The Definition of the Council of 754 Against Images

The Definition of the Holy, Great, and Ecumenical Seventh Synod. [a] The holy and ecumenical synod, which by the grace of God and the most devout command of the God-beloved and orthodox emperors, Constantine and Leo, has now assembled in the imperial city, in the church of the holy and inviolate Mother of God and Virgin Mary that is called “in Blachernae,” has decreed as follows. [b]

Satan led men astray, so that they worshiped the creature instead of the Creator. The law of Moses and the prophets worked together to undo this ruin. But in order to save mankind completely, God sent his own Son, who turned us away from error and from the worship of idols, and taught us to worship God in spirit and in truth. As messengers of his saving teaching he left us his apostles and disciples, and these adorned the church, his Bride, with his glorious doctrines. This adornment of the church the holy fathers and the six ecumenical councils have kept unharmed. But that craftsman of wickedness we have spoken of could not bear the sight of this adornment, and little by little he brought idolatry back under the appearance of Christianity. And just as Christ armed his apostles against the ancient idolatry with the power of the Holy Spirit and sent them out into all the world, so he has awakened his servants, our faithful emperors, against the new idolatry, and endowed them with the same wisdom of the Holy Spirit. Moved by the Holy Spirit, they could no longer stand by as witnesses while the church was laid waste by the deceit of demons. They summoned the holy assembly of the God-beloved bishops, so that in a synod these might examine from the Scriptures the deceitful coloring of the likenesses, which drags the spirit of man down from the lofty worship of God to the low and material worship of the creature, and so that, under God’s guidance, they might state their view on the matter. [c] Our holy synod therefore assembled, and we, its three hundred and thirty-eight members, follow the earlier decrees of synods, and joyfully accept and proclaim the doctrines handed down, above all those of the six holy ecumenical synods. In the first place, the holy and ecumenical great synod assembled at Nicaea, and so on. [d]

After we had carefully examined their decrees under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we found that the unlawful art of painting living creatures blasphemes the fundamental doctrine of our salvation, namely the incarnation of Christ, and contradicts the six holy synods. These condemned Nestorius because he divided the one Son and Word of God into two sons; and on the other side they condemned Arius, Dioscorus, Eutyches and Severus, because they held that the two natures of the one Christ were mingled. [e] That is why we thought it right to show, with all exactness, in our present definition the error of those who make these things and venerate them. For it is the unanimous teaching of all the holy fathers and of the six ecumenical synods that no one may imagine any kind of separation or mingling against the unsearchable, unspeakable, and incomprehensible union of the two natures in the one hypostasis, or person. What, then, does the folly of the painter accomplish, who out of a sinful love of gain depicts what should not be depicted? With his polluted hands he tries to give shape to what should only be believed in the heart and confessed with the mouth. He makes an image and calls it Christ. The name Christ means God and man. So it is an image of God and man, and so in his foolish mind, in his picture of the created flesh, he has depicted the Godhead, which cannot be pictured, and has thus mingled what should not be mingled. In this way he is guilty of a double blasphemy: first in making an image of the Godhead, and second in mingling the Godhead and the humanity. Those who venerate the image fall into the same blasphemy, and the same woe rests on both, because they go astray with Arius, Dioscorus and Eutyches, and with the heresy of the Acephali. When, however, they are blamed for undertaking to depict the divine nature of Christ, which should not be depicted, they take refuge in the excuse, “We picture only the flesh of Christ, which we have seen and touched.” But that is a Nestorian error. For it should be borne in mind that this flesh was also the flesh of God the Word, without any separation, taken up completely by the divine nature and made wholly divine. How, then, could it now be separated and pictured on its own? So it is also with the human soul of Christ, which stands between the Godhead of the Son and the dullness of the flesh. As the human flesh is at the same time the flesh of God the Word, so the human soul is also the soul of God the Word, and both are so at once, the soul being made divine as well as the body. And the Godhead remained undivided, even when the soul was separated from the body in his voluntary suffering. For where the soul of Christ is, there also is his Godhead; and where the body of Christ is, there too is his Godhead. If, then, in his suffering the divinity remained inseparable from these, how do these fools dare to separate the flesh from the Godhead and picture it by itself, as the image of a mere man? They fall into the abyss of ungodliness, since they separate the flesh from the Godhead, give it an existence of its own and a person of its own, which they depict, and so bring a fourth person into the Trinity. Moreover, they picture as not made divine what has been made divine by being taken up by the Godhead. Whoever, then, makes an image of Christ either depicts the Godhead, which cannot be depicted, and mingles it with the humanity, like the Monophysites; or he pictures the body of Christ as not made divine, and as separate, a person on its own, like the Nestorians. [f] The only acceptable figure of the humanity of Christ, however, is the bread and wine in the holy Supper. This and no other form, this and no other type, is what he has chosen to represent his incarnation. He ordered bread to be brought, not a likeness of the human form, so that idolatry might not arise. And as the body of Christ is made divine, so also this figure of the body of Christ, the bread, is made divine by the coming down of the Holy Spirit. It becomes the divine body of Christ through the mediation of the priest, who sets the offering apart from what is common and makes it holy. The evil custom of giving names to the images does not come down from Christ, the apostles, or the holy fathers. Nor have they left behind any prayer by which an image could be made holy, or made anything other than ordinary matter. [g]

