156 An iconodule abbot, Stephen Neos, was beaten to death by a mob at the behest of the authorities. As a result of persecution, many monks fled to southern Italy and Sicily.Ostrogorsky, pp. 173–175 The implacable resistance of iconodule monks and their supporters led to their propaganda reaching those close to the Emperor.
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During his minority, the empire was governed by a regency headed by his mother Theodora, her uncle Sergios, and the minister Theoktistos. The empress had iconodule sympathies and deposed Patriarch John VII of Constantinople, replacing him with the iconodule Patriarch Methodius I of Constantinople in 843. This put an end to the second spell of iconoclasm.Treadgold, p.
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Her offer of help to an imprisoned Iconodule again raises the question of her own religious tendencies. Her time of death is not recorded.
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Michael III would play a vital role in the Byzantine resurgence of the 9th century. As Michael was merely two years old when his father died, the Empire was governed by a regency headed by his mother Theodora, her uncle Sergios, and the minister Theoktistos. The empress had iconodule sympathies and deposed Patriarch John VII of Constantinople, replacing him with the iconodule Patriarch Methodius I of Constantinople in 843. This put an end to the second spell of iconoclasm.
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The extent and severity of iconoclastic destruction of images and relics was exaggerated in later iconodule writings.Brubaker and Haldon, pp. 208–211Zuckerman pp. 203–204 Iconodules considered Constantine's death a divine punishment.
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The iconodule historians record that Antony was stricken with a wasting disease as divine punishment for his participation in Iconoclast councils. The patriarch died early in 837 and was later anathematized in the Orthodox synodika.
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5–10 Krum participated in the battle and abandoned the battlefield heavily injured. With the iconodule policy of his predecessors associated with defeats at the hands of Bulgarians and Arabs, Leo V reinstituted Iconoclasm after deposing patriarch Nikephoros and convoking a synod at Constantinople in 815. The Emperor used his rather moderate iconoclast policy to seize the properties of iconodules and monasteries, such as the rich Stoudios Monastery, whose influential iconodule abbot, Theodore the Studite, he exiled. Leo V appointed competent military commanders from among his own comrades-in-arms, including Michael the Amorian and Thomas the Slav.
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Pope Gregory II (term 715-731), a fellow iconodule, praised Germanus' "zeal and steadfastness". Germanus was replaced by Anastasios, more willing to obey the emperor. Germanus retired to the residence of his family. He died a few years at an advanced age in 740.
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787, until it was again removed by Leo V the Armenian (r. 813–820) and replaced by a simple cross. After the definitive restoration of the veneration of icons in 843, a mosaic icon by the famed iconodule monk and artist Lazaros replaced it.
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Soldiers deface or demolish an iconodule church on the orders of Constantine V (left), Manasses Chronicle, 14th-century manuscript Gold solidus, Constantine V (left) and his son and co- emperor Leo IV (right) Like his father Leo III, Constantine supported iconoclasm, which was a theological movement that rejected the veneration of religious images and sought to destroy those in existence. Iconoclasm was later definitively classed as heretical. Constantine's avowed enemies in what was a bitter and long-lived religious dispute were the iconodules, who defended the veneration of images. Iconodule writers applied to Constantine the derogatory epithet Kopronymos ("dung-named", from kopros, meaning "faeces" or "animal dung", and onoma, "name").
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Theophanes AM 6235 [AD 742/3]. At some point the relics of Patriarch Germanus I of Constantinople were transferred to Chora and the monastery became a shrine to iconodule martyrs. Her year of death is unknown but she is not mentioned following the reign of her brother.
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His uncle Tarasios was appointed Patriarch by the iconodule Empress Irene of Athens, serving from 784 to 806. Tarasios convened the Second Council of Nicaea, which condemned iconoclasm. Deciding not to become a monk and to pursue a lay career instead, he was a powerful associate of Bardas.Blackwell Dictionary 1999 pp.
