This is one of several translated
excerpts from Byzantine sources produced and mounted with
historical introduction and commentary by Paul Stephenson.
ICONOCLASM, II
THE ICONODULE INTERLUDE, AND THE SECOND PERIOD OF
POLITICAL ICONOCLASM
Constantine V died in 775, and the five-year reign
of his successor, Leo IV, “The Khazar,” is remembered largely for
a victory at Germanikeia in 787. At his death in 780, Leo’s widow
Irene ruled as regent for their young son, Constantine VI
(780-97). She approached the Carolingian court in the West, with a
view to arranging a marriage between Constantine and C
harlemagne’s daughter
Rotrud; and sought to improve relations with the papacy. Both
western powers were opposed to the policy of Iconoclasm. More
particularly, in seeking to consolidate her own control over the
institutions of the state, and not to be sidelined by powerful
vested interests represented by the former followers of her
husband, Irene began to investigate ways to end Iconoclasm. She
saw to the election of a sympathetic Patriarch of Constantinople,
Tarasios, following the death of Patriarch Paul in 784. In 786 she
attempted to convene a synod at Holy Apostles in Constantinople,
which was disrupted by iconoclasts. Finally, in 787, she convened
a synod at Nicaea, now known as Nicaea II, the seventh and last
orthodox ecumenical council. The rulings of this council preserve
the only records that we have of earlier Iconoclast rulings, which
they overturned or scorned.
The iconodule interlude was to last until 813, in
which period Irene’s attempts at rapprochement with the West came
to naught, despite her best efforts. It was even suggested that
Irene offered herself as wife to Charlemagne, but he had found an
another way to secure the title emperor, having himself crowned
thus by the pope in December 800. Byzantium, therefore, remained a
cowed power, which was in P. Magdalino’s words (in C. Mango, ed.,
Oxford History of Byzantium, Oxford 2002, pp. 171-2)
“afflicted by humiliating military defeats, usurpations and short
reigns of emperors who all, apart from Irene, had bad relations
with the church.” One character who fulfilled all these criteria
was Nikephoros I (802-11), who ousted Irene in 802. A contemporary
source, likely written very shortly after the events it describes,
recounts Nikephoros’ defeat and death at the hands of the Bulgars
in 811. We have translated excerpts of the so-called Chronicle of
the Scriptor
Incertus. The re-establishment of Iconoclasm in 813 is
addressed polemically by Nicetas David Paphlago, in his Life
of Ignatios the Patriarch.
The second period of political iconoclasm lasted
until 843. Once again impressions of this period are provided by
Iconodule sources, notably the Chronicle of Theophanes
Confessor, and the Short History of Patriarch
Nicholas. The hagiography, amounting to some two dozen saints's
lives, is as suspect as that for the first period, lacking
contemporary views. Most lives are written far later, employing
motifs taken from the Life of Stephen the Younger, or
fifth- and sixth-century confabulations concerning early Church
martyrs. One also finds visual polemics in margins of psalters.
Most famous, perhaps, are miniatures depicting the Patriarch of
Constantinople, John Grammatikos, whitewashing image of Christ
next to image of crucifixion and soldier with vinager-soaked
sponge on a stick.
The end of iconoclasm, in 843, came to be known as
the "Triumph of Orthodoxy." It resulted in creation of new icons
in Hagia Sophia, hence the oldest suriving icon in that church is
from 860s, being of the Virgin and Child in the apse. This was
described by the Patriach Photios, who considered it as life-like.
We can still see it, and may judge it differently. But the icon
depicts a higher, unearthly reality, the “noetic,” which is beyond
human comprehension.
Paul Stephenson, November 2006
Revised January 2009; January 2012.