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176-655: Iconoclasm is the deliberate destruction within a culture of the culture's own religious images and other symbols or monuments, usually for religious or political motives. People who engage in or support iconoclasm are called iconoclasts , Greek for 'breakers of icons' ( εἰκονοκλάσται ), a term that has come to be applied figuratively to any person who breaks or disdains established dogmata or conventions. Conversely, people who revere or venerate religious images are derisively called "iconolaters" ( εἰκονολάτρες ). They are normally known as " iconodules " ( εἰκονόδουλοι ), or "iconophiles" ( εἰκονόφιλοι ). These terms were, however, not

352-761: A Synod held in the Hagia Sophia. Leo was succeeded by Michael II , who in an 824 letter to the Carolingian emperor Louis the Pious lamented the appearance of image veneration in the church and such practices as making icons baptismal godfathers to infants. He confirmed the decrees of the Iconoclast Council of 754. Michael was succeeded by his son, Theophilus . Theophilus died leaving his wife Theodora regent for his minor heir, Michael III . Like Irene 50 years before her, Theodora presided over

528-426: A Christian work. For I am convinced that it is God's will that we should hear and learn what He has done, especially what Christ suffered. But when I hear these things and meditate upon them, I find it impossible not to picture them in my heart. Whether I want to or not, when I hear, of Christ, a human form hanging upon a cross rises up in my heart: just as I see my natural face reflected when I look into water. Now if it

704-520: A booty of 20 million dinars . The attack may have been inspired by the belief that an idol of the goddess Manat had been secretly transferred to the temple. According to the Ghaznavid court-poet Farrukhi Sistani , who claimed to have accompanied Mahmud on his raid, Somnat (as rendered in Persian ) was a garbled version of su-manat referring to the goddess Manat. According to him, as well as

880-486: A campaign of intolerance towards the traditional gods and a new emphasis on a state monolatristic tradition focused on the god Aten , the Sun disk—many temples and monuments were destroyed as a result: In rebellion against the old religion and the powerful priests of Amun , Akhenaten ordered the eradication of all of Egypt's traditional gods. He sent royal officials to chisel out and destroy every reference to Amun and

1056-430: A complete, objective, balanced, and reliably accurate account of events and various aspects of the controversy. The period was marked by intensely polarized debate amongst at least the clergy, and both sides came to regard the position of the other as heresy , and accordingly made efforts to destroy the writings of the other side when they had the chance. Leo III is said to have ordered the destruction of iconodule texts at

1232-584: A complex ritual choreography set in a richly furnished church interior." For Lutherans, "the Reformation renewed rather than removed the religious image." Lutheran scholar Jeremiah Ohl writes: Zwingli and others for the sake of saving the Word rejected all plastic art; Luther, with an equal concern for the Word, but far more conservative, would have all the arts to be the servants of the Gospel. "I am not of

1408-553: A concession, the mosque in Constantinople was reopened and the khutba sermons were to be pronounced in az-Zahir's name. Muslim sources say a by-product of the agreement was the renunciation of Islam by many Christians who had been forced to convert under al-Hakim's persecutions. In addition, the Byzantines, while releasing 5,000 Muslim prisoners, made demands for the restoration of other churches destroyed by al-Hakim and

1584-478: A desire to replicate the military success of Constantine V. The Byzantines had suffered a series of humiliating defeats at the hands of the Bulgarian Khan Krum , in the course of which emperor Nikephoros I had been killed in battle and emperor Michael I Rangabe had been forced to abdicate. In June 813, a month before the coronation of Leo V, a group of soldiers broke into the imperial mausoleum in

1760-462: A factional split in the church, but rather to an ongoing issue of concern, and Germanos refers to Emperor Leo III, often presented as the original Iconoclast, as a friend of images. Germanos' concerns are mainly that the actions of Constantine and Thomas should not confuse the laity. At this stage in the debate, there is no clear evidence for an imperial involvement in the debate, except that Germanos says he believes that Leo III supports images, leaving

1936-399: A few of them survive." In Japan during the early modern age, the spread of Catholicism also involved the repulsion of non-Christian religious structures, including Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines and figures. At times of conflict with rivals or some time after the conversion of several daimyos , Christian converts would often destroy Buddhist and Shinto religious structures. Many of

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2112-519: A figurative mosaic by Emperor Constantine V in the apse of Hagia Irene in Constantinople is itself an almost unique survival, but careful inspection of some other buildings reveals similar changes. In Nicaea , photographs of the Church of the Dormition, taken before it was destroyed in 1922, show that a pre-iconoclasm standing Theotokos was replaced by a large cross, which was itself replaced by

2288-655: A form of contact relic, which additionally were taken to prove divine approval of the use of icons. The two most famous were the Mandylion of Edessa (where it still remained) and the Image of Camuliana from Cappadocia , by then in Constantinople. The latter was already regarded as a palladium that had won battles and saved Constantinople from the Persian - Avar siege of 626 , when the Patriarch paraded it around

2464-480: A growing opposition among many in the church, although the progress and extent of these views is now unclear. Images in the form of mosaics and paintings were widely used in churches, homes and other places such as over city gates, and had since the reign of Justinian I been increasingly taking on a spiritual significance of their own, and regarded at least in the popular mind as capable of possessing capacities in their own right, so that "the image acts or behaves as

2640-459: A hideous triumph in the market-place before all the country, when all the mangled organ pipes, vestments, both copes and surplices, together with the leaden cross which had newly been sawn down from the Green-yard pulpit and the service-books and singing books that could be carried to the fire in the public market-place were heaped together. Protestant Christianity was not uniformly hostile to

2816-550: A higher fourth-century wall built to support Constantine's basilica. After the excavations of the early 1970s, the Armenian authorities converted this archaeological space into the Chapel of Saint Vartan , and created an artificial walkway over the quarry on the north of the chapel, so that the new chapel could be accessed (by permission) from the Chapel of Saint Helena. After seven decades of being held together by steel girders,

2992-519: A later Ghaznavid historian Abu Sa'id Gardezi , the images of the other goddesses were destroyed in Arabia but the one of Manat was secretly sent away to Kathiawar (in modern Gujarat) for safekeeping. Since the idol of Manat was an aniconic image of black stone, it could have been easily confused with a lingam at Somnath. Mahmud is said to have broken the idol and taken away parts of it as loot and placed so that people would walk on it. In his letters to

3168-413: A layer of debris was visible. This was cleared in the next day, and a partially broken marble slab with a Crusader-style cross carved was revealed. By the night of 28 October, the original limestone burial bed was shown to be intact. The tomb was resealed shortly thereafter. Mortar from just above the burial bed was later dated to the mid-fourth century. On 25 March 2020, Israeli health officials ordered

3344-566: A natural death, remained in power until they died, and were then laid to rest with all honors in the imperial mausoleum in the Church of the Holy Apostles. Leo next appointed a "commission" of monks "to look into the old books" and reach a decision on the veneration of images. They soon discovered the acts of the Iconoclastic Synod of 754. A first debate followed between Leo's supporters and the clerics who continued to advocate

3520-488: A new ecumenical council, ultimately called the Second Council of Nicaea , which first met in Constantinople in 786 but was disrupted by military units faithful to the iconoclast legacy. The council convened again at Nicaea in 787 and reversed the decrees of the previous iconoclast council held at Constantinople and Hieria, and appropriated its title as Seventh Ecumenical Council . Thus there were two councils called

3696-536: A part of the Byzantine debate over images. They have been brought into common usage by modern historians (from the seventeenth century) and their application to Byzantium increased considerably in the late twentieth century. The Byzantine term for the debate over religious imagery, iconomachy , means "struggle over images" or "image struggle". Some sources also say that the Iconoclasts were against intercession to

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3872-635: A part of the claimed remains of, or had supposedly come into contact with, Christ, the Virgin or a saint, were also widely utilized in Christian practices at this time. Relics, a firmly embedded part of veneration by this period, provided physical presence of the divine but were not infinitely reproducible (an original relic was required), and still usually required believers to undertake pilgrimage or have contact with somebody who had. The use of images had greatly increased during this period, and had generated

