popes (Gregory II., Gregory III. and Hadrian I). It maintained the right and duty of using and
worshipping images of Christ, the Virgin, and the saints, but indignantly rejected the charge of
idolatry, and made a distinction (often disregarded in practice) between a limited worship due to
pictures,^532 and adoration proper due to God alone.^533 Images are a pictorial Bible, and speak to the
eye even more eloquently than the word speaks to the ear. They are of special value to the common
people who cannot read the Holy Scriptures. The honors of the living originals in heaven were
gradually transferred to their wooden pictures on earth; the pictures were reverently kissed and
surrounded by the pagan rites of genuflexion, luminaries, and incense; and prayers were thought
to be more effective if said before them. Enthusiasm for pictures went hand in hand with the worship
of saints, and was almost inseparable from it. It kindled a poetic inspiration which enriched the
service books of the Greek church. The chief hymnists, John of Damascus, Cosmas of Jerusalem,
Germanus, Theophanes, Theodore of the Studium, were all patrons of images, and some of them
suffered deposition, imprisonment, and mutilation for their zeal; but the Iconoclasts did not furnish
a single poet.^534
The chief argument against this theory was the second commandment. It was answered in
various ways. The prohibition was understood to be merely temporary till the appearance of Christ,
or to apply only to graven images, or to the making of images for idolatrous purposes.
On the other hand, the cherubim over the ark, and the brazen serpent in the wilderness were
appealed to as examples of visible symbols in the Mosaic worship. The incarnation of the Son of
God furnished the divine warrant for pictures of Christ. Since Christ revealed himself in human
form it can be no sin to represent him in that form. The significant silence of the Gospels concerning
his personal appearance was supplied by fictitious pictures ascribed to St. Luke, and St. Veronica,
and that of Edessa. A superstitious fancy even invented stories of wonder-working pictures, and
ascribed to them motion, speech, and action.
It should be added that the Eastern church confines images to colored representations on a
plane surface, and mosaics, but excludes sculptures and statues from objects of worship. The Roman
church makes no such restriction.
- The Iconoclastic theory occupies the opposite extreme. Its advocates were called
image-breakers.^535 It was maintained by the energetic Greek emperors, Leo III. and his son
Constantine, who saved the tottering empire against the invasion of the Saracens; it was popular
in the army, and received the sanction of the Constantinopolitan Synod of 754. It appealed first and
last to the second commandment in the decalogue in its strict sense as understood by the Jews and
the primitive Christians. It was considerably strengthened by the successes of the Mohammedans
who, like the Jews, charged the Christians with the great sin of idolatry, and conquered the cities
of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt in spite of the sacred images which were relied on for protection and
miraculous interposition. The iconoclastic Synod of 754 denounced image-worship as a relapse
into heathen idolatry, which the devil had smuggled into the church in the place of the worship of
God alone in spirit and in truth.
(^532) τιμητικὴπροσκύνησις. For this word the Latin has no precise equivalent. The English word " worship" is used in
different senses.
(^533) λατρεία. adoratio.
(^534) See § 94, p. 403 sqq.
535
Εἰκονοκλάσται(fromκλάω, to break),εἰκονοκαύσται,εἰκονομάχοι,χριστιανοκατήγοροι.