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His main support base consisted of the Armeniac, Opsikion and the province of Thrace. He was recognised as Emperor by Iconodule religious leaders, including Pope Zachary. The civil war lasted for about two years, ending with the defeat of Artabasdos. The first major battle took place near Sardis, Lydia in May 743.
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Pratsch, Theodoros, 107-10. By that point, Constantine seems to have lost all meaningful support from the iconodule faction. The displaced Iconoclasts were already against Irene and her son since the restoration of the icons decided in the Second Council of Nicaea (787). Irene was meanwhile organizing a powerful conspiracy against her son.
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In addition to the concessionary actions Leo also appointed an iconodule sympathizer, Paul of Cyprus, to the position of patriarch of Constantinople upon the death of the predecessor. At the end of his reign, Leo reversed his stance of toleration.Byzantium: The Imperial Centuries (A.D. 610-1071): Romilly Jenkins (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1966), p 91.
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After Nikephoros's death, his pupil Niketas became the abbot. Niketas was persecuted with the beginning of the second Iconoclasm under Leo V (r. 813–820). He died in 824, and is celebrated by the Orthodox Church as an iconodule Confessor of the Faith. Both Nikephoros and Niketas were buried at the narthex of the monastery's church of Saint Michael.
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During the Middle Ages, Western theologians such as Anselm of Canterbury, John Scotus Eriugena, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Nicholas of Cusa, and Bernard of Clairvaux touched upon themes such as "the idea of beauty, the vision of God, the image of Christ, the iconodule-iconoclast conflict, and the strong presence of personally grounded and poetic doxologies".Thiessen, p. 59.
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Most prominent was an icon of Christ which became a major iconodule symbol during the Byzantine Iconoclasm, and a chapel dedicated to the Christ Chalkites was erected in the 10th century next to the gate. The gate itself seems to have been demolished in the 13th century, but the chapel survived until the early 19th century.
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Icon celebrating the "Triumph of Orthodoxy" and the restoration of icon worship in 843. Saint Theodosia, an iconodule martyr, is depicted first left on the lower row, carrying the icon of Christ Chalkites.Cormack (2000), pp. 32, 91 Above the main entrance of the Chalke, there stood an icon of Christ, the so-called Christ Chalkites ("Christ of the Chalke").
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The dedication inscription says: "The images which the impostors had cast down here pious emperors have again set up." In the 870s the so-called large sekreton of the Great Palace of Constantinople was decorated with the images of the four great iconodule patriarchs. The post- Iconoclastic era was the heyday of Byzantine art with the most beautiful mosaics executed.
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Theophanes Continuatus, 40–41. 7 Even sources vehemently hostile to Leo (Theophanes Continuatus,Theophanes Continuatus, 30. 14–15 Patriarch Nikephoros) acknowledge his competence in managing state affairs. Unfortunately, as with all iconoclast emperors, his actions and intentions cannot be easily reconstructed due to the extreme bias of the iconodule sources (there are no surviving contemporary iconoclast sources of any kind).
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Antony was of undistinguished background, but received a good education, becoming a lawyer in Constantinople in c. 800. He later became a monk and advanced to the position of abbot. By 814 he had become the bishop of Syllaion in Anatolia. Although Antony was an Iconodule, he became an Iconoclast in 815, when Emperor Leo V the Armenian reinstituted Iconoclasm.
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As Lazarus lay on his deathbed, the Empress Theodora, an iconodule, convinced Theophilos to release Lazarus from prison. Lazarus found refuge at Tou Phoberou, a secluded church of St. John the Forerunner once located in Phoberos on the Asiatic shore of the Bosporus.Mango, p.159 The Church is believed to have once functioned as an imperial monastery that housed as many as one-hundred and seventy monks.
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1620 The monastery was a centre of iconodule opposition to Byzantine Iconoclasm, and in 763/4, it was attacked and burned down by the fanatically iconoclast governor Michael Lachanodrakon. Lachanodrakon tortured the monastery's hegoumenos, Theosteriktos, and other monks, 38 of whom were buried alive at Ephesus.Talbot (1991), p. 1620 The monastery was restored towards the end of the century after the end of the first period of Iconoclasm, and a certain Makarios became its hegoumenos.
