Sources

FOOTNOTES:

[229:1] Matt. xxviii., 19, 20.

[229:2] Ignatius, Letter to the Ephesians, ch. 10. See Smith and Cheetham, art. on "The Heathen."

[229:3] An illustration of what must have been a common practice is found in the case of Eusebius, the Bishop of Vercelli, who made his cathedral church the centre of a wide missionary field.

[230:1] Matt. x., 34.

[231:1] Neander, Light in Dark Places, 417.

[232:1] Philostorgius, Eccl. Hist., ii., 5.

[232:2] To do that Ulfilas had to invent an alphabet. Whether he translated the whole Bible or only a part of it is unknown, since only fragments of his work have come down to us. See Schaff, Companion to the Greek Testament, N. Y., 1883, 160; Sozomen, Eccl. Hist., ii., 6; Philostorgius, Eccl. Hist., ii., 5; Scott, Ulfilas, Apostle to the Goths, Lond., 1885.

[232:3] Theodoret, Eccl. Hist., v., 30.

[234:1] On the conversion of the Burgundians, see Socrates, Eccl. Hist., ii., 30.

[234:2] Richter, 36, n. 6; Bouquet, iv., 49. See Ogg, Source Book, § 6.

[235:1] Perry, Franks, 488.

[235:2] Bede, i., 47; Lingard, i., 46; Haddan and Stubbs, i., 22-26; Pryce, Anc. Brit. Ch., 31; Tertullian, Against Judæos, 7; Gildas; Ogg, Source Book, § 8. The early history of the British Church is obscure. By the second century the Gospel had spread through the southern parts of the island. Three British bishops attended the Council of Arles, 314, and others were present at the Council of Sardica in 347 and the Council of Rimini in 359.

[235:3] Bede, i., 22.

[235:4] Ibid., ii., ch. 1.

[235:5] Bede, i., 25. See Nic. and Post-Nic. Fathers, 2d ser., xii., Epistles; Haddan and Stubbs, iii., 5; Cheney, Readings in Eng. Hist., N. Y., 1908, 46-52; Ogg, Source Book, § 9; Thorne, Chronicles of St. Augustine's Abbey; Stanley, Memorials of Canterbury. See Allies, Hist. of Ch. in Eng.

[236:1] Bede, i., 26. See Green, Short Hist. of Eng. People, ch. 1, § 1.

[236:2] He went over to Arles, France, to be consecrated. Bede, i., 27.

[236:3] Bede, i., 32.

[237:1] Until about seventy-five years previous Rome herself had used the same method of calculation. Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian monk, who instituted the practice of dating events from the birth of Christ, invented the new method the latter part of the fifth century. See Cutts, Aug., 132.

[237:2] Skene, ii., 9; Killen, Eccl. Hist. of Ire., i., 57.

[237:3] Bede, iii., 5.

[237:4] Bede, v., 21. The Greeks shaved the head completely. See Cutts, Aug., 136.

[237:5] Bellesheim, Hist. of Cath. Ch. in Scot., Edinb., 1887-89, 4 vols., i., 86.

[238:1] Warren, Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Ch., Lond., 1881.

[238:2] Haddan and Stubbs, iii., 40.

[238:3] This incident is regarded as an interpolation in Bede's History. Hook, Archbishops of Canterbury, i., 68, 69.

[239:1] Bede, ii., 2.

[239:2] Ibid., iii., 25, 26.

[240:1] Greene, Short Hist. of Eng. People, ch. 1, § 1. Cf. Love, Early Eng. Ch. Hist., Lond., 1893, p. 94.

[240:2] Hunt, Eng. Ch. in M. A., Lond., 1889; Ingram, Eng. and Rome, Lond. and N. Y., 1892; Newell, Hist. of Anc. Brit. Ch., Lond., 1887; Alexander, The Anc. Brit. Ch., Lond., 1889; Cathcart, The Anc. Brit. and Irish Churches, Phil., 1893; Soames, The Lat. Ch. during Anglo-Sax. Times, Lond., 1848.

[240:3] Todd, St. Patrick the Apostle of Ireland, Dub., 1864; Sherman, Loca Patriciana; Wright, The Writings of St. Patrick, Lond., 1889, 2d ed., 1894; Stokes, Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, Lond., 1887; Cusack, Life of St. Patrick; De Vinne, Hist. of Irish Prim. Ch., N. Y., 1870; Killen, Eccl. Hist. of Ire., Lond., 1875; Stokes, Ireland and the Celtic Ch., Lond., 1886; Olden, The Ch. of Ireland, Lond., 1892; Sanderson, St. Patrick and the Irish Ch., N. Y., 1895.

[240:4] Bede, iii., 13, 19, 21.

[241:1] Haddan and Stubbs, ii., 103; Forbes, The Kalendars of Scottish Saints; Robertson, Statuta Ecclesia Scoticanæ; Cunningham, Ch. Hist. of Scot.; McLaughlin, The Early Scot. Ch.; Reeves, Life of St. Columba; Skene, Keltic Scot.

