The Iconoclastic Controversy

Abstract

Earlier Eastern Christian authors saw the veneration of images as idolatrous. Yet from the late fifth century, representations of Christ and the saints grew increasingly popular. Official hostility also grew. In 726, Emperor Leo III ordered a mosaic image of Christ to be removed from the palace in Constantinople. Controversy continued through the middle of the following century. Key figures were Emperor Constantine V, a critic of image-veneration, and Patriarch Nicephorus, whose writings in its defense provided—along with the council at Nicaea in 787—the main theological arguments linking this practice with the orthodox understanding of the person of Christ. Other important defenders were Patriarch Germanus of Constantinople, the monk John of Damascus, and the monastic leader Theodore of Stoudios. The conflict was finally resolved on March 11, 843, by the gesture of a procession with icons. The veneration of images was now accepted as standard Church practice.