276 THE DECLINE AND FALL dominion, the images, the first cause of their revolt, were restored in the Eastern empireJ" Under the reign of Con- stantine the Fifth, the union of civil and ecclesiastical power had overthrown the tree, without extirpating the root, of super- stition. The idols, for such they were now held, were secretly cherished by the order and the sex most prone to devotion ; and the fond alliance of the monks and females obtained a final victory over the reason and authority of man. Leo the Fourth maintained with less rigour the religion of his father and grand- father ; but his wife, the fair and ambitious Irene, had imbibed the zeal of the Athenians, the heirs of the idolatry, rather than the philosophy, of their ancestors. During the life of her husband, these sentiments were inflamed by danger and dis- simulation, and she could only labour to protect and promote some favourite monks, whom she drew from their caverns and seated on the metropolitan thrones of the East. But, as soon as she reigned in her own name and that of her son, Irene more seriously undertook the ruin of the Iconoclasts ; and the first step of her future persecution was a general edict for liberty of conscience. In the restoration of the monks, a thousand im»ges were exposed to the public veneration ; a thousand legends were invented of their sufferings and miracles. By the opportunities of death or removal the episcopal seats were judiciously filled ; the most eager competitors for earthly or celestial favour anti- cipated and flattered the judgment of their sovereign ; and the promotion of her secretary Tarasius gave Irene the patriarch of Constantinople and the command of the Oriental church. But the decrees of a general council could only be repealed by a similar assembly ; "^ the Iconoclasts whom she convened were bold in possession and averse to debate ; and the feeble voice of the bishops was re-echoed by the more formidable clamour vnth genera of the soldicrs and people of Constantinople. The delay and councU. nd i^ r r ^ of Nice. A.D. 787, Sept. 24 —Oct. 23 "'The remaining history of images, from Irene to Theodora, is collected, for the Catholics, by Baronius and Pagi (a.d. 780-840), Natalis Alexander (Hist. N. T. seculum viii. Panoplia adversus Hagreticos, p. 118-178), and Dupin (Bibliot. EccWs. torn. vi. p. 136-154); for the Protestants, by Spanheim (Hist. Imag. p. 305- 639), Basnage (Hist, de I'Eglise, tom. i. p. 556-572, torn. ii. p. 1362-1385), and Mo.sheim (Institut. Hist. Eccles. secul. viii. et ix. ). The Protestants, except Mosheim, are soured with controversy ; but the Catholics, except Dupin, are in- flamed by the fury and superstition of the monks ; and even le Beau (Hist, du Bas Empire), a gentleman and a scholar, is infected by the odious contagion. ■^^See the Acts, in Greek and Latin, of the second Council of Nice, with a number of relative pieces, in the viiith volume of the Councils, p. 645-1600. A faith- ful version, with some critical notes, would provoke, in different readers, a sigh or a smile.
