-Emperor Leo III declared war on the use of images and icons in the church in the year 726 AD. Perhaps the condemnation of images from Islam also influenced him, but he also had a loft view of himself. Leo III believed the emperor was essentially the main authority over the church on earth, rather than the bishops and elders.
-In the palace gate at Constantinople, Leo III's soldiers pulled down an image of Christ. A mob of angry women got a hold of one of those soldiers and beat him to death. Throughout Italy, similar demonstrations against Leo by iconophiles broke out.
-Pope Gregory II in Rome stood against Leo III and supported the Italian rebels.
-In 730, Leo deposed Germanus of Constantinople (a fierce defender of icons) and replaced him as patriarch with Anastasius, an iconoclast. Leo then issued an edict against icons. This had the most effect on Byzantine monks, who fled to the West, taking their icons with them.
-Leo III was succeeded by his son, the Emperor Constantine V. He was much more against icons than even Leo, his father. He banished monks from their monasteries and even tortured and executed some of them.
-Constantine V called a council in Hieria (a city just north of Chalcedon) in the year 754. There were about 338 bishops present and icons were condemned. The iconophiles, however, would not recognize the council as legitimate. The final decree was a document known as the Horos.
-The next emperor, Leo IV, ruled for a short period of time, and was mostly influenced by his wife, Irene.
-The next main ruler of the Byzantine Empire was the Empress Irene, who ruled in the name of her son, Constantine VI. She was an iconophile.
-Irene summoned the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 AD. Two ambassadors of Pope Hadrian I took place in this council, meaning that the decrees of it were binding on both the Eastern and the Western church.
-The Second Council of Nicaea in 787 condemned the iconoclasts and sanctioned the use of images in the liturgy of the church.
-However, not all of the church agreed with this decision. Charlemagne called the Council of Frankfurt in 794 AD, which condemned icons and images (despite Charlemagne likely being a supporter of images).
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