Bishop Gilbert Burnet's "History of the Reformation in the Church of Eng...

An early movement in King Edwards’ reign was the removal of images and statues in the London churches. It started out small and not without opposition, of course. In their place, Scripture texts were put on the walls (not a bad idea for our time). An early Council in Elvira, Spain, prohibited paintings on church walls. By Gregory 1’s time, the vote was split, as it were, some for and some against. Gregory took a middling-position, warning against worship, but for use as a “remembrancer.” Other councils dealt with it, e.g., 6^th General Council, 680 A.D., General Council, 794 A.D., and Council at Paris, 825 A.D. Charlemagne’s Alcuin argued against images, paintings and statues. By Dr. Cranmer’s time, the abuses, censings, bowings, candles and worship of images led the early English Reformers to reject them. Gardiner wrote a letter to Somerset and Ridley in favor of them; Somerset’s letter exists, but no response from Ridley to Winchester. Gardiner notes in his travels that he had seen images and statues still in Lutheran churches and argued they were the “books of the people.”