Tuesday, March 29, 2022

The Iconoclastic Views of Emperor Leo V (813-820)

  

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