4048-461: A pretext to turn the church into a mosque. Eutychius of Alexandria adds that Umar wrote a decree saying that Muslims would not inhabit this location. The building suffered severe damage from an earthquake in 746. Early in the ninth century, another earthquake damaged the dome of the Anastasis. The damage was repaired in 810 by Patriarch Thomas I . In 841, the church suffered a fire. In 935,

4224-485: A purely Islamic coinage with lettering only. A letter by the Patriarch Germanus , written before 726 to two iconoclast bishops, says that "now whole towns and multitudes of people are in considerable agitation over this matter," but there is little written evidence of the debate. Government-led iconoclasm began with Byzantine Emperor Leo III , who issued a series of edicts between 726 and 730 against

4400-768: A question as to why Leo III has been presented as the arch-iconoclast of Byzantine history. Almost all of the evidence for the reign of Leo III is derived from textual sources, the majority of which post-date his reign considerably, most notably the Life by Stephen the Younger and the Chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor . These important sources are fiercely iconophile and are hostile to the Emperor Constantine V (741–775). As Constantine's father, Leo also became

4576-496: A representative. The iconoclast Council of Hieria was not the end of the matter, however. In this period complex theological arguments appeared, both for and against the use of icons. Constantine himself wrote opposing the veneration of images, while John of Damascus , a Syrian monk living outside of Byzantine territory, became a major opponent of iconoclasm through his theological writings. It has been suggested that monasteries became secret bastions of icon support, but this view

4752-581: A strong tradition of forbidding the depiction of figures, especially religious figures, with Sunni Islam forbidding it more than Shia Islam . In the history of Islam , the act of removing idols from the Ka'ba in Mecca has great symbolic and historic importance for all believers. In general, Muslim societies have avoided the depiction of living beings (both animals and humans) within such sacred spaces as mosques and madrasahs . This ban on figural representation

4928-409: A target. Leo's actual views on icon veneration remain obscure, but in any case, may not have influenced the initial phase of the debate. During this initial period, concern on both sides seems to have had little to do with theology and more with practical evidence and effects. There was initially no church council, and no prominent patriarchs or bishops called for the removal or destruction of icons. In

5104-493: Is accused of being obsessive in his hostility to images and monks; because of this he burned monasteries and images and turned churches into stables, according to the surviving iconophile sources. In 754 Constantine summoned the Council of Hieria in which some 330 to 340 bishops participated and which was the first church council to concern itself primarily with religious imagery. Constantine seems to have been closely involved with

5280-547: Is also the seat of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem . Some consider it the holiest site in Christianity and it has been an important pilgrimage site for Christians since the fourth century . According to traditions dating to the fourth century, the church contains both the site where Jesus was crucified at Calvary , or Golgotha, and the location of Jesus's empty tomb , where he

5456-405: Is called (by iconoclasts) an iconolater ; in a Byzantine context, such a person is called an iconodule or iconophile. Iconoclasm does not generally encompass the destruction of the images of a specific ruler after his or her death or overthrow, a practice better known as damnatio memoriae . While iconoclasm may be carried out by adherents of a different religion , it is more commonly

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5632-508: Is controversial. A possible reason for this interpretation is the desire in some historiography on Byzantine Iconoclasm to see it as a preface to the later Protestant Reformation in western Europe, which was opposed to monastic establishments. In opposition to this view, others have suggested that while some monks continued to support image veneration, many others followed church and imperial policy. The surviving sources accuse Constantine V of moving against monasteries, having relics thrown into

5808-680: Is not based on the Qur'an , instead, it is based on traditions which are described within the Hadith . The prohibition of figuration has not always been extended to the secular sphere, and a robust tradition of figural representation exists within Muslim art . However, Western authors have tended to perceive "a long, culturally determined, and unchanging tradition of violent iconoclastic acts" within Islamic society . The first act of Muslim iconoclasm dates to

5984-587: Is not sinful for me to have Christ's picture in my heart, why should it be sinful to have it before my eyes? The Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent , who had pragmatic reasons to support the Dutch Revolt (the rebels, like himself, were fighting against Spain) also completely approved of their act of "destroying idols," which accorded well with Muslim teachings. A bit later in Dutch history, in 1627

6160-533: Is shared among several Christian denominations and secular entities in complicated arrangements essentially unchanged for over 160 years, and some for much longer. The main denominations sharing property over parts of the church are the Roman Catholic , Greek Orthodox , Armenian Apostolic , Coptic , Syriac , and Ethiopian Orthodox churches. Directly adjacent to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

6336-530: Is strange that Aaron could so easily avoid the role of the religious criminal. It is more than probable that these traditions evolved under mutual influence. In this respect, Moses and Akhenaten became, after all, closely related. According to the Hebrew Bible , God instructed the Israelites to "destroy all [the] engraved stones, destroy all [the] molded images, and demolish all [the] high places" of

6512-802: Is the Church of the Redeemer , marking a Lutheran presence at the site. The church was named either for the Resurrection of Jesus , or for his tomb, which is at its focal point. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is also known as the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre and the Holy Sepulchre . Eastern Christians also call it the Church of the Resurrection and the Church of the Anastasis , Anastasis being Greek for Resurrection. After

6688-464: Is the social belief in the importance of the destruction of icons and other images or monuments, most frequently for religious or political reasons. People who engage in or support iconoclasm are called iconoclasts , a term that has come to be figuratively applied to any individual who challenges "cherished beliefs or venerated institutions on the grounds that they are erroneous or pernicious." Conversely, one who reveres or venerates religious images

6864-422: Is thus difficult to reconstruct a balanced view of the popularity or prevalence of iconoclast writings. The major theological arguments, however, remain in evidence because of the need in iconophile writings to record the positions being refuted. Debate seems to have centred on the validity of the depiction of Jesus , and the validity of images of other figures followed on from this for both sides. The main points of

7040-520: Is unknown, but the change certainly caused Caliph Abd al-Malik to break permanently with his previous adoption of Byzantine coin types to start a purely Islamic coinage with lettering only. This appears more like two opposed camps asserting their positions (pro and anti images) than one empire seeking to imitate the other. More striking is the fact that Islamic iconoclasm rejected any depictions of living people or animals, not only religious images. By contrast, Byzantine iconomachy concerned itself only with

7216-480: Is vain and introduced by the devil), and does not rather represent their virtues as living images in himself, etc. ... let him be anathema." This Council claimed to be the legitimate "Seventh Ecumenical Council", but its legitimacy is disregarded by both Orthodox and Catholic traditions as no patriarchs or representatives of the five patriarchs were present: Constantinople was vacant while Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria were controlled by Muslims, and Rome did not send

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7392-636: The Aedicule by Komnenos had deteriorated badly and was detaching from the underlying structure; from 1947 until restoration work in 2016–17, it was held in place with an exterior scaffolding of iron girders installed by the British authorities . After the care of the British Empire , the Church of England had an important role in the appropriation of the Holy Sepulcher, such as funds for

7568-630: The Caliphate , Mahmud exaggerated the size, wealth and religious significance of the Somnath temple, receiving grandiose titles from the Caliph in return. The wooden structure was replaced by Kumarapala (r. 1143–72), who rebuilt the temple out of stone. Historical records which were compiled by the Muslim historian Maulana Hakim Saiyid Abdul Hai attest to the religious violence which occurred during

7744-503: The Church of the Holy Apostles , opened the sarcophagus of Constantine V, and implored him to return and save the empire. Soon after his accession, Leo V began to discuss the possibility of reviving iconoclasm with a variety of people, including priests, monks, and members of the senate. He is reported to have remarked to a group of advisors that: all the emperors, who took up images and venerated them, met their death either in revolt or in war; but those who did not venerate images all died

7920-580: The Crusades . In wide-ranging negotiations between the Fatimids and the Byzantine Empire in 1027–1028, an agreement was reached whereby the new Caliph Ali az-Zahir (al-Hakim's son) agreed to allow the rebuilding and redecoration of the church. The rebuilding was finally completed during the tenures of Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos and Patriarch Nicephorus of Jerusalem in 1048. As

