Agentive Objects and Protestant Idolatry in Arden of Faversham

Abstract

Even as Protestants accused Catholics of idolatry and ascribing too much power to objects, Protestants themselves paid a great deal of reverence to the books that stored sacred texts. Arden of Faversham thematizes Protestant fears of idolatry by presenting a painting, a crucifix, and a book that all seem capable of resisting human agency and shaping the people around them. I argue that assemblage theory allows us to better understand Reformation concerns with idolatry as Catholic and Protestant theologians alike attempted to avoid attachment to physical objects even as they lived in a manifestly physical world.