The Second General Council of Nicaea - Prelude
Veneration of Images and the Issue of Idolatry, 787 A.D.
Jan 30, 2009
If you tried to conjure up a more bizarre period in Catholic history than the time which led to the Second General Council of Nicaea, you’d have a difficult time doing it.
The Emperor Leo III Makes an Edict
Around the year 725 A.D., Emperor Leo III, who had a profound difference in ideology with the Catholic Church regarding the veneration of relics, statues, images, holy objects and praying to the saints, began the controversy which would only end well over 60 years and many deaths later in the culmination of the Second General Council of Nicaea.
Because the empire thrived during the reign of Leo III, he had much influence among the people and his troops and was able to secure his wishes despite the illogical nature of how far it went in history. He came into power right after a period of 21 years wherein six emperors had been dethroned, four of them by public execution. The realm was in turmoil. Armies fought all throughout Europe and Asia Minor and there were few areas untouched by war.
Gregory II was the Pope at the time that Leo III made his first move, which was to take down an image of Christ from over the principal gate of the Constantinople Palace. This caused riots, deaths and arrests. The emperor Leo III sent many letters to Pope Gregory II, but Pope Gregory II refused to assent to his ideals.
He would die before Leo III made his biggest move that would cause much bloodshed and put the church at schism for over 60 years. Pope Gregory III was barely beginning his pontificate when Leo III called together his senators and chief officers and issued an edict which proclaimed that whoever refused to destroy images they owned, paid any kind of honor or veneration to images was automatically declared a rebel of the state. The Patriarch from the church refused to sign this edict, took off his badge and went to his family home while Leo III appointed his own bishop to sign the edict, thus causing a huge schism with Rome, when Gregory III refused to recognize this person as a lawful bishop.
Reasoning behind Emperor Leo III Edicts
Historians say that when Leo III grew up, religious art passed into a new phase. In the early centuries of Christianity, images and statues were representation primarily of saints in what would be considered natural postures. At the time Leo III was a child, this started to change. Religious relics and art began to take on a new form in that the saints were being portrayed doing heroic acts, and martyrs were shown in mythical postures according to the legends of how they had died. Even images of the Blessed Virgin and Jesus Christ were to be included in this transformation and there was concern building about two issues: 1.) Squelching superstition related to the mythologies and legends versus the facts, and 2.) Dealing with the question of whether or not such veneration constituted idol worship which was expressly forbidden in the Old Testament. These were the controversies of the day.
Emperor Leo III Calls His Own Council
In a bold move against the Vatican, Emperor Leo III called his own Council in 753 A.D. which would later be squelched by the Second General Council of Nicaea in which he didn’t invite the pope or any of his opponents. In that ‘Council,’ the bishops who were invited conceded at that time to the proposal to forbid veneration of images, but they were opposed to other doctrines that Leo III tried to also present which included overturning the decisions of previous councils on the nature of Christ, the Theotokos (Blessed Virgin Mary) and her role as intercessor, the practice of prayer to the saints and veneration due to their relics. Final Summation: Veneration of images is idolatrous and heretical and anyone who possessed them even in the privacy of their home were to be excommunicated.
The Second General Council of Nicaea, 787 A.D. Part 2
The Third General Council of Constantinople, 680-81 A.D.
Sources: The Church in Crisis: A History of the General Councils, 325 – 1870 – By Philip Hughes, The General Councils: A History of the Twenty-One Church Councils from Nicaea to Vatican II – By Christopher M. Bellito, The Documents of Vatican II – By Walter M. Abbott, S.J. and the Very Reverend Monsignor Joseph Gallagher, A Short History of Christian Doctrine: From the First Century to the Present – By Bernard Lohse, The Reform of the Liturgy – Annibale Bugnini, www.catholicdigitalstudio.com/councils.htm
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