Seemingly before Lothair left Rome, there arrived ambassadors from Emperor Louis and from the Greeks concerning the controversy of Byzantine Iconoclasm. At first the iconoclast Eastern Roman Emperor Michael II showed himself tolerant towards the icon worshippers, and their great champion, Theodore the Studite, wrote to him to exhort him "to unite us Church of Constantinople to the head of the Churches of God, Rome, and through it with the three patriarchs" and to refer any doubtful points to the decision of Old Rome in accordance with ancient custom. But Michael soon forgot his tolerance, bitterly persecuted the icon worshippers, and endeavoured to secure the co-operation of Louis the Pious. He also sent envoys to the pope to consult him on certain points connected with the worship of icons. Before taking any steps to meet the wishes of Michael, Louis asked the pope's permission for a number of his bishops to assemble and make a selection of passages from the Fathers to elucidate the question that the Greeks had put before them. The leave was granted, but the bishops who met at Paris in 825 were incompetent for the task. Their collection of extracts from the Fathers was a mass of confused and ill-digested lore, and both their conclusions and the letters they wished the pope to forward to the Greeks were based on a complete misunderstanding of the decrees of the Second Council of Nicaea. Their labours do not appear to have accomplished much; nothing is known of the result of their researches.