demonstrating it to all enemies, and holding it in your hands; so that just as we have known this through mouth, mind, and tongue, so we may also believe.
2. «I believe in one God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible: And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; and in the all-holy Spirit, the holy, the Lord, the life-giving, who proceeds from the Father; who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, through whom all things are sanctified; the holy Trinity, indivisible and ineffable, holding all things and the maker of all, equal in power, uncircumscribed, of equal divinity, of the same counsel, of the same essence, and consubstantial, coeternal, in every way devoid of beginning, of one principality, of triple subsistence in God the Father the begetter, and God the Son the begotten, and the Holy Spirit, B even as I know the beginning-less, the God of all things, by whom all things are made alive. For the Spirit was always with God and the Father: for they were never divided from one another. For the Father was always, and he was always with the Son; and the Son was always with the Father, and the Spirit with both; thus I worship and glorify the holy Trinity, the indivisible, one Godhead in three persons.
«Similarly, also regarding the all-holy Theotokos, I confess her holier than the Cherubim and Seraphim, and more sublime than the heavens, higher than all created things, as one who gave birth in the flesh to the one of the Trinity, Christ our God, who for our sake descended and became man for our salvation. At the same time, I also honor, worship, and reverence His saints, as those who have struggled for His sake: namely, holy John the forerunner and Baptist, and the prophets who preceded him, and the all-laudable C apostles who followed him, and the holy and victorious martyrs, and all the saints I worship and reverence, and I beg for their intercession and supplication. For by their intercessions we are all saved: «For God does the will of those who fear Him.»* To this, I also worship, honor, and embrace their precious relics. For many bodies of the saints have distilled balm, and many diseases have been healed through them.
«Also, I honor and kiss their precious images; not as gods, but as a concise description and narrative, and a monument of those things which they have suffered. For the images of the saints are not merely forms of the body and displays, but also of the bodily sufferings. For indeed, through their sufferings, which they D endured for Christ...
*Ps. CXLIV, 14.
they are proclaimed blessed, held in honor, and venerated. For if they had not endured these things for Christ’s sake, we would not have had the honor of them being written up, either in books or in churches. For many have inscribed likenesses of men in their own homes, whether parents of their children or children of their parents, on account of their longing and the relationship A which they had toward one another; and so that they might not fall into forgetfulness, they inscribed their likenesses in their homes. Whence they also greet them, not as gods, but, as I said before, on account of that longing and relationship of theirs. In this way it is necessary to think also about the icons of the saints, that they were inscribed both in churches and in books for our remembrance and love, and for the correction of our life, as well as of the nations that come to believe in Christ Jesus, for the manifestation of their own good testimony. And indeed, as much as the divine Scriptures are read, so much are they understood, and even more do they kindle us toward the love of God. And if these people, on account of a carnal love for their children, B in any case inscribe icons for their remembrance, how much more do we owe it to depict the icons of the saints together with their sufferings—those who poured out their blood for the love of Christ.
3. But why, O lawless heretic, do you say that I practice idolatry? For whose idol do I venerate, tell me? That of Apollo—or rather, of him who is a sort of ruin for the sake of his own name—or the icon of our Lord Jesus Christ, which teaches me His incarnation in the flesh? Tell me, you who are a Jew in mind and sense, whose idol do I worship? That of Artemis, the mother of demons, as the Greeks tell myths, or the icon of the all-holy, immaculate Lady C our Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ? Tell me, whose idol do I venerate? That of Zeus, or the icon of holy John the Forerunner and Baptist? That of Zeus, or the icons of the holy apostles and martyrs and of all the holy ones who from the ages have been pleasing to the Lord? And who dares to call this beautiful exposition idolatry, and to insult the sufferings of Christ and of His saints, and at the same time those who handed down to us the holy Church of God? For D this is how we received her adorned by the holy Fathers, just as the divine Scriptures teach us: the incarnation of Christ, His condescension toward us for our sake, the annunciation of Gabriel to the Virgin, and the things that follow: the birth, the cave, the manger, the midwife, and the swaddling clothes; the star and the Magi, and the things that follow; the baptism, the Jordan, John touching His head, and from above the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. Let us come also to His passion, and let us see the children with
