The Cheapside bonfire of papistical trinkets illuminated the spot where once stood the famous cross. That cross, also the one at Charing, and even the venerable building of a like description in St. Paul's Churchyard--although so rich in memories of the Reformation--had been destroyed by the axes of puritanical zeal. In his honest hatred of superstition, the Puritan did not perceive that objects once devoted to its service, if intrinsically beautiful, might yet deserve preservation, and that monuments of antiquity, though they may not advance the cultivation of taste, may render valuable aids to the study of history. But the use and appreciation of ancient art is of modern growth, and the Puritan must not be blamed for being, in this respect, only on a level with the reformers of an earlier age, and with many of his own contemporaries of a different creed.[385] The House of Commons had early taken in hand the destruction of what were deemed relics of idolatry, although, being unsupported by the Lords, they accomplished little. But in the spring of 1643, by order of the two Houses, Sir Robert Harlow executed the iconoclastic crusade just noticed, which proved the beginning of a wholesale destruction which continued throughout the following winter. Acting under the advice of the Assembly, as well as in accordance with their own impulses, the Commons, in the month of August, issued an ordinance for demolishing altars, for removing tapers, candlesticks, and basins, and for defacing crosses, images, and pictures of the persons of the Trinity, and of the Virgin Mary.[386] Monuments of the dead, not commonly reputed for saints, were to be spared. Accordingly, in December, images in Canterbury Cathedral were dashed down, and stained windows broken in pieces. Something of the same wilful destruction followed a few days afterwards in Westminster Abbey; copes and surplices, it may be observed, having been taken away in the previous October, up to which time they had been in use even there.[387] St. Paul's Cathedral[388] shared a like fate, and sacred articles of silver belonging to it were sold for the replenishment of the war treasury.[389] As to the defacement of churches, the Puritans have been blamed for things in which they had no concern. What was really owing to the violence of reformers, the depredations of Royalists, and the neglect and folly of churchwardens has been put to their account. Yet when all this is allowed for, enough remains to sustain serious indictments against the accused, and little mercy would they find at the hands of a tribunal of antiquaries. [Sidenote: 1644, January.] [Sidenote: _Iconoclastic Crusades._]