Ronchey, S. “Gli imperatori e l’iconoclasmo.” Il Medioevo, I, Alto medioevo: Storia. Ed. U Eco. Milan: Motta, 2009. 380-88. (= Il Medioevo: Barbari, cristiani, musulmani. Milan: Encyclomedia Publishers, 2010. 147-50.)

At the beginning of the 8^th century, imperial authority opposed more and more openly the spread of the cult of icons, a practice explicitly condemned at the Council of Hieria in 754. As a result, active internal opposition developed, coalescing in the “party of the monks.” After the brief iconodule period during the reign of Irene, the second - more intellectual and enlightened - phase of iconoclasm began in a difficult political climate. It was definitively crushed in the mid-9^th century when the Empress Theodora, guardian of Michael III, embraced again the iconodule positions of the Second Council of Nicaea. The reign of Michael III was, moreover, dominated by the figure of the great political intellectual, Photius.