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

"
THE ICONOCLASTIC CONTROVERSY. 59
"for I shrink as yet from saying what the divine
apostle said, let him be accursed (Or. iii. c. 3).
The sequel of the iconoclastic disputes, as it
only
indirectly concerns our subject, may be very briefly
dismissed. Rome from the first paid no heed to
these edicts of the Byzantine emperor. Pope Germanus
II. wrote to Leo a letter, in which, by some
strange confusion, he compares him to Uzziah, who
had broken the brazen serpent in pieces. In this he
uses the most violent and contemptuous language
towards Leo and his principles. Go into the schools,
1
he exclaims, where the children are "
learning to read
and write, and tell them you are the persecutor of the
images ; they would instantly
throw their tablets at
your head, and the ignorant would teach you perforce
what you would not learn from the wise." In 741
Leo was succeeded by his son Constantine Copronymus,
a ruler of undoubted ability and as undoubted
cruelty. He carried on the iconoclastic designs of
his father with a kindred determination ;
and the
scenes of violence and persecution that ensued are
well-nigh enough to bear out the invectives that have
been heaped upon him by monastic historians. The
greatest palliation that can be found is in the muti
nous, intemperate behaviour of the monks and other
advocates of image-worship towards himself. A single
instance, reminding us forcibly of Henry
II. and
Thomas a Becket, may serve as a specimen. An
old monk named Stephanus, on whom banishment
and torture could make no impression, had tried to
1
Neander v., p. 291.