"She called off the betrothal between Constantine VI and Charlemagne's son Rotrude" Truly, Charlemagne was ahead of his time.

“It is likely that there had always been Christians opposed to the veneration of icons from the earliest days.” It is not merely “likely”. The opposition to images of divine things was ubiquitous in ante-Nicene Christianity. “It is with a different kind of spell that art deludes you...It leads you to pay religious honour and worship to images and pictures.” - Clement Alexandria (c. 195) “We are not to draw the faces of idols, for we are prohibited to cling to them.” - Clement Alex. (c. 195) “Works of art cannot be sacred and divine” - Clement Alex. (c. 195) “For familiarity with the sense of sight disparages the reverence of what is divine.” - Clement Alex. (c. 195) “They call themselves Gnostics. They also possess images, some of them painted, & others formed from different kinds of material. They maintain that a likeness of Christ was made by Pilate at that time when Jesus lived among them. They crown these images” - Irenaeus (c. 180) “Image making is an art that attracts the attention of foolish men. It drags the eyes of the soul down from God to earth.” - Origen (c. 248) “Without a doubt, there is no religion where ever there is an image. For religion consists of divine things, and there is nothing divine except in heavenly things. So it follows that images are without religion. For there can be nothing heavenly in something that is made from earth.” - Lactantius (c. 310) “That which is incorporeal must be offered to God, for he accepts this...For God is not seen, he should be worshipped with things that are not seen.” - Lactantius (c. 310)

The icons were also called the book of the illiterate ...

This is how school should be taught!

This is the clearest and most simple explanation on iconoclasm thank you

very interesting! Very few youtube videos on this subject but this one is really good and comprehensive. Thank you for making this!

Excellent video about the history of the world

3:20 I appreciate the obscure SEGA Saturn comparison to Byzantine art. Perhaps you should branch out and do gaming history videos as well.

Very informative as always.

I appreciated the Sega Saturn comparison. Thank you

if you haven't already. Read a book called Byzantium the bridge from Antiquity to the Middle Ages ...

awesome lecture !

What sources did you use for this video? Really great lecture, super informative!

iconophil here:)) actualy we know about the theologia of iconoclast position from the letter of the council held by constantine the fift. (its very simular to mainstriem protestant teologia but added with estern despotism and political power=deadly combination:). the "west" versusu "East" may have some real ground if we define what we mean with "east" . In bizantion contect that was the Monopfisit heresis(copts,syrians and armeninas) Leo him self originated from Syria where that heres was very well and the orthodox position was very week(politicly). Copts and armenian had teolocical dificulties untill the sencuries about the icon isue so much that Armenians are practilcy to this day iconoclast to the bone! Copts had nimerius councils to staigthen the posotion opf the icon. Its very much a theological issue,My english is not that good for teological talk but you get the point. greetings from an iconophile:)) p.s we won in the end;))

It’s fascinating to me how Christianity embraced icons while Islam rejects them sometimes to the point of discouraging any art that explicitly despicts a living creature. I think a lot of it came down to the artistic traditions of the cultures that ended up adopting the two religions. The Arabs were originally a semi-nomadic people, so much of their traditional art consisted of things they could transport and potentially use like eleborate textiles and small statues, so giving up the depiction of creatures was not much of a cultural sacrifice. For the Greeks and Romans, however, the depiction of an idealized human form in statuary was deeply engrained in their artistic tradition, so there was no way they were ever going to give that up, at least not nearly to the extent that Arab Muslims did.

Iconodule. That was the word you preferred not to use(?) The problem with the term iconophile is that there is a distracting association of sexual deviance.

Hey, this was a great lecture again. I want to ask, can you make a playlist for all these medieval/church history lectures? Currently you have 1 playlist for the later roman empire but not for medieval/church history, It would be very helpful.

When I look at the Byzantine icons I do not see much reason to argue. They are not examples of the most developed and refined art. Yet when most during that time were illiterate, the Byzantine icons were their only means for most to visualize a Bible they could not read. A picture is worth a thousand words as they say.

Off the bat, one important factor in this debate that I’ve noticed is often overlooked is the heavy affinity archaic Greeks had for ancient Egyptian culture (which was heavily Iconophile, obviously). Their religion was almost entirely centered around Icons (specifically statues) and the idea of an afterlife; this even extended deep into the political landscape. It’s difficult to see how this didn’t rub off onto the Hellenistic Greeks, which you do mention.