A palm branches, the basin and the towel, the kiss of Judas, the apprehension by the Jews, the persistence of Pilate, and so forth; likewise the crucifixion, the nails and the slaps, the sponge and the spear, and above, the title bearing the inscription: *Behold the King of the Jews*, and so forth; the resurrection, the joy of the world; how Christ tramples upon Hades, and raises Adam; likewise also the ascension. Let us come also to His wonders: the illumination of the blind, the strengthening of the limbs of the paralytic, the woman with the issue of blood healed by the touch of His hem—she who was the first of all to make an image of Christ out of bronze; and likewise the bodies of the saints, with the tortures and inquisitions which they endured for Christ our God. Since this is a fine exposition and a useful writing, how do you dare to call it idolatry? B For the writing is brief and good, just as our Father Chrysostom said: "I also have loved a painting rendered in wax, for it is full of piety." And the holy Basil the Great, our Father, in his Eulogy of the Forty Holy Martyrs, says: "Since both logographers and painters often signify things: the former adorning them with speech, the latter engraving them upon tablets." And indeed, the logographer wrote the Gospel, and what did he write in the Gospel? The whole dispensation of Christ in the flesh, and he delivered it to the Church. The painter does a similar thing. He has painted on the tablet of the Church its beauty, from the first Adam to the birth of Christ, and the whole economy in the flesh, and the testimonies of the saints, C and in like manner he too has delivered it to the Church; so that both of them have rather composed one exposition, and they instruct us. And why is it that you adore the book, but spit upon the tablet? Tell me, heretic: what is the difference between the two, since both announce one exposition, and the one is adored, while the other is spat upon? O the calamity! Who would not laugh at this judgment? Who would not abhor this teaching, that when two people expound the same narrative, one of them has veneration, while the other is spurned? Behold knowledge—or rather, ignorance. Truly, if a man considers it well, this history and exposition is a beautiful and virtuous interpretation of the Gospel. For since things which the Gospel explains D by speech, this one shows by action, why then is the one adored, and this one despised? What difference is there between paper and fine linen? Do not both share in the matter for one work? Or what difference is there between parchment and a wooden board? Are not both cut and divided by the sword, and thus pass into the work? What, finally, does ink differ from red lead and the remaining colors? Are not all these prepared from many pigments, and then for the use of the writer and the painter
A are they? You will certainly say that you are adoring the account of the economy of Christ. So too I: far be it from me to assert that I adore the wall or the material of the colors, but I adore the figure of the body of Christ, and the Lord’s economy, just as our Father Chrysostom also says in his *Homily on the Basin*: "When the images and likenesses of the emperor are brought into a city, the magistrates and the people go to meet them with auspicious acclamations and fear, not honoring the board, nor the waxen painting, but the likeness of the earthly emperor." And if such honor is fitting for the earthly emperor, even when the emperor is not present there, but only his image, how much more does it behoove the image of the heavenly Emperor, Christ our God, to be honored and adored? B O the disaster! That the image of the earthly emperor is adored, and held worthy of such honor, but that of Christ is despised. O the deceit of the Christians! O the judgment and doctrine of the Fathers! Who would not laugh at this judgment? Who would not abhor this impious dogma? If a foolish man is often found spitting upon the image of the earthly emperor, what does he incur? Is he not held liable to the penalty of death? For he who dishonors the image of the emperor, dishonors the emperor himself. "For the honor of the image," as the great Basil says, "passes to the prototype; and likewise the dishonor." Thus must one think also in the case of the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, the heavenly King: that he who dishonors it, dishonors Christ. For the honor of the image reverts to Christ; and likewise the dishonor: he who dishonors the image brings the insult upon the prototype. This is intelligible to all; and who shall escape the insult to Christ?
C 4. You will certainly say to me that Christ is uncircumscribed, and incomprehensible, and impassible, and inconceivable. I too confess that the divine is uncircumscribed, and incomprehensible, and impassible. Yet the flesh is circumscribed, as it was seen upon the earth with its sufferings. But you say again to me: "Then do you separate the flesh from the deity?" Far be it! For they were never separated from one another, neither in the womb of the Mother, nor in the baptism, nor on the cross, nor in Hades. But you will say to me: "If they were never separated, how do you circumscribe the flesh alone?" But tell me, heretic: who partook of milk from the Mother and Virgin? Was it not the flesh? Who stood naked in the Jordan? Was it not the flesh? Who ate? Who drank? D Who traveled? Who stretched out his hands on the cross? Who was placed in the tomb? Was it not the flesh? The flesh endured these things, yet it was not separated from the deity. And who dares to speak about the deity, or to raise a question, and to lose his own soul, as the other heretics do? Who is able, tell me?