[241:2] Adamnan, Life of St. Columba (ed. by Reeves and Skene); Smith, Columba; Duke of Argyle, Iona; Montalemb., iii., 99; Transl. and Reprints, ii., No. 7; Skene, ii., 52.

[241:3] Calderwood, Hist. of Kirk of Scot., Edinb., 1842-49, 8 vols.; Gordon, Eccl. Chron. for Scot., Glasg., 1867, 4 vols.; Lightfoot, Leaders in the Northern Ch., Lond., 1890; Dowden, The Celtic Ch. in Scot., Lond., 1894.

[242:1] Montalembert, ii., 463.

[243:1] Univ. of Pa., Transl. and Rep., ii., No. 7; see Maclear, Apostles of Med. Europe, 57-72. His life and works are in Migne, vol. 80.

[243:2] Migne, vol. 113. See Dict. of Christ. Biog.

[243:3] Smith, Mediæval Missions, 112.

[243:4] Migne, vol. 101. See Dict. of Christ. Biog.

[244:1] Bede, v., 10.

[244:2] Mabillon, iii., 341-348; Maclear, Apostles of Med. Europe, 104-109.

[244:3] See Dict. of Christ. Biog.

[244:4] His original name was Winfried. At the wish of Pope Gregory II. he changed it to Boniface in 723. See Cox, Life of Boniface, Lond., 1853; Hope, Boniface, Lond., 1872.

[245:1] Discredited by Rettberg, Kircheng. Deutschl., ii., 514. Mabillon, iii., 341, gives an interpolated life. See Maclear, Apostles of Med. Europe, 104.

[246:1] This oath was similar to that taken by Italian bishops. Neander, v., 64-67.

[246:2] Jaffé, Mon. Magunt., 157.

[248:1] Rettberg and modern scholars deny the tradition.

[248:2] J. A. Giles edited the works of Boniface in 2 vols., in 1844. His disciple Willibald of Mainz wrote his life. Pertz, Mon., ii., 33. Maclear, Apostles of Med. Europe, ch. 8. One of his sermons, on "Faith and the works of love," is given in translation in Neale, Mediæval Preachers.

[248:3] A famous monastery founded by Boniface.

[249:1] Bede, v., 10.

[249:2] In 785, two of the most powerful Saxon chiefs, Wittekind and Abbio, submitted to baptism with Charles the Great as sponsor.

[250:1] Bede, v.

[250:2] The patron saint of Nuremberg.

[250:3] Jaffé, Mon. Alc., Ep. 13.

[250:4] Denmark at this time was divided into many petty kingdoms.

[251:1] Maclear, The Conversion of the Northmen. Merivale, Conversion of the Northern Nations.

[252:1] Heimskringla: Chronicle of the Norse Kings. Tr. by Laing, Lond., 1844, rev. ed. by Anderson, Lond., 1889, 4 vols. Also tr. by Morris and Magnusson, Lond., 1891, 2 vols. New ed. by York Powell. See Carlyle, The Early Kings of Norway, Lond., 1875, and Boyesen, The Story of Norway, N. Y. and Lond., new ed., 1890.

[252:2] The complete record of these early days is given in the Biskupa Sogar, ed. by Prof. Vigfusson, and pub. by the Icelandic Lit. Soc., 2 vols., 1858-61. See Elton, Life of Laurence, Bishop of Halar, Lond., 1890; Maccall, The Story of Iceland, Lond., 1887.

[253:1] See Winsor, Nar. and Crit. Hist. of Am., i.

[254:1] Seized with remorse Mistiwoi tried to make amends, but his subjects abandoned him. He passed the remaining days of his life in a Christian monastery.

[254:2] Tozer, The Ch. and the East. Emp., ch. 7.

[255:1] There are practically no original sources in English concerning the Slavic missions. Pelzel and Dabrowsky, Rerum Bohemic. Scriptores, contains most of the documents.

[256:1] Mansi, Coll. Concil., xv., 401-434; Harduin, Coll. Concil., v., 353-386.

[257:1] Thwrocz, Chronica Hungarorum in Scriptores Rerum Hungaricarum, Vienna, 1746-8, i.

[257:2] The best collection of sources is Stritter, Memoriæ populorum olim ad Danubium, etc., Petropoli, 1771, 4 vols.; Karmasin, Hist. of Rus.; Mouravieff, Hist. of the Ch. of Rus., Oxf., 1862; Stanley, Lects. on the E. Ch., ix.-xii., Lond., 1862.

[259:1] Muir, Annals of Early Califate; Oakley, Hist. of Saracens; Condé, Dominion of Arabs in Spain; Freeman, Hist. and Conquest of Spain.

[259:2] See [Chap. xxi.]

