Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/734

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IL MORETTO


664


IMAGES


honorary title, as the popes, in the exercise of their patriarchal power, now dealt, for the most part di- rectly with the individual bishops. At first the political situation w-as in their favour, Italy and lUy- ricum being both under the Eastern Empire. But even after a large part of both lands had been lost to the Byzantine Empire, Illyricum remained entirely under the jurisdiction of tlie Western patriarchs, the popes, as for example Gregory the Great and Martin I, who exercised their metropolitan authority, with- out any objections on the part of the Eastern emper- ors or the patriarchs of Constantinople. As late as the middle of the eighth century, the ecclesiastical Prov- inces of Eastern and Western Illyricum were un- doubtedly within the Patriarchate of Rome. .Soon afterwards, however, they began gradually to with- draw from communion with Rome, and the pa- triarchs of Constantinople succeeded in bringing Illyria under their jurisdiction. Even Pope Nicholas I attempted in vain to recover the ancient privilege of the Roman See to appoint the Bishop of Thessa- lonica as his vicar. From the end of the ninth cen- tury Eastern Illyria appears in the "Notitiae episco- patuum" as wholly within the Patriarchate of Con- stantinople, with which it was involved in the Great Schism.

Meanwhile political changes of a far-reaching nature were taking place. Towards the end of the sixth centurj' Western Illyria was overun by Avars and Slavic tribes, and at the beginning of the seventh century was occupied by Croats and Serbs. These gradually developed into the Slavic kingdoms of Dalmatia and Croatia, whose history was one of varied fortunes until at last they came under the authority of the Hapsliurgs. Nothing but the eastern coast and the islands of the Adriatic remained imder Byzantine control, and these only until the eleventh centurj', when the rising Republic of Venice began to establish her authority there. The Byzantine rule was of longer duration in Eastern Illyria, but even there was frequently threatened and weakened by Serbs and Bulgars, until in the fourteenth and fif- teenth centuries the Osmans conquered the whole Balkan Peninsula. The name of Illyria then disap- peared from history, only to acquire new significance through the modern history of Austria. Under Leo- pold I (16.56-1705) the Serbs or Raizi, who had been established on Hungarian territory since 1690, were designated as the lUyrian nation; to provide for their protection against Magyar incursions a special office was created at the Court of Vienna, known as the Illyrian Court Deputation, which was abohshed in 1777, and in 1791 enjoyed a brief revival as the "Illyrian Imperial Chancery". Napoleon united the territories on the Adriatic Sea, ceded by Austria in the Peace of Schonbrunn, in 1809, with Croatia and Ragusa, under the title of the "Seven Illyrian Prov- inces", made them a part of the French Empire, and placed their administration in the hands of a governor general (Marmont, Funot, and Fouque). After his fall the territories reverted to Austria, and were con- stituted, together with the islands, a kingdom of Illyria (1816), with two seats of government. In 1822 the civil district of Croatia and the littoral w^ere separated and united w^ith Hungary; the organiza- tion of the year 1849 did away entirely with the Kingdom of Illyria, resolving it into the crownlands of Carinthia, Carniola, and the coast lands (Gorz and Gradiska; Istria; and Triest).

Farlati. IlUiricum sacrum (8 vols., Venice. 1751-1S19; vols. V to VllI.ed. CoLETl); Octaviani, De veicribus finibus romani palriarchatus (Naples. 1828): Duchesne, VlUyricum ecrlisias- linxte in Byzantinische Zeitschrifl, I: Idem. EgltBes scpartes (2nd ed.. Paris. 1905): Neher in Kirchcnlei. The authenticity of the twenty-six papal Briefs concerning the Church of Thessa- lonica, and testifying to the papal vicariate of the fourth and fifth centuries, has been attacked by J. Friedbich in Silzuigs- berichte der bayerischm Akademie dcr WiBBenechaften, phtloa.- philol.- historische Kl<use (Munich, 1891), 771-87, and par-


tially supported by Mom.\isen in Xeues Archiv der Gescthchaft fur illtere dcutsche GescldcUnkunde. XVIII (1893) and XIX (1894): cf. Duchesne, op. cii. supra and Nostitz-Hieneck, Die ptipsttiehen Vrkunden fur Thessalonike in Zeitschrift fur kath. Theol.. XXI (1897). 1-50. A critical list of the bishops of Thessalonica, which is found in Lequien, Oriens Christ., II, 27- 66, has been corrected in many points and published by Petit in Echoa d'Orienl, IV and V (Paris, 1900-03).

Joseph Lins.

H Moretto. See Bonvicino, Alessandro.

Ilsley, Edward. See BmMixGHAM, Diocese op.

Images, Veiling of. See Holy Week; Passion Sunday.

Images, Vener.\tion of. — I. I.mages in the Old Testa.ment. — The First Commandment would seem ab.solutcly to forbid the making of any kind of repre- sentation of men, animals, or even plants: "Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. Thou shall not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth be- neath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them " (Ex., xx, 3-5). It is of course obvious that the emphasis of this law is in the first and last clauses — "no strange gods", "thou shalt not adore them". Still any one who reads it might see in the other words too an ab.solute command. The people are not only told not to adore images nor serve them; they are not even to make any graven tiling or the hkeness — it would seem — of anything at all. One could under- stand so far-reaching a command at that time. If they made statues or pictures, they probalily would end by adoring them. IIow likely they were to set up a graven thing as a strange god is shown by the story of the goklen calf at the \'ory time that the ten words were promulgated. In distinction to the nations around, Israel was to worship an unseen God; there was to be no danger of the Israelites falling into the kind of religion of Egj^it or Babylon. This law ol> tained certainly as far as images of God are concerned. Any attempt to represent the God of Israel graphically (it seems that the golden calf had this meaning — Ex., xxxii, 5) is always put down as being abominable idolatry.

But, except for one late period, we notice that the commandment was never understood as an absolute and universal prohibition of any kind of image. Throughout the Old Testament there are instances of representations of living things, not in any way wor- shipped, but used lawfully, even ordered by the law as ornaments of the tabernacle and temple. The many cases of idolatry and various deflexions from the Law which the prophets denounce arc not, of course, cases in point. It is the statues made and used with the full approval of the authorities which show that the words, "Thou shalt not make tothy.self any graven image ", were not understood absolutely and literally. It may be that the word translated "graven image " — 7DS — already had a technical sense, meant more than a statue, and included the idea of "idol"; though this docs not explain the difficulty of the next phrase D'DKO nC'N nj1J3n-^31, smce njion can hardly be made to mean more than " representation " (}'D, to "think of", then to " form", "represent "). In any case it is certain that there were " likenesses of that which is in the sky above and on earth below and in the waters" in the orthodox Jewish cult. Whatever one may understand the mysterious ephod and ther- aphim to have been, there was the brazen serpent (Num., xxi, 9), not destroyed till Ezechias did .so (IV Kings, xviii. 4), there were car\-ed and moulded gar- lands of fruit and flowers and trees (Num.. viii, 4; III Kings, vi, 18; vii, .36) ; the king's throne rested on carved lions (III Kings, x, 19-20); lions and bulls supported the basins in the temple (III Kings, vii, 25, 29). Especially there are the cherubim, great carved figures of beasts (Ezech., i, 5; x, 20, where they are called beasts), that stood over the ark of the covenant