852 I M A 
allege a decree, faid to have been made in a council held 
by the apoftles at Antioch, commanding the faithful, 
“ that they may not err about the object of their worlhip, 
to make images of Chrilt and worfhip them.” Baron, ad. 
ann. 102. But no notice is taken of this decree till 700 
years after the apoftolic times, after the difpute about 
images had commenced. The firft inftance that occurs 
in any credibleauthor of images among Chriftians, is that 
recorded by Tertullian de Pudicit. c. 10. of certain cups, 
or chalices, as Bellarmine pretends, on which was repre- 
fented the parable of the good fhepherd carrying the loll 
fheep on his fhoulders; but this inftance only proves, that 
the church, at that time, did not think emblematical 
figures unlawful ornaments of cups or chalices. Another 
inftance is taken from Eufebius, Hilt. Eccl. lib. vii. cap. 
18. who fays, that in his time there were to be feen two 
brafs llatues in the city of Paneas, or Ctefarea Philippi; 
the one of a woman on her knees, with her arms ftretched 
out, the other of a man over againft her, with his hand 
extended to receive her; thefe llatues were faid to be the 
images of our Saviour and the woman whom he cured of 
an ilfue of blood. From the foot of the ltatue reprefent- 
ing our Saviour, fays the hiftorian, fprung up an exotic 
plant, which, as foon as it grew to touch the border of 
his garment, was faid to cure all forts of diftempers. Eu¬ 
febius, however, vouches none of thefe things ; nay, he 
fuppofes that the woman who erefted this ftatue of our 
Saviour was a pagan, and aferibes it to a pagan cuftom. 
Farther, Philoftorgius, Eccl. Hill. lib. vii. c. 3. exprefsly 
fays, that this ltatue was carefully prelerved by the Chrif¬ 
tians, “ but that they paid no kind of worfhip to it, be- 
caufe it is not lawful for Chriftians to worfhip brafs or any 
other matter.” 
The primitive Chriftians abftained from the worfhip of 
images, not, as the papifts pretend, from tendernefs to 
heathen idolaters, but becaufe they thought it unlawful 
in itfelf to make any images of the Deity. Some of the 
fathers, as Tertullian, Clemens Alexandrinus, and Ori- 
gen, were of opinion, that, by the fecond commandment, 
the arts of painting and engraving were rendered unlaw¬ 
ful to a Chriftian, ftyling them evil and wicked arts. The 
■ufe of images in churches as ornaments, was firft intro¬ 
duced by fome Chriftians in Spain, in the beginning of the 
fourth century ; but the practice was condemned as a 
dangerous innovation, in a council held at Eliberis in 305. 
Epiphanius, in a letter preferved by Jerome, bears flrong 
tellimony againft images, and may be confidered as one 
of the firft Iconoclasts. The cuftom of admitting 
pictures of faints and martyrs into the churches (for this 
was the firft fource of image-worfhip) was rare in the lat¬ 
ter end of the fourth century, but became common in 
the fifth ; however, they were flill confidered only as or¬ 
naments; and, even in this view, they met with very con- 
fiderable oppofition. In the following century the cuf¬ 
tom of thus adorning churches became almoft univerfal, 
both in the eaft and weft. Petavius exprefsly fays, that 
no ftatues were yet allowed in the churches, becaufe they 
bore too near a refemblance to the idols of the Gentiles. 
Towards the dole of the fourth or beginning of the fifth 
century, images, which were introduced by way of orna¬ 
ment, and then ufed as an aid to devotion, began to be 
actually worfhipped. However, it continued to be the 
doflrine of the church in the fixth and in the beginning 
of the feventh century, that images were to be ufed only 
as helps to devotion, and not as obje£ls of worfhip. The 
worfhip of them was condemned in the ftrongeft terms by 
pope Gregory the Great; as appears by two letters of his 
written in 601. From this time to the beginning of the 
eighth century, there occurs no fingle inftance of any 
worlhip given or allowed to be given to images by any 
council or aflembly of bifhops whatever. But they were 
commonly worfhipped by the monks and populace in the 
beginning of the eighth century ; inlomuch, that in the 
year 726, when Leo publifhed his famous edift, it had 
already ipread into all the provinces fubjeft to the em¬ 
pire. i 
IMA 
The Lutherans condemn the Calvinifts for breaking 
the images in the churches of the Catholics, looking 011 
it as a kind of facrilege ; and yet they condemn the Ro- 
manifts (who are profefledimage-worlhippers) as idolaters; 
nor can thefe laft keep pace with the Greeks, who go far 
beyond them in this point; which has occasioned abun¬ 
dance of difputes among them. See Iconoclast, p. 753 
of this volume. 
