both him and the officer who guarded him asleep; but the keeper had resigned his bed to the criminal, and was lying on the floor. A slave, who was in the room unobserved, had recognised the emperor by his purple buskins, and, on his withdrawal, aroused the sleepers. The officer, knowing that the indulgence which he had shown to his prisoner must render himself suspected as an accomplice, concerted with Michael a plan for instant action. Under pretence that a confessor was required, he introduced into the palace one of Michael's partisans, who, on going out, communicated with others. It was the custom to celebrate the earliest service of Christmas-day at three o'clock in the morning; the "ivory gate" of the palace was opened to admit the clergy and singers, and among them a band of disguised conspirators entered. These attacked the chief chaplain, supposing him to be the emperor, who usually led the psalmody on such occasions; but the priest escaped by uncovering his tonsured head. They then fell on Leo, who for a time defended himself by swinging the chain of a censer, and then, seizing a large cross from the altar, dealt heavy blows around him, until a conspirator of gigantic size disabled him by a stroke which cut off his right hand. On this, the emperor was immediately despatched; his head was cut off, and his body was dragged into the circus. Michael, before a smith could be found to release him from his chains, was hastily enthroned, and, on the same day, was crowned in the cathedral.*

The friends of images now flattered themselves that Leo's policy would be reversed. The deposed patriarch Nicephorus wrote to request that the emperor would restore the images; while Theodore the Studite warmly congratulated Michael on his accession," and celebrated the murder of Leo with ferocious exultation. "It was right," he said, "that the apostate should thus end his life. It was fitting that in the night death should overtake the son of darkness. It was fitting that he who had desolated the temples of God should see swords bared against himself in God's temple. It was fitting that he should find no shelter from the altar who had destroyed the altar itself, and that that hand should be cut off which had been stretched forth against the holy things. It was fitting that a sword should pierce through the throat which had vomited forth blasphemies.' After exercising his rhetoric in this style through other points of congruity, Theodore adds, in words

* Const. Porph. i. 24-5; ii. 2; Cedren. 494-6; Gibbon, iv. 418; Schlosser, 427431.

y Const. Porph. ii. 8; Walch, x. 706. 2 Ep. ii. 74.

which it is possible that he may have himself believed-"I do not mock at the manner of his death, as rejoicing in the fate of the impious man, but I speak in sorrow and with tears. It is because, as He hath said who cannot lie, that wicked man hath been miserably destroyed;" and he goes on to express his hope that a new Josiah or Jovian may arise for the restoration of images and of religion.b

a

Michael recalled those who had been banished for their attachment to images, and the return of Theodore was celebrated by a sort of public triumph. But the hopes which had been rashly entertained were soon disappointed. The emperor, a Phrygian by birth, was a rude soldier; it is said that he could hardly read. His enemies assert that his highest accomplishments consisted in a knowledge of horses, asses, and pigs; and to this it is added, that in early life he had been connected with a strange sect which mixed up Jewish tenets with those of the Athingani or Paulicians-that he still retained its errors, that he denied our Lord's resurrection and the existence of the devil. The joy of the monastic party was effectually checked when the noted iconomachist Antony of Sylæum was raised in 821 to the patriarchate of Constantinople. Michael declared that he himself had never worshipped any image; he forbade all changes in religion, and all preaching on either side of the question. Both the friends and the opponents of images were to enjoy full liberty of opinion; but no public worship of images was to be allowed in the capital. Thus Theodore and his friends found that, instead of the ascendency which they had expected, they were only to enjoy toleration— and that of a kind which was equal only in name, inasmuch as, while the opposite party lost nothing, the devotees of images were restrained from the open exercise of the worship which they regarded as essential. They once more refused to confer with their opponents, on the ground that it was unlawful to do so.h Theodore repeated to Michael the declaration which he had made to Leo, that earthly princes have no right to intermeddle with matters of religion. He desired the emperor to restore Nicephorus to the patriarchal throne, or, if he felt any doubt or distrust, to

m

follow the tradition of the fathers by referring the matter to the bishop of Rome, as the inheritor of the Saviour's promise to St. Peter.i He met Michael's endeavours at a reconciliation between the parties by labouring to separate the church from the state. He wrote to Marina, the divorced wife of Constantine VI., whose daughter Michael had taken from a convent to become his second wife, charging her to leave the palace and her daughter's company, because the sword spoken of in the Gospel was now come to set the nearest kindred at variance among themselves." Michael was provoked by the intractable behaviour of Theodore and his followers to abandon his principle of toleration, and to employ harsh measures against them. The Studite was once more banished, and died in exile at the age of sixty-nine."

A.D. 826.

