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ICONOCLASTS
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ICONOCLASTS (Gr. EIKOVOKXiwrr!S: EIK(cw, See also:image, and KAQEIV,
to break), the name applied particularly to the opponents in the 8th and 9th centuries of the use of images in See also:Christian cult.
As regards the attitude towards religious images assumed by the See also:primitive Christian See also: Adv. Gent. vi. 1; similarly See also:Celsus) ; and this See also:charge was never denied; on the contrary See also:Origen gloried in it (c. Celsum, bk. 7, p. 386). At a comparatively early date, indeed, we read of various Gnostic sects calling in the See also:fine arts to aid their worship; thus See also:Irenaeus (Haer. i. 25. 6), speaking of the followers of Marcellina, says that " they possess images, some of them painted, and others formed from different kinds of material; and they maintain that a likeness of Christwas made by See also:Pilate at that See also:time when Jesus lived among men. They See also:crown these images, and set them up along with the images of the philosophers of the See also:world; that is to say, with the images of See also:Pythagoras and See also:Plato and See also:Aristotle and the See also:rest. They have also other modes of honouring these images after the same manner as the Gentiles " (cf. Aug. De Haer. c. 7). It is also well known that the See also:emperor See also: It seems possible to trace some of the older and better frescos in the catacombs to a very early See also:age; and See also:Bible See also:manuscripts were often copiously illuminated and illustrated even before the See also:middle of the 4th century. An often-quoted passage from See also:Tertullian (De Pudic. c. to, cf. c. 7) shows that in his See also:day the communion See also:cup was wont to See also:bear a See also:representation of the See also:Good Shepherd. See also:Clement of See also:Alexandria (Paedag. iii. 1I) mentions the See also:dove, See also:fish, See also:ship, See also:lyre, See also:anchor, as suitable devices for Christian signet rings. Origen (c. Celsum, bk. 3) repudiates graven images as only See also:fit for demons. During the 4th and following centuries the tendency to enlist the fine arts in the service of the church steadily advanced; not, however, so far as appears, with the formal See also:sanction of any See also:regular ecclesiastical authority, and certainly not without strong protests raised by more than one powerful See also:voice. From a passage in the writings of See also:Gregory of Nyssa (Orat. de Laudibus Theodori Martyris, c. 2) it is easy to see how the stories of See also:recent martyrs would offer themselves as tempting subjects for the painter, and at the same time be considered to have received from him their best and most permanent expression; that this feeling was widespread is shown in many places by See also:Paulinus of See also:Nola (ob. 431), from whom we gather that not only martyrdoms and Bible histories, but also symbols of the Trinity were in his day freely represented pictorially. See also:Augustine (De Cons. Ev. i. 1o) speaks less approvingly of those who look for Christ and his apostles " on painted walls " rather than in his written word. How far the Christian feeling of the 4th and 5th centuries was from being settled in favour of the employment of the fine arts is shown by such a See also:case as that of See also:Eusebius of Caesarea, who, in reply to a See also:request of See also:Constantia, See also:sister of See also:Constantine, for a picture of Christ, wrote that it was unlawful to possess images pretending to represent the Saviour either in his divine or in his human nature, and added that to avoid the reproach of See also:idolatry he had actually taken away from a See also:lady friend the pictures of See also:Paul and of Christ which she had .2 Similarly See also:Epiphanius in a See also:letter to See also: III; ix. 4. 11), in which he disapproved of that course, and, See also:drawing the distinction which has since been authoritative for the See also:Roman Church, pointed out that " It is one thing to worship a picture and another to learn from the See also:language of a picture what that is which ought to be worshipped. What those who can read learn by means of See also:writing, that do the uneducated learn by looking at a picture. . . . That, therefore, ought not to have been destroyed which had been placed in the churches, not for worship, but solely for instructing the minds of the ignorant." With regard to the symbol of the cross, its public use See also:dates from the time of Constantine, though, according to many Christian archaeologists it had, prior to that date, a very important place in the so-called " disciplina arcani." The introduction of the crucifix was later; originally the favourite See also:combination was that of the figure of a See also:lamb lying at the See also:foot of the cross; the council of See also:Constantinople, called " in Trullo," in 692 enjoined that this symbol should be discontinued, and that where Christ was shown in connexion with his cross he should be represented in his human nature. In the catacombs Christ is never represented See also:hanging on the cross, and the cross itself is only portrayed in a veiled and hesitating manner. In the See also:Egyptian churches the cross was a See also:pagan symbol of See also:life borrowed by the Christians and interpreted in the pagan manner. The cross of the early Christian emperors was a See also:labarum or token of victory in See also:war, a See also:standard for use in See also:battle. Religious