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

THE GREEK CHURCH IN THE EIGHTH CENTURY. 49
produce this change can only be inferred. 1 It
may
have been a conviction that nothing but a purified
faith in Christendom could long withstand the
advance of Islam. It may
have been the fruit of
continued attention given to the subject, since he
was first attracted to it
by the Caliph
s letter. Or it
may have been that matters had been getting worse
in the Christian churches of his dominions during the
past decade, and that, by the year 726, he felt it
needful to interpose, and check the growing abuse of
what (for want of a more convenient term) we may
allow ourselves to call image-worship. At any rate,
in the year above-named, he issued his first ordi
nance ;
in which, while not as yet condemning
images in themselves, he strove to abolish the pre
vailing mode of showing honour to them by kneeling
and prostration. Thus the signal was given for battle
a battle which raged long and fiercely and with
very varying success. That the cause espoused by
Leo ultimately failed, is (irrespective of the inherent
1
The character and motives of Leo. III., commonly called
from his native country the Isaurian, have been very variously
represented. The ecclesiastical historians have naturally por
trayed him as a violent and persecuting tyrant. Gibbon, per
haps the more readily on this account, commends "the wisdom
of his administration and the purity of his manners/ Dean
"
Milman praises the incomparable address as prompt as
decisive," which he showed in the most trying situations.
Finlay ("History of the Byzantine Empire," 1854) and
Freeman ("History
and Conquests of the Saracens," 1876)
speak of him in still higher terms. The former indeed regards
him as one of the unappreciated heroes of the world, the
saviour of the eastern empire.
E