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The chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor records that Tzitzak learned to read religious texts. He describes her as pious and contrasts her with the "impiety" of her father-in-law and husband: 'she learned Holy Scripture and lived piously, thus reproving the impiety of those men [Leo and Constantine]'. The emperors Leo III and Constantine V were iconoclasts while Theophanes was an iconodule monk. His praise probably reflected the fact that Irene herself shared his views.
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Much of the Iconoclast effort in the council was driven by other clerics, including the later Patriarchs Antony I and John VII. In the aftermath of this synod Theodotos is representing as torturing by starvation at more than one iconodule abbot in an attempt to force them into agreement with his ecclesiastical policy. He ceases to be mentioned in the sources after the murder of Leo V and accession of Michael II the Amorian in December 820.
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On becoming aware of an iconodule influenced conspiracy directed at himself, Constantine reacted uncompromisingly; in 765, eighteen high dignitaries were paraded in the hippodrome charged with treason, they were variously executed, blinded or exiled. Patriarch Constantine II of Constantinople was implicated and deposed from office, and the following year he was tortured and beheaded.Bury, p. 14 By the end of Constantine's reign, iconoclasm had gone as far as to brand relics and prayers to the saints as heretical, or at least highly questionable.
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Mosaic of Stephen in Hosios Loukas monastery, Greece Saint Stephen the Younger (, Hagios Stephanos ho neos; 713/715 – 28 November 764 or 765) was a Byzantine monk from Constantinople who became one of the leading opponents of the iconoclastic policies of Emperor Constantine V (r. 741–775). He was executed in 764, and became the most prominent iconodule martyr. His feast day is celebrated annually on 28 November. His hagiography, the Life of St. Stephen the Younger, is an important historical source.
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Whether Euphrosyne shared her Iconodule tendencies and picked her for it remains vague. Euphrosyne appears twice more in the historical record. After rumours reached Constantinople that Theophilos had been killed in his campaign against Al-Afshin in Anatolia, those senators and senior officials opposed to the Emperor did not trouble themselves to discover if the news were true or not and looked for alternative candidates for the throne. Euphrosyne, aware of these political maneuvers, sent a messenger to her stepson advising him to return at once.
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The Catholic Church accepted the decrees of the iconodule Seventh Ecumenical Council regarding images. There is some minor difference, however, in the Catholic attitude to images from that of the Orthodox. Following Gregory the Great, Catholics emphasize the role of images as the Biblia Pauperum, the "Bible of the Poor", from which those who could not read could nonetheless learn. Catholics also, however, share the same viewpoint with the Orthodox when it comes to image veneration, believing that whenever approached, sacred images are to be shown reverence.
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It is located at the beginning of the road that leaves the main road in the south of Tirilye and leads to the land with olive groves. The monastery was established in the late 8th century, and produced some important iconodule figures during the Byzantine Iconoclasm. After that, its history is obscure; it is mentioned in 1054, and it is known that it burned down and was rebuilt in 1800–01, but had fallen into disuse by the end of the 19th century, Today, only the outer wall of the complex survives.
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In the early 8th century, the iconodule Saint Hilarion was kept prisoner in the local monastery on the orders of Emperor Leo V the Armenian (r. 813–820). The site is again, and for the last time in Byzantine times, mentioned in a property deed of 1388. After the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the name Kyklobion was transferred to the Yedikule Fortress by the local Greeks, and the original site was abandoned. Ruins of the original circular fortress survived until the 19th century, where the Austrian traveller Hammer-Purgstall saw them.