CHAPTER XIII
SEPARATION OF THE ROMAN AND GREEK CHURCHES

Outline: I.—Relation of the Greek and Roman Churches before 325. II.—Effect of the Arian Controversy on the situation. III.—The history of image worship. IV.—Character and results of the Iconoclastic Controversy. V.—Final separation. VI.—Resemblances and differences between the two churches VII.—Sources.

Rome conquered Greece by military force (146 B.C.); meanwhile Greece made a more thorough conquest of Rome by ideas. While there were many significant differences in language, customs, education, and institutions, yet religiously they were united in a twofold way: (1) by a common paganism, and (2) by Christianity. The East was philosophical, contemplating, metaphysical, and keen in discrimination; the West was practical, legal, and aggressively conservative. This difference in temperament was destined to have marked historical results.[265:1] While the West produced the mediæval Church, the East remained comparatively stationary. When the seat of Roman empire was removed from the Eternal City to Constantinople in 330, it appeared as if the eastern world had again become triumphant.

A divergence between the churches of the East and the churches of the West, can be detected in the Christian philosophy and Christian theology from the beginning. The differences became more pronounced as the

years passed by. The Arian Controversy (see [Ch. IX.]) produced the first crisis in the breach between Roman and Greek Christianity. The victory won by the West over the East was only temporary, however, because in the end the powerful state was arrayed on the side of the Eastern Church. The adoption of the "filioque" clause to the Nicene Creed by the Western Church, gave mortal offence to the Greeks. The doctrine of purgatory was another irreconcilable difference. Theoretically the Church was still united: (1) in the Emperor who ruled both wings of the old Empire; (2) in the Pope who pretended to rule over the East and the West; and (3) in the fundamental Christian principles. While there were still many resemblances, the differences were also becoming well marked in Church polity and organisation, in dogma, in rites and ceremonies, in monasticism, and in missionary activity.

Among the matters in dispute was the growing differentiation of opinion on the question of the marriage of the clergy. The Roman Church was much more strict in the enforcement of celibacy. The two churches refused to agree on the same universal councils, and, of course, as a result, accepted an unequal number of canons as valid. Neither could they agree on the proper day for celebrating Easter. There were also many minor differences in reference to such trivial things as the tonsure, the beard, priestly garments, and Lent. Another stumbling-block was set up when the dispute arose over the sacramental bread in the eucharist. In the ninth century the Western Church departed from the earlier practice of using fermented bread and insisted on the unleavened bread as in the Jewish passover.

The second crisis in the separation arose in connection with the Iconoclastic dispute. In the ancient religions, image worship appeared, but usually in the second stage of development. Max Müller contends that in India "the worship of idols is a secondary formation, a later degradation of the more primitive worship." The ancient Persians had no images.[267:1] The same was true of the ancient Greeks.[267:2] The earliest statue in Rome, that of Diana, was between 577 and 534 B.C.[267:3] The old Germans had neither temples nor images of their invisible gods.[267:4] Among the Jews, too, reference to images seemed to point to a later period of their history.[267:5] From the time of the Maccabees, however, a strong antipathy to images of all kinds developed.[267:6] Hence Origen asserted of the Jews that "there was no maker of images among their citizens; neither painter, nor sculptor was in their state."[267:7] The Jewish Christians, therefore, were imbued with a strong dislike to all images. Many heathen converts, likewise, fully appreciating the great difference between the Gospel and the idolatrous religion which they had forsaken, had the same feeling. Consequently, it may be said that the early Christians universally condemned all heathen image worship and all customs connected with it.

The adoration of the reigning Emperors was especially denounced.[268:1] Christians were at first too poor and obscure to adorn their meeting places with art. In fact, the pagans accused them of having "no altars, no temples, no known images."

There is evidence, however, that the use of images by the Christians began comparatively early and that it was more marked in the art-loving East than in the West. Irenæus (2d cent.) says that a secret sect, the Gnostics, "possess images, some of them painted, and others formed of different kinds of material. . . . They crown their images and set them up along with the images of the philosophers."[268:2] But these Gnostics were heretics. Emperor Alexander Severus (222-235) had images of several characters of Scripture including Jesus, in his Lararium. But he was a pagan. The catacombs of the second, third, and fourth centuries are covered with paintings of sacred emblems, such as the lamb, olive branch, Christ carrying the cross, anchor, ship, fish, sower, cross, Christ with the lost sheep on his shoulder, bottle of wine, and other representations.[268:3] These emblems were used in the first instance in private houses. The first undisputed proof of the use of art in public worship among the orthodox is found in a decree of the Synod of Elvira, Spain, in 306, that "pictures ought not to be placed on a church lest that which is worshipped and adored be painted on walls."[268:4] Tertullian (b. 150) says that the communion cup usually bore a representation of the Good

