IMAGES

The second Council of Nicea…D. 787, was called to establish image worship in the church. This council is recorded in Ecclesiastical Annals. by Baronius, Vol. 9, pp. 391-407. (Antwerp, 1612); and Charles J. Hefele, A History of the Councils of the Church From the Original Documents, book 18, chapter 1, secs. 332, 333; chapter 2, secs. 345-352 (T. and T. Clark ed., 1896), Vol. 5, pp. 260-304, and 342-372.

J. Mendham, in The Seventh General Council, the Second of Nicea. Introduction, Pgs, iii-vi, says – “The worship of images . . . was one of those corruptions of Christianity which crept into the church stealthily and almost without notice or observation. This corruption did not, like other heresies, develop itself at once, for in that case it would have met with decided censure and rebuke.

“Images were first introduced into churches, not to be worshiped, but either in place of books to give instruction to those who could not read, or to excite devotion in the minds of others . . . but it was found that images brought into churches darkened rather than enlightened the minds of the ignorant – degraded rather than exalted the devotion of the worshiper.”