the devil, a Slanichasan, and a Docetist." The pope himself, Gregory III, put all the opposers of images un- der ban ; but, despite this and other efforts on his part, Leo's successor, Constantinus Copronymus, went even further than Leo. Having obtained the condemnation of image-worship in the Synod of Constantinople in A. D. 754, he enforced it against the clergy and the most noted of the monks. Many monks, who, together with the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, •were m favor of the images, and were unwilling to sub- scribe to the decrees of the council, were cruelly perse- cuted. The emperor Leo IV also enforced this law ; but his widow, Irene, one of the basest of women, used the tendency of the people in favor of image-worship to en- able her to ascend the throne. With the aid of the newlj'-elected patriarch of Constantinople, Terasios, she called a synod at NicKa in 787, wherein the adoration of images by prostration, kissing, and incensing was re- established. Matters remained in this state during the reigns of the emperors Nicephoriis and Michael (802- 813), although there still were Iconoclasts to be found. But as, during the strife, the adoration of images had passed into the grossest idolatrj', Leo V (813-821) caused it to be abolished by the Synod of Constantino- ple, and punished those who persisted in it (mostlj' monks, with Theodores Studita at their head). Mi- chael II (821-824), who overthrew Leo, tolerated the worship of images without thereby satisfying the image- worshippers ; but Theophilus, his son (829-842), on his sole accession to the government, renewed all the edicts against them. After his death, his widow restored im- ige-worship in 842, and instituted the festival of the Vrthodoxy, which is yet kept by the Greek Church iii remembrance of this restoration (see Buddseus, De festo orthodoxo, Jena, 1726). The Greek Christians have since retained images in their churches, but with- out worshipping them. The Latins also decided that the images should be retained, but not worshipped ; while the French Church declared most positively against image-worship in the Synod of Gentiliacum in 7C7, end in 790 Charlemagne presented to the Council of Nicrca a memorial, De impio imagimim cultu {Lihri Caroliid). Thereupon images were allowed to be retained for pur- poses of education only. At the Synod of Frankfort in 794, Charlemagne, with the assent of the English Church, caused image-worship to be condemned. After the 9th century the popes were gradually more inclined towards image- worship, and it soon became general throughout the West. The Eoman Catholic Church contuuied to favor the practice, and the Council of Trent decided formally in its twenty-fifth session that the images of Christ, of the holy Virgin, and of other saints are to be placed in churches; that they ought to receive due veneration, not because they have any divinity or vir- tue in them, but becjiuse honor is thus reflected upon those whom they represent ; so that the peoj)le, by kiss- ing the images, bowing to them, etc., pray to Christ and honor the saints whom the images represent. This image-worship led to pilgrimages to the shrines of saints great in repute for their power. The Greek Church admits only the painted and raised images, not carved figures, like the Church of Eome. All the Chris- tian sects in the East are given to image-worship with the exception of the Nestorians, the Christians of St. Thomas, and the Russian Koskohiiki. The German Re- formers, although opposing image-worship, held some- what different opinions on the subject: thus Luther tolerated images as an ornament, and also as edifying mementoes, and condemned the destruction of the im- ages and the altars at Wittenberg in 1522. The Swiss Reformers opposed images in any shape or for any pur- pose, and had them taken out of all the churches — often ■with great violence, as in the Netherlands. They are not even now tolerated in the Reformed Church, nor in the particular denominations that have sprung from it. Mohammedanism proscribes image-worship; it even forbids the reproduction of the image of any livmg be-
ing, though it be not for the purpose of worshipping it. See Wessenberg, Die christlichen Bilder, ein Bejurde- rungs mitiel d. c/nistl. Sinnes (Constanz, 1827, 2 vols.) ; Schlosser, Gesch. der Bilderstiirmenden Kaiser (Frankf. ad.M. 1812) ; Marx, Der Bilderstreit der Byzaniinischen Kaiser (Trier, 1839); Ketzer Lex. ii, 287; Milman's Gibbon, Decline and Fall of Rom. Em]), v, 10 sq. ; IMil- man, Latin Christianity, ii, 293 sq. ; Pierer, Universal Lexikon, s. v. Bilder ; Bingham, Orig. Ecclcs. book riii, ch. viii; Butler, Eccles. Hist. (Phila. 18G8), i, SCO sq.; Ranke, History of the Poises, i, 19-25. See Image- vvou- SHiP. (J. H.W.)
Iconoclasts. See IcoxocLAssr.
Iconodulists. See Lmage-'Worship.
Iconography {iIkwv, image, and ypd<pu, T describe), the science of so-called " Christian art" in the Middle Ages. It includes, therefore, the history and descrip- tion of images, pictures, mosaics, gems, emblems, etc. There exist in oiu- day many exquisite specimens of Christian iconography, which are preserved in libraries and museums, and are invaluable to us in determining the exact history of this '' Christian art." The charac- ter of the illustrations, the form of the letters, sufllce to determine the age and country where the work was pro- duced. Thus a comparison of MSS. of Eastern and Western Eiu-ope brings before us the several stages which mark the growth of Christian iconography. See Illujiixatiox, Art of. The most important modem work on the subject is Didron, Manuel d'Iconographie Chretienne (Paris, 1845, 8vo) ; trans, into English, Chris- tian Iconography, vol. i (London, 1851, 12mo). Older works are, Paleotti, De imag. sacr. etprofunis (Ingolst, 1594, 4to) ; ]Molanus, De Pict. et Imagg. Sac7-is (Louv. 1570) ; De Historia Sacr. Imagg. et Piciurarum (1619, 12mu) ; Miinter, Siniihilder der Alten Christen (Altona, 1825, 2 vols. 4to) ; Wessenberg, Die Chiistl Bilder (Con- stance, 1827). See Image- WORSHIP. (J. H.W.)