feeling in the See also:West recoiled from the crucifix as See also:late as the 6th century, and it was equally abhorrent to the See also:Monophysites of the See also:East who regarded the human nature of Christ as swallowed up in the divine. Nevertheless it seems to have originated in the East, perhaps as a protest against the extreme Monophysites, who even denied the passibility of Christ. Perhaps the See also:Nestorians, who clung to the human aspect of Christ, introduced it about 550. From the East it soon passed to the West. Not until the 8th century were the religious and theological questions which connect themselves with image-worship distinctly raised in the Eastern Church in their entirety. The controversy began with an address which See also:Leo the Isaurian, in the tenth See also:year of his reign (726), delivered in public "in favour of over-throwing the See also:holy and See also:venerable images," as says See also:Theophanes (Chronogr., in See also:Migne Patr. Gr. ro8, 816). This emperor had, in the years 717 and 718, hurled back the See also:tide of Arab See also:conquest which threatened to engulf See also:Byzantium, and had also shown himself an able statesman and legislator. See also:Born at Germanicia in See also:Syria, and, before he mounted the See also:throne, See also:captain-See also:general of the Anatolian theme, he had come under the See also:influence of the See also:anti-idolatrous sects, such as the Jews, Montanists, See also:Paulicians and Manicheans, which abounded in See also:Asia See also:Minor, but of which he was otherwise no friend. But his religious reform was unpopular, especially among the See also:women, who killed an See also:official who, by the emperor's command, was destroying an image of Christ in the See also:vestibule of the imperial See also:palace of Chalce. This emeute provoked severe See also:reprisals, and the partisans of the images were mutilated and killed, or beaten and exiled. A See also:rival emperor even, Agallianus, was set up, who perished in his See also:attempt to seize Constantinople. See also:Italy also See also:rose in arms, and Pope Gregory II. wrote to Leo blaming his interference in religious matters, though he dissuaded the rebels in See also:Venetia, the Exarchate and the Pentapolis from electing a new emperor and marching against Leo. In 730 Germanus the See also:patriarch resigned rather than subscribe to a See also:decree condemning images; later he was strangled in See also:exile and replaced by an iconoclast, See also:Anastasius. Meanwhile, inside the Arab See also:empire, John of See also:Damascus wrote his three dogmatic discourses against the traducers of images, arguing that their use was not idolatry but only a relative worship (Orpoo tannins vx€i uc i). The next pope, Gregory III. convoked a council of ninety-three bishops, which excommunicated the iconoclasts, and the See also:fleet which Leo sent to retaliate273 on the Latin See also:peninsula was lost in a See also:storm in the Adriatic. The most Leo was able to do was to See also:double the See also:tribute of See also:Calabria and See also:Sicily, confiscate the pope's revenues there, and impose on the bishops of See also:south Italy a See also:servitude to Byzantium which lasted for centuries. Leo III. died in See also:June 740, and then his son Constantine V. began a persecution of the image-worshippers in real See also:earnest. In his eagerness to restore the simplicity of the primitive church he even assailed Mariolatry, intercession of See also:saints, See also:relics and perhaps See also:infant See also:baptism, to the See also:scandal even of the iconoclast bishops themselves. His reign began with the seizure for eighteen months of Constantinople by his See also:brother-in-See also:law Artavasdes, who temporarily restored the images. He was captured and beheaded with his accomplices in See also:November 742, and in See also:February 754 Constantine held in the palace of Hieria a council of 388 bishops, mostly of the East; the patriarchs of See also:Rome, See also:Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem refused to attend. In it images were condemned, but the other equally conservative leanings of the emperor found no favour. The See also:chief upholders of images, the patriarch Germanus, See also:George of See also:Cyprus and John of Damascus, were anathematized, and Christians forbidden to adore or make images or even to hide them. These decrees were obstinately resisted, especially by the monks, large See also:numbers of whom fled to Italy. In 765 the emperor demanded of his subjects all over his empire an See also:oath on the cross that they detested images, and St See also:Stephen the younger, the chief upholder of them, was murdered in the streets. A regular crusade now began against monks and nuns, and images and relics were destroyed on a great See also:scale. In parts of Asia Minor (See also:Lydia and See also:Caria) the monks were even forced to marry the nuns. In 769 Pope Stephen III. condemned the council of Hieria, and in 775 Constantine V. died. His son Leo IV. died in 780, leaving a widow, See also:Irene, of Athenian See also:birth, who seized the opportunity presented by the minority of her ten-year-old son Constantine VI. to restore the images and dispersed relics. In 784 she invited Pope See also:Adrian I. to come and preside over a fresh council, which was to See also:reverse that of 754 and heal the See also:schism with Rome. In See also:August 786 the council met, but was broken up by the imperial See also:guards, who were Easterns and sturdy iconoclasts. Irene replaced them by a