The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5

E >> Edward Gibbon >> The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5

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[Footnote 18: Our original, but not impartial, monuments of the
Iconoclasts must be drawn from the Acts of the Councils, tom.
viii. and ix. Collect. Labbe, edit. Venet. and the historical
writings of Theophanes, Nicephorus, Manasses, Cedrenus, Zonoras,
&c. Of the modern Catholics, Baronius, Pagi, Natalis Alexander,
(Hist. Eccles. Seculum viii. and ix.,) and Maimbourg, (Hist. des
Iconoclasts,) have treated the subject with learning, passion,
and credulity. The Protestant labors of Frederick Spanheim
(Historia Imaginum restituta) and James Basnage (Hist. des
Eglises Reformees, tom. ii. l. xxiiii. p. 1339 - 1385) are cast
into the Iconoclast scale. With this mutual aid, and opposite
tendency, it is easy for us to poise the balance with philosophic
indifference.

Note: Compare Schlosser, Geschichte der Bilder-sturmender
Kaiser, Frankfurt am-Main 1812 a book of research and
impartiality - M.]

[Footnote 19: Some flowers of rhetoric. By Damascenus is styled
(Opera, tom. i. p. 623.) Spanheim's Apology for the Synod of
Constantinople (p. 171, &c.) is worked up with truth and
ingenuity, from such materials as he could find in the Nicene
Acts, (p. 1046, &c.) The witty John of Damascus converts it into
slaves of their belly, &c. Opera, tom. i. p. 806]

[Footnote 20: He is accused of proscribing the title of saint;
styling the Virgin, Mother of Christ; comparing her after her
delivery to an empty purse of Arianism, Nestorianism, &c. In his
defence, Spanheim (c. iv. p. 207) is somewhat embarrassed between
the interest of a Protestant and the duty of an orthodox divine.]

The scandal of an abstract heresy can be only proclaimed to
the people by the blast of the ecclesiastical trumpet; but the
most ignorant can perceive, the most torpid must feel, the
profanation and downfall of their visible deities. The first
hostilities of Leo were directed against a lofty Christ on the
vestibule, and above the gate, of the palace. A ladder had been
planted for the assault, but it was furiously shaken by a crowd
of zealots and women: they beheld, with pious transport, the
ministers of sacrilege tumbling from on high and dashed against
the pavement: and the honors of the ancient martyrs were
prostituted to these criminals, who justly suffered for murder
and rebellion. ^21 The execution of the Imperial edicts was
resisted by frequent tumults in Constantinople and the provinces:
the person of Leo was endangered, his officers were massacred,
and the popular enthusiasm was quelled by the strongest efforts
of the civil and military power. Of the Archipelago, or Holy
Sea, the numerous islands were filled with images and monks:
their votaries abjured, without scruple, the enemy of Christ, his
mother, and the saints; they armed a fleet of boats and galleys,
displayed their consecrated banners, and boldly steered for the
harbor of Constantinople, to place on the throne a new favorite
of God and the people. They depended on the succor of a miracle:
but their miracles were inefficient against the Greek fire; and,
after the defeat and conflagration of the fleet, the naked
islands were abandoned to the clemency or justice of the
conqueror. The son of Leo, in the first year of his reign, had
undertaken an expedition against the Saracens: during his
absence, the capital, the palace, and the purple, were occupied
by his kinsman Artavasdes, the ambitious champion of the orthodox
faith. The worship of images was triumphantly restored: the
patriarch renounced his dissimulation, or dissembled his
sentiments and the righteous claims of the usurper was
acknowledged, both in the new, and in ancient, Rome. Constantine
flew for refuge to his paternal mountains; but he descended at
the head of the bold and affectionate Isaurians; and his final
victory confounded the arms and predictions of the fanatics. His
long reign was distracted with clamor, sedition, conspiracy, and
mutual hatred, and sanguinary revenge; the persecution of images
was the motive or pretence, of his adversaries; and, if they
missed a temporal diadem, they were rewarded by the Greeks with
the crown of martyrdom. In every act of open and clandestine
treason, the emperor felt the unforgiving enmity of the monks,
the faithful slaves of the superstition to which they owed their
riches and influence. They prayed, they preached, they absolved,
they inflamed, they conspired; the solitude of Palestine poured
forth a torrent of invective; and the pen of St. John Damascenus,
^22 the last of the Greek fathers, devoted the tyrant's head,
both in this world and the next. ^23 ^* I am not at leisure to
examine how far the monks provoked, nor how much they have
exaggerated, their real and pretended sufferings, nor how many
lost their lives or limbs, their eyes or their beards, by the
cruelty of the emperor. ^! From the chastisement of individuals,
he proceeded to the abolition of the order; and, as it was
wealthy and useless, his resentment might be stimulated by
avarice, and justified by patriotism. The formidable name and
mission of the Dragon, ^24 his visitor-general, excited the
terror and abhorrence of the black nation: the religious
communities were dissolved, the buildings were converted into
magazines, or bar racks; the lands, movables, and cattle were
confiscated; and our modern precedents will support the charge,
that much wanton or malicious havoc was exercised against the
relics, and even the books of the monasteries. With the habit
and profession of monks, the public and private worship of images
was rigorously proscribed; and it should seem, that a solemn
abjuration of idolatry was exacted from the subjects, or at least
from the clergy, of the Eastern empire. ^25

