persecution · 726–787 · Constantinople
Leo III turned against the icons around 726, and his son Constantine V pressed the campaign with force: the council of Hieria (754) condemned images, monasteries were emptied, and the monk Stephen the Younger was killed (765). The empress Irene ended the first iconoclasm through the council of Nicaea in 787.
Leo III's conviction that the icons broke the second commandment and cost God's favour.
Icons smashed, monks persecuted, Hieria's council (754) — until Irene and Nicaea II (787) restored the images.