abbot. "Rather than abstain from adoring Christ and his Mother
in their holy images, it would be better for you," replied the
casuist, "to enter every brothel, and visit every prostitute, in
the city." ^80 For the honor of orthodoxy, at least the orthodoxy
of the Roman church, it is somewhat unfortunate, that the two
princes who convened the two councils of Nice are both stained
with the blood of their sons. The second of these assemblies was
approved and rigorously executed by the despotism of Irene, and
she refused her adversaries the toleration which at first she had
granted to her friends. During the five succeeding reigns, a
period of thirty-eight years, the contest was maintained, with
unabated rage and various success, between the worshippers and
the breakers of the images; but I am not inclined to pursue with
minute diligence the repetition of the same events. Nicephorus
allowed a general liberty of speech and practice; and the only
virtue of his reign is accused by the monks as the cause of his
temporal and eternal perdition. Superstition and weakness formed
the character of Michael the First, but the saints and images
were incapable of supporting their votary on the throne. In the
purple, Leo the Fifth asserted the name and religion of an
Armenian; and the idols, with their seditious adherents, were
condemned to a second exile. Their applause would have
sanctified the murder of an impious tyrant, but his assassin and
successor, the second Michael, was tainted from his birth with
the Phrygian heresies: he attempted to mediate between the
contending parties; and the intractable spirit of the Catholics
insensibly cast him into the opposite scale. His moderation was
guarded by timidity; but his son Theophilus, alike ignorant of
fear and pity, was the last and most cruel of the Iconoclasts.
The enthusiasm of the times ran strongly against them; and the