Truth Triumphant - Benjamin G. Wilkinson

dominant because of her apparent victories by law,
by the sword, and by political alliances. The
evangelical churches, however, increased in power.
The eighth century opens with strong
leadership appearing in both of these communions.
The successors of Columbanus, as well as the
powerful evangelists of northern Italy and of the
Celts, were making irresistible appeals to the
masses. The Council of Frankfort (A.D. 794)
attended by bishops from France, Germany, and
Lombardy attests the independence shown by
national clergy to the will of Rome. In the presence
of papal legates they rejected the second Council of
Nicaea (A.D. 787) which had decreed for the
worship of images.[22] In the Orient, in this same
century, the independent Church of the East had
just erected in the capital of China that famous
monument, still standing, which tells of the wide
conquests won by consecrated missionaries in
central and farther Asia.[23]
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