[Footnote 21: The holy confessor Theophanes approves the
principle of their rebellion, (p. 339.) Gregory II. (in Epist. i.
ad Imp. Leon. Concil. tom. viii. p. 661, 664) applauds the zeal
of the Byzantine women who killed the Imperial officers.]

[Footnote 22: John, or Mansur, was a noble Christian of Damascus,
who held a considerable office in the service of the caliph. His
zeal in the cause of images exposed him to the resentment and
treachery of the Greek emperor; and on the suspicion of a
treasonable correspondence, he was deprived of his right hand,
which was miraculously restored by the Virgin. After this
deliverance, he resigned his office, distributed his wealth, and
buried himself in the monastery of St. Sabas, between Jerusalem
and the Dead Sea. The legend is famous; but his learned editor,
Father Lequien, has a unluckily proved that St. John Damascenus
was already a monk before the Iconoclast dispute, (Opera, tom. i.
Vit. St. Joan. Damascen. p. 10 - 13, et Notas ad loc.)]

[Footnote 23: After sending Leo to the devil, he introduces his
heir, (Opera, Damascen. tom. i. p. 625.) If the authenticity of
this piece be suspicious, we are sure that in other works, no
longer extant, Damascenus bestowed on Constantine the titles.
(tom. i. p. 306.)]

[Footnote *: The patriarch Anastasius, an Iconoclast under Leo,
an image worshipper under Artavasdes, was scourged, led through
the streets on an ass, with his face to the tail; and, reinvested
in his dignity, became again the obsequious minister of
Constantine in his Iconoclastic persecutions. See Schlosser p.
211. - M.]

[Footnote !: Compare Schlosser, p. 228 - 234. - M.]

[Footnote 24: In the narrative of this persecution from
Theophanes and Cedreves, Spanheim (p. 235 - 238) is happy to
compare the Draco of Leo with the dragoons (Dracones) of Louis
XIV.; and highly solaces himself with the controversial pun.]

[Footnote 25: (Damascen. Op. tom. i. p. 625.) This oath and
subscription I do not remember to have seen in any modern
compilation]

The patient East abjured, with reluctance, her sacred
images; they were fondly cherished, and vigorously defended, by
the independent zeal of the Italians. In ecclesiastical rank and
jurisdiction, the patriarch of Constantinople and the pope of
Rome were nearly equal. But the Greek prelate was a domestic
slave under the eye of his master, at whose nod he alternately
passed from the convent to the throne, and from the throne to the
convent. A distant and dangerous station, amidst the Barbarians
of the West, excited the spirit and freedom of the Latin bishops.

Their popular election endeared them to the Romans: the public
and private indigence was relieved by their ample revenue; and
the weakness or neglect of the emperors compelled them to
consult, both in peace and war, the temporal safety of the city.
In the school of adversity the priest insensibly imbibed the
virtues and the ambition of a prince; the same character was
assumed, the same policy was adopted, by the Italian, the Greek,
or the Syrian, who ascended the chair of St. Peter; and, after
the loss of her legions and provinces, the genius and fortune of
the popes again restored the supremacy of Rome. It is agreed,
that in the eighth century, their dominion was founded on
rebellion, and that the rebellion was produced, and justified, by
the heresy of the Iconoclasts; but the conduct of the second and
third Gregory, in this memorable contest, is variously
interpreted by the wishes of their friends and enemies. The
Byzantine writers unanimously declare, that, after a fruitless
admonition, they pronounced the separation of the East and West,
and deprived the sacrilegious tyrant of the revenue and
sovereignty of Italy. Their excommunication is still more
clearly expressed by the Greeks, who beheld the accomplishment of
the papal triumphs; and as they are more strongly attached to
their religion than to their country, they praise, instead of
blaming, the zeal and orthodoxy of these apostolical men. ^26 The
modern champions of Rome are eager to accept the praise and the
precedent: this great and glorious example of the deposition of
royal heretics is celebrated by the cardinals Baronius and
Bellarmine; ^27 and if they are asked, why the same thunders were
not hurled against the Neros and Julians of antiquity, they
reply, that the weakness of the primitive church was the sole
cause of her patient loyalty. ^28 On this occasion the effects of
love and hatred are the same; and the zealous Protestants, who
seek to kindle the indignation, and to alarm the fears, of
princes and magistrates, expatiate on the insolence and treason
of the two Gregories against their lawful sovereign. ^29 They are
defended only by the moderate Catholics, for the most part, of
the Gallican church, ^30 who respect the saint, without approving
the sin. These common advocates of the crown and the mitre
circumscribe the truth of facts by the rule of equity, Scripture,
and tradition, and appeal to the evidence of the Latins, ^31 and
the lives ^32 and epistles of the popes themselves.

[Footnote 26: Theophanes. (Chronograph. p. 343.) For this Gregory
is styled by Cedrenus . (p. 450.) Zonaras specifies the thunder,
(tom. ii. l. xv. p. 104, 105.) It may be observed, that the
Greeks are apt to confound the times and actions of two
Gregories.]

[Footnote 27: See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 730, No. 4, 5;
dignum exemplum! Bellarmin. de Romano Pontifice, l. v. c. 8:
mulctavit eum parte imperii. Sigonius, de Regno Italiae, l. iii.
Opera, tom. ii. p. 169. Yet such is the change of Italy, that
Sigonius is corrected by the editor of Milan, Philipus Argelatus,
a Bolognese, and subject of the pope.]

[Footnote 28: Quod si Christiani olim non deposuerunt Neronem aut
Julianum, id fuit quia deerant vires temporales Christianis,
(honest Bellarmine, de Rom. Pont. l. v. c. 7.) Cardinal Perron
adds a distinction more honorable to the first Christians, but
not more satisfactory to modern princes - the treason of heretics
and apostates, who break their oath, belie their coin, and
renounce their allegiance to Christ and his vicar, (Perroniana,
p. 89.)]

[Footnote 29: Take, as a specimen, the cautious Basnage (Hist.
d'Eglise, p. 1350, 1351) and the vehement Spanheim, (Hist.
Imaginum,) who, with a hundred more, tread in the footsteps of
the centuriators of Magdeburgh.]

[Footnote 30: See Launoy, (Opera, tom. v. pars ii. epist. vii. 7,
p. 456 - 474,) Natalis Alexander, (Hist. Nov. Testamenti, secul.
viii. dissert. i. p. 92 - 98,) Pagi, (Critica, tom. iii. p. 215,
216,) and Giannone, (Istoria Civile Napoli, tom. i. p. 317 -
320,) a disciple of the Gallican school In the field of
controversy I always pity the moderate party, who stand on the
open middle ground exposed to the fire of both sides.]

[Footnote 31: They appeal to Paul Warnefrid, or Diaconus, (de
Gestis Langobard. l. vi. c. 49, p. 506, 507, in Script. Ital.
Muratori, tom. i. pars i.,) and the nominal Anastasius, (de Vit.
Pont. in Muratori, tom. iii. pars i. Gregorius II. p. 154.
Gregorius III. p. 158. Zacharias, p. 161. Stephanus III. p. 165.

Paulus, p. 172. Stephanus IV. p. 174. Hadrianus, p. 179. Leo
III. p. 195.) Yet I may remark, that the true Anastasius (Hist.
Eccles. p. 134, edit. Reg.) and the Historia Miscella, (l. xxi.
p. 151, in tom. i. Script. Ital.,) both of the ixth century,
translate and approve the Greek text of Theophanes.]

[Footnote 32: With some minute difference, the most learned
critics, Lucas Holstenius, Schelestrate, Ciampini, Bianchini,
Muratori, (Prolegomena ad tom. iii. pars i.,) are agreed that the
Liber Pontificalis was composed and continued by the apostolic
librarians and notaries of the viiith and ixth centuries; and
that the last and smallest part is the work of Anastasius, whose
name it bears. The style is barbarous, the narrative partial,
the details are trifling - yet it must be read as a curious and
authentic record of the times. The epistles of the popes are
dispersed in the volumes of Councils.]

Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks.

Part II.

Two original epistles, from Gregory the Second to the
emperor Leo, are still extant; ^33 and if they cannot be praised
as the most perfect models of eloquence and logic, they exhibit
the portrait, or at least the mask, of the founder of the papal
monarchy. "During ten pure and fortunate years," says Gregory to
the emperor, "we have tasted the annual comfort of your royal
letters, subscribed in purple ink, with your own hand, the sacred
pledges of your attachment to the orthodox creed of our fathers.
How deplorable is the change! how tremendous the scandal! You
now accuse the Catholics of idolatry; and, by the accusation, you
betray your own impiety and ignorance. To this ignorance we are
compelled to adapt the grossness of our style and arguments: the
first elements of holy letters are sufficient for your confusion;
and were you to enter a grammar-school, and avow yourself the
enemy of our worship, the simple and pious children would be
provoked to cast their horn-books at your head." After this
decent salutation, the pope attempts the usual distinction
between the idols of antiquity and the Christian images. The
former were the fanciful representations of phantoms or daemons,
at a time when the true God had not manifested his person in any
visible likeness. The latter are the genuine forms of Christ,
his mother, and his saints, who had approved, by a crowd of
miracles, the innocence and merit of this relative worship. He
must indeed have trusted to the ignorance of Leo, since he could
assert the perpetual use of images, from the apostolic age, and
their venerable presence in the six synods of the Catholic
church. A more specious argument is drawn from present
possession and recent practice the harmony of the Christian world
supersedes the demand of a general council; and Gregory frankly
confesses, than such assemblies can only be useful under the
reign of an orthodox prince. To the impudent and inhuman Leo,
more guilty than a heretic, he recommends peace, silence, and
implicit obedience to his spiritual guides of Constantinople and
Rome. The limits of civil and ecclesiastical powers are defined
by the pontiff. To the former he appropriates the body; to the
latter, the soul: the sword of justice is in the hands of the
magistrate: the more formidable weapon of excommunication is
intrusted to the clergy; and in the exercise of their divine
commission a zealous son will not spare his offending father: the
successor of St. Peter may lawfully chastise the kings of the
earth. "You assault us, O tyrant! with a carnal and military
hand: unarmed and naked we can only implore the Christ, the
prince of the heavenly host, that he will send unto you a devil,
for the destruction of your body and the salvation of your soul.
You declare, with foolish arrogance, I will despatch my orders to
Rome: I will break in pieces the image of St. Peter; and Gregory,
like his predecessor Martin, shall be transported in chains, and
in exile, to the foot of the Imperial throne. Would to God that
I might be permitted to tread in the footsteps of the holy
Martin! but may the fate of Constans serve as a warning to the
persecutors of the church! After his just condemnation by the
bishops of Sicily, the tyrant was cut off, in the fullness of his
sins, by a domestic servant: the saint is still adored by the
nations of Scythia, among whom he ended his banishment and his
life. But it is our duty to live for the edification and support
of the faithful people; nor are we reduced to risk our safety on
the event of a combat. Incapable as you are of defending your
Roman subjects, the maritime situation of the city may perhaps
expose it to your depredation but we can remove to the distance
of four-and-twenty stadia, to the first fortress of the Lombards,
and then - you may pursue the winds. Are you ignorant that the
popes are the bond of union, the mediators of peace, between the
East and West? The eyes of the nations are fixed on our
humility; and they revere, as a God upon earth, the apostle St.
Peter, whose image you threaten to destroy. ^35 The remote and
interior kingdoms of the West present their homage to Christ and
his vicegerent; and we now prepare to visit one of their most
powerful monarchs, who desires to receive from our hands the
sacrament of baptism. ^36 The Barbarians have submitted to the
yoke of the gospel, while you alone are deaf to the voice of the
shepherd. These pious Barbarians are kindled into rage: they
thirst to avenge the persecution of the East. Abandon your rash
and fatal enterprise; reflect, tremble, and repent. If you
persist, we are innocent of the blood that will be spilt in the
contest; may it fall on your own head!"

[Footnote 33: The two epistles of Gregory II. have been preserved
in the Acta of the Nicene Council, (tom. viii. p. 651 - 674.)
They are without a date, which is variously fixed, by Baronius in
the year 726, by Muratori (Annali d'Italia, tom. vi. p. 120) in
729, and by Pagi in 730. Such is the force of prejudice, that
some papists have praised the good sense and moderation of these
letters.]

[Footnote 34: (Epist. i. p. 664.) This proximity of the Lombards
is hard of digestion. Camillo Pellegrini (Dissert. iv. de Ducatu
Beneventi, in the Script. Ital. tom. v. p. 172, 173) forcibly
reckons the xxivth stadia, not from Rome, but from the limits of
the Roman duchy, to the first fortress, perhaps Sora, of the
Lombards. I rather believe that Gregory, with the pedantry of
the age, employs stadia for miles, without much inquiry into the
genuine measure.]

[Footnote 35: {Greek}]

[Footnote 36: (p. 665.) The pope appears to have imposed on the
ignorance of the Greeks: he lived and died in the Lateran; and in
his time all the kingdoms of the West had embraced Christianity.
May not this unknown Septetus have some reference to the chief of
the Saxon Heptarchy, to Ina king of Wessex, who, in the
pontificate of Gregory the Second, visited Rome for the purpose,
not of baptism, but of pilgrimage! Pagi. A., 89, No. 2. A.D.
726, No. 15.)]

