In the eighth and ninth centuries, a movement arose in the Byzantine Empire that was opposed to icons – the pictorial representations of Jesus Christ or the saints. The controversy over this opposition – called "iconoclasm" – racked both the empire and the Church within it for more than a century. The controversy came in two stages: "first iconoclasm" lasted from 726 to 787 and "second iconoclasm" from 813 to 843. The main protagonists of iconoclasm were the Byzantine emperors, and the main defenders of icons – "iconophiles" (or "iconodules" ) – were monks.