A Who, I ask, is able to circumscribe man, who was made in the image of God? None at all. For we do not take that which in man is subject to the eyes to be the image of God, but that which is conceived by the mind. For that which is subject to the eyes is composite and circumscribed; but God is simple, destitute of composition, and greater than circumscription. But the flesh which Christ took to Himself from His spotless mother is itself circumscribed, just as He appeared upon the earth. And this is not idolatry, but the expression of an image. And indeed, provided that Christ came to abolish idols upon the earth, why would He have left idols for us again? For Christ Himself also made an image, which they call "not made by hands," and it remains to this day and is adored, and no one of sound mind calls it an idol. For if God had known that idolatry would come about through it, He would not have left it upon the earth. B C
5. You may wish to say that Christ did not tell us to make images and to adore them; for if He had said so, then indeed divine worship would have been lavished upon them. But I, too, show you many other traditions which we have received from the apostles and our holy Fathers, regarding which there is no utterance of Christ. For where is it reported that Christ said that we should adore while turned towards the east? Or that we should adore the Cross or the Gospel? Or that we should partake of His holy body and blood while fasting; or that we should crown those newly married? And I could mention other things to you which Christ did not speak of; but what need is there for these? We, too, believe as we have received from the holy Fathers, who were taught these things by God. For God surely did not wish anything to be hidden from His saints, whether you mean those things which were to turn out for the advantage and salvation of men, or those things which were for their harm. How then could that have been hidden, if it were idolatry, so that the people who adore such numerous idols should perish? O the calamity! That from the time when Christ descended to us, down to the patriarch Germanus, the Christian people, adoring idols, should have perished! When, then, must the heavenly world be filled? But may it not be so, O God, that this is idolatry! Otherwise, if it were idolatry, some synod would at least have attempted to cast them out, and to proscribe those who adore them. If the first synod had not cast them out, the second certainly ought to have said something about them. If not the second, then at least the third; if not the third, then again the fourth; if not the fourth, then the fifth; if not the fifth, why did the sixth not cast them out, but rather illustrated the matter? And if you do not believe me, turn to the canons of the sixth synod, and to their eighty-second chapter, and you will find there that which convicts you. For thus the God-bearing Fathers pronounced: "In some of the paintings of the venerable images, a lamb is depicted, to which the finger of the Forerunner points, which has been accepted as a type of grace, prefiguring for us through the Law the Lamb, Christ our God."
Therefore, having embraced the ancient types and shadows as symbols and prefigurations of the truth handed down to the Church, we prefer grace and truth, having received these as the fulfillment of the Law. So that we may also depict for the eyes of all, even through the application of colors, the perfect form—the form of the Lamb, Christ our God, who takes away the sin of the world—we have determined that from now on, in accordance with His human character, He should be set up in icons in place of the old lamb. By this, we contemplate the height of the humiliation of God the Word, and we are led to the memory of His life in the flesh, His passion, His saving death, and the redemption of the world that came about therefrom. B If these Fathers, O heretic, have so defined these things, what need had we to transcend their boundaries and bring schism into the Church? And do you not know that he who overturns the boundaries set by the Fathers receives anathema? See what you have done, and do you still persist in wickedness? If you say that they appeared [only] since the Third Council, you would have something to say. But if they began to exist from the descent of Christ, you have nothing to say against them. Tell me, O lawless one, when the Jews brought to Christ the coin bearing the image of Caesar, and testing Him asked if it ought to be adored, did He not stop their mouths, saying: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s”? Do you see that immaculate mouth, how He silenced their unjust tongue?
⑥. Look also at the evangelist and apostle Luke; did he not paint the precious icon of the all-immaculate and ever-virgin Mary and send it to Theophilus? And do you not understand these things? Do you not accept this doctrine, which was to be preached from the very advent of our Lord Jesus Christ? For if it were idolatry, surely at least one council would have been bound to cast them away. You wish to say that the Fathers of the six councils were struggling to destroy other blasphemies and heresies, and were not concerned about them. But tell me, what blasphemy is greater than idolatry? And how could the Fathers have abolished lighter things and left the heaviest of all for the destruction of the people? But you will tell me that the Fathers neither adored them nor held them in esteem. And how, then, did Chrysostom say: “I have also loved the wax-poured painting”? And how did Gregory of Nyssa say: “I never saw the painted images of the saints without passing by in tears”? And holy Basil, what need had he to undergo such great labor to go to Caesarea in order to see the image of Christ? And you say that they did not adore them? At the very least, they did not dishonor them, nor did they trample upon them.
You too, if you do not wish to adore them, no one forces you. In the meantime, however, do not dishonor them, nor call them idols, and thus bring about the destruction of your soul. How many temples and holy churches were adorned with the sacred images of the holy ones when the divine Fathers were celebrating the synods! What mind, beholding the Lord crucified in an image, does not adore him A
7. You want to object according to the prophet Isaiah: "You shall not make any likeness, neither of what is in heaven, nor of what is on earth?" Indeed, we have done no such thing, nor have we revered the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars, nor the things on earth, nor beasts, nor cattle, nor reptiles; nor have we made or revered any of these things, nor have we served them as the pagans do. You might want to say, according to the prophet David: B "The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the works of the hands of men. They have a mouth, and will not speak," and so forth. And indeed, they were truly such as the Prophet said, but those Greeks used to call them gods and revered them as gods, and they never knew God. But we are not like that; heaven forbid! But as I said before, I adore the holy, undivided, and unconfused Trinity, and the all-holy Theotokos, and all the saints; and I adore and embrace their precious and holy images because of my longing and great love for them—not as gods, as the Greeks did; heaven forbid! But as I said, as a concise and easily interpreted writing, just as the Church has received them. Thus they do speak, and they are not dumb, like the idols of the nations. For every writing read in the church, whether it be of the condescension of Christ, or the miracles of the Theotokos, or the struggles and lives of the saints, tells us through pictorial history, and opens our mind to their unspeakable and ineffable zeal. C
8. For tell me, if you see through a pictorial representation the second coming of Christ our God, how He comes in majesty, and the myriads of angels standing before His throne with fear and trembling, and the river of fire flowing from the throne consuming sinners; and again, when you see at His right hand the joy and gladness of the righteous, and how they exult in the presence of the Bridegroom—tell me, who, I ask, is so hard of soul and heart and obstinate that he is not pricked by the memory of that terrible hour, and, reflecting within himself, does not unfold the books of his own actions and, lamenting, does not fill his eyes with tears? For behold, this pictorial form speaks, portraying both the noble deeds of the pious and the D crimes of the impious. Do you see an accurate representation?