Shepherd.[269:1] He likewise says that the formation of the cross with the hand was very common. "At every journey and movement, at every coming in and going out, at the putting on of our clothes and our shoes, at baths, at meals, at lighting of candles, at going to bed, at sitting down, whatever occupation employs us, we mark our forehead with the sign."[269:2] Clement of Alexandria early in the third century mentions the dove, fish, ship, lyre and anchor as suitable emblems for Christian signet rings.[269:3] Constantine had the cross set up beside his own statue, in 312, after the defeat of Maxentius.[269:4] He also had a costly cross in his palace[269:5] and had the emblem engraved on the arms of his soldiers.[269:6] Before the middle of the fourth century, Bible manuscripts were beautifully illuminated and illustrated. This evidence shows that the use of images in worship began in the second century and increased with the growth of the Church until by the fourth century it was a marked institution in Christendom. There were three distinct phases of its development: (1) the use of the cross; (2) the employment of emblems and symbols; (3) the appearance of portraiture and pictorial images.

The growth of image worship from the fourth to the eighth centuries was due to certain explainable causes. The victory of Christianity under Constantine brought a wholesale conversion of pagans to the new faith, wealth, power, and extraordinary activity in building churches. What was more natural than that the

architectural and artistic ideas of the day should be employed in beautifying them? The Christian Emperor himself set the example of using sacred pictures by embellishing his new capital with religious representations, such as Daniel in the Lion's Den and Christ as the Good Shepherd. Constantine's successors in showering their favours upon the Christians, cultivated this practice. It must be remembered, too, that Christianity had become more material and worldly than it was in the Apostolic Age. The conversion of the masses to Christianity was merely nominal and external. What was more natural than that they should bring with them their pagan ideas and love for show and ostentation, and that they should clamour for a material representation of their new faith?

Following popular opinion and obeying private demands, the clergy themselves became champions of the use of images. In the West, Pope Gregory the Great gave his official sanction to the institution. Along with the use of images grew up, out of the spiritual worship of saints and martyrs, the worship of their relics and their images, and pilgrimages to the scenes of their labours. The ignorance and superstition of the period supplied an excellent atmosphere for this marvellous evolution. It appears, then, that the Christian Church, planted in the home of paganism, supported largely by converts from paganism, in a barbarous, credulous age such as that, naturally developed and abused the use of art in worship.

Poetry, music, painting, sculpture, and architecture all are unquestionably legitimate handmaids of religion and may be made most serviceable. But the use of images for ornament, instruction, and enjoyment is one thing; the worship of images is quite another thing.

In the Middle Ages only a few lofty souls here and there took the true view. Pictures were put into churches not as objects of art, but as aids and objects of worship. The pictures were reverently kissed, bows and prostrations were made before them, candles and lamps were used to illuminate them, and incense was burned to honour them.

During this period, we have a number of excellent illustrations of image worship. Constantine used art to beautify his new capital in the East, and particularly to adorn his palace. Constantia, his sister, asked Eusebius for an image of Jesus.[271:1] The veneration of the cross became especially pronounced after its adoption by Constantine, and it was used in all religious ceremonies as an emblem of the victory of Jesus over sin and the devil. According to Jerome the sign of the cross was made, as it is to-day, in witness to written documents.[271:2] Emperor Julian (361) taunted the Christians thus: "Ye worship the wood of the cross, making shadowy figures of it on the forehead, and painting it at the entrance to your houses." St. Chrysostom (b. 347) wrote:

The sign of universal execration, the sign of extremest punishment, has now become the object of universal longing and love. We see it everywhere triumphant. We find it in the houses, on the roofs and the walls; in cities and villages; on the markets, the great roads and in the deserts; on mountains and in valleys; on the sea, on ships; on books and on weapons; on wearing apparel; in the marriage chamber; at banquets; on vessels of gold and silver; in pearls; in pictures on the walls and on beds; on the bodies of brute animals that are diseased; on the bodies of those pestered by evil spirits; in the dances of

those going to pleasure; in the associations of those that mortify their bodies.[272:1]

Nilus, a disciple of Chrysostom, permitted the use of the cross and pictoral Bible stories in the churches, but opposed images of Jesus and the martyrs.

Churches began to be decorated in the fourth century, and in the fifth paintings and mosaics were introduced. Constantine had "symbols of the Good Shepherd" placed in the forums of Constantinople.[272:2] The Holy Ghost was commonly represented as a dove over the altar or the font.[272:3] The Nestorian Controversy and the Eutychian discussion helped to introduce pictures of the blessed Virgin and the Holy Child, Jesus. St. Cyril advocated the use of images in the fifth century so clearly that he has been called the "Father of image worship." By the fifth century, churches[272:4] and Church books, palaces and huts, and cemeteries were covered with images of Christ and the saints painted by the monks, while representations of the martyrs, monks, and bishops were found everywhere. Even pictures of the Trinity were in common use. In the East, women decorated their dresses with personal images and pictures, such as the marriage feast of Cana, the sick man who walked, the blind man who saw, Magdalene at the feet of Jesus, and the resurrection of Lazarus. Portraits of Peter and Paul covered the walls at Rome. Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Epiphanius, Gregory the Great, and many others of the Fathers, testified to the widespread employment of

images both for public and for private worship. The ceremony of kissing the image, of burning incense to it, of bowing before it, and of praying to it, was gradually developed and became very marked in the sixth century. The climax, however, was reached in the eighth century when the paint was literally scraped off the images and put into wine to make it holier, and when the consecrated bread was laid upon the image for a special blessing.[273:1]