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By his rigorous tax imposts he alienated his subjects, especially the clergy, whom he otherwise sought to control firmly. Although he appointed an iconodule, Nikephoros, as patriarch, Emperor Nikephoros was portrayed as a villain by ecclesiastical historians like Theophanes the Confessor. Khan Krum feasts while a servant brings the skull of Nikephoros I fashioned into a drinking cup. In 803, Nikephoros concluded a treaty, called the "Pax Nicephori", with Charlemagne, but refused to recognize the latter's imperial dignity. Relations deteriorated and led to a war over Venice in 806–810.
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Unlike her son-in-law Theophilos, who was an ardent iconoclast, Theoktiste was reportedly an iconodule. Not only did she aid persecuted iconodules, but when Theodora's five daughters visited her in her house, she would instruct them in the veneration of the icons, much to the anger of Theophilos, who forbade his daughters from visiting their grandmother too often. Her house was later—possibly still during Theophilos' reign (829–842)—transformed into the Gastria Monastery. Theoktiste and Theodora, as well as other members of the family, were buried there.
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Since monasteries tended to be strongholds of Iconophile sentiment, Constantine specifically targeted the monks, pairing them off and forcing them to marry nuns in the Hippodrome and expropriating monastic property for the benefit of the state or the army. The repressions against the monks (culminating in 766) were largely led by the emperor's general Michael Lachanodrakon, who threatened resistant monks with blinding and exile. An iconodule abbot, Stephen Neos, was brutally lynched by a mob at the behest of the authorities. As a result, many monks fled to southern Italy and Sicily.
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This page of the iconodule Chludov Psalter illustrates the line "They gave me gall to eat; and when I was thirsty they gave me vinegar to drink" with a picture of a soldier offering Christ vinegar on a sponge attached to a pole. John the Grammarian is depicted rubbing out a painting of Christ with a similar sponge attached to a pole. John is caricatured, here as on other pages, with untidy straight hair sticking out in all directions, which was considered ridiculous by the Byzantines. John VII, surnamed Grammatikos or Grammaticus, i.e.
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However, to his army and people he was "the victorious and prophetic Emperor". Following a disastrous defeat of the Byzantines by the Bulgarian Khan Krum in 811 at the Battle of Pliska, troops of the tagmata broke into Constantine's tomb and implored the dead emperor to lead them once more.Garland, p. 95 The life and actions of Constantine, if freed from the distortion caused by the adulation of his soldiers and the demonisation of iconodule writers, show that he was an effective administrator and gifted general, but he was also autocratic, uncompromising and sometimes needlessly harsh.
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As a result of this, they are open to suspicion of bias and inaccuracy, particularly when attributing motives to the Emperor, his supporters and opponents. This makes any claims of absolute certainty regarding Constantine's policies and the extent of his repression of iconodules unreliable.Treadgold (2012), entire chapterBrubaker and Haldon, p. 157 In particular, a manuscript written in north-eastern Anatolia concerning miracles attributed to St. Theodore is one of few probably written during or just after the reign of Constantine to survive in its original form; it contains little of the extreme invective common to later iconodule writings.
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Germanus was an iconodule, and played an important role in defending the use of sacred images during the iconoclastic crisis of his day, suffering exile for his opposition to the emperor, who considered reverence for these images a form of idolatry."St. Germanus of Constantinople, Defender of the Veneration of Holy Images", National Catholic Register, 8 May 2009 After an apparently successful attempt to enforce the baptism of all Jews and Montanists in the empire (722), Leo issued a series of edicts against the worship of images (726-729).Treadgold. History of the Byzantine State, pp. 350, 352-353.
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248 In concentrating on the security of the empire's core territories he tacitly abandoned some peripheral regions, notably in Italy, which were lost. However, the hostile reaction of the Roman Church and the Italian people to iconoclasm had probably doomed imperial influence in central Italy, regardless of any possible military intervention. Due to his espousal of iconoclasm Constantine was damned in the eyes of contemporary iconodule writers and subsequent generations of Orthodox historians. Typical of this demonisation are the descriptions of Constantine in the writings of Theophanes the Confessor: "a monster athirst for blood", "a ferocious beast", "unclean and bloodstained magician taking pleasure in envoking demons", "a precursor of Antichrist".
