The Council’s Definition on the Holy Images

The holy, great, and ecumenical synod, which by the grace of God and the will of the devout and Christ-loving emperors, Constantine and Irene his mother, was gathered together for the second time at Nicaea, the famous metropolis of Bithynia, in the holy church of God that is named Sophia, following the tradition of the catholic church, has defined as follows. [a]

Christ our Lord, who has given us the light of the knowledge of himself and has redeemed us from the darkness of idolatrous madness, took to himself the holy catholic church as his bride, without spot or defect, and promised that he would keep her so. He gave his word to this effect to his holy disciples when he said, “Look, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” And he made this promise not only to them but also to us, who would believe in his name through their word. But some, not considering this gift, and having become fickle through the temptation of the crafty enemy, have fallen from the right faith. For by withdrawing from the traditions of the catholic church they have strayed from the truth, and, as the proverb says, “The farmers have gone astray in their own farming, and have gathered nothingness in their hands.” For certain priests, priests in name only and not in fact, had dared to speak against the God-approved adornment of the sacred monuments. Of them God cries aloud through the prophet, “Many shepherds have ruined my vineyard; they have polluted my portion.” [b] And indeed, following ungodly men and led astray by their fleshly way of thinking, they have slandered the church of Christ our God, which he has taken as his bride. They have failed to distinguish between holy and unholy, calling the images of our Lord and of his saints by the same name as the statues of devilish idols. Seeing these things, our Lord God, not willing to see his people corrupted by such a plague, has of his good pleasure called us together, the chief of his priests, from every quarter, moved by a divine zeal and brought here by the will of our rulers, Constantine and Irene, so that the traditions of the catholic church may be made firm by our common decree. Therefore, with all diligence, having made a thorough examination and analysis, and following the course of the truth, we take nothing away and add nothing, but keep unchanged everything that belongs to the catholic church. And we follow the six ecumenical synods, especially the one that met in this famous metropolis of Nicaea, and also the one that was gathered afterward in the God-protected royal city. [c] We believe … the life of the world to come. Amen. [d]

We detest and anathematize Arius and all who share his absurd opinion; also Macedonius and those who follow him, who are rightly called “Fighters against the Spirit.” We confess that our Lady, Saint Mary, is properly and truly the Mother of God, because she was the mother according to the flesh of one Person of the Holy Trinity, namely Christ our God. So the Council of Ephesus has already defined, when it cast out of the church the ungodly Nestorius with his colleagues, because he taught that there were two Persons in Christ. With the fathers of this synod we confess that he who became flesh of the spotless Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary has two natures, and we recognize him as perfect God and perfect man. So also the Council of Chalcedon declared, when it drove Eutyches and Dioscorus out of the divine courtyard as blasphemers, and placed in the same class Severus, Peter, and a number of others, who blasphemed in various ways. Moreover, together with these we anathematize the fables of Origen, Evagrius and Didymus, in keeping with the decision of the Fifth Council, held at Constantinople. We affirm that in Christ there are two wills and two operations, according to the reality of each nature, as the Sixth Synod, held at Constantinople, also taught, when it cast out Sergius, Honorius, Cyrus, Pyrrhus, Macarius, those who agree with them, and all who are unwilling to be reverent. [e] To make our confession short: we keep unchanged all the church traditions handed down to us, whether in writing or by word of mouth. One of these is the making of pictures, which agrees with the history told in the preaching of the gospel. It is a tradition useful in many ways, but especially in this, that through it the incarnation of the Word of God is shown to be real and not merely imaginary. For these point to each other, and without doubt they also signify each other. [h]

We, therefore, following the royal road and the divinely inspired authority of our holy fathers and the traditions of the catholic church (for, as we all know, the Holy Spirit dwells in her), define with all certainty and exactness that the venerable and holy images, in the same way as the figure of the precious and life-giving cross, whether made in painting or mosaic or of other suitable materials, should be set up in the holy churches of God, on the sacred vessels and on the vestments, on hangings and in pictures, both in houses and by the roadsides. That is, the figure of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, of our spotless Lady the Mother of God, of the honorable angels, of all the saints, and of all devout people. For the more often they are seen in pictures, the more readily those who see them are lifted up to the memory of their originals and to a longing for them. And to these should be given due salutation and honorable reverence, not indeed that true worship of faith which belongs to the divine nature alone. But to these, as to the figure of the precious and life-giving cross, to the Book of the Gospels, and to the other holy objects, incense and lights may be offered, according to the ancient devout custom. For the honor paid to the image passes on to what the image represents, and whoever reveres the image reveres in it the one it portrays. For so the teaching of our holy fathers is made firm, that is, the tradition of the catholic church, which has received the gospel from one end of the earth to the other. So we follow Paul, who spoke in Christ, and the whole divine company of the apostles, and the holy fathers, holding fast the traditions we have received. So we sing, in the words of the prophet, the triumphal hymns of the church: “Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion; shout, daughter of Jerusalem. Rejoice and be glad with all your heart. The Lord has taken away from you the oppression of your adversaries; you are redeemed from the hand of your enemies. The Lord is King in your midst; you will not see evil any more, and peace be to you forever.” [i] Therefore, as for those who dare to think or teach otherwise, or, like wicked heretics, to spurn the traditions of the church and invent some novelty, or else to reject any of the things the church has received, such as the Book of the Gospels, or the image of the cross, or the painted icons, or the holy relics of a martyr; or who with evil cunning devise anything to overthrow the lawful traditions of the catholic church; or who turn to common uses the sacred vessels or the venerable monasteries: if they are bishops or clergy, we command that they be deposed; if they are monks, nuns or lay people, that they be cut off from communion. [k]

After all had signed, the acclamations began. The holy synod cried out: “So we all believe; so we are all minded; we all give our consent and have signed. This is the faith of the apostles; this is the faith of the orthodox; this is the faith that has made the whole world firm. Believing in one God, to be praised in Trinity, we salute the honorable images! Those who do not hold this, let them be anathema. Those who do not think this way, let them be driven far away from the church. For we follow the most ancient law of the catholic church. We keep the laws of the fathers. We anathematize those who add anything to the catholic church or take anything away from it. We anathematize the novelty brought in by those who revile Christians. We salute the venerable images. We place under anathema those who do not do so. “Anathema to those who dare to apply to the venerable images what Holy Scripture says about idols. Anathema to those who do not salute the holy and venerable images. Anathema to those who call the sacred images idols. Anathema to those who say that Christians turn to the sacred images as to gods. Anathema to those who say that anyone other than Christ our God delivered us from idols. Anathema to those who dare to say that the catholic church at any time received idols.” “Many years to the emperors!” and so on. [l]