At the very beginning of his reign, Constantine had to endure a test that showed that his policy was an unreliable basis for power. His son-in-law, married to his sister Anna, the Armenian Artavazd, commander-in-chief in the territory of Armenia against the Arabs, took advantage of Constantine's departure to the eastern front. Relying on the icon-worshippers, Artabasdus decided to come to Constantinople and seize power. He succeeded. He announced the death of Constantine. In that case, he would be the legitimate successor. Artavazd announced the veneration of icons. The cowardly Patriarch Anastasius recognized Artabasdus, recognized the icons, and publicly declared that Constantine was a heretic who "shamelessly denied even the Divinity of Jesus Christ." For a whole year (742-743) the dual power lasted. Finally, Constantine came with troops to Constantinople, overthrew Artabasdus and blinded him along with his son. The treacherous Patriarch Anastasius was subjected to ridicule, but remained on the cathedra for his new repentance and readiness to serve iconoclasm.

This catastrophe was a warning to Constantine not to rush into torturing the religious conscience of his subjects. And in fact, for 11 whole years, no new changes were heard on the issue of icons. But after a respite and secret preparation, Constantine decided to move the matter forward by giving iconoclasm the authority of canonical conciliar consecration. When everything was prepared, Constantine ordered silentia, i.e. conferences of the clergy and laity initiated into the conspiracy, to be held in all the cities, and only after that the entire hierarchy was openly convened at a council in the capital. This is the famous iconoclastic cathedral of 754 (some researchers indicate 753).

Iconoclastic Cathedral of 754

How persistently the Emperor Constantine was focused on convening this council is shown by the fact that he literally abandoned Italy, which the Lombards were conquering inch by inch. Rome was threatened with occupation. Pope Stephen II begged Constantine to fulfill his promise and send troops and skilled generals to Italy to stop the advance of King Astolfos. But Constantine refused, completely occupied with his iconoclastic madness. Then the pope was forced to turn to the king of the Franks Pepin, ask for his help and crown him with a royal crown. And so it happened later. The Frankish kings took Italy from the Lombards and presented it to the pope. Thus was born the temporal power of the Pope. The heretical madness of the Byzantine kings drove the Roman Church away from itself.

The cathedral was assigned the palace of Ieria on the other side of the Bosphorus, between Chrysopolis and Chalcedon. It was conceived as ecumenical. But neither Rome, nor Alexandria, nor Antioch, nor Jerusalem were represented there. A total of 338 bishops (!) gathered. Patriarch Anastasius had died before that. The chairman of the council was Theodosius of Ephesus, the illegitimate son of the emperor Tiberius III Apsimar (698-705). The pillars of the cathedral were: Metropolitan Basil Trikokaus of Pisidia and Metropolitan Sisinius Pastilla of Perga of Pamphylia. The hearings lasted from February 10 to August 8. On August 8, the council moved to the Blachernae Church in Constantinople. The emperor chose the monk Constantine, Bishop of Sylleia from the Perga Metropolia, as his successor to Anastasius, and he himself elevated him to the patriarchal throne.

On August 27, both the oros of the cathedral and the anathema to the defenders of the icons: Germanus of Constantinople, St. John of Damascus and George of Cyprus were proclaimed at the hippodrome.

And the Emperor Constantine was called the 13th Apostle by the Fathers of the Council, and they proclaimed: "Today is the salvation of the world, for thou, O king, hast redeemed us from idols!"

A series of thoughts and formulas of oros are as follows: "Under the guise of Christianity, the devil introduced the worship of idols, persuading Christians by his false wisdom not to fall away from creation, but to worship it, to revere it and to revere the creature as God under the name of Christ. In view of this, the emperor convened a council to study the Scriptures about the seductive customs of making images that distract the human mind from the lofty and God-pleasing service to the earthly and material veneration of creation, and by God's command to pronounce what will be determined by the bishops."

The iconoclastic theologians belonged to the epoch after the sixth century, when the influence of the so-called Areopagitics, i.e., the mystical writings of an unknown author who philosophized in the spirit of Neoplatonism and vividly popularized, among other things, the idea of the absolute indefinability of the Godhead in the categories of human reason, was strongly spread. The so-called "apophatic" theology. The idea of the ineffability and indescribability of the Divine was the most obsessive, fashionable idea of the time. With this idea, the iconoclasts struck at the thinking of the Orthodox.

And since the dogma of God incarnate was also clarified after the Monophysite and Monothelite disputes in the sense of the inseparability of the Godhead from humanity, the iconoclasts also turned Christology to this mystical side and did not allow the Orthodox to simply refer to the fact of Christ's humanity. Visible humanity was visible to non-believers as well. And what believers must see, i.e. the Divinity in the humanity of Christ, cannot be separated from the visible simply: either Arianism, or Nestorianism, or Monophysitism will come out. The iconoclasts argued as follows:

"The use of icons is contrary to the basic dogma of Christianity – the doctrine of the God-man.

If the icon depicts only the Divinity, then the result is a limited, "describable" Divinity (i.e. Arianism). If the Godhead is fused with the flesh, then it is Eutychianism, Monophysitism. If only human, then Nestorianism.

Let the icon-readers be ashamed to fall into blasphemy and impiety, let them turn and cease to depict, love and venerate the icon of Christ, which is erroneously called by the name of Christ.