st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

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28 ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS.
on image-worship broke out.
Isaurian, the
The Emperor Leo the
roaring lion,"
had issued his first edict
against the practice (A.D. 726). At such a challenge
the privy-councillor of Damascus could not remain
silent. He girded up his loins to the contest with a
zeal like that of Elias in the days of Ahab. To
animate the orthodox in the faith to resistance, he
sent out circular 1
letters, to be passed from hand to
hand among the Christians. This roused the anger
of the emperor. Unable to crush his opponent by
force, as being a subject of a hostile power, he has
recourse to stratagem. Having succeeded in inter
cepting an autograph letter of John of Damascus, he
lays it before some of his scribes, that they may
familiarise themselves both with the form of the
characters and the turn of expression. He then bids
them concoct a letter, in imitation of John s writing,
purporting to be addressed to himself, in which John
is made to propose a treasonable surrender of
Damascus, if the emperor would send a force thither.
The Saracen guard at Damascus (so the letter ran)
was weak and negligently kept, and if Leo would
despatch a band of resolute men he would capture
the city with little trouble. The writer would aid in
bringing about such a result. This forged letter was
then forwarded to the caliph, with another from the
Gibbon (ch. li.) the Ommiades had only a kateb, or secretary,
and the office of vizir was not revived or instituted till the
one hundred and thirty-second year of the Hegira" (i.e. A.D.
754), which would be later than the events under consideration.
1
It is
amusing to observe under what a cloud of words the
writer wraps up this, to us, simple notion.