When the portrait phase of image worship developed, pictures of miraculous origin were produced and superstitious practices began to abound. Not a few pictures of sacred characters were attributed to Luke. Others were described as "the God-made images, which the hand of man wrought not." It was but a short step to attribute miracles and cures to these images of divine origin.[273:2] To the wonder-working pictures was ascribed motion, speech, and action. Out of such conditions direct idolatry could easily develop.

The theory of the educated concerning images differed very much from that of the ignorant. The images were worshipped by the masses because it was believed that such worship drew down the saint into the image, an idea which came from the pagan belief concerning the statues of Jupiter and Mercury. Leontius, Bishop of Neapolis, near the end of the sixth century, said: "The images are not our gods; but they are the representations of Christ and his saints, which exist and are venerated in remembrance and in honour of these, and not as ornaments of the church."[273:3] To a hermit

who asked for some pious symbols, Pope Gregory the Great sent a picture of Jesus and images of the Virgin Mary, St. Peter, and St. Paul, with this admonition:

I am well aware that thou desirest not the image of our Saviour that thou mayest worship it as God, but to enkindle in thee the love of Him whose image thou wouldst see. Neither do we prostrate ourselves before an image as before a deity, but we adore Him whom the image represents to our memory as born or seated on the throne; and according to the representation, the correspondent feelings of joyful elevation, or of painful sympathy, are excited in our breasts.[274:1]

Images were put into churches "only to instruct the minds of the ignorant." Again, he explained the use of images thus: "It is one thing to worship a picture and another to learn from the language of a picture what that is which ought to be worshipped. What those who read learn by means of writing, that do the uneducated learn by looking at a picture."[274:2]

The most eloquent of all the apologists of images, John of Damascus, gave this explanation:

I am too poor to buy books and I have no leisure for reading. I enter the church choked with the cares of the world. The glowing colours attract my attention and delight my eyes like a flowering meadow; and the glory of God steals imperceptibly into my soul. I gaze on the fortitude of the martyr and the crown with which he is rewarded, and the holy fire of emulation kindles within me and I receive salvation.[274:3]

It must be remembered that, however clearly the

teachers of the Church might see the difference between the right use of images to instruct the unlettered and to excite a spiritual feeling, on the one hand, and a superstitious worship of images, on the other, the ignorant masses did not make the distinction in either thought or practice, and therein lay the great abuse.

From the death of Gregory the Great in 604 until the outbreak of the Iconoclastic Controversy in 716, twenty-five Popes ruled in Rome. With several exceptions they were ecclesiastics of no historical importance. To say that they lost nothing of the ground gained by Gregory the Great is to say much for them. But in addition they made some progress in the evolution of the mediæval Church. On this question of the use of images in worship they uniformly continued the policy of Gregory the Great.

Opposition began as early as the use of images. Irenæus in the second century (167) denounced the practice.[275:1] Tertullian (192), quoting the second of the Ten Commandments, severely denounced all use of images as sinful.[275:2] Clement of Alexandria (192) took the same view.[275:3] Origen also based his opposition to the practice upon the Jewish interpretation.[275:4] Minucius Felix (220) argued that man was the image of God, hence there was no need of any artificial representations.[275:5] Lactantius (303) held that since the spirit of God could be seen everywhere, His image "must always be superfluous."[275:6] Arnobius (303) took the same view.[275:7]

Christians were told to carry God and His Son in their hearts and not to attempt to procure their images. The Spanish Synod of Elvira (306) excluded images from the churches.[276:1] The early Fathers, taken altogether, looked with but little favour upon the misuse of images in worship. Eusebius, in replying to the request from Constantia for an image of Christ, wrote a famous letter in opposition to the practice which virtually became the platform of the Iconoclastic party.[276:2] St. Augustine (393) declared that "It is unlawful to set up such an image to God in a Christian temple."[276:3] Epiphanius (d. 402) with his own hands tore down a curtain which had an image on it in a little village church in Palestine. This seems to be the first act of Iconoclasm.[276:4] Asterius (d. 410), Bishop in Pontus, opposed wearing Bible pictures on clothing and told his people to wear the image of Christ in their hearts.[276:5] Xenius (end of sixth century), the Monophistic Bishop of Hierapolis, destroyed the images of the angels in his church and hid those of Jesus.[276:6] In 518, the clergy of Antioch complained to the Patriarch of Constantinople that their Patriarch had melted down the images of gold and silver hung over the font and the altar.[276:7] Serenus, Bishop of Marseilles, early in the seventh century, threw the images out of his churches. Pope Gregory the Great praised him for his zeal, but still justified the use of images.[276:8] The Jews and the