As the adherents of images relied much on the support of Rome, the emperor in 824 sent a legation to pope Paschal, with a view of endeavouring to dissuade him from harbouring refugees of the party. At the same time, he sent ambassadors to Louis the Pious, with a letter in which he announced his accession, and his late victory over a rival, named Thomas, who had pretended to be the deposed Constantine, and for three years had contested the possession of the empire. In this letter Michael clears his faith and his conduct in ecclesiastical matters from misrepresentations which had reached the west, and entreats the Frank emperor to aid him by the influence which, as lord of Rome, he could exercise over the pope, and in justification of his proceedings he gives some curious statements of the excess to which the superstition as to images was carried. The cross was turned out of churches, and images were substituted for it; lights and incense were offered to them, hymns and prayers were addressed to them. They were employed as sponsors for children; and novices entering into the monastic. state, instead of asking religious persons to receive their hair when cut off, allowed it to fall into the lap of images. Some of the clergy, in contempt of the public churches, celebrated the Eucharist in houses, using pictures for altars. Some scraped off the colours of images, mixed them with the sacramental elements, and administered the mixture to communicants; while others placed the

consecrated bread in the hands of the images, and from these the communicants received it. The effect of this embassy fell short of Michael's expectation; but we shall see that it was not unimportant in the history of the western church.

Michael was succeeded in 829 by his son Theophilus. The young emperor had been carefully educated under John the Grammarian. He was a friend of literature, arts, and science; he composed hymns and church-music, and himself led the choir in Divine service. He prided himself on a strict administration of justice, which sometimes became an absurd or cruel pedantry; and his attempts in war against the Saracens resulted in fruitless displays of courage and waste of blood, which gained for him the epithet of "the Unlucky." From the lessons of John he had derived a strong abhorrence of images, and he carried out his views with relentless determination."

A.D. 833.

t

X

The first measure of Theophilus against images was an order, issued on the occasion of a general taxation, that the opinions of every person on the question should be ascertained. He then, in 832, commanded that images should not be reverenced in any way, and that they should not be styled holy, forasmuch as God alone is holy. In the same year, on the death of Antony, he bestowed the patriarchate on his tutor, John," who soon after held a synod at which the decrees of the second Nicene council were condemned.a The emperor then ordered that pictures of animals and other common subjects should be substituted in churches for those of a religious kind; and he proceeded, with great severity, to enforce obedience. A general burning of religious pictures and statues took place. Many of the image party were imprisoned or banished. Monasteries were to be applied to secular uses; monks were forbidden to wear their habit; such of them as had lived in rural monasteries were not to be admitted into towns; and those who painted images were especially prohibited to exercise their art.b The zealous party among the monks, on their side, were as resolute

as the emperor. Many of them went to him, and told him to his face that he was accursed for interfering with a worship which was derived from St. Luke, from the Apostles, and from the Saviour himself. A monastic artist, named Lazarus, persisted in painting, notwithstanding repeated admonitions. He was cruelly beaten ; but, as soon as he had recovered in some degree, he boldly resumed his occupation. For this defiance of the law, he was again arrested; by way of disabling him, his hands were seared with hot plates of iron; and it was with difficulty that his life was saved through the intercession of the empress Theodora. Yet no suffering or danger could subdue the zealous painter, who, on being set at liberty, took refuge in a church of St. John the Baptist, and there produced a picture which speedily acquired the reputation of miraculous power. Two other monks, the poet Theophanes and his brother Theodore, were summoned to the emperor's presence. Theophilus, who was fond of displaying his learning and ability in disputation, was provoked at finding that the monks did not yield with the same facility to which he had been accustomed in his courtiers. He ordered that each of them should receive two hundred lashes, and should afterwards be branded on the forehead with twelve iambic verses of the emperor's own composition; "If the lines are bad,” he said, "they deserve no better." Yet, notwithstanding these and many other severities, it does not appear that any persons suffered death in this reign on account of an attachment to images.

f

d

But within the emperor's immediate circle the worship of images was secretly practised. In the beginning of his reign, his stepmother, Euphrosyne, the daughter of Constantine VI. by his Armenian empress, had caused the noblest maidens of the empire to be assembled in order that Theophilus might select a consort from among them. Struck with the beauty of Icasia, he was about to bestow on her the golden apple, which was the symbol of his choice, when he paused for a moment, and said, as if unconsciously uttering his thought-" Of how much evil have women been the cause!" Icasia at once answered the reference to Eve with an

Const. Porph. iii. 11; Cedren. 519. d Cedren, 520; Baron. 832. 5.

G. Hamart. cclxvi.; Const. Porph. iii. 14. Sym. Mag. de Theoph. 22; Cedren. 520-1; Baron. 835. 35. It does not seem impossible (as some writers have supposed) to find room for the verses on the tonsured heads of the monks, if a small letter were used. This difficulty is not raised by the ancient authorities; and, at least, the branding

is certain.

Giesel. II. i. 11. Schlosser (517, 524), Mr. Finlay (ii. 178), and Dean Milman (ii. 136) agree in denying that there is any authority for Gibbon's statement (iv. 494) as to the extreme cruelty of the punishments inflicted by Theophilus.

Theophilus afterwards sent Euphrosyne back to her nunnery. Cedren. 514.