Editing Theodore the Studite (section)

===Second Iconoclasm===
[[File:Hosios Loukas (nave, arch by north west bay) - Theodore Studites.jpg|thumbnail|Mosaic of Theodore the Studite located in [[Hosios Loukas]].]]
At the very beginning of his reign, the emperor Leo V faced a new Bulgarian offensive that reached the walls of Constantinople and ravaged large sections of [[Thrace]]. This came to an end with the death of Krum on April 13, 814, and the internal power struggles that followed.<ref>{{harvnb|Pratsch|1998|pp=203–204 (with note 8)}}.</ref> However, as the previous 30 years since the approval of icon-veneration at the Synod of 787 had represented for the Byzantines a string of military catastrophes, Leo resolved to reach back to the policies of the more successful Isaurian dynasty. He renamed his son Constantine, thus drawing a parallel to [[Leo III the Isaurian|Leo III]] (r. 717–741) and [[Constantine V]], and beginning in 814 began to discuss with various clerics and senators the possibility of reviving the iconoclastic policy of the Isaurians. This movement met with strong opposition from the Patriarch Nikephoros, who himself gathered a group of bishops and abbots about him and swore them to uphold the veneration of images. The dispute came to a head in a debate between the two parties before the emperor in the Great Palace in early 815, at which Theodore and his brother Joseph were present and took the side of the iconodules. Theodore told the emperor: "Know that though an angel came from heaven itself to pervert us we would not obey him. Far less would we obey you."<ref>{{harvnb|Norwich|1991|pp=21, 24}}.</ref>

Leo held fast by his plan to revive iconoclasm, and in March 815 the Patrarch Nikephoros was stripped of his office and exiled to Bithynia. At this point Theodore remained in Constantinople, and assumed a leading role in the iconodule opposition. On March 25, Palm Sunday, he commanded his monks to process through the monastery's vineyard, holding up icons so that they could be seen over the walls by the neighbors. This provocation elicited only a rebuke from the emperor.<ref>{{harvnb|Pratsch|1998|pp=229–230}}.</ref>

A new patriarch, [[Ecumenical Patriarch Theodotos I of Constantinople|Theodotos]], was selected, and in April a synod was convened in Hagia Sophia, at which iconoclasm was re-introduced as dogma. Theodore composed a series of letters in which he called on "all, near and far," to revolt against the decision of the synod. Not long thereafter he was exiled by imperial command to a Metopa, a fortress on the eastern shore of [[Lake Uluabat|Lake Apollonia]] in Bithynia.<ref>{{harvnb|Pratsch|1998|pp=231–234 and 247}}.</ref> Shortly thereafter Leo had Theodore's poems removed from the Chalke Gate and replaced by a new set of "iconoclastic" epigrams.<ref>{{harvnb|Pratsch|1998|p=234}}.</ref>

While Theodore was in exile, the leadership of the Studite congregation was assumed by the Abbot Leontios, who for a time adopted the iconoclast position and won over many individual monks to his party.<ref>{{harvnb|Pratsch|1998|pp=242–243}}.</ref> He was, however, eventually won back to the iconodule party.<ref>{{harvnb|Pratsch|1998|pp=245–246}}.</ref> The Studite situation mirrored a general trend, with a number of bishops and abbots at first willing to reach a compromise with the iconoclasts,<ref>{{harvnb|Pratsch|1998|pp=235–245}}.</ref> but then in the years between 816 and 819 renouncing the iconoclast position, a movement that was perhaps motivated by the martyrdom of the Studite monk Thaddaios.<ref>{{harvnb|Pratsch|1998|pp=245–246 and 252}}.</ref> It was during this upswell in icondule sentiment that Theodore began to compose his own polemic against the iconoclasts, the ''Refutatio'', concentrating in particular on refuting the arguments and criticizing the literary merits of the new iconoclastic epigrams on the Chalke.<ref>{{harvnb|Pratsch|1998|pp=246–247}}.</ref>

Theodore exercised a wide influence during the first year of his exile, primarily through a massive letter-writing campaign. Accordingly, he was transferred in 816 to Boneta, a fortress in the more remote [[Anatolic theme]], whence he nevertheless remained abreast of developments in the capital and maintained a regular correspondence. This continued activity led to an imperial order that Theodore be whipped, which his captors however refused to carry out.<ref>{{harvnb|Pratsch|1998|pp=247–251}}.</ref> In 817, Theodore wrote two letters to [[Pope Paschal I]], which were co-signed by several fellow iconodule abbots, in the first requesting that he summon an anti-iconoclastic Synod; letters to the Patriarchs of [[Patriarch Christopher I of Alexandria|Alexandria]] and [[Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem|Jerusalem]], among other "foreign" clerics, followed.<ref>{{harvnb|Pratsch|1998|pp=253–254}}.</ref> As a result, the emperor ordered at least once more that Theodore be flogged, and the command was this time carried out, with the result that Theodore became quite ill.<ref>{{harvnb|Pratsch|1998|pp=255–258}}.</ref> After his recovery Theodore was moved to [[Smyrna]]. Early in 821, however, Leo V fell victim to a grisly murder at the altar of the Church of St. Stephen in the [[Great Palace of Constantinople|imperial palace]]; Theodore was released from exile shortly thereafter.<ref>{{harvnb|Pratsch|1998|pp=259–261 and 263}}.</ref>