Iconoclaści

Leon III and his advisers came to conviction, that the causes of adverse arrangement of the empire should be sought in religion, In relations with God. From the beginning of its existence, the Byzantine Empire pretended to the role of the promoter of the Christian faith, His nation was to be chosen by God to save the rest of the world. Reason, for which God turned away from the Byzantines, was – According to Leon's colleagues – Cult icon, which spread from ok. You w., Both among the clergy, as well as a simple people. Therefore, the emperor initiated the movement of iconoclasm or iconoclastic, ongoing next 100 years. Accepted, that Muslim religion could have had a great impact on this state of affairs, More specifically these Arab countries, in which the Omajjad dynasty ruled, where the fight with the cult of all the ideas of the human character was undertaken. In the Byzantine Empire, iconoclasm often took brutal characters, The fight was often bloody and ruthless. Unless these lay people were persecuted at the beginning, who quietly worshiped the icons at home, At a later time they were often mutilated, was driven out, and even murdered. The case with clergy was even worse. The papacy was reluctant to watch the actions of emperors who were in favor of iconoclasm, Because it was a manifestation of interfering in the independence of the Church, in his doctrinal sphere.

The successor of Leon III, Constantine v, defeated in 746 r. Arabs in the battle of Germanica (today maras), And this success only consolidated the conviction. It seemed, that God has become more favorable to the Byzantines. Additionally, the following year, a victory over the Arab fleet was won, which forced the reflection of the doubting iconoclastic motion so far, And and the emperor himself treated both of these successes as evidence of the correctness of theological views taken over from the Father. As far as this was issued only by an edict ordering the destruction of all holy images, Constantine convened in 754 r. council, on which he declared, that worshiping icons argues with the teaching of the Church and this practice will be covered with a curse.

Son of Constantine, Leon IV, softened a bit of new laws and allowed local images, realizing, that the tear of society will lead to a disaster. The new emperor did not rule long, died in 780 r., and his wife and successor – Empress Irena, which was registered on behalf of the minor Constantine VI, She even led to a convening in 787 r. Council in Nice (Today Iznik), who condemned the iconoclasm and thus restored the cult of holy images. Now, in turn, persecuted supporters of worship have begun to take revenge on their previous torturers, which did not like the empress wanting peace and unity in the state, needed to deal with Arabs pressing again to Asia Minor and bold Bulgarians. Emperor Leon V on the synod in the synod in 815 r., ale zasięg i bezwzględność zwolenników ruchu nie były porównywalne z tymi z czasów Konstantyna V. Obrazoburstwo skończyło się całkowicie wraz z uchwaleniem na synodzie z 843 r. (Behind Empress Teodora) restoring the worship of holy images, But until the end of the empire, his society was divided into supporters and opponents of giving worship to icons.