Anglicans put dog and dragon in place of Our Lady and St John

Extract from Stuart and Georgian Churches by Marcus Whiffen, Batsford 1947

The royal arms, either painted or carved, constitute another standard ornament of [English] churches during our period. Sometimes they were set up over the Commandments; Professor Svkes (Church and State in England) quotes an early eighteenth-century writer who explains that this position was chosen "to satisfy all those who tread the courts of the Lord's House and are diligent in the performance of their duty agreeably to the contents of these grand rules of the Christian religion, (viz., the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Creed) that they shall meet with encouragement and protection from the state". The placing of royal arms in churches did not become compulsory until 1660, but the practice dated back to the reign of Henry VIII.

Set up on top of the screen, or painted on the wooden tympanum which filled the space between the screen and the chancel arch, they had then usurped the place of the rood, and provoked bitter comment from Catholics of the old school. "Is it the Word of God," asked Dr. Harding of Dr. Jewell, "setteth up a dog and dragon in the place of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and St. John the Evangelist, which were wont to stand on either side of Christ crucified?"

This is a highly to be recommended book on the destructiveness of the "Reformation".