Eighth Century

Moors, Icons, Germany, Franks, Papal States

            Spain is invaded by the Moors, Moslems from North Africa; Charles Martel defeats them at the Battle of Tours in 732--a decisive juncture in Christian resistance to Moslem advance.

            The Moslems stayed in Spain 800 years, in Portugal 600 years, in Greece 500 years, in Sicily 300 years, in Serbia 400 years, in Bulgaria 500 years, in Rumania 400 years, in Hungary 150 years... 

            In 724 the beginning of the Iconoclastic controversy over the veneration of images divides the Byzantine Emperor and the Pope. St. John of Damascene, a Doctor of the Church, wrote a remarkable work in defense of icons. In 787 the Second Council of Nicea condemned the Iconoclastic error.

            St. Boniface of England, educated like Willibrord in an Anglo-Saxon monastery, is commissioned by the pope in 719 to carry the faith into the heathen parts of Germany. He joins Willibrord for three years in Frisia, and then sets off into Bavaria. Converting heathen chieftains, boldly destroying their idols, and establishing monasteries with priests and nuns brought out from England, Boniface makes rapid progress—supported vigorously in his turn by Charles Martel, the son of Pepin. By 743 Boniface has established eight bishoprics in Germany, and in that year he summons what is considered to be the first German council of the church. From 746 he makes his own archiepiscopal headquarters at Mainz, ensuring the city a long per-eminence in Roman Catholic Germany. In 754, when already in his eighties, Boniface resigns his archbishopric in order to return to missionary work in Frisia. The outcome demonstrates both the danger of the work and its impermanence. Soon after his arrival in this area, Boniface and his companions are massacred by heathens near Dollum.  

            In  731 St. Bede (673-735) completes his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, and is named Doctor of the Church.

            In 753 Pope Stephen II visits the Frankish king, Pepin II to seek his help against the Lombards who have recently taken the city of Ravenna and who are a threat to take Rome. After being anointed King of the Franks by the Pope near Paris, Pepin and his two sons, Charles and Carloman invade northern Italy. After driving the Lombards out of Ravenna, Pepin hands over large areas of central Italy to the pope and his successors. This donation makes the papacy a temporal power and establishes the Papal States over which the popes continued to rule until 1870. When the Lombards attempted to reclaim their territory the Pope seeks the help of Charlemagne who conclusively defeats them. Charlemagne becomes the sole King of the Franks in 771.

Saints

            Pope Saint Leo III:  Elected pope the day after his predecessor's burial, probably so there would not be any outside interference with the decision of the cardinals. Upon his election, he sent Charlemagne the keys of Saint Peter and the standard of the city of Rome, indicating his choice of Charlemagne as protector of the city and the see. Charlemagne, with his letters of congratulations, sent a fortune which Leo used to build churches and found charitable institutions. On 25 April 799, members of Pope Adrian I's family hired thugs to attack Leo in a procession. They scarred his face and tried to tear out his tongue and eyes to render him unfit for the papacy. He survived the attack, scarred but tongue and eyes miraculously healed. He fled to Charlemagne's protection at Paderborn, where his enemies tried to turn the king against him. When Leo recovered, Charlemagne escorted him back to Rome.

            Saint Boniface: In Saxony, Boniface encountered a tribe worshipping a Norse deity in the form of a huge oak tree. Boniface walked up to the tree, removed his shirt, took up an axe, and without a word he hacked down the six foot wide wooden god. Boniface stood on the trunk, and asked, "How stands your mighty god? My God is stronger than he." The crowd's reaction was mixed, but some conversions were begun.

            Saint Bede: Bede lists his works in an autobiographical note at the end of his Ecclesiastical History. He clearly considered his commentaries on many books of the Old and New Testaments as important; they come first on this list and dominate it in sheer number. These commentaries reflect the biblical focus of monastic life. "I spent all my life," he wrote, "in this monastery, applying myself entirely to the study of Scriptures."
            Saint John of Damascus: His defense of the icons caused him to be hated by the persecuting emperors. The Iconoclast were not content with making their case with word and pen. They rampaged about, entering churches, knocking down and defacing sacred images. John felt obliged to challenge this destructive heresy and its accompanying violence. He did so in a series of treatises defending the church's longstanding tradition. He encouraged the veneration of icons, not obviously as objects of divine worship, but as aids to devotion and sanctification. Due largely to his work, the Iconoclast heresy retreated into history.

Heresies

            Iconoclasts:  Leo de Isaurian held that the veneration of sacred images was idolatry. This outbreak commenced about the year 723 and led to much violence. This error was condemned by the Second Council of Nicea in the year 787. An Iconoclast is a person who destroys icons, that is, sacred paintings or sculpture. Conversely, people who revere or venerate religious images are called iconodules. Iconoclasm (Eikonoklasmos, "Image-breaking") is the name of the heresy that in the eighth and ninth centuries disturbed the peace of the Eastern Church, caused the last of the many breaches with Rome that prepared the way for the schism of Photius in 858 and the Great Schism of the 11th century, and was echoed on a smaller scale in the Frankish kingdom in the West. The story in the East is divided into two separate persecutions of the Catholics, at the end of each of which stands the figure of an image-worshipping Empress (Irene and Theodora).
            Adoptionists:  Elipandus, Archbishop of Toledo, Spain, claimed that Christ was born a human only, and was not divine until his baptism, at which point he was adopted as the Son by God the Father.