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The Library

Forty Centuries of Christian Writing

1774 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.

701–800

The Eighth Century

1 work

c. 726–730

Greek

The Letters on the Holy Images

Germanus of Constantinople · c. 634 – c. 740

Three letters to bishops who had begun removing images, written by the patriarch as the emperor turned against them. We do not make gods of colours, he argues; we remember, as a man keeps a portrait of someone absent. He resigned rather than sign the decree.

Byzantine · LettersExodusNumbersJohnColossiansRead elsewhere