But some may say that we might be right about the images of Christ, because of the mysterious union of the two natures, but that it is not right for us to forbid also the images of the altogether spotless and ever-glorious Mother of God, of the prophets, apostles and martyrs, who were mere men and were not made of two natures. To this we may reply, first of all: if the former fall, there is no longer any need of the latter. But we will also consider what may be said against these in particular. Christianity has rejected the whole of paganism, and so not only pagan sacrifices but also the pagan worship of images. The saints live on forever with God, even though they have died. If anyone thinks to call them back to life by a dead art, invented by the pagans, he makes himself guilty of blasphemy. Who would dare to try to paint, with a pagan art, the Mother of God, who is exalted above all the heavens and the saints? It is not permitted to Christians, who have the hope of the resurrection, to imitate the customs of demon worshipers and to insult the saints, who shine in such great glory, with common dead matter. Moreover, we can prove our view from Holy Scripture and from the fathers. In Scripture it is said: “God is a Spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth”; and, “You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath.” For this reason God spoke to the Israelites on the mountain out of the midst of the fire, but showed them no image. Further: “They exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image made like corruptible man … and served the creature more than the Creator.” Several other passages, even less to the point, are cited. [h] The same is taught also by the holy fathers. The synod appeals to a spurious passage from Epiphanius, and to one inserted into the writings of Theodotus of Ancyra, a friend of Saint Cyril; to sayings, in no way striking, of Gregory of Nazianzus, of Saints Chrysostom, Basil and Athanasius, of Amphilochius, and of Eusebius Pamphili, from his letter to the empress Constantia, who had asked him for a picture of Christ. [i]

Supported by the Holy Scriptures and the fathers, we declare unanimously, in the name of the Holy Trinity, that every likeness made out of any material and color whatever by the evil art of painters shall be rejected, removed, and cursed out of the Christian church. Whoever from now on dares to make such a thing, or to venerate it, or to set it up in a church or in a private house, or keeps one in secret, shall be deposed if he is a bishop, presbyter or deacon; if he is a monk or a layman, he shall be anathematized and become liable to be tried under the laws of the state as an adversary of God and an enemy of the doctrines handed down by the fathers. At the same time we ordain that no one in charge of a church shall dare, on the pretext of destroying the error about images, to lay his hands on the holy vessels in order to have them altered because they are adorned with figures. The same is provided with regard to the vestments of churches, the cloths, and everything dedicated to divine service. If, however, the one in charge of a church wishes to have such church vessels and vestments altered, he must do so only with the consent of the holy ecumenical patriarch and at the bidding of our devout emperors. Likewise no ruler or official of the state shall rob the churches, as some have done in times past, on the pretext of destroying images. All this we ordain, believing that we speak as the apostle does, for we too believe that we have the Spirit of Christ. And as our predecessors, who believed the same thing, spoke what they had defined in synod, so we believe, and therefore we speak, and we set out a definition of what has seemed good to us, following the definitions of our fathers and in agreement with them. [j]

