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Second Council of Nicaea

council · 787 · Nicaea

Under the empress Irene and patriarch Tarasius, about 350 bishops met at Nicaea in 787 to end the first iconoclasm. The Horos drew the decisive line: icons receive veneration (proskynesis), God alone worship (latreia), for the honour paid the image passes to the prototype. The seventh and last council both East and West count ecumenical.

The Second Council of Nicaea is recognized as the last of the first seven ecumenical councils by the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. In addition, it is also recognized as such by Old Catholics and others. Protestant opinions on it are varied.

The first iconoclasm: may the church make and venerate images of Christ and the saints?

Icons restored: veneration (proskynesis) passes to the prototype, worship (latreia) is God's alone; Hieria anathematized; 22 canons.

People

Documents

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 decided

  • Images of Christ are idols To depict Christ is either to circumscribe his divinity or to divide his person, and the images set up in churches are idols.
  • 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.
  • Veneration is not worship The reverence given to images is honour, and not the worship which belongs to the divine nature alone.

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.

Wikipedia · Catholic Encyclopedia — Second Council of Nicaea · OrthodoxWiki — Seventh Ecumenical Council · The Seven Ecumenical Councils — Nicaea II, a.d. 787 (NPNF II/14)