Do you not see that hour, when you stand and behold these things, that you are standing before Christ's day and the judgment in which you are about to be examined? Awake at last, you wretch, and remove the darkness with which you are covered; and just as you became a participant with us in the grace of baptism and in the communion of the precious body and blood of Christ, so too become a participant in the same worship, and do not, while believing the things of the Christians, act insolently toward the Churches, believing some things while rejecting others, and failing to become Her perfect child.
B 9. You wish to say: "I do not worship things made by hands." You do not know what you are saying, or what you worship. Tell me, is the church not made by hands, and the cross, and the Gospel, and the altar, and the other vessels of the church? Are they not fashioned by human hands—some constructed, some built, and others prepared for the service of God? Everything that exists in the church is made by hands and is visible; and if you hold this opinion, you will worship nothing that is seen by the eyes. For what are you yourself? Do you not possess visible eyes, and hands, and feet, and every member? How do you, who are visible, worship things that are invisible? C For there is a time when you worship the invisible, when you open the eye of your mind in your soul toward the only immaterial and invisible God, in your intellect and from a pure heart. If you have these things in your mind, O man, you will worship nothing that is in the church, but you will loathe everything; and he who has a lofty opinion regarding the faith, and glories in pride, is found to be as an atheist.
10. Tell me, O man, if someone should come from the nations saying to you, "Show me your faith, that I too may believe," what are you going to show him? Do you not lead him from sensible things to invisible things so that he may willingly embrace them? For if you say to him, "He in whom we believe is invisible," by what sight will he be moved to believe in your conscience and faith? D But you first lead him in from sensible things, and thus you gradually lead him up to the invisible. And how, hear this: You bring him into the church; you show him the adornment with which it is clothed. You reveal to him the forms of the holy images. The infidel sees, and says: "Who is this who is fixed to the cross? Who is this who is rising and treading upon the head of that earth-born one?" Do you not, by teaching him through the image, respond: "This one who is fixed to the cross is the Son of God, who was subjected to that punishment to take away the sins of the world; this one who is rising is he who raises up with him the first parent of the world, Adam, who fell through disobedience, and he tramples down Hades, which held for so many ages the one bound with indissoluble bonds and bars in the lower parts of the earth"? And thus you lead him to the knowledge of God. Then you lead him into the laver of baptism. And he sees there only water in the baptismal font, but you, the faithful one,
look upon the water as light and Spirit. And when he A has become a participant in baptism, then he too receives the assurance from the sensible thing toward the invisible regeneration. Then, when he comes to the sacramental celebration of the body and blood of the Lord, he sees only bread and wine; but you, you behold the body and blood which flowed from the unblemished side; and if he is found worthy, he becomes a partaker of it, and little by little he is raised up to your faith and knowledge. Do you see how you lead him from visible things to invisible things? Think of the holy image for me in the same way. You behold it in the church, whether it be of God, or of the all-holy Theotokos, or of a saint, or whatever you may find in the temple, and from the material things you lift up your mind toward the sight of the image, and toward the form and the gaze of the one depicted. Since I also ask you, O hater of images, have you seen Peter? Have you seen Paul? Have you seen any of the holy apostles? Have you seen Stephen the first martyr, or any other saint? No; but from this material form, your mind and your thought are spread out toward the longing and love for them, and those whom you do not see with your fleshly eyes, these you behold in spirit through the representation of the image.
B 11. To these things you object: "No one has seen an angel; and how can they tell stories about an angel?" Indeed, many have seen angels. For the all-holy Theotokos very often saw Gabriel; and the women bearing spices, when they went to the monument, saw angels; and the apostles too saw them, not only in the monument, but also when they were in prison, an angel came and led them out of it. And the prophets, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, and to speak in a word, many of the saints saw angels as much as they were able to bear. Whence also Dionysius the Areopagite describes and depicts their hierarchies, and does not forbid it, but even explains C the reason why the four-formed creatures are fashioned in the forms of birds and beasts.