8096-586: The Eastern Association of counties. This covered some of the wealthiest counties in England , which in turn financed a substantial and significant military force. After Earl of Manchester was appointed the commanding officer of these forces, in turn he appointed Smasher Dowsing as Provost Marshal , with a warrant to demolish religious images which were considered to be superstitious or linked with popism. Bishop Joseph Hall of Norwich described

8272-635: The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) declared the visibly deteriorating Aedicule structure unsafe. A restoration of the Aedicule was agreed upon and executed from May 2016 to March 2017. Much of the $ 4 million project was funded by the World Monuments Fund , as well as $ 1.3 million from Mica Ertegün and a significant sum from King Abdullah II of Jordan . The existence of the original limestone cave walls within

8448-521: The Life of St. Stephen the Younger , which includes a detailed, but highly biased, account of persecutions during the reign of Constantine V . No account of the period in question written by an iconoclast has been preserved, although certain saints' lives do seem to preserve elements of the iconoclast worldview. Major theological sources include the writings of John of Damascus , Theodore the Studite , and

8624-678: The Mamluk dynasty under Qutb-ud-din Aybak . The first mosque built in Delhi, the " Quwwat al-Islam " was built with demolished parts of 20 Hindu and Jain temples. This pattern of iconoclasm was common during his reign. During the Delhi Sultanate , a Muslim army led by Malik Kafur , a general of Alauddin Khalji , pursued four violent campaigns into south India, between 1309 and 1311, against

8800-546: The Muristan . This narrow way of access to such a large structure has proven to be hazardous at times. For example, when a fire broke out in 1840, dozens of pilgrims were trampled to death. According to their own family lore, the Muslim Nuseibeh family has been responsible for opening the door as an impartial party to the church's denominations already since the seventh century. However, they themselves admit that

8976-538: The Muslims and the eruption of the volcanic island of Thera , which Leo possibly viewed as evidence of the Wrath of God brought on by image veneration in the Church. Leo is said to have described mere image veneration as "a craft of idolatry." He apparently forbade the veneration of religious images in a 730 edict, which did not apply to other forms of art, including the image of the emperor, or religious symbols such as

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9152-539: The Quinisext council in 692 did not explicitly state that images should be prayed to, it stated that images of Christ had to render him in human form (instead of for example symbolically as a lamb) to testify to his human incarnation. Because Jesus manifested himself as human it was acceptable to make images of him just like it was acceptable to make images of the saints and other humans. The events which have traditionally been labelled 'Byzantine Iconoclasm' may be seen as

9328-592: The Synod of Elvira appeared to endorse iconoclasm; Canon 36 states, "Pictures are not to be placed in churches, so that they do not become objects of worship and adoration." A possible translation is also: "There shall be no pictures in the church, lest what is worshipped and adored should be depicted on the walls." The date of this canon is disputed. Proscription ceased after the destruction of pagan temples. However, widespread use of Christian iconography only began as Christianity increasingly spread among Gentiles after

9504-734: The Virgin Mary , referred to in Greek as the Theotokos ("birth-giver of God") or Meter Theou ("Mother of God"), the saints, living holy men, women, and spiritual elders, followed by the rest of humanity. Thus, in order to obtain blessings or divine favour, early Christians, like Christians today, would often pray or ask an intermediary, such as the saints or the Theotokos, or living fellow Christians believed to be holy, to intercede on their behalf with Christ. A strong sacramentality and belief in

9680-466: The complete destruction of the church as part of a more general campaign against Christian places of worship in Palestine and Egypt. The damage was extensive, with few parts of the early church remaining, and the roof of the rock-cut tomb damaged; the original shrine was destroyed. Some partial repairs followed. Christian Europe reacted with shock: it was a spur to expulsions of Jews and, later on,

9856-547: The iconodules , which Leo III stated was in direct opposition to Mosaic Law as shown in the Second Commandment . However, no detailed writings setting out iconoclast arguments have survived; we have only brief quotations and references in the writings of the iconodules and the nature of Biblical law in Christianity has always been in dispute. Newer studies have discredited the former theory that Iconoclasm

10032-607: The legalization of Christianity by Roman Emperor Constantine (c. 312 AD). During the process of Christianisation under Constantine, Christian groups destroyed the images and sculptures expressive of the Roman Empire 's polytheist state religion. Among early church theologians, iconoclastic tendencies were supported by theologians such as Tertullian , Clement of Alexandria , Origen , Lactantius , Justin Martyr , Eusebius and Epiphanius . The period after

10208-527: The moai of Easter Island were toppled during the 18th century in the iconoclasm of civil wars before any European encounter. Other instances of iconoclasm may have occurred throughout Eastern Polynesia during its conversion to Christianity in the 19th century. After the Second Vatican Council in the late 20th century, some Roman Catholic parish churches discarded much of their traditional imagery, art, and architecture. Islam has

10384-416: The recent and apparently on-going destruction of historic sites by Saudi Arabian authorities, prompted by the fear they could become the subject of " idolatry ." A recent act of iconoclasm was the 2001 destruction of the giant Buddhas of Bamyan by the then- Taliban government of Afghanistan . The act generated worldwide protests and was not supported by other Muslim governments and organizations. It

10560-596: The siege of Jerusalem in AD 70 during the First Jewish–Roman War , Jerusalem had been reduced to ruins. In AD 130, the Roman emperor Hadrian began the building of a Roman colony, the new city of Aelia Capitolina , on the site. About AD 135, he ordered that a cave containing a rock-cut tomb be filled in to make a flat foundation for a temple dedicated to Jupiter or Venus . The temple remained until

10736-441: The veneration of images. The religious conflict created political and economic divisions in Byzantine society; iconoclasm was generally supported by the Eastern, poorer, non-Greek peoples of the Empire who had to frequently deal with raids from the new Muslim Empire. On the other hand, the wealthier Greeks of Constantinople and the peoples of the Balkan and Italian provinces strongly opposed iconoclasm. Peter of Bruys opposed

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10912-429: The "Seventh Ecumenical Council," the first supporting iconoclasm, the second supporting icon veneration. Unlike the iconoclast council, the iconophile council included papal representatives, and its decrees were approved by the papacy. The Orthodox Church considers it to be the last genuine ecumenical council. Icon veneration lasted through the reign of Empress Irene 's successor, Nikephoros I (reigned 802–811), and

11088-423: The 1970–78 restoration works and excavations inside the building, and under the nearby Muristan bazaar, it was found that the area was originally a quarry, from which white meleke limestone was struck. East of the Chapel of Saint Helena, the excavators discovered a void containing a second-century drawing of a Roman pilgrim ship, two low walls supporting the platform of Hadrian's second-century temple, and

11264-430: The 8th century, Bengali troops from the Buddhist Pala Empire looted temples of Vishnu , the state deity of Lalitaditya 's kingdom in Kashmir . In the early 9th century, Indian Hindu kings from Kanchipuram and the Pandyan king Srimara Srivallabha looted Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka . In the early 10th century, the Pratihara king Herambapala looted an image from a temple in the Sahi kingdom of Kangra , which

11440-466: The Aedicule was confirmed, and a window was created to view this from the inside. The presence of moisture led to the discovery of an underground shaft resembling an escape tunnel carved into the bedrock, seeming to lead from the tomb. For the first time since at least 1555, on 26 October 2016, marble cladding that protects the supposed burial bed of Jesus was removed. Members of the National Technical University of Athens were present. Initially, only

11616-475: The Byzantine Empire during the 8th and 9th centuries made use of this theological theme in discussions over the propriety of images of holy figures, including Christ, the Virgin Mary (or Theotokos ) and saints. It was a debate triggered by changes in Orthodox worship, which were themselves generated by the major social and political upheavals of the seventh century for the Byzantine Empire. Traditional explanations for Byzantine iconoclasm have sometimes focused on

