Cromwell in Geneva
In response to Eric's question in the comments:
There's really a statue of Cromwell at the Wall of the Reformation in Geneva. He's not one of the four central figures, but there he is -- in battledress, with a sword. Luther and Zgwili don't make the cut, but Cromwell does.
A strange choice? Remember that Geneva is Calvin's city; the "city that is a church" is a Calvinist Church. The plaque on Calvin's Seat (his actual chair -- and who says Protestants don't go in for relics) begins: In the year 1535 when the tyranny of the Roman Antichrist had been cast aside, and its superstitions abolished, the most holy religion of Christ was here reestablished in its purity ... The city motto, refering to this liberation, is "after darkness, light."
In this ecumenical spirit, I used to go down to the Wall after Mass and feed the pigeons. They would poo on Cromwell's head.
But pigeons aside, I found Geneva joyless. Lovely, orderly, safe: but joyless. The sort of city that would take the organ and the stained glass out of the cathedral, the sort of city that would have a law against showering after 10:00 PM, the sort of city that would make the flowers tell time.
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My husband’s a great fan of Oliver Cromwell. I’m much more into Thomas Cromwell, myself. I do mourn the evils done to the monasteries and the churches in the name of purification.
Every year when I teach Western Civ, I show my students a Kenneth Clark video on the Reformation in which he says:
The stabilising, comprehensive religions of the world, the religions which penetrate to every part of a man’s being�in Egypt, India or China� gave the female principle of creation at least as much importance as the male, and wouldn’t have taken seriously a philosophy that failed to include them both.
These were all what H. G. Wells called communities of obedience. The aggressive, nomadic societies�what he called communities of will� Israel, Islam, the Protestant North�conceived of their gods as male.
It’s a curious fact that the all-male religions have produced no religious imagery�in most cases have positively forbidden it. The great religious art of the world is deeply involved with the female principle.
Well, Cromwell has his moments: cheifly in parlimentary reform. But my family is Irish — and politically so. The first thing that springs to mind when I hear “Cromwell” is “Drogheda.”