12. And again the Iconoclast finds fault, saying: "And how do they make and depict angels, as having the form of a man and adorned with two wings? Is the nature of angels composed of wings?" But hear, you who contradict: Is not the holy and consubstantial Trinity incomprehensible, and inseparable, and undivided, and invisible to bodily eyes? And how did He deign to be received in hospitality in the tent of Abraham? Did not the servant of God, Abraham, see him as having the form of a man and worship him? Did not Lot also, his brother’s son, when he saw the two angels who had set out to overthrow Sodom, D behold them in the form of men traveling with him, and saving
those who were being brought out of that lawless city? And have those who are invisible by nature A become visible through condescension? Their form of nature was not truly such; but the incorporeal, as much as it was able to commune with a body, so did they appear to those who were worthy of beholding them. Therefore, we also depict them as they appeared at that time in human form. The adornment of wings signifies their lightness, and their being ethereal and invisible, and their condescension and coming down from heaven to earth in the blink of an eye. Thus, O senseless ones, you have no pretext for speaking against them.
13. You wish to say that this generation has made them into gods; but you have no just or reasonable argument. For it is your duty to teach the unlearned people how the venerable images ought to be honored and embraced. For tell me, if a countryman B should happen to meet a man, someone ignorant of royal dignity and honor, a man of the king, and should worship him as the king, or if, not knowing, he should say to him a word as if to a king: "Lord, have mercy on me," will you order both the one who worshipped and the one who was worshipped to be put to death because he did this out of ignorance? This is not just; rather, it is fitting that the inexperienced be taught by the experienced. You see that the experienced should teach the inexperienced that this is not the king, but an official of his and a servant; and inform him that the king sits in the palace, and no one sees him except when C he is about to come forth. Thus it is necessary to teach those who wander through ignorance concerning the image of Christ, that this is not Christ in the flesh, but that it is His image. For Christ is uncircumscribed according to His divinity, and no one sees Him, except later, when He is about to come forth in His second coming; and in any case, they should have worshipped and embraced them.
14. For indeed, for this reason there are bishops and the orders of presbyters and deacons, for the sake of teaching the people how they ought to believe, and how they ought to pray. For those luminaries, those true D shepherds and divinely-inspired teachers, those guides of salvation, cared for nothing else in this life but to teach the people things leading to salvation, as being people who truthfully wished to render an account to God for the people. But the bishops of this generation care for nothing else but horses, and herds, and flocks, and fields, and bundles of gold; how they may sell the grain; how they may distribute the wine; how they may measure the oil; how they may trade in wool and silk; and they look to nothing else carefully, except for the stamp of the coin and the weight; and they daily look about for Sybaritic tables, and fragrant wine, and great fish, but they despise their own flock, and their own bodies
A Thus plainly the bishops of this time have become wolves, as Scripture speaks. But if they find any of the flock subject to them having fallen into some slight sin, they easily rise up against them and inflict punishments succeeding one another: in no way attending to the duties of pastoral dignity, they consider their flock daily not as shepherds, but like mercenaries.
15. Come now, tell me, whom shall we follow? Saint Basil the miracle-worker, or Pastilas, who was the ruin of many souls? In whom shall we place our faith? In Saint John Chrysostom, the teacher of the way of repentance and salvation, or in Tricacabus, the teacher of disorder and destruction? Whom shall we obey? Gregory, who excelled in theology, or Constantine, B that profane patriarch, the bane of all the people, who drove the holy doctrine of the holy and venerable icons out of the holy Church of Christ, along with his namesake who unworthily holds the scepter of the empire? I ask you, O man, whom shall we obey: the choir of venerable patriarchs who shone forth from the first holy and universal synod up to the sixth, which every region from the ends of the heaven to the ends of the earth has sealed, or these hypocrite priests, now at last introducing into the Church a spurious dogma which none of the patriarchs and no throne has confirmed by its authority—nay, rather they have proscribed it, having C issued libelli in which they exposed its authors, as having devised a doctrine hateful to God and having decreed things contrary to ecclesiastical rules?
16. Whom, I ask, shall we set before ourselves as a leader: the most celebrated and truly venerable synod of the standard-bearing and holy Fathers, or this headless, execrable conventicle, hateful to God and his saints? For it is plainly headless, and loathsome to God. And tell me, what patriarch was found in it? The one of Rome did not consent to come. The one of Alexandria was not present at all, nor indeed the one of Antioch, nor D the one of Jerusalem, not even once. What kind of synod, then, is this that has no patriarch? A synod is when the five patriarchal sees decree one faith and one discourse; if even one be missing from these, or if he does not submit to the synod, this is not a synod, but a parasynagogue and a council of vanity and arrogance. You see this parasynagogue, which the robbers—and not shepherds—have devised against the Church of Christ
A If you wish to learn of this more surely, namely that it is a gathering of vanity and not a synod, search and learn that it even killed its own patriarch, who was unworthy to be patriarch, the very man it had made. Who, indeed, would not laugh at this headless synod—or rather, this synod that has no head? It made a head for itself, and then turned and cast it away—or rather, killed it. O blindness! O folly and lack of sense! Who would not laugh at this synod? Even from this, all shall know that it is invalid and unacceptable, both before God and before His saints.
