odium
theologicum_, they are obliged to admit that he was gallant in the field,
and just and careful in the administration of civil affairs. Being the
native of a country whose church still resisted the introduction of
images, he was naturally adverse to their worship, and the manner in which
he abolished it in his empire deserves a particular notice; because,
though related by his enemies, it proves that he was a sincere scriptural
Christian.

According to their relation, Leo believed that the victories obtained by
the barbarians, and other calamities to which the empire was exposed, were
a visitation of God in punishment of the worship of images; that he
demanded that a precept for adoring the images should be shown to him in
the gospels, and as the thing was impossible, he rejected them as idols
condemned by the Word of God. They also say, that the attention of Leo
being once drawn to this passage of the prophet Isaiah, "_To whom then
will you liken God? or what likeness will you compare unto him? The
workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with
gold and casteth silver chains_," (xl. 18, 19,) this circumstance
irritated him more than any thing else against the images. He communicated
his sentiments to the patriarch, and requested him either to remove the
images, or to show a reason why they were worshipped, _since __ the
Scriptures did not order it_. The patriarch, who was an adherent of the
images, tried to elude this demand by various sophisms, which, not having
satisfied the emperor, he ordered divines of both parties to assemble in
his palace, and represented to them that Moses, who had received the law,
written with the hand of God, condemned, in the most explicit terms, those
who adored the works of men's hands; that it was idolatry to worship them,
and great folly to attempt to confine the Infinite in a picture of the
size of an ell. It is said that the defenders of the images refused to
speak for the three following reasons:--1. That the canons prohibited to
doubt what had been determined by the second Council of Nice; 2. That the
clergy could not deliberate upon such matters in the imperial palace, but
in a church; and, 3. That the emperor was not a competent judge on this
occasion, because he was resolved to abolish the images. The emperor
deposed the patriarch, who defended the images, replacing him by another
who shared his own sentiments, and convened a council, which, with the