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

ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS. 51
CHAPTER VI.
THE ICONOCLASTIC
CONTROVERSY.
THE religious discussions which preceded this stormy
controversy have been briefly sketched in the fore
going chapter. A few words may be desirable by
way of introduction to the present one, on the subject
of icons, or likenesses (whether images or pictures), the
destroyers of which were called iconoclasts. Apart
from the natural instinct felt by all men to preserve
some memorial, some token or likeness, of what they
love and honour,
it is
probable that among the early
Christians the custom of employing such means to
keep present to their minds what they venerated, was
partly suggested by pagan usages, partly in opposi
tion to them. That is to say, as the disciple in Rome or
Corinth would see on all sides the statues or paint
ings, or other works of art, in which the worship of
heathen divinities had found its expression, he would
be impelled, both by the secret power of imitation,
and by the desire to confront paganism with what
should conquer and it
surpass in all that seemed
beneficial, to devise something at once as an equiva
lent and a protest. Hence, at first no doubt in
private houses, and afterwards in the churches that
replaced the catacombs or private dwellings in which
the believers first met in secrecy and fear, there came
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