B 17. And it is not fitting to call it a synod, but a Jewish council; for it has become similar to the one against the Savior. For the author of evils, our enemy the devil, who from the beginning has warred against the human race, seeing the race of the Hebrews, that it was then beloved by God, envied them; and wishing to destroy them, he cast into them the evil thought that Christ was not the Son of God, but a deceiver, and that He wished to destroy the race of the Hebrews, and for this reason, they should seize and kill Him. And the priests of the Jews, having made a council and taken counsel among themselves C against the Savior, that they might seize and kill Him—having seized Him, they crucified Him and, having mixed vinegar and gall, they put a sponge upon a reed and brought it to His mouth; and having taken a lance, they pierced His holy side. And those who were once sons became strangers to the nobility of their patriarchs and Fathers. Likewise again, our enemy, the devil, seeing the race of the Christians—that it is beloved by God—envied it greatly; and wishing to destroy many of them, he cast into them this evil thought: that the bowing down before venerable images is idolatry; D and he said, "Spit upon it and stand apart from it, lest you perish." And the priests of the Christians, together with those who unworthily grasped at the imperial power and tyrannically leapt into the vestibules of the palace, having made a council and taken counsel out of their evil thoughts, they too meditated vain and foolish things against the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. And they condemned it to be trodden under their own lawless feet, in place of the crucifixion of the flesh which the Jews carried out; and just as the lawless ones, having mixed vinegar and gall, brought it to the mouth
A of Christ, so also did these, having mixed water and unslaked lime, and having placed a sponge upon a rod, brought it to the flesh-resembling face of the precious icon, and smeared it. And instead of the spear that pierced the life-giving side of Christ, having taken a sword, they dug it out and scraped it away and wiped it out of the Church, and they too fulfilled the work of the Jews and delivered themselves to the devil. O the calamity! O the madness! O the deception of the Christians! That even those who are seen to be Christian emperors and high priests have made themselves strangers to the blameless faith, and have cast themselves into the abyss of the Jews, even if only by a small transgression. Woe to you, devil, stranger to God, for you have mixed the Christian race with the B Jews.
18. For if we, as foster-children of the Church, shall have diligently investigated this heresy, we shall find it has been impiously innovated. For it exists as more impious than the former heresies. For the former heresies stumbled against the humanity of Christ; but this one strikes against the divinity. Because, whereas Christ, having come down, made the faith his own and rescued us from the insane worship of idols—partly through his holy disciples, and partly through his venerable martyrs—and completely destroyed it, so that there was no memory of it left, nor did anyone utter the name, these babblers have again devised it and again make mention of idols. And the lawless ones have not understood that from the time Christ was crucified and rose again, from that moment, C idol-worship began little by little to be driven from the earth.
19. For he who first breathed this heresy, being a liar and deceitful, grasped at the empire. For he was called Conon, and he wrapped himself in the name of Leo, having received this purpose and mindset from the Hebrews. For as he was walking about, before he had assumed the empire, a certain Hebrew said to him: "You are going to be emperor. But if you will hold fast to the words I shall tell you, your reign and your honor will be long-lasting. Cast away the name which you possess, and be named Leo. For in the days of your reign the statues of the icons, which the Christians believe in, will be overturned. Therefore, give me your promise D that you will overturn them when you have entered upon the empire." Enticed therefore as if by bait, the dragon of the abyss gave him his pledge, since an unworthy man was holding the desire for honor; and when matters came to pass, he seized the scepter of the empire. And after the tenth year, when the guide of destruction met him in public as he was coming forth, and had given him the petition, as if he were a suppliant, and the lawless man had read it, he immediately ordered the Hebrew to come to him in the palace. From which time, having summoned that Hebrew, he ordered him to enter, and having taken it, from that moment he...
A became a companion and conspirator of his lawlessness; and like a savage beast, he leaped into the Church, and dragged many away from her, and tore them from her bosom. And those whom she had given birth to without pain, and had educated in the doctrines of the Fathers, he made them alienated and exiled from their mother’s kinship.
20. When this man had departed from this life in wickedness, his execrable offspring immediately appeared, having become a double heir to his malice—that Constantine, who, from his very swaddling clothes, from the very holy and immaculate font itself, renounced the Christian piety and faith. For when he was still an infant, being baptized in the temple of Holy Sophia by our high priest and shepherd Germanus, while the patriarch was crying out, “Such an one is baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” B immediately that foul enemy of the Church, and stranger to her, defiled the entire font and filled all who were present with the stench of the excrement of his impure womb; so that the priest and prophet of sacred things, Germanus, exclaimed: “This one will be a great stench to the Church.” Do you see the first deed of his malice? Do you discern what manner of crime he committed and perpetrated? Now observe what sort of scandals the founder and innovator of the heresy introduced. Look upon the perdition of his dark soul and body.
