Decree (Horos) on the Holy Images
Conciliar · Horos · 787 · Greek
The definition that settled the image question for the East: icons receive veneration (proskynesis) and not the worship (latreia) which belongs to God alone, because the honour paid to an image passes to its prototype. The distinction is Basil's, borrowed for a new argument. The Frankish court read the decree in a Latin translation that blurred the two words, concluded that the Greeks had commanded idolatry, and said so at Frankfurt seven years later.
To: the whole church
The text
The definition
We, therefore, following the royal pathway and the divinely inspired authority of our Holy Fathers and the traditions of the Catholic Church (for, as we all know, the Holy Spirit indwells her), define with all certitude and accuracy that just as the figure of the precious and life-giving Cross, so also the venerable and holy images, as well in painting and mosaic as of other fit materials, should be set forth in the holy churches of God, and on the sacred vessels and on the vestments and on hangings and in pictures both in houses and by the wayside, to wit, the figure of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, of our spotless Lady, the Mother of God, of the honourable Angels, of all Saints and of all pious people. For by so much more frequently as they are seen in artistic representation, by so much more readily are men lifted up to the memory of their prototypes, and to a longing after them; and to these should be given due salutation and honourable reverence (aspasmon kai timetiken proskunesin), not indeed that true worship of faith (latreian) which pertains alone to the divine nature; but to these, as to the figure of the precious and life-giving Cross and to the Book of the Gospels and to the other holy objects, incense and lights may be offered according to ancient pious custom. For the honour which is paid to the image passes on to that which the image represents, and he who reveres the image reveres in it the subject represented. For thus the teaching of our holy Fathers, that is the tradition of the Catholic Church, which from one end of the earth to the other hath received the Gospel, is strengthened. Thus we follow Paul, who spake in Christ, and the whole divine Apostolic company and the holy Fathers, holding fast the traditions which we have received.
The operative paragraph of a longer decree; veneration is distinguished from worship here in as many words, and both Greek terms are printed.
Percival, NPNF series 2 vol. 14 (1900) · Henry R. Percival · NPNF2 XIV, The Decree of the Holy, Great, Ecumenical Synod, the Second of Nice
Received it
- 787 — Pope Hadrian I (Affirms). Hadrian's letters to the emperors and to Tarasius were read into the acts of the council, and he afterwards sent Charlemagne a Latin translation of those acts signifying his acceptance of it. Henry R. Percival (ed.), The Seven Ecumenical Councils (NPNF series 2 vol. 14) · Acts of the Second Council of Nicaea, session II, in Percival, NPNF2 XIV; and the Excursus on the Reception of the Seventh Council
- 842 — The Synod of Constantinople under Theodora (Affirms). The synod of 842 restored the images and decreed that a Feast of Orthodoxy be kept every year, at which the victory over the iconoclasts should be regularly remembered. Henry R. Percival (ed.), The Seven Ecumenical Councils (NPNF series 2 vol. 14) · Harnack, History of Dogma IV, p. 328, quoted in Percival, NPNF2 XIV, Excursus on the Reception of the Seventh Council
Refused it
- 794 — The Synod of Frankfurt (Rejects). Its second canon rejected with scorn and in every way an adoration of images 'as to the Divine Trinity' — which no synod had decreed — and Eginhard reports that Frankfurt declared the council neither the Seventh nor ecumenical but wholly without authority. Henry R. Percival (ed.), The Seven Ecumenical Councils (NPNF series 2 vol. 14) · Frankfurt canon 2 (Labbe and Cossart, Concilia VII, col. 1057), and Eginhard quoted by Hefele, both in Percival, NPNF2 XIV, Excursus on the Council of Frankfort
Glosses
- Preserved in order to be refuted The iconoclast council of Hieria in 754 defined its doctrine at length, and the victorious party destroyed what it could of the record. The definition survives entire — because Nicaea II read it into its own acts in…
What it formulates
- Icons may be venerated Images of Christ, the Mother of God and the saints are to be set up and given honourable reverence, the honour paid to the image passing to its prototype.
In the disputes
- Iconoclasm Whether Christ may be depicted, argued from Chalcedon by both sides: Hieria held that the two natures cannot be painted, since one cannot be circumscribed and the other cannot be shown alone; Nicaea II answered on the same ground and reached the opposite conclusion.