11792-512: The Byzantine Empire, formed a catalyst for the expansion of the use of images of the holy and caused a dramatic shift in responses to them. Whether the acheiropoieta were a symptom or cause, the late sixth to eighth centuries witnessed the increasing thinning of the boundary between images not made by human hands, and images made by human hands. Images of Christ, the Theotokos and saints increasingly came to be regarded, as relics, contact relics and acheiropoieta already were, as points of access to

11968-429: The Byzantine emperor to evade retribution, and Theodore the Studite , abbot of the Stoudios monastery in Constantinople. John declared that he did not worship matter, "but rather the creator of matter." He also declared, "But I also venerate the matter through which salvation came to me, as if filled with divine energy and grace." He includes in this latter category the ink in which the gospels were written as well as

12144-426: The Byzantines and the Arabs) maintained a continuous tradition of icons. Instead, iconodules escaped Iconoclasm by fleeing to peripheral regions away from the iconoclastic imperial authority in both west (Italy and Dalmatia) and east, such as Cyprus, the southern coast of Anatolia, and eastern Pontus. It is also possible that the concentration of Iconoclasm in the eastern Anatolian areas of Isauria, Chaldia and Cappadocia

12320-458: The Christians prevented the construction of a Muslim mosque adjacent to the Church. In 938, a new fire damaged the inside of the basilica and came close to the rotunda. In 966, due to a defeat of Muslim armies in the region of Syria, a riot broke out, which was followed by reprisals. The basilica was burned again. The doors and roof were burnt, and Patriarch John VII was murdered. On 18 October 1009, Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered

12496-399: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, continued to change hands several times between the Fatimids and the Seljuk Turks (loyal to the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad ) until the Crusaders' arrival in 1099. Many historians maintain that the main concern of Pope Urban II , when calling for the First Crusade , was the threat to Constantinople from the Seljuk invasion of Asia Minor in response to

12672-668: The Emperor sent an expedition to Rome which failed. In 754 the Emperor then seized the Papal properties in Sicily, Calabria and Illyria, and in the same year Pope Stephen II formed an alliance with the Frankish Kingdom, signalling the beginning of the end for Papal support of the Byzantine empire. Iconoclasm Iconoclasm (from Greek : εἰκών , eikṓn , 'figure, icon' + κλάω , kláō , 'to break')

12848-582: The Empire. Constantine's son, Leo IV (775–80), was less rigorous, and for a time tried to mediate between the factions. When he died, his wife Irene took power as regent for her son, Constantine VI (780–97). Though icon veneration does not seem to have been a major priority for the regency government, Irene called an ecumenical council a year after Leo's death, which restored image veneration. This may have been an effort to secure closer and more cordial relations between Constantinople and Rome. Irene initiated

13024-526: The First Crusade on 15 July 1099. The First Crusade was envisioned as an armed pilgrimage , and no crusader could consider his journey complete unless he had prayed as a pilgrim at the Holy Sepulchre. The classical theory is that Crusader leader Godfrey of Bouillon , who became the first Latin ruler of Jerusalem , decided not to use the title "king" during his lifetime, and declared himself Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri ('Protector [or Defender] of

13200-597: The Hindu kingdoms of Devgiri (Maharashtra), Warangal (Telangana), Dwarasamudra (Karnataka) and Madurai (Tamil Nadu). Many Temples were plundered; Hoysaleswara Temple and others were ruthlessly destroyed. Holy Sepulchre The Church of the Holy Sepulchre , also known as the Church of the Resurrection , is a fourth-century church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem . The church

13376-514: The Holy Sepulchre'). According to the German priest and pilgrim Ludolf von Sudheim , the keys of the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre were in hands of the "ancient Georgians ", and the food, alms, candles and oil for lamps were given to them by the pilgrims at the south door of the church. By the Crusader period, a cistern under the former basilica was rumoured to have been where Helena had found

13552-644: The Old City, were made part of Jordan. In 1967, Israeli forces captured East Jerusalem in the Six Day War , and that area has remained under Israeli control ever since. Under Israeli rule, legal arrangements relating to the churches of East Jerusalem were maintained in coordination with the Jordanian government. The dome at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was restored again in 1994–97 as part of extensive modern renovations that have been ongoing since 1959. During

13728-659: The Patriarch Nikephoros, all of them iconodules. The theological arguments of the iconoclasts survive only in the form of selective quotations embedded in iconodule documents, most notably the Acts of the Second Council of Nicaea and the Antirrhetics of Nikephoros. An immediate precursor of the controversy seems to have been a large submarine volcanic eruption in the summer of 726 in the Aegean Sea between

13904-507: The Revelation of St. John, in the books of Moses, and in the book of Joshua. We therefore kindly beg these fanatics to permit us also to paint these pictures on the wall that they may be remembered and better understood, inasmuch as they can harm as little on the walls as in books. Would to God that I could persuade those who can afford it to paint the whole Bible on their houses, inside and outside, so that all might see; this would indeed be

14080-690: The True Cross, and began to be venerated as such; the cistern later became the Chapel of the Invention of the Cross , but there is no evidence of the site's identification before the 11th century, and modern archaeological investigation has now dated the cistern to 11th-century repairs by Monomachos. William of Tyre , chronicler of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, reports on the rebuilding of

14256-525: The Word after the Incarnation with material colours, he is an adversary of God. .... If anyone shall endeavour to represent the forms of the Saints in lifeless pictures with material colours which are of no value (for this notion is vain and introduced by the devil), and does not rather represent their virtues as living images in himself, he is an adversary of God" "Satan misled men, so that they worshipped

14432-517: The appeal of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos . Historians agree that the fate of Jerusalem and thereby the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was also of concern, if not the immediate goal of papal policy in 1095. The idea of taking Jerusalem gained more focus as the Crusade was underway. The rebuilt church site was taken from the Fatimids (who had recently taken it from the Abbasids) by the knights of

14608-427: The artist Johannes van der Beeck was arrested and tortured, charged with being a religious non-conformist and a blasphemer , heretic , atheist , and Satanist . The 25 January 1628 judgment from five noted advocates of The Hague pronounced him guilty of "blasphemy against God and avowed atheism, at the same time as leading a frightful and pernicious lifestyle. At the court's order his paintings were burned, and only

14784-486: The baptistery, and the north chapel the chamber in which the patriarch chrismated the newly baptized before leading them into the rotunda north of this complex. Now they are dedicated as (from south to north) The 12th-century Crusader bell tower is just south of the Rotunda, to the left of the entrance. Its upper level was lost in a 1545 collapse. In 1719, another two storeys were lost. The wooden doors that compose

14960-509: The beginning of Islam, in 630, when the various statues of Arabian deities housed in the Kaaba in Mecca were destroyed. There is a tradition that Muhammad spared a fresco of Mary and Jesus . This act was intended to bring an end to the idolatry which, in the Muslim view, characterized Jahiliyyah . The destruction of the idols of Mecca did not, however, determine the treatment of other religious communities living under Muslim rule after

15136-497: The caliphate. Researchers have discovered evidence that the order was followed, particularly in present-day Jordan , where archaeological evidence shows the removal of images from the mosaic floors of some, although not all, of the churches that stood at this time. But Yazīd's iconoclastic policies were not continued by his successors, and Christian communities of the Levant continued to make icons without significant interruption from

15312-505: The church after recapturing the city. After Jerusalem came under Islamic rule , it remained a Christian church, with the early Muslim rulers protecting the city's Christian sites, prohibiting their destruction or use as living quarters. A story reports that the caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab visited the church and stopped to pray on the balcony, but at the time of prayer, turned away from the church and prayed outside. He feared that future generations would misinterpret this gesture, taking it as

15488-709: The church in Romanesque style and added a bell tower . These renovations unified the small chapels on the site and were completed during the reign of Queen Melisende in 1149, placing all the holy places under one roof for the first time. The church became the seat of the first Latin patriarchs and the site of the kingdom's scriptorium . Eight 11th- and 12th-century Crusader leaders ( Godfrey , Baldwin I , Baldwin II , Fulk , Baldwin III , Amalric , Baldwin IV and Baldwin V –

