Two incidental results of the iconoclastic movement must be noticed, the
one of less, the other of more importance. The lesser one was the flight
of Greek iconolatrous monks from Asia Minor and the Levant to Sicily and
Calabria, where they established convents which for centuries were the
western homes of Greek learning, and in which were written not a few of
the oldest Greek MSS. found in our libraries. The greater event was the
scission between East and West. The fury of the West against the
iconoclastic emperors was such that the whole of Italy clamoured for
war. It is true that Pope Stephen II. applied in 753 to Constantine V.,
one of the worst destroyers of images, for aid against the Lombards, for
the emperor of Byzantium was still regarded as the natural champion of
the church. But Constantine refused aid, and the pope turned to the
Frankish King Pippin. The die was cast. Henceforth Rome was linked with
the Carolingian house in an alliance which culminated in the coronation
of Charlemagne by the pope on the 25th of December 800.
In the crusading epoch the Cathars and Paulicians carried all over
Europe the old iconoclastic spirit, and perhaps helped to transmit it to
Wycliffe and Hus. Not the least racy clause in the document compiled
about 1389 by the Wycliffites in defence of their defunct teacher is the
following: "Hit semes that this offrynge ymages is a sotile cast of
Antichriste and his clerkis for to drawe almes fro pore men ... certis,
these ymages of hemselfe may do nouther gode nor yvel to mennis soules,
but thai myghtten warme a man's body in colde, if thai were sette upon a
fire."
At the period of the Reformation it was unanimously felt by the
reforming party that, with the invocation of saints and the practice of
reverencing their relics, the adoration of images ought also to cease.
The leaders of the movement were not, however, perfectly agreed on the
question as to whether these might not in some circumstances be retained
in churches. Luther had no sympathy with the iconoclastic outbreaks
which then occurred; he classed images in themselves as among the
"adiaphora," and condemned only their cultus; so also the "Confessio
Tetrapolitana" leaves Christians free to have them or not, if only due
regard be had to what is expedient and edifying. The "Heidelberg
Catechism," however, emphatically declares that images are not to be
tolerated at all in churches.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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