Claudius of Turin - Among the Minority

There was a serious conflict in the eastern part of the early medieval church over the question of icons. There had grown up slowly the idea of praying to saints and their representations. Though they avoided the word "worship," this was what it amounted to. It grew out of a tendency to put the martyrs and other heroes of the faith on a high pedestal. There is a legitimacy in honoring heroic people of the past, but it easily slides into idolatry. This was also encouraged by the remnants of pagan worship. It is easy to just exchange the worship of gods for the worship of saints. But it also grew out of  legalistic tendencies. If you believe that you can only win God's acceptance by earning it, you will welcome a sympathetic mediator to take your case. But the thing that caused this practice to triumph in the majority of the professing church was the idea that surely the church organization, descended from the apostles, could not go wrong. This bad idea, originated by good men to prevent false teaching, made it difficult for bad practices to be questioned once they had been established.

The most prominent group that opposed this were the iconoclasts. They did this based on a strict upholding of the rules. The Bible said that making and worshiping images was wrong, and therefore it must be opposed. They were not opposed to prayers to saints, only to images. They held that pictures of any kind connected Christian worship were wrong and must be destroyed. When they were in power they used the force of government to impose their view on their opponents. This resulted in a long struggle, with many violent deeds on both sides.

In the West the general opinion was that pictures were acceptable for instruction but should not be worshiped. How much of this was just an excuse or an evasion is hard to judge, but it does not seem to have stopped the growth of image worship in the long run. But there were a few who took a stronger stance. Claudius of Turin, along with Agobardus of Lyons, rejected the whole idea of the service of saints. And Claudius in particular argued against it based on grace. He took his stand based on the book of Galatians: that God Himself is gracious to us in Christ, and we do not need another intermediary. He did try to eliminate all pictures, but in an age where they were so often abused, this was understandable. But he was ignored, and image worship continued to grow. It is interesting to note that though they were opposed, both Claudius and Agobardus died in good standing in the existing church organization. But the time was coming when a strong adherence to grace and opposition to the service of saints would get you in trouble with the authorities. However, there is a time to stand up to the authorities in the name of truth.