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These successes enabled Emperor Constantine V (741–775) to shift the fleet from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea during his campaigns against the Bulgars in the 760s. In 763, a fleet of 800 ships carrying 9,600 cavalries and some infantry sailed to Anchialus, where he scored a significant victory, but in 766, a second fleet, allegedly of 2,600 ships, again bound for Anchialus, sank en route. At the same time, however, the Isaurian emperors undermined Byzantium's naval strength: with the Arab threat gone for the moment, and with the largely iconodule naval themes staunchly opposed to their iconoclastic policies, the emperors reduced the navy's size and downgraded the naval themes.
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Following his release, Theodore made his way back to Constantinople, travelling through north-western Anatolia and meeting with numerous monks and abbots on the way. At the time he appears to have believed that the new emperor, Michael II (r. 820–829), would adopt a pro-icons policy, and he expressed this hope in two letters to Michael.. An imperial audience was arranged for a group of iconodule clerics, including Theodore, at which however Michael expressed his intention to "leave the church as he had found it." The abbots were to be allowed to venerate images if they so wished, as long as they remained outside of Constantinople.
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However, after the defeat at Anzen, the rumour had spread to Constantinople that Theophilos had been killed, and it appears that Theophobos, who was possibly an iconodule (as opposed to the staunchly iconoclast Theophilos) was suggested by some among the Byzantine Empire's elite as the new emperor. The head of Theophobos is brought to Emperor Theophilos on his deathbed. Despite being proclaimed and crowned—probably according to Sasanian ritual—by his men, Theophobos made no move against Theophilos, and the "Persian" troops remained quiescent at Sinope. Instead, he quickly engaged in secret negotiations with the emperor, who in 839 led an army against the rebels.
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He continued his father's reorganisation of the themata and embarked on aggressive and expensive foreign wars against both the Arabs and Bulgars. He died campaigning against the latter, being succeeded by his son, Leo IV. Asia Minor 780 showing administrative boundaries Leo IV (775–780) also had to put down uprisings, in his case his half-brothers. His marriage epitomised the conflict in Byzantine society over icons, raised an iconoclast himself, he married Irene an iconodule, resulting in a more conciliatory policy. Like his predecessors he had to defend his borders against both Arab and Bulgar, and like his father died campaigning against the Bulgars.
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Platon the Studite, also Plato of Sakkoudion (), probably Constantinople, ca. 735 – Constantinople, 4 April 814, was a Byzantine minor official who became a monk in 759. After refusing the metropolitan see of Nicomedia or the headship of a monastery in Constantinople, in 783 he founded the monastery of Sakkoudion on Mount Olympus in Bithynia, of which he became the first abbot. He is notable, along with his nephew Theodore Stoudites, for his iconodule stance during the Byzantine Iconoclasm and his participation in the Second Council of Nicaea, and to his firm opposition to the second marriage of Emperor Constantine VI to his niece Theodote (the "Moechian Controversy").
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In his youth, George became a monk and gained renown for his piety, and was later ordained bishop of Antioch in Pisidia. In 754, George attended the iconoclast Council of Hieria in Constantinople, which banned the veneration of icons. However, as an iconodule, George refused to comply with the rulings of the council and was subsequently exiled by Emperor Constantine V. He later returned from exile and attended the restoration of the veneration of icons at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. George criticised the restoration of iconoclasm at the onset of the reign of Emperor Leo V, and once more refused to remove icons from churches within his diocese.
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At the same time, Theophilos had to deal with a revolt by Theophobos and his Kurds. When rumours of Theophilos's death reached the capital, the name of Theophobos, who was related to the Emperor by marriage and apparently an iconodule, was put forward by some as the new emperor. On returning to the city, Theophilos recalled his general, but the latter, fearful of being punished, fled with his loyal Kurds to Sinope, where he was proclaimed emperor. In the event, however, Theophobos was persuaded to surrender peacefully in the next year, while the "Persian" corps was disbanded and its men dispersed throughout the themes.
