Iconoclasm Movement (726-787 AD)

Abstract

The Iconoclasm began during the reign of Emperor Leo III in (717-741 A.D), who issued a decree in (726 AD) prohibiting the worship of icons, and requiring the removal of statues represented in religious images such as images of Jesus and Mary, as well as the prohibition of worshiping images of saints and crosses from churches, monasteries and Houses. The Iconoclasm did not stop with the death of Leo III, but continued during the reign of his successors.it seems that Iconoclast controversy did not affect the Orthodox Church only, but also permanently influenced relations between the Byzantine and Rom (Catholic Church). This paper investigates the first period of Iconoclasm, which ended with the Second Council of Nicaea in 787A.D, and after which it called the new period of Iconoclasm. This paper also clarifies although the idea of the conflict was religious, in essence it was a conflict between the emperors and the church, a conflict from which the Emperor Leo III and his successors sought control of the church.