The first assault of Leo against the images of
Constantinople had been witnessed by a crowd of strangers from
Italy and the West, who related with grief and indignation the
sacrilege of the emperor. But on the reception of his
proscriptive edict, they trembled for their domestic deities: the
images of Christ and the Virgin, of the angels, martyrs, and
saints, were abolished in all the churches of Italy; and a strong
alternative was proposed to the Roman pontiff, the royal favor as
the price of his compliance, degradation and exile as the penalty
of his disobedience. Neither zeal nor policy allowed him to
hesitate; and the haughty strain in which Gregory addressed the
emperor displays his confidence in the truth of his doctrine or
the powers of resistance. Without depending on prayers or
miracles, he boldly armed against the public enemy, and his
pastoral letters admonished the Italians of their danger and
their duty. ^37 At this signal, Ravenna, Venice, and the cities
of the Exarchate and Pentapolis, adhered to the cause of
religion; their military force by sea and land consisted, for the
most part, of the natives; and the spirit of patriotism and zeal
was transfused into the mercenary strangers. The Italians swore
to live and die in the defence of the pope and the holy images;
the Roman people was devoted to their father, and even the
Lombards were ambitious to share the merit and advantage of this
holy war. The most treasonable act, but the most obvious
revenge, was the destruction of the statues of Leo himself: the
most effectual and pleasing measure of rebellion, was the
withholding the tribute of Italy, and depriving him of a power
which he had recently abused by the imposition of a new
capitation. ^38 A form of administration was preserved by the
election of magistrates and governors; and so high was the public
indignation, that the Italians were prepared to create an
orthodox emperor, and to conduct him with a fleet and army to the
palace of Constantinople. In that palace, the Roman bishops, the
second and third Gregory, were condemned as the authors of the
revolt, and every attempt was made, either by fraud or force, to
seize their persons, and to strike at their lives. The city was
repeatedly visited or assaulted by captains of the guards, and
dukes and exarchs of high dignity or secret trust; they landed
with foreign troops, they obtained some domestic aid, and the
superstition of Naples may blush that her fathers were attached
to the cause of heresy. But these clandestine or open attacks
were repelled by the courage and vigilance of the Romans; the
Greeks were overthrown and massacred, their leaders suffered an
ignominious death, and the popes, however inclined to mercy,
refused to intercede for these guilty victims. At Ravenna, ^39
the several quarters of the city had long exercised a bloody and
hereditary feud; in religious controversy they found a new
aliment of faction: but the votaries of images were superior in
numbers or spirit, and the exarch, who attempted to stem the
torrent, lost his life in a popular sedition. To punish this
flagitious deed, and restore his dominion in Italy, the emperor
sent a fleet and army into the Adriatic Gulf. After suffering
from the winds and waves much loss and delay, the Greeks made
their descent in the neighborhood of Ravenna: they threatened to
depopulate the guilty capital, and to imitate, perhaps to
surpass, the example of Justinian the Second, who had chastised a
former rebellion by the choice and execution of fifty of the
principal inhabitants. The women and clergy, in sackcloth and
ashes, lay prostrate in prayer: the men were in arms for the
defence of their country; the common danger had united the
factions, and the event of a battle was preferred to the slow
miseries of a siege. In a hard-fought day, as the two armies
alternately yielded and advanced, a phantom was seen, a voice was
heard, and Ravenna was victorious by the assurance of victory.
The strangers retreated to their ships, but the populous
sea-coast poured forth a multitude of boats; the waters of the Po
were so deeply infected with blood, that during six years the
public prejudice abstained from the fish of the river; and the
institution of an annual feast perpetuated the worship of images,
and the abhorrence of the Greek tyrant. Amidst the triumph of
the Catholic arms, the Roman pontiff convened a synod of
ninety-three bishops against the heresy of the Iconoclasts. With
their consent, he pronounced a general excommunication against
all who by word or deed should attack the tradition of the
fathers and the images of the saints: in this sentence the
emperor was tacitly involved, ^40 but the vote of a last and
hopeless remonstrance may seem to imply that the anathema was yet
suspended over his guilty head. No sooner had they confirmed
their own safety, the worship of images, and the freedom of Rome
and Italy, than the popes appear to have relaxed of their
severity, and to have spared the relics of the Byzantine
dominion. Their moderate councils delayed and prevented the
election of a new emperor, and they exhorted the Italians not to
separate from the body of the Roman monarchy. The exarch was
permitted to reside within the walls of Ravenna, a captive rather
than a master; and till the Imperial coronation of Charlemagne,
the government of Rome and Italy was exercised in the name of the
successors of Constantine. ^41