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It was in religious matters that his reforms created much dissension. In 722, he enacted legislation to enforce [[baptism]] on [[Judaism|Jews]] and [[Montanism|Montanists]] in the empire, apparently with some success, and then beginning in 726 he issued a series of edicts concerning the veneration of images that in 730 required removal of all [[icon]]s from the [[church]]es, enforced by military force. As an iconoclast, Leo came to clash with Patr. [[Germanus I of Constantinople|Germanus I]], a strong [[iconodule]]. Not willing to acknowledge Leo's decree prohibiting images at a council summoned by Leo in 730, Patr. Germanus was forced to resign as [[patriarch]].
In the place of Patr. Germanus, Leo appointed Anastasius, an iconoclast, as patriarch. Anastasius served as patriarch until 754. In retaliation for the opposition to [[iconoclasm]] by Popes [[Gregory II of Rome|Gregory II]], who had summoned the 730 and 732 councils in Rome to anathematize and [[excommunicate]] the iconoclasts, and [[Gregory III of Rome|Gregory III]], Leo transferred Southern Italy and Illyrium from the papal [[diocese]] to that of the Patriarch of Constantinople, a transfer that was largely ignored.
Emperor Leo III died on [[June 18]], 741 and was succeeded on the throne by his son Constantine V, a confirmed iconoclast. Leo was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople.
