money to make necessary repairs.
Published: 2005-02-04
