Iconoclast is the name given to member of the movement to oppose the veneration of religious icons that appeared in the eighth century called Iconoclasm.
The term iconoclasm literally means “image breaker” and comes from the Greek eikon (icon or image) and Klastein (to break).
The meaning of iconoclast encompasses individuals who do not respect established traditions and beliefs or oppose any type of worship or veneration, whether of images or other elements. The term also covers those who destroy monuments, works of art and symbols.
Iconoclasm is the name of the political-religious movement that started in the Byzantine Empire in the 8th century and that rejected the veneration of religious images for considering the act as idolatry.
In the year 730, after the edict published by Leo III that prohibited the veneration of icons and ordered the destruction of images, members of the iconoclasm destroyed thousands of religious icons. The destruction stopped in the middle of the ninth century.
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