Byzantine Iconoclasm (,
Eikonomachía) refers to 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
Eastern Church and the temporal imperial hierarchy. The "First Iconoclasm", as it is sometimes called, lasted between about 726 and 787. The "Second Iconoclasm" was between 814 and 842. According to the traditional view, Byzantine Iconoclasm constituted a ban on religious images by
Emperor Leo III and continued under his successors. It was accompanied by widespread destruction of images and persecution of supporters of the veneration of images. The
Western church remained firmly in support of the use of images throughout the period, and the whole episode widened the growing
divergence between the Eastern and Western traditions in what was still a unified church, as well as facilitating the reduction or removal of Byzantine political control over parts of Italy.