Iconoclastic Controversy: Use Of Religious Images In The Byzantine Empire

Iconoclastic controversy was a dispute over the use of religious images in the Byzantine Empire during the 8th and 9th centuries. The people who believed the icons were wrong were called iconoclasts. Iconoclasts disagreed against the worship of religious images because of the scripture in the Old Testament. This scripture is one of the Ten Commandments and says, “'You shall not make yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the waters under the earth.” (http://www.catholic.org/bible/book.php?bible_chapter=20&id=2) Another reason that Iconoclasts are against religious images is because there is the possibility of idolatry. The people who defended worshipping icons said that the icons have symbolic

nature.
The use of icons gained a lot of popularity in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. There had been a submarine volcanic eruption in the Aegean Sea, causing tsunamis and a lot of lives lost. Leo III interpreted it as God’s judgment. In 726, Leo III announced that he did not agree with the worship of icons and the tsunamis were a sign that the icons were the reason the destruction had happened.

Leo III removed an image of Christ over the Chalke Gate in Constantinople and changed it to a cross. He said that the image was idolatry. Pope Gregory II was the pope at this time. He received a letter from an emperor telling him to destroy all the images in Rome and to create a council to stop their use. Pope Gregory II answered in defense of the pictures. In the letter, Gregory explains the difference between the images and the idols. Leo replies by threatening him and saying that he will destroy the statue of St. Peter. The pope answers by saying he would be able to easily escape and the West will not like that Leo wants them to destroy their images at his command. Pope Gregory says he would stay determined to prove the emperor’s threats. The West did not agree with the East. In Rome, Ravenna, and Naples, the people rose up against the emperor’s law about icons. Pope Gregory II refused to send taxes to Constantinople. In 730 the use of icons was officially prohibited. Those who worshipped icons were now subject to persecution. The Western church remained firm in belief of

worshipping icons. There they condemned Leo’s actions. Leo responded by taking the papal estates in Calabria and Sicily, and placed them under the Patriarch of Constantinople. After Leo’s death, his son, Constantine V, called forth the Council of Hieria. At the council, around 330 to 340 bishops showed up. This was the first official church council that dealt with primarily religious icons. John of Damascus was a Syrian Monk who lived outside of the Byzantine Empire. He became a major part of iconoclasm through his theological writings. There had been talk of secret monasteries where the worshipping of icons took place, but there is not sufficient evidence that that happened. Some monks continued to support the use of icons, but most followed the church’s policy.
Pope Gregory died in 731.

Gregory III succeeded him. He sent a priest named George with letters that were against Iconoclasm to Constantinople. He was too afraid to present them, and did not fulfill the job. George was then sent out again and was arrested and imprisoned in Italy by a governor. In 731, Gregory III held a synod of 93 bishops who broke and destroyed images of

Christ.
Twenty seven years after the synod with Gregory III, Iconoclasm occurred again. The holy pictures were destroyed and people who defended them would be persecuted. Pope Paschal acts how Pope Gregory II acted. Just like before, a woman held a council and restored the rule of worshipping icons.
In 787, the empress Irene, who was married to Leo IV, wanted to restore the use of icons. She had Tarasuis, one of her followers, elected patriarch of Constantinople. She then constructed a church council about the worship of icons. The next meeting was held in Constantinople in 786. The meeting, however, was broken up by a group of Iconoclast soldiers who were stationed in Constantinople at that time. Then, in 787, the Seventh Ecumenical Council met in Nicaea. At the council, both the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches were present. Unlike the iconoclastic councils, there were papal representatives. They came to a decision to restore the use of iconic images. Icon veneration continued after Irene’s death with the successor Nikephoros 1 and some reigns after.
After Leo V’s accession in 814, the Iconoclasts regained power and the use of icons was prohibited again at a council. In 815, the revival of iconoclasm was made official by a synod held in Hagia Sophia. Under the power of Theophilus, the use of icons was prohibited. Emperor John Philoponus had created a persecution against people who used icons in Orthodox liturgy to weaken the spread of Greek Orthodox monasticism. A lot of people were Iconoclasts, except the Greek Orthodox who defended their sacred art. After Theophilus’ death in 842, his widow restored the worship of icons. This event is called the Feast of Orthodoxy and is still celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
The popes did not have much control. The popes that reined in the West thought that worshipping idols was not a bad thing and they had reasoning to back up what they were saying. The popes who reigned in the Eastern also had their own reasons why they did not agree with iconoclasm. The popes did do a good job controlling and standing up for their region and what they wanted the rule to be. Many councils and synods were held because of iconoclasm, but every time they just came out to the opposite agreement. This went on for hundreds of years. I think the popes did everything in their power to try to come to an agreement but it was mostly the disagreement between people. I do not think that this could have been solved. I do not think that there would have ever been a way to prevent the Great Schism. The West and the East were two very different areas. The East was rich and powerful and the West was not.