In the reformation of the sixteenth century, freedom and knowledge had expanded all the faculties of man: the thirst of innovation superseded the reverence of antiquity; and the vigor of Europe could disdain those phantoms which terrified the sickly and servile weakness of the Greeks.
[Footnote 18: Our original, but not impartial, monuments of the Iconoclasts must be drawn from the Acts of the Councils, tom.

viii.
and ix.Collect.Labbe, edit.Venet.and the historical writings of Theophanes, Nicephorus, Manasses, Cedrenus, Zonoras, &c.

Of the modern Catholics, Baronius, Pagi, Natalis Alexander, (Hist.Eccles.

Seculum viii.

and ix.,) and Maimbourg, (Hist.