15664-429: The church in the mid-12th century. The Crusaders investigated the eastern ruins on the site, occasionally excavating through the rubble, and while attempting to reach the cistern, they discovered part of the original ground level of Hadrian's temple enclosure; they transformed this space into a chapel dedicated to Helena , widening their original excavation tunnel into a proper staircase. The Crusaders began to refurnish

15840-402: The city streets. The dedication of these chapels indicates the importance of the pilgrims' devotion to the suffering of Christ. They have been described as "a sort of Via Dolorosa in miniature" since little or no rebuilding took place on the site of the great basilica. Western pilgrims to Jerusalem during the 11th century found much of the sacred site in ruins. Control of Jerusalem, and thereby

16016-411: The council, and it endorsed an iconoclast position, with 338 assembled bishops declaring, "the unlawful art of painting living creatures blasphemed the fundamental doctrine of our salvation--namely, the Incarnation of Christ, and contradicted the six holy synods. ... If anyone shall endeavor to represent the forms of the Saints in lifeless pictures with material colors which are of no value (for this notion

16192-463: The country, conquering Debal , Sehwan , Nerun , Brahmanadabad, Alor and Multan one after the other in quick succession, and in less than a year and a half, the far-flung Hindu kingdom was crushed ... There was a fearful outbreak of religious bigotry in several places and temples were wantonly desecrated. At Debal, the Nairun and Aror temples were demolished and converted into mosques. Perhaps

16368-519: The creature instead of the Creator. The Law of Moses and the Prophets cooperated to remove this ruin...But the previously mentioned demiurge of evil...gradually brought back idolatry under the appearance of Christianity." The chief theological opponents of iconoclasm were the monks Mansur ( John of Damascus ), who, living in Muslim territory as advisor to the Caliph of Damascus, was far enough away from

16544-401: The cross. "He saw no need to consult the Church, and he appears to have been surprised by the depth of the popular opposition he encountered". Germanos I of Constantinople , the iconophile Patriarch of Constantinople , either resigned or was deposed following the ban. Surviving letters Germanos wrote at the time say little of theology. According to Patricia Karlin-Hayter, what worried Germanos

16720-767: The dead. The church was consecrated on 13 September 335. In 327, Constantine and Helena separately commissioned the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to commemorate the birth of Jesus. The Constantinian sanctuary in Jerusalem was destroyed by a fire in May of 614 , when the Sassanid Empire , under Khosrau II , invaded Jerusalem and captured the True Cross. In 630, the Emperor Heraclius rebuilt

16896-552: The decoration was once inlaid with pieces of glass and fine marble; it indicates that the relic was the front of the church's high altar from the Crusader era (c. 1149), which was later used by the Greek Orthodox until being damaged in the 1808 fire. The courtyard facing the entrance to the church is known as the parvis . Two streets open into the parvis: St Helena Road (west) and Suq ed-Dabbagha (east). Around

17072-569: The destruction of divine presence ; in the eyes of the Egyptians, this same effect was attained by the destruction of images. In Egypt, iconoclasm was the most terrible religious crime; in Israel , the most terrible religious crime was idolatry . In this respect Osarseph alias Akhenaten, the iconoclast, and the Golden Calf , the paragon of idolatry, correspond to each other inversely, and it

17248-468: The divine nature alone, but in the same way, as this is accorded to the life-giving cross, the holy gospels, and other sacred offerings' (trans. Price, The Acts of the Second Council of Nicaea [Liverpool 2018], 564-5, abbreviated). Emperor Leo V the Armenian instituted a second period of Iconoclasm in 815, again possibly motivated by military failures seen as indicators of divine displeasure, and

17424-411: The divine. By praying before an image of a holy figure, the believer's prayers were magnified by proximity to the holy. This change in practice seems to have been a major and organic development in Christian worship, which responded to the needs of believers to have access to divine support during the insecurities of the seventh century. It was not a change orchestrated or controlled by the Church. Although

17600-495: The dome of the rotunda to collapse and smashing the Aedicule's exterior decoration. The rotunda and the Aedicule's exterior were rebuilt in 1809–10 by architect Nikolaos Ch. Komnenos of Mytilene in the contemporary Ottoman Baroque style. The interior of the antechamber, now known as the Chapel of the Angel , was partly rebuilt to a square ground plan in place of the previously semicircular western end. Another decree in 1853 from

17776-543: The early fourth century. After seeing a vision of a cross in the sky in 312, Constantine the Great began to favour Christianity and signed the Edict of Milan legalizing the religion. The Bishop of Jerusalem Macarius asked Constantine for permission to dig for the tomb. With the help of Eusebius (a Bishop of Caesarea) and Macarius, three crosses were found near a tomb; one, which was said to have cured people of death ,

17952-454: The efforts of the organised Church and the imperial authorities to respond to these changes and to try to reassert some institutional control over popular practice. The rise of Islam in the seventh century had also caused some consideration of the use of holy images. Early Islamic belief stressed the impropriety of iconic representation. Earlier scholarship tried to link Byzantine Iconoclasm directly to Islam by arguing that Byzantine emperors saw

18128-599: The end of the controversy the pope had approved the creation of a new emperor in the West, and the old deference of the Western church to Constantinople had gone. Opposition to icons seems to have had little support in the West and Rome took a consistently iconodule position. When the struggles flared up, Pope Gregory II had been pope since 715, not long after accompanying his Syrian predecessor Pope Constantine to Constantinople, where they successfully resolved with Justinian II

18304-444: The events of 1643 when troops and citizens, encouraged by a Parliamentary ordinance against superstition and idolatry , behaved thus: Lord what work was here! What clattering of glasses! What beating down of walls! What tearing up of monuments! What pulling down of seats! What wresting out of irons and brass from the windows! What defacing of arms! What demolishing of curious stonework! What tooting and piping upon organ pipes! And what

18480-453: The expansion of the caliphate . Most Christians under Muslim rule, for example, continued to produce icons and to decorate their churches as they wished. A major exception to this pattern of tolerance in early Islamic history was the "Edict of Yazīd", issued by the Umayyad caliph Yazīd II in 722–723. This edict ordered the destruction of crosses and Christian images within the territory of

18656-466: The final episodes of the Passion of Jesus . The church has been a major Christian pilgrimage destination since its creation in the fourth century, as the traditional site of the resurrection of Christ, thus its original Greek name, Church of the Anastasis ('Resurrection'). The Status Quo , an understanding between religious communities dating to 1757, applies to the site. Control of the church itself

18832-605: The first eight rulers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem ) were buried in the south transept and inside the Chapel of Adam . The royal tombs were looted during the Khwarizmian sack of Jerusalem in 1244 but probably remained mostly intact until 1808 when a fire damaged the church. The tombs may have been destroyed by the fire, or during renovations by the Greek Orthodox custodians of the church in 1809–1810. The remains of

19008-469: The governance of the Patriarch of Constantinople . Leo died in 741, and his son and heir, Constantine V (741–775), was personally committed to an anti-image position. Despite his successes as an emperor, both militarily and culturally, this has caused Constantine to be remembered unfavorably by a body of source material that is preoccupied with his opposition to image veneration. For example, Constantine

19184-532: The holiest church in Christianity was laid under interdict . The church seems to have been largely in the hands of Greek Orthodox patriarch Athanasius II of Jerusalem (c. 1231–47) during the last period of Latin control over Jerusalem. Both city and church were captured by the Khwarezmians in 1244. There was certainly a recognisable Nestorian ( Church of the East ) presence at the Holy Sepulchre from

19360-656: The iconoclast argument were: "Supported by the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers, we declare unanimously, in the name of the Holy Trinity, that there shall be rejected and removed and cursed one of the Christian Church every likeness which is made out of any material and colour whatever by the evil art of painters.... If anyone ventures to represent the divine image (χαρακτήρ, kharaktír - character) of

