Reformation Smashers

The Protestant Reformation triggered the most destructive wave of iconoclasm in European history. In the Beeldenstorm of 1566, Calvinist mobs swept through the Netherlands, destroying church art in a matter of days. In England, Thomas Cromwell's agents systematically dismantled monasteries and smashed their artistic treasures under Henry VIII.

The destruction wasn't always mob violence. In many cities it was bureaucratic — town councils voted to remove images, hired workers to whitewash frescoes, and kept records of what was destroyed. The orderly nature of some iconoclasm makes it even more chilling: it was policy, not frenzy.