Over the past few days, I've been trying to get caught up in my reading for my Byzantine history class, which has involved a lot of reading about eighth and ninth century Byzantium. I've learned a new appreciation for the separation of church and state. Wow. The emperor's views on iconoclasm affected the loyalty and disloyalty of the soldiers, and the appointment of patriarchs by the emperor gave them (emperor and soldiers) even more power over religion. This leads to instability and civil war as the troops agitated in favor of iconoclasm while the monks opposed it. And that's not even getting into the effects on the Church.