The Iconoclast Controversy

The century-and-a-half crisis (traditionally 726–843) in which the Byzantine emperors sought to abolish the veneration of icons and the Church, at great cost, defined and defended it. This section treats the two iconoclasms — the first under Leo III and Constantine V, culminating in the iconoclast Council of Hieria (754) and reversed at Nicaea II (787); and the second (815–843), defended by St. Theodore the Studite and Patriarch Nikephoros and ended by the Empress Theodora — while reporting honestly that much of the traditional narrative is contested by modern scholarship.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

This section is the historical spine of the collection. The first file, the-imperial-iconoclasm-726-787.md, covers the first iconoclasm — Leo III and the Chalke gate, Constantine V and the Council of Hieria, the theological case of the iconoclasts — and flags where the sources and their dating are disputed. The second file, the-second-iconoclasm-and-the-triumph.md, covers the revival under Leo V in 815, the resistance of Theodore the Studite and Nikephoros, and the final restoration under Theodora in 843. Both files apply METHODOLOGY §3.5 and §4: the narrative is largely preserved by the victorious iconophiles, and the coherence, severity, and even the dating of iconoclasm are matters on which modern historians divide.

Contents

File Description
the-imperial-iconoclasm-726-787.md Leo III, Constantine V, the Council of Hieria (754); the theological arguments of the iconoclasts; the disputed chronology
the-second-iconoclasm-and-the-triumph.md 815–843; Leo V and the revival; Theodore the Studite and Patriarch Nikephoros; the restoration under Theodora

See Also