Page:Constantinople by Brodribb.djvu/125

 and the schism was begun which widened every year. The friends of the images were not slow to point out that the wrath of Heaven against the iconoclasts was shown by a fearful volcanic eruption and an earthquake which destroyed part of the walls of Constantinople and overthrew many monasteries (which had been the storehouses of images) and churches where the saints loved to have their pictures hung. So that if the earthquake was sent by the offended saints, their wrath was blind and their curses recoiled upon themselves.

The next emperor, Constantine V., was an iconoclast as determined as his father. It is curious to compare the portrait drawn by monks and priests with that which a critical reader of history has been able to deduce from facts. The fearful crimes which are imputed to him resolve themselves into these: that he drove the ignorant and swinish monks from the monasteries where they lived in idleness; that he denied that any man could be a saint; that he rejected the belief in the intercession of the Virgin; that he refused to believe in the transference of merit. In other words, he had been brought up to reason in matters of religion as well as in matters of politics. He who reasons, regarded from a priestly standpoint, is lost.

The reign began with a rebellion, in which Constantine's brother-in-law, Artavasdes, assumed the crown, seized Constantinople, and was acknowledged emperor by the pope. Constantine waited a year, while he collected his troops and made his preparations. In the battle he routed the troops of his adversary, who fled to