Laura Sangha

This is the third post in a week long series about an exhibition at Exeter’s museum.

• Day one: a map of Exeter
• Day two: domestic decoration

Today I want to talk filthy lucre. One of the things I learnt at the RAMM was that Exeter was an important centre for the goldsmith trade from as early as the thirteenth century, and this set off a train of thought that ended up in the surprisingly short-term world of town planning. I’ll try to recreate the train here.

The goldsmiths golden age

Many of Exeter’s early modern artisans had their workshops in Goldsmith Street, an impressive thoroughfare that had a church at either end, almshouses, and a handsome hall used by the Company of Tailors. The exhibition houses a variety of related items, but the one that took my eye was a communion cup made by John Jones, one of the wealthiest goldsmiths in early modern Exeter. It is indicative of the fact that in this society, ‘fine art’ did not necessarily mean paintings (though there are some wonderful Holbeins in the exhibition, if that’s your thing). This cup, manufactured from silver with delicate engraving around the gilt-edged rim and foot, is extremely accomplished, in fact I was rather surprised by quite how fancy it was, given that this was over ten years into the Calvinist-inspired Elizabethan reign. The cup is still a thing of beauty, it could easily be a lot plainer and less ostentatious.

The uniqueness of the Church of England

My first thought was that perhaps this is proof that the Elizabethan Settlement acted as a ‘broad umbrella’, incorporating a number of different types of Protestants and a range of churchmanship? Christopher Haigh has argued that the adjustments made to the Prayer Book at the start of Elizabeth’s reign, particularly additions to the words used during the administration of the Lord’ Supper, deliberately introduced ambiguity into the ceremony, encouraging a range of opinion about what actually happened during the sacrament to survive or evolve. Diarmaid MacCulloch has argued along similar lines, suggesting that these changes were to bring the English Reformation in line with what was happening in the rest of Europe, particularly in Germany and Geneva. It is entirely plausible that the fancy cup could be a part of these processes – the use of a silver work of art, rather than a plain wooden cup, would have been deeply suggestive to a congregation versed in the ritual and symbolic importance of the liturgy.

The impact of the Reformation

Beyond the sometimes obscure and always complicated world of Reformation theology, the goldsmiths can also tell us much about the way in which changes in belief left a deep and enduring imprint on early modern society. For part of the reason for the continued success and prestige of the goldsmith community in Exeter was the dissolution of the City’s priory and friaries in 1538 and ongoing changes in religious policy that sent a lot of work their way. Historians have discovered that far from being isolated and cut off from their local communities, monasteries were in many ways integral to the social and economic functions of their local region, providing charity and education, and as producers and consumers. Following their abrupt closure, the shock waves were swift, reshaping the landscapes of local communities physically as well as spiritually. Large, imposing buildings were torn down or their functions changed, and Henry VIII quickly appropriated the vast riches of these institutions. This not only meant that the crown took control of church lands, they also seized their more moveable treasures. For the large group of goldsmiths in Exeter, this would have meant a very welcome steady source of work and income, as church plate was confiscated, some of which had to be melted down and reworked in a more acceptable shape, suitable to the new reformed liturgy. This was a lucrative business, as at each stage of the process the participants could take their cut, not to mention that the parishes had to buy new plate from the goldsmiths to replace the old throughout the Tudor era. Similar processes happened in parish churches – the RAMM’s information card tells us that the churchwarden accounts of St Petrock’s church in Exeter show that Jones was paid £1 15s 5d in 1572 for ‘converting’ this communion cup to make it suitable for Protestant worship. Thus the redistribution of wealth that the dissolution triggered is not restricted to the property market but bought benefits and profits to other groups that can easily be overlooked.

Heritage and Urban Planning

Exeter’s Goldsmith’s Street as it once was.

Finally, I was also interested to discover the fate of Goldsmith Street – the majority of the historic buildings there were demolished by the City Council in the 1970s to make way for redevelopment – today you will find Marks and Spencer and Millets where the goldsmiths used to ply their trade. Although one of our enduring national myths is that bombing raids in World War II were responsible for the destruction of much of our pre-modern urban architecture, more recently historians have begun to question this narrative. They have drawn attention to the fact that many cities were already undergoing a programme of redevelopment that included sweeping away inconveniently narrow medieval streets that were seen as obstacles to modern infrastructure and progress. Though the blitz did account for damage in many historic centres, our society’s own decision to prioritise the needs of economic and industrial advancement over our historic past may be the real explanation of urban change. A recent article on the BBC website revealed that this is even true of Coventry, which suffered devastating destruction in a terrible air raid in 1940, but where demolition had actually started before the war and continued after it. Exeter too suffered, in a severe raid in 1942 1,500 houses were destroyed, 2,700 were seriously damaged, and the Cathedral itself was hit, narrowly escaping the destruction of the nave. But much of value was left, though not all of it was subsequently retained – wiped away just as Goldsmiths was to make way for shopping centres and fast food joints.

The shock of the new

Exeter’s Goldsmith Street now.