Anathema 1. If anyone does not confess, according to the tradition of the apostles and fathers, one Godhead, nature and substance, will and operation, strength and dominion, kingdom and power, in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, in three subsistences, that is, in their most glorious Persons, let him be anathema. Anathema 2. If anyone does not confess that one of the Trinity was made flesh, let him be anathema. Anathema 3. If anyone does not confess that the holy Virgin is truly the Mother of God, and so on. [k] Anathema 4. If anyone does not confess one Christ, both God and man, and so on. Anathema 5. If anyone does not confess that the flesh of the Lord is life-giving because it is the flesh of the Word of God, and so on. Anathema 6. If anyone does not confess two natures in Christ, and so on. Anathema 7. If anyone does not confess that Christ is seated with God the Father in body and soul, and so will come to judge, and that he will remain God forever without any grossness, and so on. [l] Anathema 8. If anyone dares to represent the divine image of the Word after the incarnation with material colors, let him be anathema! [m] Anathema 9. If anyone dares to represent in human figures, with material colors, on account of the incarnation, the substance or person of the Word, which cannot be depicted, and does not rather confess that even after the incarnation he, the Word, cannot be depicted, let him be anathema! [n] Anathema 10. If anyone dares to represent the hypostatic union of the two natures in a picture, and calls it Christ, and so falsely represents a union of the two natures, and so on! Anathema 11. If anyone separates from the person of the Word the flesh united with it, and tries to represent it separately in a picture, and so on! Anathema 12. If anyone separates the one Christ into two persons, and tries to represent separately him who was born of the Virgin, and so accepts only a relative union of the natures, and so on. [o] Anathema 13. If anyone represents in a picture the flesh made divine by its union with the Word, and so separates it from the Godhead, and so on. Anathema 14. If anyone tries to represent with material colors God the Word as a mere man, who, though he bore the form of God, has taken the form of a servant in his own person, and so tries to separate him from his inseparable Godhead, so that he thereby brings a group of four into the Holy Trinity, and so on. [p] Anathema 15. If anyone does not confess the holy ever-virgin Mary, truly and properly the Mother of God, to be higher than every creature, visible or invisible, and does not with sincere faith seek her intercessions, as of one who has confidence in her access to our God, since she gave birth to him, and so on. Anathema 16. If anyone tries to represent the forms of the saints in lifeless pictures with material colors, which are of no value (for this notion is empty and was brought in by the devil), and does not rather represent their virtues in himself as living images, and so on. Anathema 17. If anyone denies the benefit of calling upon the saints, and so on. Anathema 18. If anyone denies the resurrection of the dead, and the judgment, and the deserved repayment to everyone, endless torment and endless bliss, and so on. Anathema 19. If anyone does not accept this our holy and ecumenical Seventh Synod, let him be anathema from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and from the seven holy ecumenical synods!

Then follows the prohibition against making or teaching any other faith, and the penalties for disobedience. After this come the acclamations. The divine emperors Constantine and Leo said: “Let the holy and ecumenical synod say whether the definition just read has been set forth with the consent of all the most holy bishops.” [q] The holy synod cried out: “This is what we all believe; we are all of the same mind. We have all signed with one voice and of our own free will. This is the faith of the apostles. Many years to the emperors! They are the light of orthodoxy! Many years to the orthodox emperors! God preserve your empire! You have now proclaimed more firmly that the two natures of Christ cannot be separated! You have banished all idolatry! You have destroyed the heresies of Germanus of Constantinople, of George, and of Mansur! “Anathema to Germanus, the double-minded, the worshiper of wood! Anathema to George, his associate, the falsifier of the doctrine of the fathers! Anathema to Mansur, who has an evil name and Saracen opinions! To the betrayer of Christ and the enemy of the empire, to the teacher of ungodliness, the perverter of Scripture, Mansur, anathema! The Trinity has deposed these three!” [r]