19 February 842 A.D. Theodora Restored Icons
19 February 842 A.D. Theodora Restored Icons Graves, Dan. “Theodora Restored Icons.” Christianity.com. May 2007. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/601-900/theodora-restored-icons-11629761.html . Accessed 16 Jun 2014. Imagine a bloody struggle, fought over the course of a hundred years, about the use of images in worship. It actually happened. Emperors of Byzantium, having set their minds to control the church and its forms of worship, used armies to oppose the veneration of icons, smashing many of the art works in the process. This destruction of icons is called iconoclasm. An icon is a stylized representation of God, Christ, or a saint. By the early middle ages, icons (and other images) were widely used as aids to devotion--or as objects of worship. Often, the devotees bowed to these aids and kissed them. To some believers this was shocking. They argued that the Ten Commandments forbade worshipping images. To them...