19536-518: The iconoclasts was to restore the church to the strict opposition to images in worship that they believed characterized at the least some parts of the early church. Theologically, one aspect of the debate, as with most in Christian theology at the time, revolved around the two natures of Jesus . Iconoclasts believed that icons could not represent both the divine and the human natures of the Messiah at

19712-641: The importance of Islamic prohibitions against images influencing Byzantine thought. According to Arnold J. Toynbee , for example, it was the prestige of Islamic military successes in the 7th and 8th centuries that motivated Byzantine Christians to adopt the Islamic position of rejecting and destroying devotional and liturgical images. The role of women and monks in supporting the veneration of images has also been asserted. Social and class-based arguments have been put forward, such as that iconoclasm created political and economic divisions in Byzantine society; that it

19888-472: The importance of physical presence also joined the belief in intercession of saints with the use of relics and holy images (or icons) in early Christian practices. Believers would, therefore, make pilgrimages to places sanctified by the physical presence of Christ or prominent saints and martyrs, such as the site of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem . Relics , or holy objects (rather than places), which were

20064-658: The indigenous Canaanite population as soon as they entered the Promised Land . In Judaism , King Hezekiah purged Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem and all figures were also destroyed in the Land of Israel , including the Nehushtan , as recorded in the Second Book of Kings . His reforms were reversed in the reign of his son Manasseh . Scattered expressions of opposition to the use of images have been reported:

20240-541: The island of Thera (modern Santorini) and Therasia , probably causing tsunamis and great loss of life. Many, probably including Leo III, interpreted this as a judgment on the Empire by God, and decided that use of images had been the offense. The classic account of the beginning of Byzantine Iconoclasm relates that sometime between 726 and 730 the Byzantine Emperor Leo III the Isaurian ordered

20416-559: The issues arising from the decisions of the Quinisext Council of 692, which no Western prelates had attended. Of the delegation of 13 Gregory was one of only two non-Eastern; it was to be the last visit of a pope to the city until 1969. There had already been conflicts with Leo III over his very heavy taxation of areas under Papal jurisdiction. The Iconoclast Controversy caused Papal-Imperial relations to plummet. Pope Gregory III declared an excommunication for all iconoclasts, and

20592-477: The kings may still be in unmarked pits under the church's pavement. The church was lost to Saladin , along with the rest of the city, in 1187, although the treaty established after the Third Crusade allowed Christian pilgrims to visit the site. Emperor Frederick II (r. 1220–50) regained the city and the church by treaty in the 13th century while under a ban of excommunication, with the consequence that

20768-612: The later ones Thomas), Germanos reiterates a pro-image position while lamenting the behavior of his subordinates in the church, who apparently had both expressed reservations about image worship. Germanos complains "now whole towns and multitudes of people are in considerable agitation over this matter". In both cases, efforts to persuade these men of the propriety of image veneration had failed and some steps had been taken to remove images from their churches. Significantly, in these letters, Germanos does not threaten his subordinates if they fail to change their behavior. He does not seem to refer to

20944-408: The main entrance are the original, highly carved arched doors. Today, only the left-hand entrance is currently accessible, as the right doorway has long since been bricked up. The entrance to the church leads to the south transept , through the crusader façade in the parvis of a larger courtyard. This is found past a group of streets winding through the outer Via Dolorosa by way of a souq in

21120-587: The maintenance of external infrastructures, and the abolition of territorial claims near the Temple of the Holy Sepulcher, the Protestant Church allowed to carry out the elimination of taxes from the Holy Sepulcher, currently the Anglican and Lutheran dioceses of Jerusalem are allowed to attend Armenian cults. In 1948, Jerusalem was divided between Israel and Jordan and where the church was located, in

21296-559: The manufacture of graven (sculpted) images of God. As a result, individuals attacked statues and images, most famously in the beeldenstorm across the Low Countries in 1566. The belief of iconoclasm caused havoc throughout Europe . In 1523, specifically due to the Swiss reformer Huldrych Zwingli , a vast number of his followers viewed themselves as being involved in a spiritual community that in matters of faith should obey neither

21472-659: The mental picturing of Christ when reading the Scriptures was similar in character to artistic renderings of Christ. In contrast to the Lutherans who favoured certain types of sacred art in their churches and homes, the Reformed (Calvinist) leaders, in particular Andreas Karlstadt , Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin , encouraged the removal of religious images by invoking the Decalogue's prohibition of idolatry and

21648-645: The most notorious episode of iconoclasm in India was Mahmud of Ghazni 's attack on the Somnath Temple from across the Thar Desert . The temple was first raided in 725, when Junayad, the governor of Sind , sent his armies to destroy it. In 1024, during the reign of Bhima I , the prominent Turkic-Muslim ruler Mahmud of Ghazni raided Gujarat, plundering the Somnath Temple and breaking its jyotirlinga despite pleas by Brahmins not to break it. He took away

21824-547: The motives for the destruction. During the Tuareg rebellion of 2012 , the radical Islamist militia Ansar Dine destroyed various Sufi shrines from the 15th and 16th centuries in the city of Timbuktu , Mali . In 2016, the International Criminal Court (ICC) sentenced Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi , a former member of Ansar Dine, to nine years in prison for this destruction of cultural world heritage. This

22000-532: The names of other deities on tombs, temple walls, and cartouches to instill in the people that the Aten was the one true god. Public references to Akhenaten were destroyed soon after his death. Comparing the ancient Egyptians with the Israelites , Jan Assmann writes: For Egypt, the greatest horror was the destruction or abduction of the cult images. In the eyes of the Israelites, the erection of images meant

22176-652: The neighbouring Eastern Orthodox " in the Baltic region. The Seventeen Provinces (now the Netherlands, Belgium, and parts of Northern France) were disrupted by widespread Calvinist iconoclasm in the summer of 1566. During the Reformation in England , which started during the reign of Anglican monarch Henry VIII , and was urged on by reformers such as Hugh Latimer and Thomas Cranmer , limited official action

22352-497: The new Theotokos seen in the photographs. The Image of Camuliana in Constantinople appears to have been destroyed, as mentions of it cease. The period of Iconoclasm decisively ended the so-called Byzantine Papacy under which, since the reign of Justinian I two centuries before, the popes in Rome had been initially nominated by, and later merely confirmed by, the emperor in Constantinople, and many of them had been Greek-speaking. By

22528-411: The notion that Christ and the Virgin supported the icons and that they had been used continuously in Christianity since its start. G. E. von Grunebaum has said "The iconoclasm of the eighth and ninth centuries must be viewed as the climax of a movement that had its roots in the spirituality of the Christian concept of the divinity." The events of the seventh century, which was a period of major crisis for

22704-424: The opinion" said [Luther], "that through the Gospel all the arts should be banished and driven away, as some zealots want to make us believe; but I wish to see them all, especially music, in the service of Him Who gave and created them." Again he says: "I have myself heard those who oppose pictures, read from my German Bible.... But this contains many pictures of God, of the angels, of men, and of animals, especially in

22880-451: The original rock or taking small pieces as souvenirs. A marble slab was placed over the limestone burial bed where Jesus's body is believed to have lain. After the renovation of 1555, control of the church oscillated between the Franciscans and the Orthodox, depending on which community could obtain a favourable firman from the " Sublime Porte " at a particular time, often through outright bribery. Violent clashes were not uncommon. There

23056-400: The paint of images, the wood of the Cross, and the body and blood of Jesus. This distinction between worship and veneration is key in the arguments of the iconophiles. The iconophile response to iconoclasm included: Emperors had always intervened in ecclesiastical matters since the time of Constantine I. As Cyril Mango writes, "The legacy of Nicaea, the first universal council of the Church,

23232-411: The parvis are a few smaller structures. South of the parvis, opposite the church: On the eastern side of the parvis, south to north: North of the parvis, in front of the church façade or against it: A group of three chapels borders the parvis on its west side. They originally formed the baptistery complex of the Constantinian church. The southernmost chapel was the vestibule, the middle chapel