Mohammedans in the seventh century fiercely assailed the Christian veneration of images as idolatry. This crystallised the Iconoclastic elements of opposition into a party. Finally, in the eighth century, the secular head, Leo III., the Isaurian (716-741), championed the Iconoclastic cause. His son, Constantine V. (741-775), carried it forward. The Synod of Constantinople in 754 officially condemned the use of images,[277:1] and this marks the climax of the movement.

It was not long now before there appeared in Christendom two distinct parties: (1) The Iconolatræ, or image worshippers, who were composed of the leading churchmen like Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, and John of Damascus in the East; the monks, the common clergy, and the masses of the common people in the East, and Pope Gregory II. and the powerful Church of the West. (2) The Iconoclasti, or image breakers, who included the Emperor and his civil officers; his army, made up mostly of barbarians and Asiatic heretics[277:2]; a few churchmen like Anastasius, who succeeded the deposed Germanus, actuated by political motives; and the Carolingian rulers in the West.

The conflict was begun by Leo III., the Isaurian, a soldier of fortune, who through ability as a warrior had won the imperial crown,—a powerful ruler in falling Greece,—active, sincere, illiterate, honest, despotic, and unwise. Ambition to convert the Jews, Mohammedans, and Montanists made him feel keenly the sting of their sarcastic attacks on images.[277:3] One

of his advisers, Beser, was a converted Mohammedan, who had held numerous interviews with Islam leaders. As a zealous supporter of the Catholic Church, Leo no doubt sincerely desired to restore the primitive simplicity of Christian worship. As monarch and priest, he believed himself called upon by God to root out idolatry. He was undoubtedly a noble puritan in his purposes and motives and called himself a second Josiah.

In 726, he issued the first edict against images, authorising their destruction[278:1] and the next year the exarch promulgated it in Ravenna and the West. This was opposed by the patriarch, Germanus, and most of the clergy; hence, it was enforced only in a few places where the bishops supported the Emperor. The following incident will illustrate the popular indignation. Imperial officers were sent to destroy a fine image of Jesus above the bronze gate of Constantinople, which the people regarded with unusual reverence. A ladder was put up and a soldier mounted it to take the figure down. A crowd of women watching the act begged that the image might be given to them. Instead, the soldier struck the figure in the face with a hatchet. The women were enraged, pulled down the ladder, and killed the soldier. The Emperor sent troops to quell the tumult and to carry off the image, and in its place he had a cross set up with these words on it: "The Emperor could not suffer a dumb and lifeless figure of earthly materials, smeared over with paint, to stand as a representative of Christ. He has, therefore, erected here the sign of the cross."[278:2]

Pope Gregory II., upon receipt of the edict, called

a synod at Rome to consider it (726). The synod condemned the Iconoclastic heresy and confirmed the use of images.[279:1] In 727, the Pope wrote his first letter to the Emperor.[279:2] It was arrogant and dogmatic, without tact or persuasiveness. It was full of the most ludicrous historical blunders, and gave some fantastic interpretations of the Bible. In it, the Pope justified the use of images, threatened the Emperor with the power of the West, and told him that his portrait, once honoured throughout Italy, had been destroyed everywhere. In the second letter, the Pope plainly told the Emperor: "Doctrines are not the business of the Emperor, but of the bishops." He declared furthermore that the whole world was cursing the Emperor. "The very children mock thee! Go into a school and say 'I am an enemy of images'; the scholars will hurl their tablets at your head."[279:3] John of Damascus aimed two brilliant and powerful orations at the Emperor in which is found perhaps the best defence of image worship. He declared that the pictures were the "books of the unlearned."[279:4] The professors of the University at Constantinople declared their opposition to the edict.[279:5] The inhabitants of Greece used the edict as an occasion for rebellion to secure fiscal and administrative reforms, and even went so far as to proclaim a rival Emperor.

Leo met all this opposition firmly. The Patriarch Germanus was deposed (730) while Anastasius was put

in his place, and the various outbreaks were at once subdued with a strong hand. An effort was made to either capture or kill the Pope. The University of Constantinople was closed and the professors arrested; the Greek rebels were defeated and their leaders beheaded; and an effort was made to stop the popular John of Damascus. Leo then promulgated his second edict in 730 for the complete abolition of image worship. Anastasius, the puppet patriarch, at once countersigned the edict, and thus gave it ecclesiastical sanction. In the East it was generally enforced. All images were removed from the churches and burned; the painted walls were whitewashed over; only the cross and the crucifix were left; but still the Iconolatræ were far from being subdued. Meanwhile opposition in the West grew stronger. Gregory III., the last Pontiff to be confirmed in his election by the Eastern Emperor, called a council and excommunicated all Iconoclasts.[280:1] In revenge, Leo sent a fleet against the Pope, which was wrecked, and also extended the rule of the Patriarch of Constantinople over papal territory in Greece and southern Italy. This action led the Pope to begin negotiations with Charles Martel,[280:2] and that opened a new chapter in the rise of the mediæval Church and in the world's history.

