ouncil of
Nice. After the death of St. Tarasius, patriarch of Constantinople, in
806, no one was found more worthy to succeed him than Nicephorus. To
give an authentic testimony of his faith, during the time of his
consecration he held in his hand a treatise which he had written in
defence of holy images, and after the ceremony laid it up behind the
altar, as a pledge that he would always maintain the tradition of the
church. As soon as he was seated in the patriarchal chair, he began to
consider how a total reformation of manners might be wrought, and his
precepts from the pulpit received a double force from the example he set
to others in an humble comportment, and steady uniform practice of
eminent piety.[1] He applied himself with unwearied diligence to all the
duties of the ministry; and, by his zealous labors and invincible
meekness and patience, kept virtue in countenance, and stemmed the tide
of iniquity. But these glorious successes rendered him not so
conspicuous as the constancy with which he despised the frowns of
tyrants, and suffered persecution for the sake of justice.

The government having changed hands, the patrician Leo the Armenian,
governor of Natolia, became emperor in 813, and being himself an
Iconoclast, endeavored both by artifices and open violence to establish
that heresy. He studied in the first place, by crafty suggestions, to
gain over the holy patriarch to favor his design. But St. Nicephorus
answered him: "We cannot change the ancient traditions: we respect holy
images as we do the cross and the book of the gospels." For it must be
observed that the ancient Iconoclasts venerated the book of the gospels,
and the figure of the cross, though by an inconsistency usual in error,
they condemned the like relative honor with regard to holy images. The
saint showed, that far from derogating from the supreme honor of God, we
honor him when for his sake we pay a subordinate respect to his angels,
saints, prophets, and ministers: also when we give a relative inferior
honor to inanimate things which belong to his service, as sacred
vessels, churches, and images. But the tyrant was fixed in his errors,
which he at first endeavored to propagate by stratagems. He therefore
privately encouraged soldiers to treat contemptuously an image of Christ
which was on a great cross at the brazen gate of the city; and thence
took occasion to order the image to be taken off the cross, pretending
he did it to prevent