| dc.description.abstract | Caricatured as the Arch Vandal, William Dowsing (bap. 1596-1668) was a farmer and a
soldier who entered into history as a radical figure in the English Civil War between Charles I
and the Long Parliament. The Earl of Manchester commissioned Dowsing to tear down ‘pictures
and superstitious images’ in the name of God and a parliamentary ordinance of 1643. The
commission grew out of a series of puritan reform measures which aimed to overthrow the
‘popish innovations’ implemented in part by Archbishop William Laud in the 1630s. Dowsing’s
iconoclastic campaign resulted in controversial visitations to churches, colleges and chapels
throughout Cambridgeshire and Suffolk in 1643-44. This thesis engages with previous
scholarship on William Dowsing and makes a distinct contribution by constructing a series of
dialectics that framed the rationale for his iconoclasm. Much of the research on William
Dowsing is predominately historical, cultural, or political because scholars have typically
considered Reformed iconoclasm ‘from above’ as a phenomenon that occurred during times of
religious upheaval. This project offers a historical/theological treatment of Dowsing and his civil
war iconoclasm. The objective is to penetrate the puritan movement and to explore iconoclastic
thought ‘from within’.
The thesis accomplishes this goal through indirect and direct methods. The indirect
approach involves an examination of Dowsing’s ‘puritan’ culture in Suffolk (Chapter Two) and
attitudes relative to images within Reformed Orthodoxy in England in the mid-seventeenth
century (Chapter Three). Several key primary sources sustain the more direct approach. Trevor
Cooper’s recent edition of Dowsing’s journal, in which Dowsing recorded events from his
campaign, paved the way for a new assessment of iconoclastic thought. This thesis examines the
journal for its theological implications (Chapter Four) rather than attempting to restate the
narrative of Dowsing’s itinerary. While the journal is crucial to a proper understanding of
Dowsing’s rationale, the most direct category of evidence emerges from a study of Dowsing’s
habits of reading and annotation (Chapter Five). Dowsing heavily annotated his six-volume
collection of sermons preached to the Long Parliament between 1640-46. This study delineates
the competing realities perceived by puritan preachers in the 1640s, as picked up by William
Dowsing’s annotations (Chapter Six). In many ways, the preachers believed that iconoclasm
played a tactical role in the overall strategy to secure a favorable outcome for the ‘godly’. Their
sermons envisaged idealized religious conditions juxtaposed with the threat of divine retribution for idolatry in England. The iconoclast’s annotations show that the preachers’ doctrines echoed
beyond the House of Commons to resonate within the houses of common people like Dowsing.
This research is important because it highlights the often neglected area of lay engagement with
the corporate puritan rationale for Reformation in the civil war period. | en |
