'Remembrances of the great Mystery of Man’s Redemption': an 18th century Anglican defence of Imagery
We now reach our last extract from The Ornaments of Churches Considered, With a Particular View to the Late Decoration of the Parish Church of St. Margaret Westminster (1761). Appendix IX is entitled 'Testimonies from some of our most eminent Divines, in Confirmation of what has been advanced'. A range of divines are quoted - Hammond, Henry More, Wake, Stillingfleet, Butler. I turn, however, to the extract from Thomas Tension's 1678 work, A Discourse of Idolatry . Tension privately received episcopal orders in 1659, becoming a significant Latitudinarian voice in the Restoration Church and a staunch Whig critic of James II's Roman Catholicism. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury after Tillotson's early death in 1694, he remained at Canterbury until his death in 1715, despite Queen Anne's well known dislike of his Low Church tendencies. In other words, if we were looking for voice likely to be disapproving of imagery in the Church of England, surely it would be ...