In many ways modern redevelopment of our urban landscapes is now just as shocking and significant as the deliberate destruction of the monasteries and the properties of the parish churches in the 1500s, and increasingly we are now beginning to see it that way. Each was an iconoclastic act, signalling a rejection of and moving away from the past. They were both inspired by a shift in the prevailing ideology and the emergence of something new: Protestantism, capitalism, modernity. Each are shocking to us now because these acts display a complete lack of respect for the past and for beautiful treasures which can now never be recreated. Each seems to have been driven by ‘the authorities’ in the face of limited public resistance, and in many cases the public seem unable to prevent the change even where they disagree with it. Perhaps this can helps us to understand the ‘compliance conundrum’ – the question of why there was a relative lack of any widespread resistance to the dissolution, despite the commitment that most English women and men had previously shown to the institutions. Perhaps they felt as helpless as we do in the face of development, perhaps they also felt a sense in which they were swimming against the tide in trying to preserve the past or stand in the way of state sponsored change. Or perhaps they came to terms with and even embraced the changes, regretting the passing of the old ways and the destruction of beautiful things, but eager to make the most of the opportunities that the new future offered them, and keen to create new and more beautiful – but different – things to replace those that had been lost.

In tomorrow’s post: the Spanish Armada arrives off the south west coast.

‘West Country to World’s End: the South West in the Tudor Age’ runs until 2 March 2014 at Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum. You can find all the details about the museum, it’s opening times, it’s wonderful café and more here. 

Laura Sangha

This is the second post in a week long series about an exhibition at Exeter’s museum. View the first post on a map of Exeter here.

In early modern England the population was expanding incredibly rapidly and massive inflation led to the deterioration of living standards for many of the lower sorts. In contrast, changes in income tended to increase the number of middling groups in society, those merchants, artisans and gentry who benefited from rising property prices. In the west country, the prosperous cloth trade and various mercantile enterprises meant that the middling sorts had money to invest in the arts. You are perhaps already aware of the National Portrait Gallery’s current exhibition on Elizabeth I and her People, and if that is your sort of thing, there are lots of paintings at the RAMM too, including ‘The Armada Portrait’ of Elizabeth I; several from the school of Holbein; numerous works by Exeter’s most significant artist to date, the miniature-painter Nicholas Hilliard; and a huge piece that tells the story of the arrival of Armada in the South West in 1588. Click on images for enlargements.

All are deeply impressive, but the artistic accomplishment of the south west is also to be found in the crafts – in the production of jewellery, elaborate drinking vessels, church plate (more on that in tomorrow’s post), household utensils, decorative plasterwork, moveable furniture, architectural stone and woodwork, and fine needlework. Some of these were functional, but all displayed the taste, wealth and status of their owners in this society.

Two of my favourite objects in the exhibition seem to be less about status, but certainly fall within the category of the decorative arts. They are a set of boards with an image painted on each them. Both are reasonably small – perhaps the size of an A3 sheet of paper – and one depicts Moses, the other Job. Each has a scriptural extract painted above the image. On loan from the V&A, they are part of a series of Old Testament figures. The drawings are plain but relatively accomplished: Job wears a long red tunic, cinched at the waist with a belt with a tasseled pouch hanging from it. He has a long brown pointed beard and wears a small turban and long boots, an interesting suggestion of ethnic stereotyping. He looks as if he is walking somewhere, and his hands are together and raised in supplication. The figure stands on some scraggly grass, and it is against a black background, in contrast to the scriptural text in black letter against a white background that forms a strip across the top of the board. It reads: ‘I ame sure that my redemer liveth and that I shall rise [oute?] of the earth at the latter day. Job [19?].’

Moses wears a white tunic and his extra long, brownish belt flaps around his legs as if in a breeze. He has tights tucked into his high brown boots, and wears a warm looking hat. He has a brown beard, much shorter than Job’s, and he also looks like he is walking. In his arms is a large tablet divided in two, dashed lines across it representing the Commandments. There is a skull between his feet, and I was intrigued to see that Moses is blindfolded – I am assuming this represents the Lord’s impartial justice but would be delighted to hear of other examples of this. His inscription reads ‘The Lord will stirr up amonge the brethren a Profet, like unto me. Deutrinomy 18’.

The RAMM’s information card informs us that the boards might have been displayed in a church or private house near Plymouth, but immediately my little grey cells started humming. I doubted that it was the latter in Elizabethan England, where the work of iconoclasm in parish churches was relatively complete. To me, these images were a surprise – what were images of scriptural figures doing here, in an era when images had been rejected by the reformers as leading to wrong belief and wrong practice?

When iconoclasts attack.

