17. Empress Irene Rose to Power During a Bonkers Era of Religious Turmoil
Nowadays, the finer points of Christian doctrine seldom raise a kerfuffle beyond the walls of seminaries, or betwixt professors of theology, clerics, or the such. But in centuries past, and to the extent that is difficult to grasp nowadays, theological debates used to rile up your average Christian man or woman on the street more than most anything can rile us up today. Enough to get mothers to mutilate their offspring to death, which is what the Byzantine Empress Irene (circa 752 – 803) did to her son.
In the Bible, sinners are punished, so when Islam suddenly erupted out of nowhere to sweep the Byzantines out of the Middle East and Africa, and reduce their empire to a reeling rump, many assumed that they were being punished for their sins. However, which sins? Some pinned the blame on Christians violating the Second Commandment – the one about graven images. Churches were full of religious paintings, leading Christians, so the argument went, to worship idols. How was making offerings to saints or revering their images different from worshiping Ba’al? That line of reasoning led to a backlash against icons, known as iconoclasm, that kicked off decades of religious turmoil.