28th September, Lambeth Palace, London
Fig. 1 Damaged C15th-century image of the Trinity, original heads replaced with modern copies, at St Martin’s, Coney Street, York.
The English Reformation had profound, and often disastrous, consequences for medieval stained glass. Initially, depictions of St Thomas Becket were destroyed; next the windows of monasteries were broken, finally there was a broad onslaught against so-called ‘superstitious’ imagery (fig. 1). The losses were numerous. Similar stories gouged Europe.
A major digital exhibition project exploring how the Reformation in Britain and Europe was remembered, forgotten, contested and reinvented opens at Lambeth Palace Library on 28th September. It is linked with an Arts and Humanities Research Project at the Universities of Cambridge and York and will include treasures from Cambridge University Library, York Minster Library and Lambeth Palace Library. The launch of the exhibition will include a display and demonstration of the exhibition website, and will be accompanied by short talks by the project team, Brian Cummings FSA, Ceri Law, Bronwyn Wallace and Alexandra Walsham. All are welcome, please register with juliette.boyd@churchofengland.org not later than 22nd September.