which swept over the empire and reached Constantinople in 747 was regarded by the populace as a judgment of heaven on the sin of Iconoclasm. Unfortunately Constantine cannot be exonerated from the charge of cruelty. He went to greater lengths than his father in the suppression of image worship, and even carried on a severe persecution to the extent of torture. The protestant spirit of the iconoclastic movement which appeared in Leo was also seen in Constantine, for he was accused of rejecting the intercession of the Virgin Mary, though it was allowed that he called her the mother of God—as would be expected if there was any connection between Iconoclasm and Monophysitism; and, further, he was charged with denying the transference of the merits of the martyrs.
Constantine was superseded for a time by his brother-in-law Artavasdos, who was acknowledged by the pope and who restored the pictures to the churches. On recovering his power, Constantine had the eyes of Artavasdos and his two sons put out and then exhibited the miserable men in triumph at the chariot races, after which they were imprisoned in a monastery.
Constantine now consolidated his government and proved himself to be a vigorous ruler in Church as well as in State affairs. More than ever the ecclesiastical discipline of the East came to be concentrated at Constantinople and controlled by the emperor. He ordered the metropolitans and provincials to hold provincial synods, and convoked a general council which met at Constantinople in the year 754, and was attended by 338 bishops.[1] But though this was probably the largest Church council that had ever been held, the patriarchs of Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem—being now in the Saracen dominions—were unable to attend it; nor were any bishops from the Western Church present. It could not therefore be taken as an œcumenical council. This council forbade the employment of images and pictures in churches as a pagan practice, condemned the use of the crucifix, proscribed "the
- ↑ Theophanes, p. 654.
