§ 102. THE RESTORATION OF IMAGE- WORSHIP. 459
§ 102. The Restoration of Image- Worship by the Seventh (Ecu menical Council, 787.
Leo IV., called Chazarus (775-780), kept up the laws against images, though with more moderation. But his wife Irene of Athens, distinguished for beauty, talent, ambition and intrigue, was at heart devoted to image- worship, and after his death and during the minority of her son Constantine VI. Porphyrogenitus, labored with shrewdness and perseverance for its restora tion (780-802). At first she proclaimed toleration to both par ties, which she afterwards denied to the iconoclasts. She raised the persecuted monks to the highest dignities, and her secretary, Tarasius, to the patriarchal throne of Constantinople, with the consent of Pope Hadrian, who was willing to overlook the irregularity of the sudden election of a layman in prospect of his services to orthodoxy. She removed the iconoclastic imperial guard, and replaced it by one friendly to her views.
But the crowning measure was^an oecumenical council, which alone could set aside the authority of the iconoclastic council of 754. Her first attempt to hold such a council at Constantinople in 786 completely failed. The second attempt, owing to more careful preparations, succeeded.
Irene convened the seventh oecumenical council in the year 787, at Nicrea, which was less liable to iconoclastic disturbances than Constantinople, yet within easy reach of the court, and famous as the seat of the first and weightiest oecumenical coun cil. It was attended by about three hundred and fifty bishops,1 under the presidency of Tarasius, and held only eight sessions from September 24 to October 23, the last in the imperial palace of Constantinople. Pope Hadrian I. sent two priests, both called
Bolland. for Oct., Tom. VIII. 124 sqq. (publ. Brussels, 1853), and Hefele, III. 421-428.
1 The accounts vary between 330 and 367. The Acts are signed by 308 bishops and episcopal representatives. Nicephorus, the almost contempora neous patriarch of Constantinople, in a letter to Leo III., mentions only 150. See Hefele, III. 460.
460 FOURTH PEKIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
Peter, whose names stand first in the Acts. The three Eastern patriarchs, who were subject to the despotic rule of the Saracens, could not safely leave their homes; but two Eastern monks, John, and Thomas, who professed to be syncelli of two of these patriarchs and to have an accurate knowledge of the prevailing orthodoxy of Egypt and Syria, were allowed to sit and vote in the place of those dignitaries, although they had no authority from them, and were sent simply by a number of their fellowmonks.1
The Nicene Council nullified the decrees of the iconoclastic Synod of Constantinople, and solemnly sanctioned a limited worship (proskynesis) of images.2
Under images were understood the sign of the cross, and pic tures of Christ, of the Virgin Mary, of angels and saints. They may be drawn in color or composed of Mosaic or formed of other suitable materials, and placed in churches, in houses, and in the street, or made on walls and tables, sacred vessels and vestments. Homage may. be paid to them by kissing, bow ing, strewing of incense, burning of lights, saying prayers be fore them ; such honor to be intended for the living objects in heaven which the images represented. The Gospel* book and the relics of martyrs were also mentioned among the objects of veneration.
The decree was fortified by a few Scripture passages about the Cherubim (Ex. 25: 17-22; Ezek. 41: 1, 15, 19; Heb. 9: 1-5), and a large number of patristic testimonies, genuine and
1 Theodore of the Studium, himself a zealous advocate of image- worship, exposes this trick, and intimates that the council was not strictly oecumenical, although he sometimes gives it that name. The question connected with these two irresponsible monks is discussed with his usual minuteness and prolixity by Wulch, X. 551-558. See also Neander, III. 228, and Hefele, III. 459.
a The definition (opoc) sanctions the acriraaiuog KOI rifitjriKi) TrpoctKvvycrtc, osculum (or salutatio) et honoraria adoratio, but not akridivT) ^arpeia T/ TrpsTrei P.OVTJ TT? deiqt <j>vaei, vera latria, quce solam divinam naturam decet. Mansi, XIII. 378 sq. The term amraafi6q embraces salutation and kiss, the TrpoaKvvqots, bowing the knee and other demonstrations of reverence, see p. 450.