Why were so many religious images and objects broken and damaged in the course of the Reformation? Margaret Aston's magisterial new book charts the conflicting imperatives of destruction and rebuilding throughout the English Reformation from the desecration of images, rails and screens to bells, organs and stained glass windows. She explores the motivations of those who smashed images of the crucifixion in stained glass windows and who pulled down crosses and defaced symbols of the Trinity. She shows that destruction was part of a methodology of religious revolution designed to change people as well as places and to forge in the long term new generations of new believers. Beyond blanked walls and whited windows were beliefs and minds impregnated by new modes of religious learning. Idol-breaking with its emphasis on the treacheries of images fundamentally transformed not only Anglican ways of worship but also of seeing, hearing and remembering.

The Cathedrals of Great Britain is a work by P. H. Ditchfield. It delves into the architecture and history of British cathedrals. Excerpt: "In our cathedrals we have endless varieties of plan, construction, style and adornment, as well as in the associations connected with their histories. They derive their name from the Latin word Cathedra (Greek, [Greek: Kathedra]), signifying a seat, a cathedral church being that particular church of the diocese where the bishop's seat or throne is placed. If this church belonged to a monastery it was served by the monks, but many of our cathedrals were in the hands of secular canons, who were not monks, and should not be confused with the "regular" clergy."