Alexander Schmemann

4. Byzantium (22 pages)

From Schmemann's A History of the Orthodox Church

Page 6

Iconoclastic Movement.

Iconoclastic sentiments appeared at the very beginning of the eighth century among the bishops of the eastern borderlands of the empire. They at once proved so strong that Germanos, patriarch of Constantinople, was obliged to defend the ancient practice of venerating of icons in a special epistle. The ferment soon reached the Emperor Leo and immediately took on an imperial dimension; Leo openly sided with the iconoclasts, and in the year 730 published a decree against icons. The patriarch, who had not submitted to him, was removed and replaced by Anastasius, who was sympathetic to iconoclasm. Shortly thereafter the first blood was shed. In a skirmish between the mob and soldiers who, at the emperor’s command, had taken down from the Chalcopratian Gate a revered icon of Christ, several persons were killed. In Greece opposition to the new movement took the form of a political uprising; the entire West condemned iconoclasm, again unanimously; all this poured oil upon a blazing fire. But it was Leo’s son, Constantine Copronymus who set in motion real persecution of the icon- worshipers. A brilliant general and statesman, he also showed himself a remarkable theologian; fragments of his works against icons that have been preserved display deep, well-reasoned conviction.

Constantine pursued his iconoclastic policy systematically. Carrying out in the space of a few years a purge of the episcopate, in 753 he summoned a council in Constantinople at which icons and the veneration of icons were condemned. The active minority, the convinced opponents of icons, had triumphed. The majority were unprepared, for they had never thought through the theological question of the veneration of icons.

Having secured the council’s approval, Constantine put its decision into practice with fire and sword. Many names of “new martyrs,” as the Church entitled them, have remained in our calendar from that decade of blood (762-75). It must be admitted that the Church’s first reaction was rather feeble. Among the martyrs of this period we find almost no bishops, secular clergy, or laymen. Many continued to revere icons secretly, but did not state publicly their convictions. Even St. Tarasius of Constantinople, who was to be a future hero of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, at which the dogma of the veneration of icons was promulgated, pursued a brilliant governmental career under Copronymus. In fact, only the monks resisted the emperor’s policy and it was upon them that the weight of persecution fell.

It will be appropriate later to show that in this struggle with the monks another implication of the iconoclastic conflict comes into view, no longer purely a theological matter. Here one need only stress that the monks proved to be the chief witnesses to truth; indeed, the lives of St. Stephen the New or St. Andrew Kalivitus are illumined by an early Christian spirit. Along with the attack on the monks, there was also a widespread destruction of icons themselves, which were replaced by worldly art: hunting scenes, decorative designs, and the like. No one can guess how the persecution would have ended, if the aged emperor-fanatic had not died in 775.
Under his son Leo IV the Khazar — though he, too, was a convinced iconoclast — the persecution died down. A further shift took place when, after Leo’s death, authority passed to his wife Irene (780-802) because of the minority of his son, Constantine VI. She had always been a devotee of icons and the monks, and began the preparations for an ecumenical council. To this end she installed as patriarch Tarasius, the state secretary, a wise and moderate Orthodox. But fifty years of iconoclasm had had a deep effect on Byzantine society. The first attempt to assemble the council in Constantinople was frustrated by the soldiers, who worshiped the memory of Copronymus.

 

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