21. For after he had seized the power of the kingdom, C his arrogance became manifest to all. For he sent an edict into all the provinces subject to his hand, ordering everyone to sign and to swear to abolish the adoration of the venerable icons. And whereas we today, beloved, say: “Let us go to the all-holy Theotokos to pray,” or “to the holy apostles,” or “to the holy forty martyrs,” or “to the holy protomartyr Stephen,” that crafty one would not even tolerate hearing this. For stripping the holy ones of the title of “saint,” he would say that the all-holy Theotokos could not help anyone after her death, and that the holy apostles and all the blessed D martyrs did not possess the ability to intercede, as though they had only profited themselves by the sufferings which they endured, in order to free their own souls from punishment, and that subsequently no aid came from them to those by whom they are invoked, or who [make their way] to them.
VARIAE LECTIONES. What if it be read, “painfully,” or “not painfully,” as Combefisius thinks, or as Paul said, “my little children, of whom I travail in birth again”? The letter is somewhat obscure, by which at least it is signified that Copronymus forbade that either the Mother of God, or the apostles, or the holy martyrs should be called “saints,” nor that the faithful should in any way invoke them. We have the first testimony from the holy Stephen the Younger, martyr, in his Life: “Who then,” he said, “will be called your holy synod? Have you not removed the word ‘saint’ from all the saints, the just, the apostles, and the martyrs, and established a dogma by saying: ‘Where are you going? To the Apostles. Where do you come from? From the Forty Martyrs. Where are you going now? To the martyr Theodore, to the martyr Acacius,’ and the like.” Thus the examples of the places of the royal city indicate on both sides that the men were by no means strangers: a fact which Combefisius finally saw. The second point of Copronymian impiety may be seen in Theophanes. [index: entries preserved]
A O impure tongue, sharpened for evil! O polluted mouth that has spoken blasphemy against the saints! If the Theotokos cannot help us after death, then who else is our protection, and who has become the helper and assistant of the Christian race? For if any man has secured the mother of someone as an advocate, he treats her with all modesty and honor, and when she makes supplicatory requests on behalf of a relative, a servant, or a friend, her own true son would not refuse her the hearing of her petition and intercession. She who is more exalted than the whole human race and the heavenly powers, pure in body and spirit, having become the mother of such a Son, how much intercession and boldness does she possess before Him who was incarnate from her? For she truly possesses a power that is incomparable and incomprehensible; the witnesses to this are those who flee to her protection, and how immediately she has become our assistant and help in daily calamities and illnesses.
22. Furthermore, is not he who shamelessly blasphemes the apostles and martyrs ashamed? For if anyone has a true friend who has often chosen to suffer for him, and possesses such friendship and love that he does not wish to be separated from him by day or by night, and esteems him dearer than children, wife, and every most precious possession; and if we, though evil, strive to repay with some good things those who love us, how much more does Christ—whose bowels are full of mercy, and who is the lover of good, and who cries out clearly in the Gospels: "You are my friends" [Joan. xv, 15]; and again: "I am going to prepare a place for you, B and I will come again and receive you to myself" [Joan. xiv, 2]; and again elsewhere through the Prophet He cries out: "I said: You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High" [Ps. LXXXI, 6 / Joan. x, 34]—how much more, if He calls them gods because of the sincerity of their love and their relationship, do they possess boldness and intercession after death? Is not their boldness theirs? Is not their glory after death theirs? Is not their firm faith theirs? Why should we not have as intercessors before God those who have done such things and have been so excellently perfected in these gifts? Why should their supplications not be a defense for us? How many barbarian enemies have they, since the time they departed this life, warded off C or destroyed by their assistance? How many deadly calamities have they turned into the opposite by their intervention? From how many dangers have we been delivered by their prayers until now? Is it not fitting to represent such and so many of our patrons and defenders by an express likeness in images, and to honor them D every day, and to fall down before them, and to raise the honor from this material representation up to the prototype? And those whom we do not in the flesh...
see, because of the circumstance of time, these we greet and beseech in the spirit; not as the dead, but as those who live to God.
B 23. Who, I ask, is the author of such apostasy and such malice? Clearly no one else but that prince who began this heresy through evil deception, a man of light mind and character. For if he had held the Church as he had seen it, and as his predecessors, emperors and high priests, had maintained it, he would never have meditated injustice against God, nor would his foolish mouth have vomited forth words against the Church. For indeed the dragon, who had a high-minded spirit, has now been cast down like a slave; and he who had cast his mind into the depths of Scripture is now suffocated in the bottomless pit of impiety; and he who seemed to himself to be about to surpass his predecessor emperors in wisdom, now, as one ignorant of who he was or how—thus did that crafty one blind him, who had also formerly laid snares for Adam. For just as he said to Adam: "And in whatever hour you eat of the forbidden tree, you shall become like God, and you shall be knowing good and evil"—in such a way he also led this client of his astray, intellectually and sensibly, saying: "In whatever day you abolish the adoration of images, you shall be blessed, and you shall be shown to be prudent and long-lived above all the kings of the earth." Therefore, those of his nature argue nothing else but this, saying that he held the kingdom for a long time; and these God-hated ones do not know what they are saying. For indeed the devil is called the prince of this world, and he rewards those who do his will here.
