PART II. CENT. tious people. A civil war broke out in the islands VIII. of the Archipelago, ravaged a part of Asia, and afterwards reached Italy. The people, partly from their own ignorance, but principally in consequence of the perfidious suggestions of the priests and monks, who had artfully rendered the worship of images a source of opulence to their churches and cloisters, were led to regard the emperor as an apostate, and hence they considered themselves as freed from their oath of allegiance, and from all the obligations that attach subjects to their lawful sovereign. The contests be tween the of images who were called and their opposers called Ico XI. The Roman pontiffs, Gregory I. and II. were the authors and ringleaders of these civil partisans commotions and insurrections in Italy. The former, upon the emperor's refusing to revoke his edict against images, declared him, without hesitation unworthy of the name and privileges of a Christian, and thus excluded him from the comwho were munion of the church; and no sooner was this noclastæ. formidable sentence made public, than the Romans, and other Italian provinces, that were subject to the Grecian empire, violated their allegi ance, and rising in arms, either massacred or banished all the emperor's deputies and officers. Leo, exasperated by these insolent proceedings, resolved to chastise the Italian rebels, and to make the haughty pontiff feel in a particular manner, the effects of his resentment; but he failed in the attempt. Doubly irritated by this disappointment, he vented his fury against images, and their worshippers, in the year 730, in a much more terrible manner than he had hitherto done; for, in a council assembled at Constantinople, he degraded from his office Germanus, the bishop of that imperial city, who was a patron of images, put Anastasius in his place, ordered all the images to be publicly burnt, and inflicted a variety of severe punishments upon such as were at 1 tached VIII. PART II. tached to that idolatrous worship. These rigo- CENT. rous measures divided the Christian church into two violent factions, whose contests were carried on with an ungoverned rage, and produced nothing but mutual invectives, crimes, and assassinations. Of these factions, the one adopted the adoration and worship of images, and were on that account called Iconoduli or Iconolatræ; while the other maintained that such worship was unlawful, and that nothing was more worthy of the zeal of Christians, than to demolish and destroy those statues and pictures that were the occasions and objects of this gross idolatry, and hence they were distinguished by the titles of Iconomachi and Iconoclasta. The furious zeal which Gregory II. had shewn in defending the odious superstition of image-worship, was not only imitated, but even surpassed by his successor, who was the third pontiff of that name; and though, at this distance of time, we are not acquainted with all the criminal circumstances that attended the intemperate zeal of these insolent prelates, yet we know with the utmost certainty, that it was owing to their extravagant attachment to image-worship that the Italian provinces were torn from the Grecian empire [$]. XII. [s] The Greek writers tell us, that both the Gregories carried their insolence so far as to excommunicate Leo and his son Constantine, to dissolve the obligation of the oath of allegiance, which the people of Italy had taken to these princes, and to prohibit their paying tribute to them, or shewing them any marks of submission and obedience. These facts are alsó acknowledged by many of the partisans of the Roman pontiffs, such as Baronius, Sigonius De Regno Italiæ, and their numerous followers. On the other hand, some learned writers, particularly among the French, alleviate considerably the crime of the Gregories, and positively deny that they either excommunicated the emperors above mentioned, or called off the people from their duty and allegiance. See Launoius, Epistolar. lib. vii. Ep. vii. p. 456. tom. v. opp. Ꮪ Ꮞ par. CENT. Their pro Constan nymus. XII. Constantine, to whom the furious tribe VIII. of the image worshippers, had given by way of PART II. derision the name of Copronymus [t], succeeded his father Leo in the empire, A. D. 741, and, anigress under mated with an equal zeal and ardour against tine Copro- the new idolatry, employed all his influence in extirpating and abolishing the worship of images, in opposition to the vigorous efforts of the Roman pontiffs, and the superstitious monks. His manner of proceeding was attended with greater marks of equity and moderation, than had ap peared in the measures pursued by Leo; for, knowing the respect which the Greeks had for the decisions of general councils, whose authority they considered as supreme and unlimited, in religious matters, he assembled at Constantinople, A. D. 754, a council composed of the eastern bishops, in order to have this important question examined with the utmost care, and decided with wisdom, seconded by a just and lawful authority. This assembly par. II. Nat. Alexander, Select. Histor. Ecclesiast. Capit, Grecian emperors. [t] This nick-name was given to Constantine, from his having defiled the sacred font at his baptism. VIII. PART II, assembly, which the Greeks regard as the seventh, CENT. æcumenical council, gave judgment, as was the custom of those times, in favour of the opinion embraced by the emperor, and solemnly condemned the worship and also the use of images [u], But this decision was not sufficient to vanquish the blind obstinacy of superstition; many adhered still to their idolatrous worship, and none made a more turbulent resistance to the wise decree of this council than the monks, who still continued to excite commotions in the state, and to blow the flames of sedition and rebellion among the people. Their malignity was, however, chastised. by Constantine, who, filled with a just indignation at their seditious practices, published several of them in an exemplary manner, and by new laws set bounds to the violence of monastic rage. Leo IV. who, after the death of Constantine, was declared emperor, A. D. 775, adopted the sentiments of his father and grandfather, and pursued the measures which they had concerted for the extirpation of idolatry out of the Christian church; for having perceived that the worshippers of images could not be engaged by mild and gentle proceedings to abandon this superstitious practice, he had recourse to the coercive influence of penal laws. XIII. A cup of poison, administered by the Under impious counsel of a perfidious spouse, deprived Irene, Leo IV. of his life, A. D. 780, and rendered the idolatrous cause of images triumphant. The profligate Irene, after having thus accomplished the death of her husband, held the reins of empire during the minority of her son Constantine; and, to establish her authority on more solid [u] The authority of this council is not acknowledged by the Roman Catholics, no more than the obligation of the second commandment, which they have prudently struck out of the decalogue. PART II. CENT. solid foundations, entered into an alliance with VIII. Adrian, bishop of Rome, A. D. 786, and summoned a council at Nice in Bythinia, which is known by the title of the second Nicene council. In this assembly the imperial laws concerning the new idolatry were abrogated, the decrees of the council of Constantinople reversed, the worship of images and of the cross restored, and severe punishments denounced against such as maintained that God was the only object of religious adoration. It is impossible to imagine any thing more ridiculous and trifling than the arguments upon which the bishops, assembled in this council, founded their decrees [w]. The authority, however, of these decrées was held sacred by the Romans, and the Greeks considered in the light of parricides and traitors all such as refused to submit to them. The other enormities of the flagitious Irene, and her deserved fate, cannot, with propriety, be treated of here. The council of Francfort. XIV. In these violent contests, the most of the Latins, such as the Britons, Germans, and Gauls, seemed to steer a middle way between the opposite tenets of the contending parties. They were of opinion that images might be lawfully preserved, and even placed in the churches, but, at the same time, they looked upon all worship of them as highly injurious and offensive to the Supreme Being [x]. Such, particularly, were the sentiments of Charlemagne, who distinguished himself in this important controversy. By the advice of the French bishops, who were no friends to this second council of Nice, he ordered some learned [] Mart. Chemnitius, Examen Concilii Tridentini, par. iv. loc. ii. cap. v. p. 52. Lenfant, Preservatif contre la Reunion avec le Siege de la Rome, par. iii. lettre xvii. p. 446. [x] The aversion the Britons had to the worship of images, may be seen in Spelman ad Concilia Magna Britanniæ, tom. i, |