The Second Council of Nicaea
Events
- Saxon Wars: King Charlemagne decrees the death penalty for any subdued Saxon refusing Christian baptism
- The Second Council of Nicaea was set up to restore the use and veneration of icons (or holy images), which had previously been suppressed
- 785–805: Chinese geographer Jia Dan describes large lighthouse pillars built in the Persian Gulf, which is confirmed a century later by al-Mas’udi and al-Muqaddasi.
- 787: The Empress Irene of Athens convenes the Seventh Ecumenical Council, ending the first phase of Byzantine Iconoclasm.
- The city of Osnabrück, developed as a marketplace, is founded by Charlemagne
- Charlemagne meets Alcuin, Anglo-Saxon missionary, in Italy, and invites him to Aachen, where he becomes Charlemagne’s chief adviser on religious and educational matters
- The Frankish currency called the livre carolingienne is minted for the first time
- Massacre of Verden: Charlemagne executes 4,500 rebel Saxons at Verden for practicing paganism. He issues the Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae and imposes Christianity on the Saxons, making Saxony a Frankish province.
- King Charlemagne conquers Bavaria, and incorporates it into the Frankish Kingdom.