In 741, Leo was succeeded by his son, Constantine V., only twenty-two years of age, a ruler and general of ability, but of low tastes and vile habits. He became a zealous persecutor of image worship, an idol of the Iconoclasts, and won the victory for their party. His policy was to continue his father's work. Consequently in 754, he called a universal council in

Constantinople. Although it was the largest assembly ever held up to that time, 338 bishops being present, yet neither the Pope, nor the patriarchs of Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem sent representatives. Hence, it was not recognised as œcumenical. The use of images and pictures was condemned as idolatry, and even the crucifix was put under the ban. "The godless art of painting" was proscribed, and the leaders of the image worshippers, Germanus, John of Damascus, and George of Cyprus, were anathematised.[281:1] Backed up by these measures, the Emperor resolved to root out the evil for ever. All images were ordered destroyed; all pictures were taken out of the Church books; all paintings on the church walls were removed; churches were decorated with trees, fruits, and the chase; transgressors were cruelly punished; and the citizens of Constantinople had to take an oath never again to worship an image.[281:2]

The contest was renewed under Empress Irene (780-802), a young, beautiful, ambitious, wicked Grecian, who favoured image worship. First, she proclaimed toleration to both parties; then denied it to the Iconoclasts. The highest civil dignities were given to the clergy and monks; and the Patriarch of Constantinople became her prime minister. At their suggestion, no doubt, she called the Council of Nicæa in 787 to undo the work of the Council of Constantinople (754). There were present 375 bishops, and Pope Hadrian sent two representatives, but the three eastern patriarchs were unable to send proxies, so two eastern monks were appointed to sit and vote for all the

patriarchs.[282:1] The decrees of the Council of Constantinople were nullified because heretical, and the Iconoclasts anathematised. Then image worship was defined and authorised.[282:2] Many Iconoclastic bishops were induced to renounce their heresy, and were freed from the ban. Finally, an image was brought into the council and fervently and reverently kissed by all present, after which the council adjourned.

Leo the Armenian, who seized the throne in 813, was unfriendly to images. He called a synod of Constantinople in 815 in which the acts of the second Council of Nicæa (787) were nullified. He forbade the lighting of lamps and burning of incense before the images and had them elevated in the churches out of the reach of the people in order to prevent their worship. But Leo's widow, Theodora, restored the usages. Thus, after a long, bitter struggle, images were finally restored in the churches with great pomp and ceremony in 842. The "Festival of Orthodoxy" is still celebrated on February 19th in the Greek Church.

After the great victory had been won for images, both the Latin and the Greek Churches continued their use. The puritanical Iconoclastic Controversy was in a certain sense the forerunner of the ruthless destruction of paintings and statues in England, Holland, and Germany during the Reformation. The Council of Trent passed finally on the doctrine and use of images in the Catholic Church.[282:3]

As a result of this controversy, the Eastern Church was greatly weakened through dissensions, checked in the growth of its organisation, robbed of its

independence, made a mere tool of the state, reformed and purified even though image worship finally prevailed because it was better understood, and compelled to recognise the power of the Pope.

The Western Church, on the other hand, was forced to define the right and wrong use of images and was weakened somewhat by a schism like that in the Eastern Church, because the Frankish Church opposed the worship of images East and West. Pepin had the subject discussed in a synod near Paris (767), in which sat legates from Rome and Constantinople. It was decided that "images of saints made up or painted for the ornament and beauty of churches might be endured, so long as they were not worshipped in an idolatrous manner." Charles the Great, aided by Alcuin, published the Caroline books denouncing all abuses in the worship of images, though tolerating them for ornamentation and devotion.[283:1] The cross and relics, however, were commended (790).[283:2] The synod of Frankfort, held in 794, rejected the recommendations of the seventh œcumenical Council of Nicæa and condemned image worship.[283:3] A synod of Paris in 827 renewed the action of 794.[283:4] These doctrines were continued by Agobard of Lyons, Claudius, Bishop of Turin, the Waldenses in Piedmont, and the Lollards in England.[283:5]

Furthermore, the controversy enabled the Pope of Rome to declare his universal supremacy in more

sweeping terms than ever and to make it good in the West. The rise of the Papacy, as the dominating force in the Church of the West, made the rupture inevitable and permanent. The series of protests in the East against the assumptions of the See of Rome prevented any complete and absolute recognition of the supremacy of the chair of St. Peter. As the years passed, the Eastern Church saw that independence could be secured against the sweeping imperial claims of Rome only by a declaration of total separation. The relations between the East and West were likewise affected in another sense, because they were separated politically when Charles the Great became Emperor of the West (800), and were separated religiously when the allegiance of the Pope was transferred from the eastern authority to the newly created western Emperor.