The scholarship on visual culture in early modern England can help to answer this question, as it has been rapidly developing in recent years. Earlier historians had to an extent been won over by Patrick Collinson’s argument that throughout Elizabeth’s reign, English Protestantism became less, not more popular in character. Crudely summarised, Collinson asserted that the first generation of Protestant publicists and propagandists made polemical use of cultural vehicles (songs, drama, cheap print, the visual arts), using these forms to transmit the evangelical message with the aim of converting the English people to Protestantism. Protestant plays were written and produced, godly ballads were published and sung, images were used to attack Catholicism and to commend their own religious beliefs and values. But around 1580 Collinson thought that a new generation of evangelicals began to reject visual and performative culture, judging it to be unsuitable for their religious message. This later generation of Protestants thought that plays, songs and images were distracting the audience and confusing the religious message. Worse, the arts mixed sacred ideas with filthy ‘popular’ forms, doing violence to religious truth by associating it with base, bawdy and inappropriate behaviour and language. In this new world, Collinson argued that Protestants came to completely refuse any appeal to the senses in religious matters. All images were ‘Popish’, most Elizabethan and Jacobean bibles therefore had no illustrations, the only decoration in the parish church was to be the Royal Arms and perhaps a table of the ten commandments. England had moved from iconoclasm in the first stages of reform (rejection of abused, dangerous and false images), to complete iconophobia (rejection of all images).

And yet…, whilst Collinson’s argument is enormously useful in thinking about the continuing repercussions of religious change, it is perhaps more useful for thinking about reforming clergymen than it is English society more broadly. Objections have been raised, and work is afoot to provide a corrective to the ‘iconophobia’ argument. It is easy to point to the continued existence of images in England – British Printed Images to 1700 is a website that hosts a database of several thousand printed images produced in Protestant Britain, and much decorated medieval furniture can be found in parish churches across the country to this day (though of course some of this may have been restored during a later era). Our Moses and Job boards are of course another example of later imagery.

So how can we explain Moses and Job? Are these a rare surviving example of something from the bottom of the Tessa Watt’s ‘ladder of sanctity’ – inoffensive Old Testament figures that Protestants were comfortable displaying in a secular context? Watt has taught us that those scriptural figures who were the least sacred in the Catholic tradition, those that did not have cults associated with them and who were therefore unlikely to be the focus of devotion, were often still depicted in post-Reformation England. Moses and Job fit the bill – they are Old Testament figures, and both are strongly associated with moral teaching and practices. You are not meant to worship them but to learn from their stories and they were probably a new element of visual language in the post-Reformation church – there are no wall paintings of Job in Anne Marshall’s excellent catalogue of medieval wall paintings, and only one of Moses – which was painted after the Reformation.

Watt’s theory therefore helps us to explain images that survived in the face of fierce criticism of the Catholic use of imagery in worship. It seems that the purposes of post-Reformation images were usually didactic, images were used symbolically to recall to mind important beliefs or Christian principles. Here the scriptural texts above the images suggest that these figures were intended as an aid to memory, representative of bigger theological and moral truths. Job stood for the trials, temptations and suffering that an ordinary family man might face in everyday life, the text the hope of release from them. Moses would call to mind the Ten Commandments (perhaps displayed for all to see in the parish church) and their importance as the basis of Christian morality and behaviour. Both are eminently suitable for display in a secular sphere such as the household, reminders of everyday Christian beliefs that could comfort and guide people as they went about their lives. Incidentally the British Printed Images database throws up eight images of Moses and two of Job, all from the seventeenth century, suggesting that these images might be less suitable for publication than for display in the household. Often these images are found in the frontispiece: Drexel’s School of Patience (1640) has an image of Job with the caption ‘Patience’; in Francis Quarles 1646 collection of miscellaneous reflections Boanerges and Barnabas Moses represents justice (in opposition to mercy) and wears a similar outfit to that depicted on our boards (see below); whilst a 1695 edition of Richard Allestree’s Works shows the prophet wearing a veil. Does the latter represent squeamishness over showing Moses’ face, or is it just because the book contains a section on the topic of veiling?

It appears then that Moses and Job need not have been out of place in the Elizabethan south west after all. Tara Hamling’s recent work on domestic decoration supports such an interpretation, and these boards indeed suggest that Elizabethan England ‘still contained many images to help its inhabitants in converting the words of the Protestant religion into a visualised experience’, as Tessa Watt has argued. These images were complementing and supporting preaching and reading, those activities more traditionally seen as the heart of Protestant practice. The physical environments that people inhabited had also been changed as a result of reform, reconfigured to encourage the development of the Godly society that the evangelicals strove to create.

In tomorrow’s post: musings on the impact of the Reformation, goldsmiths and contemporary urban redevelopment.

‘West Country to World’s End: the South West in the Tudor Age’ runs until 2 March 2014 at Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum. You can find all the details about the museum, it’s opening times, it’s wonderful café and more here. 

Further reading:

Patrick Collinson, ‘From Iconoclasm to Iconophobia: the Cultural Impact of the Second English Reformation’, The Stenton Lecture 1985 (University of Reading:1986). Reprinted in Peter Marshall (ed.), The Impact of the English Reformation (London, 1997).

Tessa Watt, Cheap Print and Popular Piety (Cambridge, 1991), chapter 4, ‘Idols in the frontispiece’.

Tara Hamling, Decorating the ‘Godly’ Household: Religious Art in Post-Reformation Britain (London, 2010).