Iconoclastic Controversy | Description, History, & Facts - Britannica

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Iconoclastic Controversy, a dispute over the use of religious images (icons) in the Byzantine Empire in the 8th and 9th centuries. The Iconoclasts (those who rejected images) objected to icon veneration for several reasons, including the Old Testament prohibition against images in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:4) and the possibility of idolatry. The defenders of the use of icons insisted on the symbolic nature of images and on the dignity of created matter.

In the early church, the making and veneration of portraits of Christ and the saints were consistently opposed. The use of icons nevertheless steadily gained in popularity, especially in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. Toward the end of the 6th century and in the 7th, icons became the object of an officially encouraged cult, often implying a superstitious belief in their animation. Opposition to such practices became particularly strong in Asia Minor. In 726 the Byzantine emperor Leo III took a public stand against the perceived worship of icons, and in 730 their use was officially prohibited. This opened a persecution of icon venerators that was severe in the reign of Leo’s successor, Constantine V (741–775).

Quick Facts Date: c. 701 - c. 900 (Show more) Participants: Byzantine Empire Eastern Orthodoxy (Show more) Key People: Saint Germanus I St. John of Damascus Leo III Saint Nicephorus I Theōdūrus Abū Qurrah (Show more) See all related content

In 787, however, the empress Irene convoked the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea at which Iconoclasm was condemned and the use of images was reestablished. The Iconoclasts regained power in 814 after Leo V’s accession, and the use of icons was again forbidden at a council in 815. The second Iconoclast period ended with the death of the emperor Theophilus in 842. In 843 his widow, Empress Theodora, finally restored icon veneration, an event still celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Feast of Orthodoxy.

More From Britannica Byzantine Empire: The age of Iconoclasm: 717–867 The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Melissa Petruzzello.