Iconoclasm means the smashing of icons. In 726 the Byzantine Emperor Leo III issued an edict abolishing sacred images, beginning with the great golden icon of Christ in his capital. He and his supporters believed they were fulfilling the Second Commandment. The common people, however, and many of the clergy, rose in revolt to defend the icons. The controversy split Church and State in the Byzantine Empire for more than a century. Moreover, since the emperors were iconoclast and the papacy not, it contributed to the widening breach between Rome and Byzantium. Iconoclasm was strong among "monophysites," who believed that Jesus had one nature only: divine. Those who accepted the Council of Chalcedon, proclaiming the two natures of Christ, were more inclined to permit icons as representing Jesus' human side. One of the most eloquent defenders of images was John of Damascus, a scholar and monk who lived at the Mar Saba monastery in the desert east of Bethlehem.  

 

The Eastern churches resolved the matter by allowing images, flat or in relief, but forbidding three-dimensional statues. An image is considered to have three dimensions if you can grab it by the nose.