Page:Constantinople by Brodribb.djvu/128

 Leo, the Armenian, who was elected in his place, had barely time to get himself crowned, before Crumn, the Bulgarian king, appeared before the walls of the city. His army was not strong enough to risk an assault along the whole wall, and he therefore set his soldiers to the work of plunder, in hope of obtaining speedy and favourable terms of peace. A conference was appointed, at which Leo endeavoured to assassinate the king. He failed in the attempt, owing, says a Christian and priestly biographer, to the multitude of his people's sins. Crumn retaliated by destroying the suburbs, and marched away with an innumerable number of slaves. Leo succeeded the following year, by a night surprise, in annihilating their formidable army. The Bulgarian peril thus averted, Leo was able to attend to home matters, which at this period were ecclesiastical. Just as the iconoclasts went to the extreme of attacking even the art of painting, so their opponents went to the extreme of claiming for images the power of working miracles, revealing the existence of treasures, prophesying the future, and raising their possessor to high rank. The soldiers were all, as in the days of Leo the Isaurian, iconoclasts. They destroyed whenever they dared to move. Then another general council was held which abolished image-worship for a second time, and Leo had the moderation and good sense to make no one a martyr. He was murdered in his private chapel on the morning of Christmas Day, and Michael of Amorium, who was lying in the dungeon, awaiting execution, was proclaimed emperor. He, like Justin, was a soldier born in the lowest rank,