The second phase of the Iconoclastic Controversy
Creators: name: Alexopoulos, Lampros
Publisher: name: Database of Religious History (DRH)
Year: 2023

description: On October 13, 787 the Second Council of Nicaea decreed that the venerable and Holy Icons are to be dedicated in the holy churches of God, namely the image of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, of our immaculate Lady the Holy Theotokos (Virgin Mary), and of the angels and all the saints. They are to be accorded the veneration of honor, not indeed the true worship paid to the divine nature alone, but in the same way, as this is accorded to the life-giving cross, the holy gospels, and other sacred offerings. Few years after that decree, Emperor Leo V the Armenian, a senior general who assumed the throne of the Byzantine Empire, after forcing his predecessor, Michael I Rangabe, to resign in 813, launched a second period of Iconoclasm in 815. Leo’s motivations were perhaps the military failures, that were regarded as indicators of divine displeasure. The Byzantines had suffered a series of humiliating defeats at the hands of the Bulgarians, in the course of which emperor Nikephoros I (802-811) had been killed in battle and emperor Michael I Rangabe had been forced to abdicate. Soon after his accession, Leo V began to discuss the possibility of reviving iconoclasm with a variety of people, including priests, monks, and members of the senate, stating that any of the previous emperors, who embraced the veneration of the Holy Icons, met their death either in revolt or in war; but those who did not venerate images all died a natural death, remained in power until they died, and were then laid to rest with all honors in the imperial mausoleum in the Church of the Holy Apostles. His next move was to appoint a committee of monks to look into the old books and reach a decision on the veneration of the Holy Icons. They soon discovered the acts of the Iconoclastic Synod, summoned by the Emperor Constantine V in 754 in the palace of Hieria at Chalcedon. The council supported the emperor's iconoclast position in the Byzantine iconoclasm controversy, condemning the spiritual and liturgical use of iconography as heretical. A debate between Leo's supporters and the clergy who continued to advocate the veneration of the Holy Icons, led by the Patriarch Nikephoros I (806-815), had no resolution, so Leo was convinced that his policy was correct and had the icon of the Chalke gate, which Leo III is fictitiously claimed to have removed once before, replaced with a cross. In 815 the revival of iconoclasm was rendered official by a Synod held in the Hagia Sophia. After the death of Leo V, Michael II the Amorian (820-829) succeeded him. In a letter to the Carolingian emperor Louis the Pious, in 824, Michael lamented the appearance of image veneration in the church and such practices as making icons baptismal godfathers to infants. He confirmed the decrees of the Iconoclast Council of 754. Michael was succeeded by his son, Theophilus, who died leaving his wife Theodora the Armenian or the Blessed regent for his minor heir, Michael III the Drunkard (842-867). Albeit nearly all bishops of the empire had been forced to profess Iconoclasm, the Empress had considerable support and managed to restore the veneration of the Holy Icons in March 843, just fourteen months after her husband’s death, putting thus an end to the second phase of Byzantine Iconoclasm. In order to counteract opposition and save the legacy of her late husband, she claimed that Theophilos had repented of Iconoclasm on his deathbed, a story that could also ensure that Theophilos's iconoclasm would not affect her son’s reign in the future. Furthermore, the iconoclast Patriarch of Constantinople, John VII Grammaticus (837-843), was deposed and replaced with the iconophile Methodios I (843-847). The entire process was conducted in relative peace, though the Patriarch at first refused to leave his residence and showed wounds on his stomach that he claimed had been inflicted by imperial guards. Soon after becoming Patriarch, Methodios had nearly every bishop in the empire deposed due to their opposition to the Second Council of Nicaea. On 11 March 843, the restoration of the icons was celebrated in a grand procession in the Hagia Sophia. The day of Theodora's assembly and restoration of the Holy Icons has been celebrated ever since as the Feast of Orthodoxy.