Iconoclasm

Iconoclasm is the deliberate destruction within a culture of the culture's own religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually for religious or political motives. It is a frequent component of major political or religious changes. In Christianity, Iconoclasm has generally been motivated by people who adopt a literal interpretation of the Ten Commandments, which forbid the making and worshipping of "graven images or any likeness of anything".

Basics

The Iconoclast heresy plagued the Byzantine Empire in multiple waves. Iconoclasts believe that religious images - icons and depictions of holy figures in particular - are a form of idolatry and must not be allowed. In their heyday, iconoclasts destroyed innumerable such decorations and icons, sometimes even urged on by Iconoclast Emperors. Defining features in-game:

Head - The Iconoclast Patriarch (if created; else none)

Holy sites - Lebedos, Constantinople, Piraeaus, Jerusalem, Antioch

• Can create the Iconoclast Patriarch if Constaninople is controlled.
• Multiple Patriarchs - the five Pentarchs and Autocephalous Patriarchs under Kings.
• Patriarchs can grant divorces.
• The Iconoclast Patriarch can grant the Invasion Casus Belli.
• Patriarchs can Excommunicate Iconoclast characters.

Iconoclasm is a heresy of Orthodoxy.

External Links

• Iconoclasm
• Byzantine Iconoclasm