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The Acts of the Second Council of Nicaea (787)

The Acts of the Second Council of Nicaea (787)

by Liverpool University Press
The Acts of the Second Council of Nicaea (787)

The Acts of the Second Council of Nicaea (787)

by Liverpool University Press

Overview

Two Volume Set

The Second Council of Nicaea (787) decreed that religious images were to set up in churches and venerated. It thereby established the cult of icons as a central element in the piety of the Orthodox churches, as it has remained ever since. In the West its decrees received a new emphasis in the Counter-Reformation, in the defence of the role of art in religion. It is a text of prime importance for the iconoclast controversy of eighth-century Byzantium, one of the most explored and contested topics in Byzantine history. But it has also a more general significance - in the history of culture and the history of art. This edition offers the first translation that is based on the new critical edition of this text in the Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum series, and the first full commentary of this work that has ever been written. It will be of interest to a wide range of readers from a variety of disciplines.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781789621570
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Publication date: 03/31/2020
Series: Translated Texts for Historians LUP , #68
Pages: 796
Product dimensions: 5.80(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Richard Price is Professor of the History of Christianity, Heythrop College, University of London. His many previous publications include The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon, The Acts of the Lateran Synod of 649 and The Acts of the Council of Constantinople of 553.

Table of Contents

Volume 1

Preface vii

Abbreviations xiii

General Introduction 1

I The Veneration of Images 1

II Iconoclasm 9

III The Acts: Manuscripts, Editions, Translations 18

IV The Course of the Council 24

V The Message of the Council 36

1 The Issues in the Debate 36

2 The Status of Images 44

3 Questions of Authority 49

VI The Aftermath in Byzantium 53

VII The Aftermath in the West 64

The Acts 77

Documents before the Council 79

1 Sacra of the Emperors Constantine and Eirene to Pope Hadrian 85

2 The Apologia of Patriarch Tarasios 88

3 A Short Account of the Events before the Council 91

Session I 93

Session II 141

Session III 197

Session IV 235

Volume 2

Session V 379

Session VI 425

Session VII 547

Letters from the Council 579

1 Letter from Tarasios and the Council to the Emperors 579

2 Letter from the Council to the Clergy of Constantinople 586

Encomium Deacon Epiphanios 591

The Canons 607

Tarasios, Letters written after the Council 625

1 First Letter to Pope Hadrian 625

Excursus: The Letters on Simony 629

2 Second Letter to Pope Hadrian 631

3 Letter to John the Presbyter 639

The Greek Appendix 645

1 How to Understand the Incommunicable Name of God 645

2 Tarasios, Letter to the Bishops of Sicily 650

3 The so-called Eighth Session 655

Appendices 663

1 Eusebius, Letter to Constantia 663

2 The Horos of 754 668

3 Attendance at the Council 685

Bibliography 691

Map 712

Indices of Persons in the Acts 713

1 Bishops and episcopal representatives 713

2 Lower clergy 728

3 Monks 729

4 Laymen 732

Indices of Texts 733

1 Documents 733

2 Texts cited 734

Index to the Commentary 737

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