The Elizabethan Settlement was contrasted with "warm Advocates for such a naked and unadorned State of Religion, as almost excluded every Thing which affected the Imagination and Senses". Significantly, a footnote at this point refers to Lutheran practice:
Amongst those who embraced the Reformed Religion, the Lutherans manifested the greatest Inclinations for preserving in their Churches some of those exterior Forms and Ornaments, which make an Impression on the Senses. It hath been remarked, that all their Churches, and especially their Cathedrals, are not to be distinguished from many in the midst of Rome, on account of their various Paintings, exalted Crucifixes, and frequent Images. All Veneration, however, is absolutely forbidden to be paid them, which they strictly observe, though they own, that they look upon them as convenient for Notices and Remembrances of our Saviour's Passion, and of the Devotions of his Saints.
It is with something of this Lutheran practice in mind that it is then stated of Elizabeth, "She was intent therefore on chusing a middle Course between all Extremes". Admittedly the description here given of the Elizabethan Settlement's approach to imagery is more reserved and modest than Lutheran practice; nevertheless, a similar sensibility is clearly being indicated, in which some imagery was retained, on the basis that it could be edifying. The above-mentioned footnote contrasted Lutheran practice with "the Sentiments and Conduct of the Calvinists". This, therefore, was the background to Elizabeth's "middle Course", affirming the use of edifying imagery, rejecting both iconoclasm and veneration of images:
the Queen found it necessary to temper this just Zeal against Popery, with some Provisions against the violent Excesses of a reforming Spirit. When indeed the Act of Uniformity was passed, it was enacted, that such Ornaments of Churches should be retained as were settled in the second and third Year of the Reign of K. Edward: Nor did she ever judge it expedient to repeal that Part of Q. Mary's Statute which authorized the Magistrate to proceed against Delinquents who broke or defaced Crosses, or the Pictures of Christ, or of Saints in the Windows of Churches. But notwithstanding this Law which was then, and, as it is apprehended, is still in Force, great Violences had been committed in Churches, as well on the Monuments of Metal and Stone, as of Glass.
The Queen highly irritated with these Proceedings, issued out her Proclamations, prohibiting any Persons, under severe Penalties, from defacing such Monuments, and from breaking any Image in Glass Windows. These Proclamations (which she reinforced in the fourteenth Year of her Reign) she signed with her own Hand, and sent them throughout the Kingdom in that Manner the more to manifest her Zeal, and restrain the Sacrilege. At the fame Time she charged all Bishops to enquire by Presentments of the Curates and Church-wardens, what Spoils of this Kind had been committed, and by whom; and to enjoin them under Pain of Excommunication, to repair the same by a convenient Day, or to certify it to her Council in the Star Chamber.
About two Years after this Time, for more perfectly establishing the Reformation, a Synod was held, in which it was particularly agreed, that all Images of the Trinity, and of the Holy Ghost, should be defaced; and that Images superstitiously abused, should be destroyed. A learned Writer who hath published a judicious Defence of our Reformation, giving an Account of the Proceedings of this Synod, observes, that with Regard to Images it "took a middle Course; first to condemn all Manner of Adoration or Worship of them (and therefore every Sculptile [i.e carving] had been removed out of Churches) but whereas some Use might be made of them for Remembrance of Histories past, to retain in sundry Parts such Windows and Pictures, as might without Offence instruct the Ignorant in several Passages not unworthily preferred, which if any Men since have been offended at, it must be on other Grounds than I understand".
The "judicious Defence of our Reformation", quoted in the final paragraph above, was Sir Roger Twysden's An historical vindication of the Church of England in point of schism as it stands separated from the Roman, and was reformed I. Elizabeth, a defiantly Royalist and Episcopalian 1657 defence of the Church of England, published during the Interregnum. The Ornaments of Churches considered, therefore, was explicitly invoking this older 'High Conformist' reading of the Elizabethan Settlement. Nor was it alone in doing so in the 18th century. A footnote to this extract also quotes from The Britons and Saxons not converted to popery, a 1748 work by nonjuring divine George Smith:
it is Matter of Fact, that the Crosses and Pictures of our Saviour were left standing, where there was no such apparent Hazard of their being abused ... look upon the Paintings of the Windows in many of our Churches. We are not against the historical Use, but the idolatrous Abuse of Images.
We see, then, a lively and enduring tradition - continuing into the later 18th century - of regarding the Elizabethan Settlement as upholding a "middle Course" regarding imagery in churches, "against the violent Excesses of a reforming Spirit".
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