In subsequent sessions the acts of the Iconoclastic Council at Jerusalem were examined and refuted in order, and the council closed with the usual acclamations and prayers for the prosperity of the emperor and empress; after which synodal letters containing the decrees were sent to all churches. Pope Adrian approved of all that had been decreed, and sent copies of the Acts into France, where pictures and images were used historically, but no honour, such as burning candles or offering of incense before them, was allowed. On receiving these copies, Charlemagne wrote, or caused to be written, or put forth under his name, a work containing an examination of the decrees of the second council of Nicæa, by some of the bishops, of whom Alcuin was chief. This contained a repudiation of these Acts, and a rejection of image-worship. It maintained that respect was due to pictures and statues of the Saviour and the Saints, but refused the right of offering them any sort of religious honour, as by lighting candles and incensing them. This work was presented to Pope Adrian by Engilbert, the ambassador of Charlemagne, and it drew forth from the pope an answer which, however, did not alter the practice of the Gallican Church, for in the Council of Frankfort, held in 794, the decrees relative to the worshipping of images passed by the second Council of Nicæa were rejected, as was the case again in a council held at Paris, in 824. Tarasius, in the meantime, obedient to the decrees of the synod, restored holy images throughout the extent of his patriarchate. His life was a model of perfection to both clergy and laity. He lived a quiet, austere life, in the midst of magnificence and luxury. He reduced to the smallest possible amount the expenses of his household, and gave to the poor what he had economised. He often took the dishes of meat from his table to distribute among them with his own hands: and he assigned them a large annual revenue. And that none might be overlooked, he visited every house and hospital in Constantinople. His discourses turned on the mortification of the senses, and he was particularly severe against all theatrical entertainments, which served then to encourage and diffuse licentiousness. Some time after, the emperor became enamoured of Theodota, a maid of honour to his wife, the empress Mary, and, after having spent seven years in marriage, in 795, he resolved to divorce the empress. He used every effort to gain the patriarch. He sent an officer to him to inform him that a plot of the empress to poison him had been discovered. S. Tarasius, however, received the request to divorce the emperor, and marry him to Theodota, with a stern refusal. "Tell him that I will rather suffer death and all manner of torments than consent to his design." The emperor, hoping to prevail with him by flattery, sent for him to the palace, and said, "I can conceal nothing from you, whom I regard as my father. No one can