In 1535, three years before King Henry VIII ordered the sacking and burning of Marian shrines in England, the arch-heretic Calvin encouraged his followers to tear down and burn paintings and statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the city of Geneva.
An example of this hatred for Our Lady and the saints is expressed in the destruction of these statues in the Cathedral of Saint Martin in Utrecht. See how their faces are bashed in.
The fact that the common faithful could be influenced by a heretical preacher to smash holy and sacred statues that they had venerated with special respect until then, seems to indicate that their devotion to Our Lady had waned considerably before these events took place.
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Picture by Arktos of statues in the Cathedral of Saint Martin in Utrecht is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.
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