Idols Are Bad

In Book I, Chapter XI (11), Calvin moves into an exhaustive condemnation of idols--and more specifically than idols, images of saints and anything approaching an image of God. For the most part, non-Roman Catholics won't have much to argue about in this portion. In fact, we might wonder what all the hubbub is about. We have to remember, however, that the Roman Catholic Church was The Church (no Baptist church down the road), so what she did was ubiquitous.

A couple of thoughts upon reading Calvin's text:
In XI.13 (as it's enumerated in my edition), Calvin asserts that the Church was clear of images for the first 500 years of her history (AD 100 to 500 or so). I wonder if this is something that can be backed up by our current knowledge of that time period, or if we might have to correct Calvin with archaeological findings.

I love his assertion in XI.7 that if the Church were doing her job (teaching the gospel), Christians wouldn't need images. Sweet!

Finally, I wonder how Calvin would assess our current adornment of sanctuaries. We have a cross at the front--would that be too much for Calvin? Our gifted decorators have added images of fire and doves in recognition of Pentecost--would those be idols to Calvin? I remember visiting St. Peter's in Geneva, the sanctuary in which Calvin and others preached when, during his pastorate, the Roman Catholics had been evicted from Geneva. All the alcoves along the sides of the sanctuary are empty, deprived of their images. Compared to all the other lavish and decadent European sanctuaries, this one feels empty, cavernous. For the life of me, I can't remember if there was a cross at the front of the sanctuary (Calvin certainly would not have abided a crucifix).

~ emrys