Nicaea, Second Council of

Nicaea, Second Council of,

787, 7th ecumenical council, convened by Byzantine Empress IreneIrene
, c.750–803, Byzantine empress (797–802). She served (780–90) as regent for her son, Constantine VI, and later was made (792) joint ruler. Devoted to the Orthodox Church, she bent most of her efforts to suppressing iconoclasm.
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. Called to refute iconoclasmiconoclasm
[Gr.,=image breaking], opposition to the religious use of images. Veneration of pictures and statues symbolizing sacred figures, Christian doctrine, and biblical events was an early feature of Christian worship (see iconography; catacombs).
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, the council declared that images ought to be venerated (but not worshiped) and ordered them restored in churches. Practically the only Western delegates were the papal legates, but popes have confirmed the conciliar canons. It is the last council accepted by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Eastern Church as ecumenical.