B 24. For this crafty man, unworthy of the kingdom, bore the name of "Christian," and entered into the Church as if he were to be one of its sheep, and he drank—although unworthily—the blood of Christ, and ate the immaculate body. Therefore, as one who had created something good, the lover of mankind awaited his repentance; and as I said, the Savior, the Lord of the world, seeking his salvation, even granted him a length of time, so that if he should turn to good, he might be saved through his own good choice. But if he would not repent, he would obtain nothing from it except the rewards of his wickedness and heresy, which are stored up for his fellow-believers and those estranged from the Church: namely, the unquenchable fire, and the worm that does not sleep, and the outer darkness, and things similar to these.
25. But I beseech you, beloved, that anyone who
is blinded by this deceit may recover his senses A and cleanse his mind. For when the devil wishes to destroy a man, he blinds his soul and his mind so that he does not know the good. But let us search the Scriptures and the traditions of the holy Fathers, and let us imitate them; and just as we found the Church from the moment of Christ’s descent, so let us preserve her, and so let us hand her on, and let us not separate ourselves from our Fathers, reading one thing and understanding another, lest perhaps some future generation should come and be ready to anathematize us and dig us up as having opinions contrary to the statutes and laws of the Church. And in truth, the ends of the earth will be of no benefit to us. I pray and beseech God, even though I am a sinner and unworthy of heaven and earth, that He may deign to grant me a portion with the Fathers of the seven hundred years, and with the six B holy and ecumenical synods, and not with that headless faction. Let us not hold as far as wealth, and as far as luxury, and as far as vain glory, but as far as the shedding of our own blood, that good and firm, unshakable foundation of our confession, so that we too may deserve to hear: “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” May it be granted to us all to attain this, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory, honor, and worship to the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen. C
ADMONITION REGARDING THE EPISTLE TO THE EMPEROR THEOPHILUS
The epistle which follows, addressed to the Emperor Theophilus, Combefis has already edited heretofore in his *Manipulum rerum Constantinopolitanarum*, taken from the Royal codex 2503; however, he acknowledged that it should not be attributed to John of Damascus, both because of the style and because of the chronology, and also on account of the authority of the decision, which the beginning and the end demonstrate. Nor did the most learned man later affirm incorrectly that this is exactly the same one which Constantine Porphyrogennetus says was written in the name of the three patriarchs of the East, in his oration concerning the image of Christ at Edessa, the words of which it is relevant to recite here. For after he related what had happened at Edessa during the Persian siege—namely, that when the image of the Lord was displayed above the walls, the Persians were consumed by the pyre of wood which they themselves had prepared around the city in the same way that the Chaldeans formerly who had set fire to the Babylonian furnace (which you will read about below in no. 51)—he adds: “This narrative has not been fabricated by us without witness for the sake of tickling the ears or creating a deception; but the three patriarchs together, Job of Alexandria, Christopher of Antioch, and Basil of Jerusalem, wrote it, and thus made known that these things happened, having sent an epistle to the Emperor Theophilus, who was a violator of the images; when, indeed, in a long dissertation proving that the divine images are to be venerated, they also touched upon this.” And anyone who wishes may read that long epistle. Furthermore, Combefis did not think that the patriarchs of the East had gathered in one place to write this epistle, but that it was first produced in one diocese and by one of the patriarchs, approved by others, and by common reckoning and consensus of all, sent to Theophilus. Although, from the sequence of the oration, it might perhaps seem that each one contributed his own portion to its composition, on account of the various narratives found therein accepted by those three, whether from their Churches or their dioceses, of which, however, [index: entries preserved]
fides sit apud primitivos auctores. Scripserunt porro ii antistites, inquit alibi Combefisius, non per Theodorum et Theophanem, quasi illi primum sub Theophilo in urbem venerint, quod quidam opinati sunt, refellunturque ex ejus Vita et Theodori epistola de suo et fratris certamine : sed longe postea, cum illi annos plures sub tribus quatuorve imperatoribus in Græcia vixissent, aliaque jam certamina desudassent.
SAINT JOHN OF DAMASCUS EPISTLE TO THE EMPEROR THEOPHILUS CONCERNING THE HOLY AND VENERABLE IMAGES
A 1. Since, therefore, according to the divine voice which says: "If two of you shall consent upon earth, concerning any thing whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be done to them by my Father who is in heaven. For where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." And again: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." And again: "You shall sit on twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." And again: "Whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven." And elsewhere: "And not for them only do I pray, says the Lord, but for them also who through their word shall believe in me; that they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them; that they may be made perfect in one: and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast also loved me. And that where I am, they also may be with me, that they may see my glory, which thou hast given me." And the divine Apostle Peter says: "Giving them the Holy Ghost, as well as to us," and God gave the same gift to the Gentiles, even as they spoke with tongues, and prophesied. And again, the great Paul, the preacher of the world and teacher, says: "God hath set some in the church; first apostles, B secondly prophets, thirdly doctors." Therefore, following the definition and rule of the divine apostles and of the holy and blessed Fathers, in the great Church of God, where with one heart and one mind C