Did Gregory allow pictures only for instruction?
Gregory is clear evidence for preserving teaching images and resisting their adoration; do not make him say everything Nicaea later says.
Key points
- Gregory the Great praised forbidding image adoration while condemning destruction. That seems closer to religious education than mandatory veneration.
- In his letter to Serenus, Gregory rebukes image destruction and explains pictures' instructional use, especially for people who cannot read.
- He also commends prohibiting their adoration. Translation and the precise practice being condemned matter.
- The Orthodox case can include this witness without claiming that it explicitly documents the full later Byzantine rite or that he endorsed destruction.
- A Protestant may accept Gregory's pedagogical position while rejecting devotional honor. This is a substantive historical distinction worth explaining.