23408-421: The period of Byzantine Iconoclasm has challenged many of the basic assumptions and factual assertions of the traditional account. Byzantine iconoclasm influenced the later Protestant reformation . Christian worship by the sixth century had developed a clear belief in the intercession of saints. This belief was also influenced by a concept of hierarchy of sanctity, with the Trinity at its pinnacle, followed by

23584-476: The period, both in large religious mosaics, which are now almost exclusively found in Italy and Saint Catherine's Monastery in Egypt as well as portable icons. Important works in Thessaloniki were lost in the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 and the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) . A large mosaic of a church council in the Imperial Palace was replaced by lively secular scenes, and there was no issue with imagery per se. The plain Iconoclastic cross that replaced

23760-497: The process of destroying or obscuring images, Leo is said to have " confiscated valuable church plate, altar cloths, and reliquaries decorated with religious figures ", but he took no severe action against the former patriarch or iconophile bishops. In the West, Pope Gregory III held two synods at Rome and condemned Leo's actions, and in response, Leo confiscated papal estates in Calabria and Sicily , detaching them as well as Illyricum from Papal governance and placing them under

23936-592: The question of the holy presence (or lack thereof) of images. Thus, although the rise of Islam may have created an environment in which images were at the forefront of intellectual question and debate, Islamic iconoclasm does not seem to have had a direct causal role in the development of the Byzantine image debate; in fact Muslim territories became havens for iconophile refugees. However, it has been argued that Leo III, because of his Syrian background, could have been influenced by Islamic beliefs and practices, which could have inspired his first removal of images. The goal of

24112-523: The real authors and dates of many surviving texts remains ongoing. Most iconoclastic texts are simply missing, including a proper record of the council of 754, and the detail of iconoclastic arguments have mostly to be reconstructed with difficulty from their vehement rebuttals by iconodules. Major historical sources for the period include the chronicles of Theophanes the Confessor and the Patriarch Nikephoros , both of whom were ardent iconodules. Many historians have also drawn on hagiography , most notably

24288-447: The reestablishment of a patriarch in Jerusalem. Contemporary sources credit the emperor with spending vast sums in an effort to restore the Church of the Holy Sepulchre after this agreement was made. Still, "a total replacement was far beyond available resources. The new construction was concentrated on the rotunda and its surrounding buildings: the great basilica remained in ruins." The rebuilt church site consisted of "a court open to

24464-453: The reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian (527–565) evidently saw a huge increase in the use of images, both in volume and quality, and a gathering aniconic reaction. One notable change within the Byzantine Empire came in 695, when Justinian II 's government added a full-face image of Christ on the obverse of imperial gold coins. The change caused the Caliph Abd al-Malik to stop his earlier adoption of Byzantine coin types. He started

24640-437: The religious context, iconoclasm can refer to movements for widespread destruction in symbols of an ideology or cause, such as the destruction of monarchist symbols during the French Revolution . In the Bronze Age , the most significant episode of iconoclasm occurred in Egypt during the Amarna Period , when Akhenaten , based in his new capital of Akhetaten , instituted a significant shift in Egyptian artistic styles alongside

24816-450: The removal of an image of Christ, prominently placed over the Chalke Gate , the ceremonial entrance to the Great Palace of Constantinople , and its replacement with a cross. Fearing that they intended sacrilege, some of those who were assigned to the task were murdered by a band of iconodules . Accounts of this event (written significantly later) suggest that at least part of the reason for the removal may have been military reversals against

24992-420: The restoration of icon veneration in 843 at the Council of Constantinople , on the condition that Theophilus not be condemned. Since that time the first Sunday of Great Lent has been celebrated in the Orthodox Church and in Byzantine Rite Catholicism as the feast of the " Triumph of Orthodoxy ". What accounts of iconoclast arguments remain are largely found in quotations or summaries in iconodule writings. It

25168-414: The result of sectarian disputes between factions of the same religion. The term originates from the Byzantine Iconoclasm , the struggles between proponents and opponents of religious icons in the Byzantine Empire from 726 to 842 AD. Degrees of iconoclasm vary greatly among religions and their branches, but are strongest in religions which oppose idolatry , including the Abrahamic religions . Outside of

25344-503: The saints and denied the usage of relics; however, it is disputed. Iconoclasm has generally been motivated theologically by an Old Covenant interpretation of the Ten Commandments , which forbade the making, veneration and worshipping of " graven images , or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:" ( Exodus 20:4-5, Deuteronomy 5:8-9, see also biblical law in Christianity ). The two periods of iconoclasm in

25520-406: The same time, but only separately. Because an icon which depicted Jesus as purely physical would be Nestorianism , and one which showed Him as both human and divine would not be able to do so without confusing the two natures into one mixed nature, which was Monophysitism , all icons were thus heretical . Leo III did preach a series of sermons in which he drew attention to the excessive behaviour of

25696-404: The sea, and stopping the invocation of saints. Monks were forced to parade in the Hippodrome, each hand-in-hand with a woman, in violation of their vows. In 765 St Stephen the Younger was killed, and was later considered a martyr to the Iconophile cause. A number of large monasteries in Constantinople were secularised, and many monks fled to areas beyond effective imperial control on the fringes of

25872-471: The site closed to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic . According to the keeper of the keys, it was the first such closure since 1349, during the Black Death . Clerics continued regular prayers inside the building, and it reopened to visitors two months later, on 24 May. During church renovations in 2022, a stone slab covered in modern graffiti was moved from a wall, revealing Cosmatesque -style decoration on one face. According to an IAA archaeologist,

26048-400: The sixth century to the ninth. Al-Maqrīzī , writing in the 15th century, attributes the missing nose on the Great Sphinx of Giza to iconoclasm by Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr , a Sufi Muslim in the mid-1300s. He was reportedly outraged by local Muslims making offerings to the Great Sphinx in the hope of controlling the flood cycle, and he was later executed for vandalism. However, whether this

26224-426: The sky, with five small chapels attached to it." The chapels were east of the court of resurrection (when reconstructed, the location of the tomb was under open sky), where the western wall of the great basilica had been. They commemorated scenes from the passion, such as the location of the prison of Christ and his flagellation, and presumably were so placed because of the difficulties of free movement among shrines in

26400-425: The start of the controversy, and the records of the final Second Council of Nicaea record that books with missing pages were reported and produced to the council. Many texts, including works of hagiography and historical writing as well as sermons and theological writings, were undoubtedly "improved", fabricated or backdated by partisans, and the difficult and highly technical scholarly process of attempting to assess

26576-412: The subject itself is expected to act or behave. It makes known its wishes ... It enacts evangelical teachings, ... When attacked it bleeds, ... [and] In some cases it defends itself against infidels with physical force ...". Key artefacts to blur this boundary emerged in c. 570 in the form of acheiropoieta , images claimed to have been created miraculously or "not by human hands". These sacred images were

26752-429: The success of the early Caliphate and decided that Byzantine use of images (as opposed to Islamic aniconism) had angered God. This does not seem entirely plausible however. The use of images had probably been increasing in the years leading up to the outbreak of iconoclasm. One notable change came in 695, when Justinian II put a full-faced image of Christ on the obverse of his gold coins. The effect on iconoclast opinion

26928-439: The sultan solidified the existing territorial division among the communities and solidified the Status Quo for arrangements to "remain in their present state", requiring consensus to make even minor changes. The dome was restored by Catholics, Greeks, and Turks in 1868, being made of iron ever since. By the time of the British Mandate for Palestine following the end of World War I , the cladding of red limestone applied to

27104-399: The two brief reigns after his. On October 13, 787 the Second Council of Nicaea decreed that 'venerable and holy images are to be dedicated in the holy churches of God, namely the image of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, of our immaculate Lady the Holy Theotokos, and of the angels and all the saints. They are to be accorded the veneration of honor, not indeed the true worship paid to

27280-474: The usage of religious images, the Strigolniki were also possibly iconoclastic. Claudius of Turin was the bishop of Turin from 817 until his death. He is most noted for teaching iconoclasm. The first iconoclastic wave happened in Wittenberg in the early 1520s under reformers Thomas Müntzer and Andreas Karlstadt , in the absence of Martin Luther , who then, concealed under the pen-name of 'Junker Jörg', intervened to calm things down. Luther argued that