The growing estrangement between the Greek and Roman Churches, which had its origin in a fundamental difference in character, temperament, and ideas, became conspicuous in the fourth century, reached an incurable stage in the ninth century, and culminated in the eleventh century. Pope Nicholas I. in 863 deposed Photius from the office of Patriarch of Constantinople. Photius, in the counter synod held in 867, returned the compliment by deposing the Pope for heresy and schism.[284:1]

The gulf between the East and West became practically irreparable when Nicholas I., standing firmly on the Petrine theory and backed up by the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, wrote to Emperor Michael:

You affirm that you and your predecessors have been

accustomed to command us and ours; we utterly deny it. . . . The Roman Church encompasses and comprehends within herself, she being in herself the universal church, the mirror and model of that which she embraces within her bosom. Moreover, this vessel was shown to Peter alone, and he alone was commanded to kill and eat; as in like manner, after the resurrection, he alone of all the apostles received the divine command to draw to the shore the net full of fishes. And if unto us he committed that identical commission—which is verily and indeed so committed—to embrace in our paternal arms the whole flock of Christ, is it to be believed that we surrender to you any one of those sheep whom he hath given into our keeping?[285:1]

In 1054, the Pope excommunicated the patriarch and his whole Church for censuring the faith of Rome. The courtesy was solemnly returned by Constantinople against the Roman Church. Other eastern patriarchs adhered to the See of Constantinople and the rupture was complete. The sack of Constantinople by Latin Christians in the fourth crusade (thirteenth century) widened the breach. At the Council of Lyons, 1274, delegates of the Eastern Empire abjured the schism, by receiving the Nicene Creed with "filioque" in it and by swearing to conform to the Roman faith and to accept the supremacy of the Pope, but the eastern patriarchs refused to do so. When, in 1439 at the Council of Florence, the Eastern Emperor and churchmen signed a compact of reunion, they were induced to acknowledge the Pope as the "successor of Peter the chief of the apostles, and the vicar of Christ, the head of the whole Church, and father and teacher of all Christians,

to whom plenary power was given by our Lord Jesus Christ to feed, rule, and govern the universal Church." Other differences were patched up. The Pope, for his part, agreed to induce the rulers of the West to go to the defence of the East against the Turks, but failed to make his promise good. The people of the East were sorely disappointed and forced the repudiation of the agreement. In 1453, however, Constantinople fell a prey to the Mohammedan Turks, and the strength of the Eastern Church was broken. In modern times, papal absolutism and eastern stagnation have prevented the reunion.[286:1]

In conclusion, the differences and resemblances between the Greek and Roman Churches to-day might be stated. The Greek Church rejects the filioque in the Latin creed; repudiates the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary (1854), and denies the infallibility of the Roman Pope (1870). All the clergy are "popes" in the Greek Church and the lower clergy are permitted to marry. The Greek Church gives and the Roman Church withholds the communion wine from the laity. The Greek Church uses leavened, and the Roman Church unleavened bread in the Eucharist. The Greek Church holds to the trine immersion in baptism, repetition of Holy Unction in illness, and infant communion. There is a difference in rites of worship, in language, in art, in architecture, and in the vestments employed. But both hold the fundamentals in the Nicene Creed; both accept all the doctrinal decrees of the seven œcumenical councils from 325 to 787; both practise image worship[286:2]; both accept

the mediæval doctrine against which the Reformation protested; both believe in tradition and the Bible; both believe in the seven sacraments; both teach transubstantiation; both offer masses for the dead and the living; both sanction priestly absolution; both have three orders of ministry; both are episcopally organised on a hierarchical basis; both have rites and ceremonies that are identical, or at least similar. All things considered, therefore, it seems that the resemblances are far more striking than the differences.

From now on, interest in Church history centres in the Roman Church of western Europe. The undignified quarrel over images gave the Pope an occasion to declare his absolute independence of eastern imperial rule. That fact gave a new bent to the Roman Church, forced upon it a more genuine unity, compelled it to devote all its energies to the great problems in the West, and enabled it to attain its acme under Innocent III. in the thirteenth century. Had the unsatisfactory relationship with the Eastern Church not been severed the history of the mediæval Church in western Europe would have been very different. The separation must be regarded, therefore, as a factor of no small moment in that process. While the effective missionary efforts, having their source and purpose in Rome, were winning all western Europe to a recognition of the Pope's sovereignty, it was very essential that he should completely accomplish his independence of Constantinople so that he would have a free hand to work out the problems of the Western Church.