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On the occasion of the marriage of Leo VI the Wise to his own third wife Eudokia Baïana in 899, George Alexandrovič Ostrogorsky points that a third marriage was technically illegal under Roman law and against the practices of the Eastern Orthodox Church at the time. This would presumably also affect the legality of Eudokia's marriage. Constantine was a fervent iconoclast and specifically targeted monasteries as strongholds of Iconodule sentiment. However, Eudokia is recorded as a generous benefactor of the monastery of St. Anthusa of Mantineon and even named a daughter after its patron saint, which indicates Eudokia may not have shared his religious views.
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Constantine V (741–775) had a less successful reign than his father, for no sooner had he ascended the throne than he was attacked and defeated by his brother in law, Artabasdos who proceeded to seize the title resulting in civil war between the forces of the two emperors, who had divided the themata between them. However Constantine managed to overcome his adversary by 743. The conflict was at least in part one over icons, Artabasdos being supported by the iconodule faction. Under Constantine, Iconoclasm became further entrenched following the Council of Hieria in 754, followed by a concerted campaign against the iconodules and the suppression of monasteries which tended to be the centre of iconophilia.
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Byzantine icon (14th–15th centuries) celebrating the definite restoration of the veneration of images in 843 (the "Triumph of Orthodoxy"). Stephen the Younger is included among the iconodule martyrs who are presented as witnesses to the event. Stephen was born in Constantinople in 713 or, according to the Life, shortly after 11 August 715. His father, Gregory, was a craftsman. His mother was called Anna, and he had two older sisters, Theodote and an unnamed one... On Holy Saturday 716, he was baptised in the Hagia Sophia by Patriarch Germanus I. In his sixteenth year (circa 731), he was brought by his parents to Mt. Auxentius in Bithynia, where he became a monk.
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Hypatia duly converted and founded a church for the version of the image that remained in Camuliana. In the reign of Justinian I (527-565) the image is said to have been processed around cities in the region to protect them from barbarian attacks.Start of Book 12 of "Chronicle", pp. 425-427; Mango, 114-115 This account differs from others but would be the earliest if it has not suffered from iconodule additions, as may be the case.Chronicle, 425-427, various notes One of the images (if there was more than one) probably arrived in Constantinople in 574,The date is von Dobschütz's conclusion, and the subject of long discussion at Chronicle, 425, note, as some have disagreed.
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Since he exhibited both Iconodule sympathies and the willingness to follow imperial commands when they were not contrary to the faith, he was selected as Patriarch of Constantinople by the Empress Irene in 784, even though he was a layman at the time. Nevertheless, like all educated Byzantines, he was well versed in theology, and the election of qualified laymen as bishops was not unheard of in the history of the Church.See St. Ambrose of Milan, and several of the Popes He reluctantly accepted, on condition that church unity would be restored with Rome and the oriental Patriarchs. To make him eligible for the office of patriarch, Tarasios was duly ordained to the deaconate and then the priesthood, prior to his consecration as bishop.
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Still other scholars have proposed an earlier date than the later 9th century. According to George Galavaris, the moasic seen by Photius was a Hodegetria portrait which after the earthquake of 989 was replaced by the present image not later than the early 11th century. According to Oikonomides however, the image in fact dates to before the Triumph of Orthodoxy, having been completed , during the iconodule interlude between the First Iconoclast (726–787) and the Second Iconoclast (814–842) periods. Having been plastered over in the Second Iconoclasm, Oikonomides argues a new, standing image of the Vrigin Hodegetria was created above the older mosaic in 867, which then fell off in the earthquakes of the 1340s and revealed again the late 8th-century image of the Virgin enthroned.