27456-441: The use of religious images. Martin Luther taught the "importance of images as tools for instruction and aids to devotion," stating: "If it is not a sin but good to have the image of Christ in my heart, why should it be a sin to have it in my eyes?" Lutheran churches retained ornate church interiors with a prominent crucifix , reflecting their high view of the real presence of Christ in Eucharist . As such, "Lutheran worship became

27632-401: The veneration of icons, the latter group being led by the Patriarch Nikephoros , which led to no resolution. However, Leo had apparently become convinced by this point of the correctness of the iconoclast position, and had the icon of the Chalke gate, which Leo III is fictitiously claimed to have removed once before, replaced with a cross. In 815 the revival of iconoclasm was rendered official by

27808-759: The visible Church nor lay authorities. According to Peter George Wallace "Zwingli's attack on images, at the first debate, triggered iconoclastic incidents in Zürich and the villages under civic jurisdiction that the reformer was unwilling to condone." Due to this action of protest against authority, "Zwingli responded with a carefully reasoned treatise that men could not live in society without laws and constraint". Significant iconoclastic riots took place in Basel (in 1529), Zürich (1523), Copenhagen (1530), Münster (1534), Geneva (1535), Augsburg (1537), Scotland (1559), Rouen (1560), and Saintes and La Rochelle (1562). Calvinist iconoclasm in Europe "provoked reactive riots by Lutheran mobs" in Germany and "antagonized

27984-467: The walls of the city. Both were images of Christ, and at least in some versions of their stories supposedly made when Christ pressed a cloth to his face (compare with the later, western Veil of Veronica and Turin shroud ). In other versions of the Mandylion's story it joined a number of other images that were believed to have been painted from the life in the New Testament period by Saint Luke or other human painters, and these stories were used to support

28160-441: The years 1348 through 1575, as contemporary Franciscan accounts indicate. The Franciscan friars renovated the church in 1555, as it had been neglected despite increased numbers of pilgrims. The Franciscans rebuilt the Aedicule , extending the structure to create an antechamber. A marble shrine commissioned by Friar Boniface of Ragusa was placed to envelop the remains of Christ's tomb, probably to prevent pilgrims from touching

28336-399: Was buried and resurrected . Both locations are considered immensely holy sites by Christians. In earlier times, the site was used as a Jewish burial ground, upon which a pagan temple was built. The church and rotunda was built under Constantine in the 4th century and destroyed by al-Hakim in 1009. Al-Hakim's son allowed Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos to reconstruct the church, which

28512-412: Was actually the cause of the missing nose has been debated by historians. Mark Lehner , having performed an archaeological study, concluded that it was broken with instruments at an earlier unknown time between the 3rd and 10th centuries. Certain conquering Muslim armies have used local temples or houses of worship as mosques. An example is Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (formerly Constantinople ), which

28688-407: Was built on the site of the tomb Macarius had identified as that of Jesus, enclosing the rock tomb walls within its own. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, planned by the architect Zenobius, was built as separate constructs over two holy sites: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre site has been recognized since early in the fourth century as the place where Jesus was crucified, buried, and rose from

28864-427: Was completed in 1048. After it was captured by the Crusaders in 1099, it continued to undergo modifications, resulting in a significant departure from the original structure. Several renovations and restorations were made under the Ottomans. The tomb itself is enclosed by a 19th-century shrine called the Aedicule . Within the church proper are the last four stations of the Cross of the Via Dolorosa , representing

29040-415: Was converted into a mosque in 1453. Most icons were desecrated and the rest were covered with plaster. In 1934 the government of Turkey decided to convert the Hagia Sophia into a museum and the restoration of the mosaics was undertaken by the American Byzantine Institute beginning in 1932. Certain Muslim denominations continue to pursue iconoclastic agendas. There has been much controversy within Islam over

29216-405: Was generally supported by the Eastern, poorer, non-Greek peoples of the Empire who had to constantly deal with Arab raids. On the other hand, the wealthier Greeks of Constantinople and also the peoples of the Balkan and Italian provinces strongly opposed Iconoclasm. The claim of such a geopraphical distribution has, however, been disputed. Re-evaluation of the written and material evidence relating to

29392-437: Was later looted by the Pratihara king Yashovarman. Records from the campaign recorded in the Chach Nama record the destruction of temples during the early 8th century when the Umayyad governor of Damascus , al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf , mobilized an expedition of 6000 cavalry under Muhammad bin Qasim in 712. Historian Upendra Thakur records the persecution of Hindus and Buddhists : Muhammad triumphantly marched into

29568-410: Was no agreement about this question, although it was discussed at the negotiations to the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. During the Holy Week of 1757, Orthodox Christians reportedly took over some of the Franciscan-controlled church. This may have been the cause of the sultan's firman (decree) later developed into the Status Quo . A fire severely damaged the structure again in 1808, causing

29744-411: Was presumed to be the True Cross , on which Jesus was crucified , leading the Romans to believe that they had found Calvary . About 326, Constantine ordered that the temple to Jupiter or Venus be replaced by a church. After the temple was torn down and its ruins removed, the soil was removed from the cave, revealing a rock-cut tomb that Macarius identified as the burial site of Jesus. A shrine

29920-419: Was primarily concentrated in the eastern regions of the Empire; the prevalence of Iconoclasm had nothing to do with distance from the eastern (Arab) border, suggesting that the spread of iconoclasm was independent of direct Islamic influence. For instance, western regions such as the Cyclades contain evidence of iconoclastic loyalties from church decoration, while eastern areas such as Cyprus (then jointly-ruled by

30096-425: Was taken against religious images in churches in the late 1530s. Henry's young son, Edward VI , came to the throne in 1547 and, under Cranmer's guidance, issued injunctions for Religious Reforms in the same year and in 1550, an Act of Parliament "for the abolition and putting away of divers books and images." During the English Civil War , the Parliamentarians reorganised the administration of East Anglia into

30272-501: Was that the ban of icons would prove that the Church had been in error for a long time and therefore play into the hands of Jews and Muslims. This interpretation is now in doubt, and the debate and struggle may have initially begun in the provinces rather than in the imperial court. Letters survive written by the Patriarch Germanos in the 720s and 730s concerning Constantine, the bishop of Nakoleia, and Thomas of Klaudioupolis. In both sets of letters (the earlier ones concerning Constantine,

30448-559: Was the first time that the ICC convicted a person for such a crime. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant carried out iconoclastic attacks such as the destruction of Shia mosques and shrines. Notable incidents include blowing up the Mosque of the Prophet Yunus ( Jonah ) and destroying the Shrine to Seth in Mosul . In early Medieval India , there were numerous recorded instances of temple desecration mostly by Indian Muslim kings against rival Indian Hindu kingdoms , which involved conflicts between Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains. In

30624-404: Was the result of the military victories of the Isaurian emperors in this border area against the Arabs, as well as the strong imperial authority established in this area. A thorough understanding of the Iconoclast period in Byzantium is complicated by the fact that most of the surviving sources were written by the ultimate victors in the controversy, the iconodules . It is thus difficult to obtain

30800-443: Was to bind the emperor to something that was not his concern, namely the definition and imposition of orthodoxy, if need be by force." That practice continued from beginning to end of the Iconoclast controversy and beyond, with some emperors enforcing iconoclasm, and two empresses regent enforcing the re-establishment of icon veneration. The iconoclastic period has drastically reduced the number of survivals of Byzantine art from before

30976-522: Was widely perceived in the Western media as a result of the Muslim prohibition against figural decoration. Such an account overlooks "the coexistence between the Buddhas and the Muslim population that marveled at them for over a millennium" before their destruction. According to art historian F. B. Flood, analysis of the Taliban's statements regarding the Buddhas suggest that their destruction was motivated more by political than by theological concerns. Taliban spokesmen have given many different explanations of

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