Part 1 of 2
WHEN St Augustine preached Christianity to King Ethelbert of Kent in 597, he carried a silver cross and a painted icon of Christ. A century later, icons were putting a human face to the spoken word up in Bede’s Northumbria, from church walls to the pages of the Lindisfarne Gospels.*
But in 730, Roman Emperor Leo III was faring badly against the Muslim caliph in Syria, and some among his counsellors put the blame on icons. Did not God always abandon the Kings of Israel when they made images and bowed down to them? Even as Bede sang unmolested before the icons in Ceolwulf’s Northumbria, in Leo’s Constantinople soldiers were raiding churches and private homes, tearing down icons and scrubbing away frescoes, punishing resistance with the sword.*
It was John of Damascus, a monk of the St Sabbas monastery near Jerusalem, who led the fightback.* John’s mastery of music, science and Scripture rivalled even Bede’s, and as Jerusalem was in Muslim hands, Leo could not touch him.
Bede’s own account of the coming of icons to Northumbria can be read in our post How Benedict Biscop brought Byzantium to Britain. The ‘Lindisfarne Gospels’ is an illuminated book of the Four Gospels in Latin, produced by Bede’s contemporary St Eadfrith during his tenure as Bishop of Lindisfarne (698-721). You can see many of the pages at the website of The British Library. In the 10th century, the Latin was supplemented with a translation into Old English between the lines, making this book the oldest surviving English translation of the Gospels.
For a remarkable story about just such a raid, see our post The Keeper of the Gate.
For more on St Bede’s contemporary and likeness in so many ways, see our post St John Damascene.
Précis
In the 8th century, the Roman Empire based in Constantinople suddenly banned sacred art in churches, in stark contrast to Britain, where it was flourishing following the Gregorian mission of 597. Emperor Leo’s chief critic was St John of Damascus, who (like the British) lived outside the Empire, and was able to campaign without fear of reprisals. (56 / 60 words)
Part Two
JOHN reminded the Emperor that there is no ban on images in Scripture – God filled his own Temple with images of plants, animals and angels.* And whereas no likeness can exist of the invisible God, in Christ that God has become a visible, tangible man – and like his saints, paintable.*
The only ban in Scripture, said John, is on worshipping other gods. A Christian who kisses an icon honours the person shown, and everything earthly that restores us to heaven: virgin’s womb, wooden cross, bread and wine. But he worships God alone.
John’s arguments convinced a Council in Nicaea in 787, summoned by Empress Irene, widow of Leo’s grandson, and icons were jubilantly restored. A brief revival of iconoclasm was extinguished in 843 by Empress Theodora, appealing to John’s clear reasoning yet again.* Ever after, the first Sunday of Lent has celebrated the restoration of the icons, reuniting the Church from the Imperial capital to little Lindisfarne. They call it, ‘the Triumph of Orthodoxy’.
They include angels (cherubim) in Exodus 25:18-22 and Exodus 26:31; almond nuts and flowers in Exodus 25:33-36; bells and pomegranates in Exodus 28:33-34; and lions, oxen, and lilies (with more cherubim and pomegranates) in 1 Kings 7; and cherubim, palm trees, human faces and lions in Ezekiel 41. Joshua bows before the Ark of the Covenant (with its images of angels) in Joshua 7:6.
See 1 John 1:1-3. Nonetheless, images of God himself remain impossible, because unlike Christ, angels and saints, God has never been seen by man (Acts 17:29). Christian tradition still does not sanction any image of the Father or the Holy Spirit, unless it shows them in one of their Biblical manifestations, such as the Hospitality of Abraham in Genesis 18:1-16 (see an icon at Wikimedia Commons), or the Baptism of Christ in Mark 1:9-11 (see an icon at Wikimedia Commons).
St John of Damascus was not a lone voice, of course: his three Homilies were accompanied by an impressive list of quotations from Church Fathers reaching back to the fourth century in support of his position, and St Theodore (759–826), of the Studios monastery in Constantinople, campaigned vigorously for icons after iconoclasm was officially reintroduced in 815.
Précis
John of Damascus argued that contrary to Imperial propaganda, Scripture does not forbid sacred images, but actively commissions them for the Temple. He added that they reflect God’s own incarnation, giving flesh to the word. His arguments led to the restoration of icons at an Imperial Council in 787, which was reconfirmed in 843. (52 / 60 words)