10:25 hold up, he’s just gonna drop the term “gentleman’s scholar period” and not elaborate on what this means🤣

Empress Irena Sophia was a iconphile she is behind getting icons put back in Byzantium and the rest of the empire that accepted them...

726-787 AD, was a fun time.

I never really thought about it, but I can see how "the term he declines to use" (ikonodoulos/iconodule) could be an issue for some... Ikonophilos/iconophile is milder.

Antitrinitairanism that would become Islam in Spain and the eastern Islamic attacks that reached German borders also played a huge role that doesn't get identified

Make one video about Shtata augusta plase

good

Do you have a list of sources you used to make this video? I'm looking to write a paper on the Byzantine Iconoclastic controversy

“Something much more real like..... Christ.” Wait what?

Early synogogues had icons

ah be abi kim izleyecek 30dk

17:15 Should be "Kopronymos", with an N.

What of the deification of icons?

Iconodules!

Can't believe you never mentioned St John of Damascus here. Also icons were used since the beginning of Christianity. We have images of Christ, such as the Good Sheppard painting, and of other biblical figures in the Catacombs of Rome and the earliest Jewish synagogues we have also have iconography all over them. In the Bible God orders King Solomon to build a statue of a giant Cherub angel in his Temple.

17:48 lmao

There are documented cases of women having children at older then Irene was in 800, and men's potential to conceive never actually decreases.

There is no CE It's AD Ano Domini or Year of our Lord. Sorry thd french Revolution failed with their year 1. Of Reason..the Republicans of France totally failed at wiping out Religion, the calendar and the 10 day week.

Modern politician posing as a professor says 2 and 3 are wrong translate into truth speak as reason 2 and 3 are correct

Their is a whole council called the council of hieria 754 that contains much of the iconoclast arguments (that are good arguments)

SaaaGA! LoL back to Byzantine stuff

Weak you won’t tell the truth!

Can you see similarities with contemporary America?

did you mention irene put out her own son's eyes to gain total power for herself, yet the Greek orthodox church says she is a saint

*AD

*726-787 AD Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Imagine being an iconoclast lmao

Iconoclast conveniently mint coins with their imagery, instead of the holy cross. (State > God) no wonder you liked Leo...

I suppose it's an appropriate metaphor for a degenerate and collapsing empire.

Why are there so many afrocentrics in the comments?

I was a iconoclastic bastard tonight. Hope don't get caught.

Imperador Leo III proibiu o uso de imagens (na época algumas pessoas já não gostavam de imagens pois está nos 10 mandamentos) Muitas estatuas foram destruídas etc.... O papa não gostou disso e o ocidente e oriente tiveram essa briga teológica Essa política permaneceu em Constantinopla por anos até Irene (que lotou para que não fosse mais crime ter imagens e rezar para elas)

in the secret depths of Jewish faith, it is a given that you should not "cast an icon". it is proof that the ancient theology was always meant to be an abstraction. and that they already dealt with the issues of pesonifying faith. here we are thinking we are so advanced and so smart, but culturally we are experiencing the same thing as the Roman's during the preceeding of catholicism. we will never learn, I guess.

Islamic empire effected this point and forced an emperor to change his mind about the paganism that was going on in the Byzantine lands and as muslim i respect leo ||| for correcting the path a little bit and reduced of idolatry kind of to make it close to the core of the worship of God not the icons as the the normal pagans of Christians of Catholic and orthodox pagans do

This video is just a distraction

who led the empire into a golden age not iconclast and defeated the arabs left and right not iconoclast who heald the empire stable for years not iconoclast and butchered the bulgars at Battle of Kleidion not iconoclast. icondulism icondulism icondulism

Shame Iconoclasm was suppressed. Otherwise Protestantism might be born in Greece instead of Western Europe.

The Second Commandment forbids images of God. It is pagan to allow such things and un-Christian.

I would rather go by the etymological term of iconoclasm, meaning "Destroyer of IMAGES". Whatever definition you used is distorted. The meso-europeans white washed the actual icons of the bible and kings, queens, etc who were indeed black