COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE (754)

    Council of Constantinople (A.D. 754)

    ^{† Catholic_Encyclopedia ► Council of Constantinople (A.D. 754)}

    In 754 the Iconoclast Emperor Constantine V called in the imperial city a council of 338 bishops. Through cowardice and servility they approved the heretical attitude of the emperor and his father Leo III, also the arguments of the Iconoclast party and their measures against the defenders of the sacred images. They anathematized St. Germanus of Constantinople and St. John Damascene, and denounced the orthodox as idolaters, etc.; at the same time they resented the spoliation of the churches under pretext of destroying images (see ICONOCLASM).