The Byzantine Imperial Church (Heraclian & Iconoclast Eras)

This is the imperial church of the empire's worst century and a half. Heraclius recovered the True Cross from Persia in 630 and within a decade had lost Syria, Palestine and Egypt to the Arab armies. His government's attempt to hold the remaining eastern Christians together with a compromise formula — that Christ had two natures but only one will — was pushed as state policy and resisted by a monk, Maximus, who was tried, had his tongue and right hand cut off, and died in exile. Twenty years later a council at Constantinople condemned the formula and vindicated him. Then came iconoclasm: emperors from Leo III onward removed and destroyed religious images, a council of 338 bishops endorsed the policy in 754, the Council of Nicaea reversed it in 787, a second imperial iconoclasm followed, and only in 843 was the matter closed for good. Through all of it the same institution — palace, patriarchate, councils — kept running, which is why this era looks so different depending on whether you stand with the court or with the monasteries.