From Leo III to the ascension of Michael II

In 717, when Leo III the Isaurian took power, the empire was in an unstable situation. The Arabs were besieging Constantinople for a second time; however, at the end of the summer of 718 they were compelled to abandon the siege and made no more attempts to take the city. Despite the Byzantine victory, the Arabs maintained their superiority, and it was only in 740 that Leo III defeated them soundly in the heart of Anatolia, putting an end to their expansionist ambitions.

Leo III used the successive defeats at the hands of the Arabs together with natural catastrophes such as the volcanic eruption on the island of Santorini shortly before 726 as proof of divine anger provoked by the Byzantines' excessive worship of icons. As a solution, he attempted to implement a policy of Iconoclasm from 726 by destroying the image of Christ at the Chalke, the gate leading to the imperial palace, replacing it with a simple cross. This aroused a reaction from the people, in favour of keeping not only this image but images in general. Leo III therefore had to wait until 730 to implement his Iconoclastic policy and destroy all types of images. The iconodules (those who prayed to images) accused him of being influenced mainly by the Arabs and the Jews, two peoples with an aniconic tradition.

The reign of the son of Leo III, Constantine V (741-775), marked the beginning of a veritable iconoclastic policy that triggered major controversies. During the first years of his reign, Constantine V led brilliant campaigns against the Arabs. He took advantage of a civil war that was dividing the people to take Melitene in 752. After that year he focused on internal politics, attempting to impose the iconoclast doctrine. In 754, he summoned a council to the palace of Hieria, near Chalcedon, in order to have iconoclasm officially recognised as the orthodox belief of the Byzantine Church and State. This doctrine accused anyone who venerated icons of being an idolater. The basic idea of the iconoclasts stemmed from the Platonic principle according to which an image is of the same nature as its prototype. Iconoclasm considered that only the cross and the Eucharist were legitimate images. The iconodules, on the other hand, defended the idea that the image refers to a model whose substance it does not share, which would refute the accusation of idolatry. The honour shown to the image is given to the prototype, not to the matter representing it.

After the death of Constantine V in 775, his son Leo IV (775-780) tried to assuage the discontent of the iconodules and put an end to their persecution. When Leo IV died, his wife Irene assumed the regency for their young son, Constantine VI. To ensure that the West and the Pope would support them, Irene soon decided that she would no longer pursue iconoclasm and summoned another council, held at the church of Hagia Sophia of Nicaea on 24 September 787. The council condemned iconoclasm, proclaimed it to be heresy and declared that producing and venerating images were the true doctrine.

In 790 Constantine VI, the son of Irene and the deceased Leo IV, helped by the army, took power and undertook a policy of appeasement. His reign lasted only seven years, and in 797 Irene had her son blinded. She thus became the first woman to hold power on her own (797-802). Despite the support of the monks to whom she had given important tax rebates, she was overthrown by her finance minister, Nicephorus I (802-11) in 802. After the reign of Nicephorus I, whose foreign policy was essentially focused on winning back the territories controlled by the Slavs and on making war with the Bulgars, Leo V the Armenian, a strategos ("general") of the Anatolikon theme proclaimed himself emperor (813-820). Although he was no dogged iconoclast, and despite the opposition of patriarch Nicephorus, he decided to re-establish iconoclasm. He therefore summoned another council at the Church of Saint Sophia in 815. The prevailing spirit of the council was relatively moderate and no real opposition was manifest; yet the ensuing persecutions, targeting the monks, were more violent. Leo V was killed in 820 by the partisans of his successor, Michael II the Amorian (820-829).

Iconoclasm was an integral part of the social and political programme of Emperors Leo III and Constantine V. At a time when the empire was weakened by epidemics and wars, the primary concern of Leo III and his successors was to re-establish imperial authority and strengthen the power of the state. The victories against the Arabs certainly conferred prestige on them. They imposed a reform of the State and Church in order to improve economic and social conditions. Iconoclasm was a pretext in the policy of purges that Leo III and his son vigorously pursued. It became the primary issue in the war the emperor waged against the Church and its properties, the monasteries and their revenue, their important role in society and their increasing influence on public opinion.

It is difficult to speak with accuracy about the development of iconoclast art and culture because little of it remains today. Schools of higher learning certainly continued to be active in Constantinople during this period, but the texts give no details. Examples of iconoclastic art are rare, for the iconodules destroyed any decorative objects produced by the iconoclasts. According to the only iconodule sources that have survived until the present time, the iconoclasts opposed any depiction of Christ because of his divinity. This entailed an absolute refusal of all other sacred images. Only the cross, symbol of the incarnation of Christ, surrounded by plant, animal and ornamental motifs, was permitted. Motifs inspired by imperial iconography, such as the illustration of drivers that Constantine V placed at the Arch of the Milion, and the eighth century silk now at the Musée de Cluny, have become the symbols of the victorious emperor.

E. Y.