Nikephoros I of Constantinople
Nikephoros I or Nicephorus I was a Byzantine writer and patriarch of Constantinople from 12 April 806 to 13 March 815.
Nikephoros I of Constantinople trampling on John VII of Constantinople. Miniature from Chludov Psalter.
The Byzantine Iconoclasm were two periods in the history of the Byzantine Empire when the use of religious images or icons was opposed by religious and imperial authorities within the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the temporal imperial hierarchy. The First Iconoclasm, as it is sometimes called, occurred between about 726 and 787, while the Second Iconoclasm occurred between 814 and 842. According to the traditional view, Byzantine Iconoclasm was started by a ban on religious images promulgated by the Byzantine Emperor Leo III the Isaurian, and continued under his successors. It was accompanied by widespread destruction of religious images and persecution of supporters of the veneration of images. The Papacy remained firmly in support of the use of religious images throughout the period, and the whole episode widened the growing divergence between the Byzantine and Carolingian traditions in what was still a unified European Church, as well as facilitating the reduction or removal of Byzantine political control over parts of the Italian Peninsula.
A simple cross: example of iconoclastic art in the Hagia Irene church in Istanbul
Byzantine Iconoclasm, Chludov Psalter, 9th century.
Argument about icons before the emperor, in the Skylitzis Chronicle
Patriarch Germanos I of Constantinople with icons supported by angels