s, [79] the decrees were framed by the president Taracius,
and ratified by the acclamations and subscriptions of three hundred and
fifty bishops. They unanimously pronounced, that the worship of images
is agreeable to Scripture and reason, to the fathers and councils of the
church: but they hesitate whether that worship be relative or direct;
whether the Godhead, and the figure of Christ, be entitled to the same
mode of adoration. Of this second Nicene council the acts are still
extant; a curious monument of superstition and ignorance, of falsehood
and folly. I shall only notice the judgment of the bishops on the
comparative merit of image-worship and morality. A monk had concluded a
truce with the daemon of fornication, on condition of interrupting his
daily prayers to a picture that hung in his cell. His scruples prompted
him to consult the 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 intracta