To IM'AGE, v. a. To copy by the fancy; to imagine. 
—How are immaterial fubftances to be imaged , which are 
fuch things whereof we can have no notion ? Dryden « 
Fate fome future bard fhall join 
In fad fimilitude of griefs to mine, 
Condemn’d whole years in abfence to deplore. 
And image charms he mull behold no more. Pope. 
. IM'AGERY, f. [from image.'] Senfible reprefentations 
pictures ; ftatues: 
When in thofe oratories might you fee 
Rich carvings, portraitures, and imagery j 
Where ev’ry figure to the life exprefs’d 
The godhead’s pow’r. Dryden. 
Show; appearance.—Things of the world fill the imagi¬ 
native part with beauties and fantaftic imagery. Taylor. 
What can thy imagery of forrow mean ? 
Secluded from the world, and all its care, 
Haft thou to grieve or joy, to hope or fear ? Prior. 
Forms of the fancy; falfe ideas; imaginary phantafms. 
—It might be a mere dream which he law; the imagery of 
a melancholic fancy, fuch as mufing men miltake for a 
reality. Atterbury. —Reprefentations in writing ; fuch de- 
feriptions as force the image of the thing delcribed upon 
the mind.—I wilh there may be in this poem any inftance 
of good imagery. Dryden. 
IMAGINABLE, adj. \imaginable, Fr. from imagine .} 
Poflible to be conceived.—It is not imaginable that men 
will be brought to obey what they cannot efteem. South. 
—Men funk into the greateft darknefs imaginable retain, 
fome fenfe and awe of a deity. Tillotfon. 
IMAGJNABLENESS, f. The Hate of being imagi¬ 
nable. 
IMAGINANT, adj. Imagining; forming ideas.—We 
will enquire what the force of imagination is, either upon 
the body imaginant or upon another body. Bacon. 
IMA'GINARINESS, /. The Hate of being imaginary. 
Scott. 
IMAGINARY, adj. \_imaginaire, Fr. from imagine. ] 
Fancied; vifionary; exifting only in the imagination.—• 
Fortune is nothing elfe but a power imaginary , to which 
the fuccefles of human aftions and endeavours were for 
their variety alcribed. Raleigh. 
Why wilt thou add, to all the griefs I fuffer. 
Imaginary ills and fancied tortures ? Addifon. 
Imaginary or Impossible Quantities, in algebra, 
are the even roots of negative quantities; w-hich 
expreftions are imaginary, or impoftible, or oppofed to 
real quantities; as 3/ — a a, or y — a*, Sec. For, as 
every even power of any quantity whatever, whether po- 
fitive or negative, is necelfarily politive, or having the 
fign +5 becaufe + by +, or — by —, give equally ; 
from hence it follows, that every even power, as the lquare 
for inftance, which is negative, or having the fign —, has 
no poffible root; and therefore the even roots of fuch 
powers or quantities are faid to be impoftible or imaginary. 
See the article Algebra, vol. i. p. 303. 
IMAGINA'TION, f. \imaginatio , Lat. imagination , Fr. 
from imagine.] Fancy; the power of forming ideal pic¬ 
tures ; the power of reprefenting things ablent to one’s 
felf or others.— Imagination I underhand to be the repre- 
fentation of an individual thought. Imagination is of three 
kinds: joined with belief of that which is to come; joined 
with memory of that which is paft ; and of things pre- 
fent, or as if they were prefent: for I comprehend in this 
imagination 