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Miniature from the Madrid Skylitzes, showing Samonas inciting Emperor Leo VI against Andronikos Doukas A number of seals mention a Theophylact, koubikoularios, parakoimomenos, and strategos of Sicily; he may be identical to the exarch Theophylact, attested in 701. This would make Theophylact the first known holder. The first secure mention in the sources occurs, as mentioned above, in the chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor, where the koubikoularios and parakoimomenos Theophanes was among those members of the court dismissed for their iconodule sympathies under Leo IV. The next holder, the ostiarios Scholastikios, is only known under Theophilos (). The patrikios Damian served Michael III until circa 865, and was then replaced by Michael's favourite, Basil the Macedonian. After Basil's accession to co- emperor in 866, the office was occupied by a certain Rentakios until the murder of Michael III.
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There is however no evidence to support this, and their high position in the imperial bureaucracy of the time renders any openly iconodule position highly unlikely. Furthermore, when Platon left his office and entered the priesthood in 759, he was ordained by an abbot who, if he was not actively iconoclastic himself, at the very least offered no resistance to the iconoclastic policies of Constantine V. The family as a whole was most likely indifferent to the question of icons during this period.. According to the later hagiographical literature, Theodore received an education befitting his family's station and from the age of seven was instructed by a private tutor, eventually concentrating in particular on theology. It is however not clear that these opportunities were available to even the most well-placed Byzantine families of the eighth century, and it is possible that Theodore was at least partially an autodidact..
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Patriarch Theodotos I presides over the council, miniature from the Madrid Skylitzes The Council of Constantinople of 815 was held in the Byzantine capital, in the Hagia Sophia, and initiated the second period of the Byzantine Iconoclasm. Shortly before it convened, the iconophile Patriarch Nikephoros I was deposed by Emperor Leo V the Armenian in favour of the iconoclast Theodotos I. Theodotos presided over the council, which reinstated iconoclasm, repudiating the Second Council of Nicaea and reaffirming the decisions of the Council of Hieria of 754. Although the meeting had been convened at the behest of the iconoclast Emperor, much of the Iconoclast effort was driven by other clerics, including the later patriarchs Antony I and John VII. In the aftermath of this synod Theodotos is represented as torturing by starvation more than one iconodule abbot in an attempt to force them into agreement with his ecclesiastical policy.
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Upon his return in 821 he was arrested and exiled as an iconodule by the Iconoclast regime of Emperor Michael II. Methodios was released in 829 and assumed a position of importance at the court of the even more fervently iconoclast Emperor Theophilos. Soon after the death of the emperor, in 843, the influential minister Theoktistos convinced the Empress Mother Theodora, as regent for her two-year-old son fat Michael III, to permit the restoration of icons by arranging that her dead husband would not be condemned. He then deposed the iconoclast Patriarch John VII Grammatikos and secured the appointment of Methodios as his successor, bringing about the end of the iconoclast controversy. A week after his appointment, accompanied by Theodora, Michael, and Theoktistos, Methodios made a triumphal procession from the church of Blachernae to Hagia Sophia on March 11, 843, restoring the icons to the church.
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On March 25, Palm Sunday, he commanded his monks to process through the monastery's vineyard, holding up icons so that they could be seen over the walls by the neighbors. This provocation elicited only a rebuke from the emperor.. A new patriarch, Theodotos, was selected, and in April a synod was convened in Hagia Sophia, at which iconoclasm was re-introduced as dogma. Theodore composed a series of letters in which he called on "all, near and far," to revolt against the decision of the synod. Not long thereafter he was exiled by imperial command to a Metopa, a fortress on the eastern shore of Lake Apollonia in Bithynia.. Shortly thereafter Leo had Theodore's poems removed from the Chalke Gate and replaced by a new set of "iconoclastic" epigrams.. While Theodore was in exile, the leadership of the Studite congregation was assumed by the Abbot Leontios, who for a time adopted the iconoclast position and won over many individual monks to his party.. He was, however, eventually won back to the iconodule party.. The Studite situation mirrored a general trend, with a number of bishops and abbots at first willing to reach a compromise with the iconoclasts,.
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