The
Iconoclastic Views of Leo V (813-820)
Deno
John Geanakoplos, Byzantium: Church, Society, and Civilization Seen through Contemporary
Eyes (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), 157.
Used
by permission of The University of Chicago Press.
As noted above we do not know with
certainty why Leo opposed the veneration of icons so fiercely. Yet the
following text, written by Leo, suggests that his concerns stemmed from worry
about the health of his empire and his own well-being.
Why are the Christians suffering
defeat at the hands of the pagans (Muslims)? It seems to me it is because the
icons are worshipped and nothing else. And [for this reason] I intend to
destroy them. For you see that those emperors who accepted and worshipped them
died either as a result of exile or in battle. But those alone who have not
worshipped them died each one in his own bed and after death were buried with
honor in the imperial tombs at the church of the holy apostles. Thus I too wish
to imitate these latter emperors and destroy the icons in order that I and my
son may live for a long time and our line may reign until the fourth and fifth generation.
Such views prompted vituperative
attacks from iconophiles. The most fiery, perhaps, was Theodore “the Studite,”
abbot of the venerable Studios monastery in Constantinople. In response to Leo’s
actions Theodore commanded the monks in chis charge to march through the
monastery’s vineyard holding icons above their heads so those passing by on the
other side of the monastery’s walls could see them. Leo V rebuked Theodore,
which only emboldened him to write to friends throughout the empire, airing his
grievances with Leo. To nobody’s surprise, Leo exiled Theodore to a remote
fortress in Bithynia (in what is now northwestern Turkey), from where he
composed polemics refuting his iconoclastic foes.
The views of John of Damascus and
Theodore the Studite eventually triumphed. When Empress Theodora (815-867)
became regent on behalf of her son in 842, she restored images, a decision that
would never again be revoked by a Byzantine emperor. She hastily summoned a
synod (843) to reaffirm the Council of Nicaea and its stance in favor of icons.
Today the Eastern Orthodox churches recognize Theodora as a saint.
In the final analysis,
persecutions against the iconophiles, served only to make icons more popular
than ever. From there on out, icons would hold a central place in Orthodox
worship. They would accompany troops into battle, adorn churches, and travel
with missionaries into Slavic lands, where the Slaves embraced the art form and
developed it in new days. (Bryn Geffert and Theofanis G.
Stavrou, Eastern Orthodox Christianity: The Essential Texts [New Haven:
Yale University Press, 2016], 204-5)
Further Reading
Answering Fundamentalist Protestants and Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox on Images/Icons
