Virtual Refectory: The Art of Heaven, Part I

Let's take a look at the most Holy Jewels of the Church...

As promised, lovely Ecclesiasticals: here’s a taster of the talk I recently gave on holy jewels, gems and relics of the Church…

The year was 1510 and a dark cloud was slowly creeping across Europe. Perched halfway up the very same twenty-eight marble steps that Christ allegedly climbed to be judged by Pontius Pilate (but later brought to Rome in the 4th century), German theologian Martin Luther extolled his life-changing revelation that “the just shall live by faith.” Representing the injustices he saw beginning to see run rife across Christendom, Luther denounced relics, practices and sites which he connected with so much greed, lavishness and nefarious behaviour occurring within the Catholic Church.

Print of the destruction in the Church of Our Lady In Antqerp, the "signature event" of the Beeldenstorm, 20 August 1566, by Frans Hogenberg.