Extra Credit: What is Referred to Iconoclastic Persecution

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EXTRA CREDIT
The paper aims at providing a clear and concise summary of events that led to what is referred to as the "Iconoclastic Persecution". With a clear outline of the early church and its beliefs – with respect to adoration and veneration of pictures considered holy, as well as relics of saints and martyrs - to disputes that caused dissociations in the early Christian church, the summary will focus on what disputes led to persecution of a wing of Christians, mostly the Catholics.
Iconoclasts refer to a group of people who had subscribed to certain religious and political adhesions that did not condone the use, and worship, of holy images and pictures. To them, this was an absolute abuse of the First Commandment of the Old Testament in the Christian Bible. Use of holy images, to them, was synonymous with idolatry. The Iconoclasts majorly targeted the Catholics and similar Christians who believed in the adoration of holy images of Christ, The Virgin Mary, and relics of saints and martyrs. The Iconoclastic dispute took place in the mid-8th century and lasted until the mid-9th century. At this point in time, a dispute arose on whether it was right to use pictures and images of Christ and hang holy images in worshipping areas in the Byzantine Christian Church.
At the helm of the dispute and persecution of the Catholics was Iconoclast leader, Emperor Leo III, the Emperor of the Eastern Christendom (716-41). He is known to be the cause of the Iconoclast persecution because he listened to advice from a determined Christian enemy of images known as Constantine of Nacolia. This is the notable person who made Leo III convert fully into an Iconoclast. From then on, a campaign against image use and relics began in what the leaders dubbed as a reformation exercise. This reformation exercise was meant to "clean" the church and get rid of every image that was used in worship.