Already heralded in essays by Kenneth Fincham published in the Historical Journal (2000) and Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (2003), this joint study with Nicholas Tyacke presents us with a detailed survey of the struggle over the position and adornment of the altar/communion table in the English church from the first Edwardian reforms until the end of the seventeenth century. Beginning with a chapter the title of which is borrowed from Eamon Duffy's study of the Edwardian Reformation, the authors note how the stripping of the altars themselves followed swiftly on the heels of the removal of images which had begun in earnest in 1547, and was well advanced in London churches by 1550. Altars restored by Mary were the subject of a further stripping with the Elizabethan Settlement. Here, with royal convictions and tastes pitted against those who sought to restore and refine the Edwardian Reformation, ambiguity abounded. Alongside the rubrical instructions of the 1559 Book of Common Prayer concerning the place of the table and furnishings of the church were Elizabeth's attempt to restore or preserve the crucifix and figures of the rood, the issue of a Latin prayer book which still provided for a requiem mass, the issue of primers in Latin which resembled the Henrician primers and the furnishing of the Chapel Royal communion table with candles and crucifix. This ambiguous Settlement set the scene for a variety of practices, from the furnishing of the Chapels Royal, to the ‘fair carpet and a fine linen table cloth upon it’ of many cathedrals and a few parish churches, and where the table sat where the old altar had stood when not in use; to a neglected wooden table which in a good many churches stayed in the chancel or nave whether or not in use. Avant-garde conformity, with Lancelot Andrewes as the archetype divine, took up the rearguard action of the queen, and urged decent altars, with lavish furnishings in sumptuous buildings. Here the authors draw on rich sources for London, and especially the attempt to refurbish (old) St Paul's Cathedral; and the work undertaken at Durham Cathedral, with the stone altar of Dean Richard Hunt in 1620, and the revival of the custom of bowing to the altar. Many of the refurbishments were carried out by those associated with the Durham House Group and its wider theological and ecclesiological concerns. Considerable attention is given to the period 1625–40, when the Durham House ideals, more popularly called ‘Laudianism’, were implemented and enforced on a wider and more official scale, and the holy table was to be enclosed within a communion rail. The Laudian ideal is illustrated in plate 11, of St Andrew Wroxeter, Shropshire, in 1637. However, as plate 12 shows, it was possible to enclose the table without it being placed where the old altar had stood. St Andrew Lyddington in Rutland, with its four-sided rails erected in 1635 in response to Bishop William's order to enclose the communion table, has the free-standing table within the four-sided enclosure. This was the era of adding steps to the chancel to distinguish sanctuary from nave, and paving the chancel with black and white marble. Much of this work was destroyed by the Parliamentary Commissioners, and in that capacity William Dowsing chronicled his destructive work in East Anglia. A final chapter reviews the restoration of altars from 1660 to c. 1700.

This book is beautifully researched, with a wealth of detail from hitherto neglected sources. The authors show conclusively that a study of church artefacts alongside archival material and contemporary tracts and theological works is crucial for a full understanding of the complex churchmanship struggles that took place during these years. The main emphasis of the study seems to be on the years c. 1590–1640, and the preoccupation with the Lancelot Andrewes school as it emerged in the Durham House theology is understandable, since it was from this school of thought that agitation came for beautification, decency and order, and the stress on the importance of prayer and sacraments alongside preaching. The authors note Julian Davies's attempt (The Caroline captivity of the Church, Oxford 1992) to play down Laud's role in the evolution of an ‘altar policy’, and claim not to wish to revisit it. However, by telling an alternative narrative, which clearly dissents from Davies's view, the authors do not, in my opinion, do justice to the evidence that Davies presented. It would seem that evidence can be amassed on both sides, and points to an ambiguous or a less than completely consistent policy. I do not think that Davies's evidence can be so easily by-passed. The authors admit that a fuller story needs to be told of the Laudian legacy after 1660. Indeed, the final chapter is less fully researched than the rest of the book, which is a pity. The authors provide good documentation to show that some churches still had no railed altar in the 1680s, and Bishop Thomas Barlow of Lincoln remained an opponent of railed-in altar-wise tables. However, much more needs to be said of the trend set by those responsible for furnishing the Wren and Hawksmoor churches, and the influence of studies of the Jerusalem Temple as well as classical architecture on interior adornment during this post-Restoration era. That being said, this book is a masterpiece, and essential reading for those concerned with both theological controversy and the worship of this period in the life of the Church of England.