Nicaea: The scene is set

In the early 320s, the political relationship between the co-emperors of the Roman Empire, Constantine and Licinus, was falling apart.

Although he had been committed to a policy of religious toleration, Licinus had begun a limited persecution of Christians in 321 or 322, which became a pretext for war between himself and Constantine, a professing Christian.

It was a war in which Constantine triumphed. Having unified the empire under his sole rule, Constantine now turned his attention to the unification of the church that was threatened by the quarrel between Arius and his bishop, Alexander of Alexandria.

In October of 324, Constantine wrote a letter to Alexander and Arius and sent it to Alexandria by the hand of Ossius (c.256‒c.358), the bishop of Cordoba, who was one of the emperor’s most trusted advisors. Constantine urged Arius and Alexander to reconcile, for he judged their quarrel to be “quite paltry”, focused as it was on “small and very petty matters”. It is not surprising that neither man was prepared to give way on what Constantine had wrongly judged to be a fracas over minor issues. The failure of Ossius’ mission led instead to a synod being called in the new year at Antioch, probably in March or April of 325.

Ossius presided over this synod, which produced a strongly-worded, anti-Arian creed. Around 60 bishops – from Arabia, Palestine, Phoenicia, Syria, Cilicia, and Cappadocia, though curiously none from Egypt – attended. Alexander’s expulsion of the Arians was the major topic of discussion. Constantine might have regarded the conflict over Arianism as a matter of minor importance, but Ossius clearly differed with his sovereign.

Arius’ affirmation that there was a time when the Son did not exist was explicitly denied by this synod’s creed. As this creed affirmed, he was not “begotten from nothing, but from the Father”. Nor was he “made”, for: “He always exists and there never was a time when did he not exist, for we have been taught from the Holy Scriptures that he alone is God’s image [cf. Col. 1v15]. … we simply confess that he has been begotten from the unbegotten Father, God the Word, true Light, righteousness, Jesus Christ, Lord of all and Saviour.”

Apart from three dissenting voices, one of whom was the famous church historian Eusebius of Caesarea, the bishops attending this synod were unanimous in their assent to this creedal statement. The synod judged that Eusebius and the other two bishops were in line with Arius and were thus excommunicated. But their excommunication was clearly provisional: it was the hope of the synod that they would repent of their error. And an opportunity to do so was specified: a “magnificent and sacred synod to be held at Ancyra” a couple of months later.

As it turned out, this synod was held at Nicaea, which was closer to the imperial residence in Constantinople than Ancyra.

And so in May of 325, around 220 bishops descended upon Nicaea with all of their travel expenses and housing during the synod funded by the state, which was in line with the generosity that Constantine showered upon the clergy throughout his reign. After an exhortation to the bishops to arrive at an agreement and so bring ecclesiastical peace to the Empire, Constantine handed over the presidency of the synod to Ossius.

And so the scene was set for one of the key turning-points in Christian history, in which the relationship of Jesus Christ to God was summed up by the statement that Jesus was “one in being” (“homoousios”) with the Father. Next month, we shall see look at the details of the credal statement that surround this all-important word.