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 ICONOCLASM

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ICONOCLASM

tin I. He also says that all people in the West detest the emperor's action and will never consent to destroy their images at his command (Greg. II, "Ep. I ad Leonem"; Jaffe, "Reg.", n. 2180). The emperor answered, continuing his argument, by saying that no general council had yet said a word in favour of images, that he himself is emperor and priest (/3ai7iXfi>! Kal iepei/s) in one, and therefore has a right to make decrees about such matters. Gregory writes back regretting that Leo does not yet see the error of his ways. As for the former general Councils, they did not pretend to discuss every point of the faith; it was unnecessary in those days to defend what no one at- tacked. The title Emperor and Pricat had been con- ceded as a compliment to some sovereigns because of their zeal in defending the very faith that Leo now attacked. The pope declares himself determined to withstand the emperor's tyranny at any cost, though he has no defence but to pray that Christ may send a demon to torture the emperor's liody that his soul be saved, according to I Cor., v, .5 (Jaffe, 1. c, n. 2162).

Meanwhile the persecution raged in the East. Monasteries were destroyed, monks put to death, tor- tured, or banished. The Iconoclasts began to apply their principle to relics also, to break open shrines and l)urn the bodies of saints buried in churches. Some of them rejected all intercession of saints. These two other points (destruction of relics and rejection of prayers to saints), though not necessarily involved in the original programme, are from this time generally (not quite always) added to Iconoclasm. Meanwhile, St. John Damascene (d. 754), safe from the emperor's anger under the rule of the Khalifa, was writing, at the monastery of Mar Saba, his famous apologies "against those who destroy the holy icons". In the West, at Rome, Ravenna, and Naples, the people rose against the emperor's law. This anti-imperial movement is one of the factors of the breach be- tween Italy and the old empire, the independence of the papacy, and the beginning of the Papal States. Gregory II already refused to send taxes to Con- stantinople and himself appointed the imperial dux in the Ducatus Romamis. From this time the pope becomes practically sovereign of the Ducatus. The emperor's anger against image-worshippers was strengthened by a revolt that broke out about this time in Hellas, ostensibly in favour of the icons. A certain Cosmas was set up as emperor by the rebels. The insurrection was soon crushed (727), and Cosmas was beheaded. After this a new and severer edict against images was published (730), and the fury of the persecution was redoubled.

Pope Gregory II died in 731. He was succeeded at once by Gregory III, who carried on the defence of holy images in exactly the spirit of his predecessor. The new pope sent a priest, George, with letters against Iconoclasm to Constantinople. But George, wlien he arrived, was afraid to present them, and came Ijack without having accomplished his mission. He was sent a second time on the same errand, liut was arrested and imprisoned in Sicily by the imperial governor. The emperor now proceeded with his policy of enlarging and strengthening his own patri- archate at Constantinople. He conceived the idea of making it as great as all the empire over which he still actiialiy ruled. Isauria, Leo's birthplace, was taken from Antioch by an imperial edict and added to the Byzantine patriarchate, increasing it by the Metrop- olis, Seleucia, and about twenty other sees. Leo further pretended to withdraw Illyricum from the Roman patriarchate and to add it to that of Con- stantinople (Duchesne, "L'lllyricum ecclfeiastique ", in his "Eglises separces", Paris, 190,5, pp. 229-79), and confiscated all the property of the Roman See on which he could lay his hands, in Sicily and Southern Italy. This naturally increased the enmity between Eastern and Western Christendom. In 731

Gregory III held a synod of ninety-three bishops at St. Peter's, in which all persons who broke, defiled, or took away images of Christ, of His Mother, the Apostles, or other saints, were declared excommuni- cate. Another legate, Constantine, was sent with a copy of this decree and of its application to the em- peror, but was again arrested and imprisoned in Sicily. Leo then sent a fleet to Italy to punish the pope; but it was wrecked and dispersed by a storm. Meanwhile every kind of calamity afflicted the empire; earthquakes, pestilence, and famine devastated the provinces, while the Moslems continued their victo- rious career and conquered further territory.

Leo III died in June, 741, in the midst of these troubles, without having changed his policy. His work was carried on by his son Constantine V (Co- pronymus, 741-775), who became an even greater persecutor of image-worshippers than had been his father. As soon as Leo III was dead, Artabasdus (who had married Leo's daughter) seized the oppor- tunity and took advantage of the unpopularity of the Iconoclast Ciovernment to raise a rebel- lion. Declaring himself the protector of the holy icons he took possession of the capital, had himself crowned emperor by the pliant patriarch Anastasius, and immediately restored the images. Anastasius, who had been intruded in the place of Germanus as the Iconoclast candidate, now veered round in the usual Byzantine way, helped the restoration of the images and excommunicated ('onstantine V as a here- tic and denier of Clirist. But Constantine marched on the city, took it, blinded Artabasdus and began a furious revenge on all rebels and image-worshippers (743). His treatment of Anastasius is a typical ex- ample of the way these later emperors behaved towards the patriarchs through whom they tried to govern the Church. Anastasius was flogged in public, blinded, driven shamefully through the streets, made to return to his Iconoclasm and hnally reinstated as patriarch. The wretched man lived on till 754. The pictures restored by Artabasdus were again removed. In 7.54 Constantine, taking up his father's original idea summoned a great synod at Constantinople that was to count as the Seventh General Council. About 340 bishops attended ; as the See of Constantinople was vacant by the death of Anastasius, Theodosius of Ephesus and Pastilias of Perge presided. Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem refused to send legates, since it was clear that the bishops were sum- moned merely to carry out the emperor's commands. The event showed that the patriarchs had judged rightly. The bishops at the synod servilely agreed to all Constantine's demands. They decreed that images of Christ are either Monophysite or Nestorian, for — since it is impossible to represent His Divinity — they either confound or divorce His two natures. The only lawful representation of Christ is the Holy Eu- charist. Images of saints are equally to be abhorred; it is blasphemous to represent by dead wood or stone those who live with God. All images are an invention of the pagans — are in fact idols, as is shown by Ex. XX, 4, 5; Deut., v, S; John, iv, 24; Rom., i, 23-25. Certain texts of the Fathers are also quoted in support of Iconoclasm. Image-worshippers are idolaters, adorers of wood and stone; the Emperors Leo and Constantine are lights of the Orthodox Faith, our saviours from idolatry. A special curse is pronounced against three chief defenders of images — Germanus, the former Patriarch of Constantinople, John Damas- cene, and a monk, George of Cyprus. The synod de- clares that "the Trinity has de.stroyed these three" ("Acts of the Iconoclast Synod of 754" in Mansi, Xni, 205 sq.).

The bishops finally elected a successor to the vacant see of Constantinople, Constantine, Bishop of Sylaeum (Constantine II, 754-GO), who was of course a crea- ture of the Government, prepared to carry on its