more trustworthy force, and convoked a fresh council of three See also:hundred bishops and monks innumerable in See also:September 787, at See also:Nicaea in the church of St See also:Sophia. The cult of images was now solemnly restored, iconoclast bishops deposed or reconciled, the dogmatic theory of images defined, and church discipline re-established. The See also:order thus imposed lasted twenty-four years, until a military revolution placed a soldier of See also:fortune, See also:half Armenian, half See also:Persian, named Leo, on the throne; he, like his soldiers, was persuaded that the See also:ill-success of the Roman arms against Bulgarians and other invaders was due to the idolatry rampant at See also:court and elsewhere. The soldiers stoned the image of Christ which Irene had set up afresh in the palace of Chalce, and this provoked a See also:counter-demonstration of the See also:clergy. Leo feigned for a while to be on their See also:side, but on the 2nd of February 815, in the See also:sanctuary of St Sophia, publicly refused to prostrate himself before the images, with the approbation of the See also:army and of many bishops who were iconoclasts at See also:heart. Irene's patriarch Nicephorus was now deposed and one Theodotus, a kinsman of Constantine Copronymus, consecrated in his place on the 1st of See also:April 815. A fresh council was soon convoked, which cursed Irene and re-enacted the decrees of 754. This reaction lasted only for a See also:generation under Leo the Armenian, who died 820, See also:Michael II. 820-829, and See also:Theophilus 829–842; and was frustrated mainly by the exertions of See also:Theodore of Studion and his monks, called the Studitae. Theodore refused to attend or recognize the new council, and was banished first to See also:Bithynia and thence to See also:Smyrna, whence he continued to address his appeals to the pope, to the eastern patriarchs and to his dispersed monks. He died in 826. Theophilus, the last of the iconoclast emperors, was a devoted Mariolater and controversialist who invited the monks to discuss the question of images with him, and whipped or branded them when he was out-argued; he at length banished them from the cities, and
branded on the hands a painter of holy pictures, See also:Lazarus by name, who declined to secularize his art; he also raised to the patriarchal throne John Hylilas, chief instigator of the reaction of 815. In 842 Theophilus died, leaving his wife See also:Theodora See also:regent; she was, like Irene, addicted to images, and See also:chose as patriarch a See also: The monks were the chief champions of images, because they were illuminators and artists. Their doctors taught that the same See also:grace of the Holy Spirit which imbued the living saint attaches after See also:death to his relics, name, image and picture. The latter are thus no See also:mere representations, but as it were emanations from the archetype, vehicles of the supernatural See also:personality represented, and possessed of an inherent sacramental value and power, such as the name of Jesus had for the earliest believers. Here Christian image-worship See also:borders on the beliefs which underlie sympathetic magic (see IMAGE WORSHIP). 2. The iconoclasts proper, who not only condemned image worship in the sense just explained but rejected all religious art whatever. Fleeting See also:matter to their mind was not worthy to embody or reflect heavenly supersensuous energies denoted by the names of Christ and the saints. For the same See also:reason they rejected relics and, as a See also:rule, the worship of the cross. Statues of Christ, especially of him hanging on the cross, inspired the greatest horror and indignation; and this is why none of the graven images of Christ, common before the outbreak of the movement, survive. More than this—although the synod of 692 specially allowed the crucifix, yet Greek churches have discarded it ever since the 8th century. This See also:idea that material representation involves a profanation of divine personages, while disallowing all religious art which goes beyond See also:scroll-See also:work, spirals, flourishes and geometrical designs, yet admits to the full of See also:secular art; and accordingly the iconoclastic emperors replaced the holy pictures in churches with frescoes of See also:hunting scenes, and covered their palaces with See also:garden scenes where men were plucking See also:fruit and birds singing amid the foliage. Contemporary Mahommedans did the same, for it is an See also:error to suppose that this See also:religion was from the first hostile to profane art. At one time the mosques were covered with mosaics, analogous to those of See also:Ravenna, depicting scenes from the life of See also:Mahomet and the prophets. The See also:Arabs only forbade plastic art in the 9th century, nor were their essentially Semitic scruples ever shared by the Persians. The See also:prejudice we are considering is closely connected with the Manichaean view of matter, which in strict consistency rejected the belief that God was really made flesh, or really died on the cross. The Manichaeans were therefore, by reason of their See also:dualism, See also:arch-enemies no less of Christian art than of relics and cross-worship; the Monophysites were equally so by reason of their belief that the divine nature in Christ entirely absorbed and sublated the human; they shaded off into the party of the aphthartodoketes, who held that his human See also:body was incorruptible and made of ethereal See also:fire, and that his divine nature was impassible. Their belief made them, like