The Library
1780 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.
301–400
1 work
c. 400
Syriac
Anonymous
An expanded telling of how Edessa was converted: Abgar's letter to Jesus and the reply, and now a court painter sent to bring back a portrait, the apostle Addai preaching and healing the king, and the finding of the true cross by Protonike before Helena.
601–700
1 work
c. 640; survives in fragments
Greek
Leontius of Neapolis · c. 590 – c. 650
An answer to the charge of idolatry, arguing that Christians do not worship wood but honour what it depicts, as a man kisses a letter from an absent son and honours the son rather than the paper — and pointing to the cherubim God himself commanded for the ark.
701–800
7 works
c. 726–730
Greek
Germanus of Constantinople · c. 634 – c. 740
Three letters to bishops who had begun removing images, written by the patriarch as the emperor turned against them. We do not make gods of colours, he argues; we remember, as a man keeps a portrait of someone absent. He resigned rather than sign the decree.
c. 726–730
Greek
John of Damascus · c. 675–749
A defence of icons written from safety under Muslim rule against a Christian emperor destroying them, arguing that since God took flesh, matter may be depicted and honoured.
787
Greek
The Second Council of Nicaea
The full record behind the Definition: bishops who had signed at Hieria being examined and received back, patristic testimonies read aloud one by one, and the iconoclast florilegium taken apart citation by citation, several proving to be forged or truncated.
787
Greek
The Second Council of Nicaea
The seventh ecumenical council restores images, distinguishing the honour offered to an icon, which passes to its subject, from the worship due to God alone.
c. 790–793
Latin
Opus Caroli Regis contra Synodum
Theodulf of Orléans · c. 750–821
A Frankish rejection of the Greek council on images, arguing from a garbled translation that pictures are useful for teaching and decoration but must not be venerated.
794
Latin
The Council of Frankfurt
Charlemagne summons the bishops of his empire, condemns Spanish Adoptionism, and rejects the council of 787 as well — having read Nicaea II in a translation so bad that it appeared to say images should be adored as the Trinity is.
c. 800–815
Arabic
Theodore Abu Qurrah · c. 750–c. 830
A defence of images written in Arabic for Christians who had stopped venerating them under Muslim and Jewish criticism, arguing the case on grounds a Muslim could follow.
801–900
5 works
c. 815–820
Greek
Theodore the Studite · 759–826
Three refutations arguing that an image is a likeness and not a sharing of essence, so a portrait of Christ affirms exactly the individual humanity he assumed.
c. 818–820
Greek
Nicephorus of Constantinople · c. 758–828
A line-by-line demolition of the iconoclast council of 815, dense with Aristotelian argument about relation, likeness, and circumscription.
c. 796–826
Greek
Theodore the Studite · 759–826
Over five hundred letters written largely from exile, organising resistance to imperial religious policy and holding a scattered monastic community together by post.
843, expanded later
Greek
The Synod of Constantinople
A proclamation read aloud on the first Sunday of Lent, blessing the defenders of icons by name and anathematising their opponents, expanded over the centuries as new errors were added.
c. 860–867
Greek
Photius of Constantinople · c. 815 – c. 893
Includes the two sermons preached while a Rus fleet lay off the city in 860 — an obscure nation, unreckoned, become famous, he says, and the whole city expecting to die — and the homily at the unveiling of the apse mosaic in Hagia Sophia after iconoclasm.
14 of 1780 works