Literally, iconoclasm is the destruction of religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually for religious or political motives. In Christian circles, iconoclasm has generally been motivated by a literal interpretation of the second of the Ten Commandments, which forbids the making and worshipping of "graven images". It has sometimes been motivated by christological or even political concerns as well.
People who engage in such practices are called iconoclasts, a term that has come to be applied to any person who breaks or disdains established dogmas or conventions. Conversely, people who revere or venerate religious images are called iconodules.
Iconoclasms can be carried out by people of a different religion, but are often the result of sectarian disputes between factions of the same religion.
Iconoclasm was a cultural product of the Russian Revolution of 1917, and numerous (mainly peasant) revolts throughout history.
Germanus I of Constantinople, the iconodule Patriarch of Constantinople, either resigned or was deposed following the ban; letters Germanus wrote at the time say little of theology. "What worries Germanos is that the banning of images would only prove that the Church had been in error for a long time and so play into the hands of Jews and Muslims" (The Oxford History of Byzantium: Iconoclasm, Patricia Karlin-Hayter, Oxford University Press, 2002.) In the Western part of the Byzantine empire, Pope Gregory III held two synods at Rome and condemned Leo's actions, with the result that Leo seized some papal lands. During this initial period concern on both sides seems to have had little to do with theology and more with practical evidence and effects. Icon veneration was forbidden simply because Leo saw it as a violation of the biblical commandment forbidding making and venerating images. There was initially no church council or prominent patriarch or bishop calling for the removal or destruction of icons. During the destruction or obscuring of images, Leo "confiscated valuable church plate, altar cloths, and reliquaries decorated with religious figures" (History of the Byzantine State and Society, Treadgold, Helen, Stanford University Press, 1997), but took no severe action against the former patriarch or iconophile bishops.
Leo died in 740, but his ban on icons was dogmatically confirmed under his son Constantine V (741-775) by the Seventh Ecumenical Council of Constantinople and Hieria in 754 ("the Iconoclast Council") in which some 340 bishops participated. That was not the end of the matter however. In this period complex theological arguments appeared, both for and against the use of icons. The monasteries were strongholds of icon veneration, and an underground network of anti-iconoclasts was organized among monks. One Syrian monk, John of Damascus, was the major opponent of iconoclasm through his theological writings. Another, Theodore the Studite, wrote a letter against the emperor to Pope Paschal, an act with strong political implications. In a response recalling the later Protestant Reformation, Constantine moved against the monasteries, had relics thrown into the sea, and stopped the invocation of saints. Constantine's son, Leo IV (775-80)was less rigorous,trying to conciliate factions until near the end of his life, when he took severe measures against images and would have banned his secretly icon-venerating Athenian wife, Irene. But before that happened he died, and Irene took power as regent for her son, Constantine VI (780-97). With Irene's ascension as regent, the first Iconoclastic Period came to an end.
Irene initiated 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; it convened again at Nicea in 787 and reversed the decrees of the previous iconoclast council held at Constantinope and Hieria, and appropriated its title as Seventh Ecumenical Council. So there were two councils called the "Seventh Ecumenical Council," the first supporting iconoclasm, the second supporting icon veneration and negating the first. The decrees of this council, unlike those of the iconoclast council, were approved by the papacy. Eastern Orthodoxy today considers it the last genuine ecumenical council. Icon veneration lasted through the reign of Empress Irene's successor, Nicephorus I (reigned 802-811), and the two brief reigns after his.
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 mobilized the iconodules and proclaimed the restoration of icons in 843. Since that time the first Sunday of Lent is celebrated in the churches of the Orthodox tradition as the feast of the "Triumph of Orthodoxy".
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 the Byzantine emperor to evade retribution, and Theodore the Studite, who lived within the Empire.
John declared that he did not venerate matter, "but rather the creator of matter." However 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 the paint of images, the wood of the Cross, and the body and blood of Jesus. While the arguments of the iconodules were largely based on biblical commands and written Church tradition, John based his arguments on the Neo-Platonist view of the relation between an image and that which it depicts.
The iconodule 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, was to bind the emperor to something that was not his concern, namely the definition and imposition of orthodoxy, if need be by force" (Oxford History of Byzantium, 2002). That practice continued from beginning to end of the Iconoclastic controversy and beyond, with some emperors enforcing iconoclasm, and two empresses regent enforcing the re-establishment of icon veneration. One distinction between the iconoclastic emperors and Constantine I is that the latter did not dictate the conclusion of the First Council of Nicaea before summoning it, whereas Leo III began enforcing a policy of iconoclasm more than twenty years before the Council of Hieria would endorse it.
Historically, despite a religious prohibition on destroying or converting houses of worship, conquering Muslim armies would on occasion replace local temples or houses of worship with mosques. An example is the Hagia Sophia, Church of the Holy Wisdom, in Istanbul, formerly Constantinople which was converted into a mosque in 1453, when its mosaics were covered with plaster. The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem is said to have been built on top of the remains of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Some ultra-religious Jewish messianic groups believe that only by similarly demolishing the Dome of the Rock and rebuilding the Jewish Temple, can the messiah come to earth. This has led to frequent tension between Jews and Muslims over the site. Similar acts of iconoclasm occurred in parts of north Africa.
In India, a number of former Buddhist monasteries and Hindu temples were conquered and rebuilt as mosques. In recent years, right-wing Hindu nationalists have torn down some of these mosques, such as the famous Babri Masjid, and attempted to replace them with Hindu Temples.
The Seventeen Provinces (now the Netherlands and Belgium) were hit by a large wave of Protestant iconoclasm in the summer of 1566. This is called the Beeldenstorm and included such acts as the destruction of the statuary of the Monastery of Saint Lawrence in Steenvoorde after a Hagenpreek, or field sermon, by Sebastiaan Matte; and the sacking of the Monastery of Saint Anthony after a sermon by Jacob de Buysere. The Beeldenstorm marked the start of the revolution against the Spanish forces and the Catholic church. See Flanders for more on its history.
In England, Bishop Joseph Hall of Norwich described the events of 1643 when troops and citizens, encouraged by a Parliamentary ordinance against superstition and Idolatry, behaved thus: