Calvin closes this chapter by appealing not only to Scripture but to history itself. For the first five centuries of the Church—when doctrine was purer and faith more disciplined—Christian worship spaces were entirely without images. This was not oversight, but wisdom. Augustine warned that once images are placed before praying people, they inevitably work upon the imagination as if they were alive, drawing weak minds toward superstition. History proved him right: wherever images entered the Church, idolatry soon followed. Calvin then turns to the Second Council of Nicaea and exposes how far things had fallen by the eighth century—where Scripture was twisted, dreams were treated as revelation, incense was offered to images, and believers were commanded to rejoice in sacrificing to painted representations of Christ. The council’s reasoning was not only unbiblical but embarrassing, erasing any meaningful distinction between worshiping God and venerating images. Calvin’s conclusion is stark: Christ has already given His Church visible signs of His own choosing—Word and Sacrament—and when images are added to His worship, they do not strengthen faith; they replace it with superstition.

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