merely remarks curtly that Leo put an end to "pious education" and shut up the educational institutions.[1]
In other matters Leo now proceeded further towards what we know as Protestantism. He gave up the intercession of the saints and the worship of relics.[2] At first he had only interfered with pictures outside the churches; subsequently he carried on his Iconoclasm within their walls. A later decree forbade anybody even to make a picture of a saint, martyr, or angel; all these things were accursed. This was a condemnation of sacred art in itself.
It was a great annoyance to Leo that Germanus the patriarch of Constantinople stoutly opposed his reforming action, and quite contrary to precedent for this man to be showing a spirit of independence more like that of his brother at Rome than anything the Eastern Empire was accustomed to. The emperor sent for Germanus (a.d. 729) and expostulated with him, but in vain. Leo even appears to have tried to entangle the intrepid old man in a charge of treason; but this unworthy device also failed.[3] In January, a.d. 730, Leo held a Silentium[4] in support of his policy. This was a civil council that had no authority over the Church. Nevertheless it was impossible for the patriarch to retain his office in face of the government's disapproval, and therefore he quietly retired. Here we sec the difference between the East and the West. A Roman pontiff would have held his ground and defied the emperor to do his worst. Germanus was as intrepid as any pope. But it is one thing to be defiant to a distant potentate when supported by enthusiastic followers in a position of virtual independence, which was the case with the pope in the West; and quite another thing to show independence under the very shadow of the imperial palace in the East, where for generations the Church has meekly submitted to the patronage of the State. Germanus never wavered from his convinced policy. When, at last, a venerable man ninety years old, he saw that he could
