to see it resume with the arrival of the new exarch, Paul. However, the plot was uncovered, and the conspirators were put to death. Then in 726, Leo issued an iconoclast edict, condemning possession of any icon of the saints. Although Leo made no move to enforce this edict in the west beyond having it read in Rome and Ravenna, Gregory immediately rejected the edict. Upon hearing this, the Exarchate of Ravenna rose in revolt against the imperial imposition of iconoclasm. The armies of Ravenna and the Duchy of the Pentapolis mutinied, denouncing both Exarch Paul and Leo III, and overthrew those officers who remained loyal. Paul rallied the loyalist forces and attempted to restore order, but was killed. The armies discussed electing their own emperor and marching on Constantinople, but were dissuaded by Pope Gregory from acting against Leo. At the same time, the self-described “duke” Exhilaratus and his son Hadrian rebelled in Naples, sided with the emperor and marched on Rome in order to kill Gregory, but were overthrown by the people and killed. In 727, Gregory summoned a synod to condemn iconoclasm. According to Greek sources, principally Theophanes, it was at this point that Gregory excommunicated Leo. However, no western source, in particular, the Liber pontificalis, confirms this act by Gregory. He then dispatched two letters to Leo, denying the Imperial right to interfere in matters of doctrine. He wrote: "You say: ‘We worship stones and walls and boards.’ But it is not so, O Emperor; but they serve us for remembrance and encouragement, lifting our slow spirits upwards, by those whose names the pictures bear and whose representations they are. And we worship them not as God, as you maintain, God forbid!... Even the little children mock at you. Go into one of their schools, say that you are the enemy of images, and straightway they will throw their little tablets at your head, and what you have failed to learn from the wise you may pick up from the foolish... In virtue of the power which has come down to us from St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, we might inflict punishment upon you, but since you have invoked one on yourself, have that, you and the counselors you have chosen... though you have so excellent a high priest, our brother Germanus, whom you ought to have taken into your counsels as father and