st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

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"
And
208 ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS.
"
The
when that of the other was still condemned.
ancients," says a writer quoted by Bingham, 1 "
did
not approve of massy images, or statues of wood, or
metal, or stone, but only pictures or paintings, to be
used in churches."
this shews," adds Bingham,
that massy images or statues were thought to look
too much like idols,"
even so late as the second
Council of Nicaea, in 7 8 7, which reversed the decrees
of the iconoclastic emperors. But whence have thus
defined our terms, and so reduced the danger of im
porting modern ideas and prejudices into ancient con
troversies, the question
still remains whether Damascenus,
by throwing the weight of his eloquence and
energetic pleading into the scale against the imperial
cause, did more good or harm to the Christian faith.
There are those, as we know, even in our own branch
of the
Church, who are deeply and honestly grateful
to him, and to others who fought on the same side, for
preserving, as they think, truths in imminent danger
of being let go.
To them it seems that John of
Damascus and his party, even if
they did not see
clearly the ultimate issues of the fight, had yet a con
sciousness that in struggling against the abolition of
pictures of Christ and his saints in their churches,
they were contending for the truth of His incarnation,
and for the whole mystery of the Godhead manifest
in the flesh. To give up these "laymen
s books,"
these pictured illustrations of Biblical and Christian
history, by which the walls of the Church became so
many stone pages, preaching sermons to the simple
!
"Antiquities," bk. viii., c. via., 11.