the Manichaeans, hostile to material See also:portraiture of Christ, especially of his sufferings on the cross. All these nearly allied See also:schools of Christian thought could, moreover, address, as against the image-worshippers, a very effective See also:appeal to the Bible and to Christian antiquity. Now See also:Egypt, Asia Minor, See also:Armenia, western Syria and the Hauran were almost wholly given up to these forms of See also:opinion. Accordingly in all the remains of the Christian art of the Hauran one seeks in vain for any delineation of human See also:face or figure. The art of these countries is mainly geometrical, and allows only of monograms crowned with laurels, of peacocks, of animals gambolling amid foliage, of fruit and See also:flowers, of crosses which are either svastikas of See also:Hindu and Mycenaean type, or so lost in enveloping arabesques as to be merely decorative. Such was the only religious art permitted by the Christian sentiment of these countries, and also of the large enclaves of semi-Manichaean belief formed in the Balkans by the transportation thither of Armenians and Paulicians. And it is important to remark that the protagonists of iconoclasm in Byzantium came from these lands where image cult offended the deepest religious instincts of the masses. Leo the Isaurian had all the scruples of a Paulician, even to the rejection of the cult of Virgin and saints; Constantine V. was openly such. Michael See also:Balbus was reared in See also:Phrygia among Montanists. The soldiers and captains of the Byzantine garrisons were equally Armenians and Syrians, in whom the sight of a crucifix or image set up for worship in-spired nothing but horror. The issue of the struggle was not a See also:complete victory even in Byzantium for the partisans of image-worship. The iconoclasts See also:left an indelible impress on the Christian art of the Greek Church, in so far as they put an end to the use of graven images; for the Eastern See also:icon is a See also:flat picture; less easily regarded than would be a statue as a nidus within .which a spirit can lurk. Half the See also:realm of creative art, that of statuary, was thus sup-pressed at a See also:blow; and the other half, See also:painting, forfeited all the grace and freedom, all the capacity of new themes, forms and See also:colours, all the development which we see in the Latin Church; The Greeks have produced no See also:Giotto, noFra See also:Angelico; no See also:Raphael. Their artists have no choice of subjects and no initiative. See also:Colour, See also:dress, attitude; grouping of figures are all dictated by traditional rules, set out in regular manuals. God the See also:Father may not be depicted at all—a restriction intelligible when we remember that the image in theory is fraught with the virtue of the archetype; but everywhere the utmost timidity is shown. What else could an artist do but make a slavish and exact copy of old pictures which worked miracles and perhaps had the reputation as well of having fallen from See also:heaven? 3. Between these extreme parties the Roman Church took the middle way of common sense. The See also:hair-splitting distinction of the Byzantine doctors between veneration due to images (1rpoQKU o etc layman)), and the adoration (srpoo-Kfm Ls ?arpausaK,) due to God alone, was dropped, and the utility of pictures for the illiterate emphasized. Their use was declared to be this, that they taught the ignorant through the eye what they should adore with the mind; they are not themselves to be adored. Such was Gregory the Great's teaching, and such also is the purport of the See also:Caroline books, which embody the conclusions arrived at by the bishops of See also:Germany, See also:Gaul and See also:Aquitaine, presided over by papal legates at the council of See also:Frankfort in 794, and incidentally also reveal the hatred and contempt of See also:Charlemagne for the Byzantine empire as an institution, and for Irene, its ruler, as a See also:person. The theologians whom See also: In the crusading See also:epoch the See also:Cathars and Paulicians carried all over See also:Europe the old iconoclastic spirit, and perhaps helped to transmit it to Wycliffe and Hus. Not the least racy clause in the document compiled about 1389 by the Wycliffites in See also:defence of their defunct teacher is the following: " See also:Hit semes that this offrynge ymages is a sotile cast of Antichriste and his derkis for to drawe almes fro See also:pore men . . . certis, these ymages of hemselfe may do nouther gode nor yvel to mennis soules, but thai myghtten warme a See also:man's body in colde, if thai were sette upon a fire." At the period of the See also:Reformation it was unanimously See also:felt by the reforming party that, with the invocation of saints and the practice of reverencing their relics, the adoration of images ought also to cease. The leaders of the movement were not, however, perfectly agreed on the question as to whether these might not in some circumstances be retained in churches. See also:Luther had no sympathy with the iconoclastic 'outbreaks which then occurred; he classed images in themselves as among the " adiaphora," and condemned only their cultus; so also the " Confessio Tetrapolitana " leaves Christians See also:free to have them or not, if only due regard be had to what is expedient and edifying. The " See also:Heidelberg See also:Catechism," however, emphatically declares that images are not to be tolerated at, all in churches. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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