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Church at a Crossroads

How the First Council of Nicaea addressed one of history’s most dangerous heresies

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Seventeen hundred years ago, an event took place that saved Christianity. A council of some 220 bishops (the number is debated) affirmed that Jesus is divine in the way God is divine, and that Jesus and God are of the same substance. The gathering that took place June through August, A.D. 325, in the city of Nicaea, has become known as the First Council of Nicaea — the first ecumenical council of the Church.

What happened to make such a council and affirmation necessary?

During the fourth century, Emperor Constantine the Great became ruler of the entire Roman Empire and ended all religious oppression; Christians could now worship openly. In addition to worshipping openly, they began to debate and question long-held Christian beliefs.

The relationship of Jesus with God was prominent among those debates. The most outspoken against the belief that Jesus and God are equal was a senior priest named Arius in the Diocese of Alexandria, in Egypt. He and his followers would cause one of the great religious controversies in Church history.

In 318, Arius instigated the heresy claiming that Jesus was similar to God but not of the same substance, that Jesus was created and did not exist from all eternity. The Arians said Jesus was not divine as God is divine, and that the son (Jesus) was always subordinate to the father (God) — the two could never be equal. Arius attracted thousands of followers, including many bishops. It was as if the Gospels were false, as if the apostles did not witness the acts, words and miracles of Jesus that manifested his divinity.

Father Adrian Fortescue (1874-1923), in his book “The Greek Fathers” (Catholic Truth Society, London, 1908), provides details about the Arian heresy: “Arianism may be summed up in these six points: (1) The Son did not exist from eternity. If he is the son, he must have been born at some moment; so before his birth he did not exist. … (2) He is not begotten of the essence of the Father — God’s essence cannot be divided — but he was created by the Father out of nothing. (3) He is therefore a creature. (4) He is the first and most exalted creature, through whom God created all the others. This is the Neoplatonic idea that God would be defiled by touching matter, so he creates and rules the world through an intermediary, a Demiurge [craftsman or maker]. (5) He may be called God, but only in an extended and analogical sense; the Father made him a sort of God by his grace. (6) His will is created and fallible. He could commit sin.”

Divisions Deepen

Bishop Alexander of Alexandria quickly confronted Arius and called a local council of 100 bishops, who summoned Arius to explain his beliefs. The bishops rejected what they considered to be gross falsehoods and heretical ideas, and offered Arius the opportunity to recant. Arius refused and was excommunicated.

He and some of his followers eventually went to Palestine, where he protested his treatment by Bishop Alexander: “The bishop largely destroys us [Arians] and persecutes us, and does his worst against us and has even turned us out of the city as godless men, because we do not agree to what he publicly preaches; ‘Eternal God, eternal Son, like Father, like Son, the Son is of God himself.’… We are persecuted because we said that the Son had a beginning but God is without a beginning. We are persecuted because we said he is from what did not exist” (Letter to Eusebius of Nicomedia, 318).

 

Arius (260-336), progenitor of the doctrine of Arianism. (Public Domain via Wikimedia
commons)

Arius continued to promote his heresy and was supported by influential Church figures, including Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia (d. 341), who would be the primary Arian spokesman at the Council of Nicaea. As Arianism spread throughout the Roman Empire, the controversy as to whether or not Jesus was divine, equal to the Father, was disrupting the peace and unity so desired by Constantine. The emperor sent Bishop Hosius (d. 359) of Cordoba, Spain, as a mediator between Alexander and Arius. He carried a letter addressed to the two antagonists in which Constantine insisted they were arguing over semantics and described their differences as “small and very insignificant questions … trifling and foolish verbal difference … questions of little or no significance.” He asked them to “restore to me then my quiet days and untroubled nights.” This attempt at reconciliation got nowhere; accordingly, Constantine called for a universal council of bishops to resolve the divisive issue.

Summoned to Nicaea

At that time in history, and until the 12th century, a universal (ecumenical) council of bishops was summoned by the emperor, not the pope. Constantine, as the Roman emperor, was known as Pontiff Maximus, the supreme pontiff and absolute leader of all religions in the empire. The pope was typically consulted before any ecumenical council and could attend himself or send representatives. Pope Sylvester I (r. 314-335) did not attend the Nicaea council; instead, he sent two representatives.

Nicaea was the first council intended to involve all Church bishops, and some 1,800 were invited from throughout the Roman Empire. In the past there had been only local councils of bishops; thus there was no protocol for a council with global representatives. No such gathering had been possible previously because of Roman persecution, and certain bishops who had been the target of persecution in the past may have been reluctant to attend. As it happened, only five or six bishops from the West, in addition to the two papal representatives, participated at Nicaea.

The council was held in the imperial palace at Nicaea (now Iznik, Turkey), about 80 miles from Byzantium, which in 324 was the newly established capital of the Roman Empire. Byzantium would be renamed Constantinople six years later. Emperor Constantine treated the attending bishops with great respect, like Roman senators. He funded travel expenses for the bishops and their assistants.

The conference officially began in mid-June with the arrival of the emperor. In his opening speech, Constantine expressed surprise over the disunity among the fathers of the Church and said he considered the “internal strife within the Church of God … far more evil and dangerous than any kind of war or conflict.” He then encouraged the bishops to “begin from this moment to discard the causes of that disunion which has existed among you and remove the perplexities of controversy by embracing the principles of peace.” Constantine remained at the council until the end.

As no protocol existed for this first-ever universal conference of bishops, Constantine ran the proceedings similar to the way a legislative session of the Roman senate was conducted. When the Roman senate came to a conclusion on an issue, the decision, approved by the emperor, became law. And so it would be with the First Council of Nicaea and all future ecumenical councils: Whatever the council bishops decide, in coordination with the pope, becomes Church law.

Heading the bishops that opposed Arianism was Bishop Alexander, who had previously excommunicated Arius. Alexander expressed his opinion of the Arians in a letter to his namesake, Bishop Alexander, in Constantinople: “They accordingly constructed caverns, like those of robbers, in which they constantly assemble and, day and night, they there invent calumnies against the Savior, and against us. They revile the religious doctrines of the apostles; and having, like the Jews, conspired against Christ, they deny his divinity, and declare him to be on a level with other men. They collect all those passages which allude to the incarnation of our Savior and to his having humbled himself for our salvation and bring them forward as corroborative of their own impious assertion; while they evade all those which declare his divinity, and the glory which he possesses with the Father. … They have had the audacity to rend the seamless garment of Christ, which the people dared not divide” (“History of the First Council of Nice,” by Dean Dudley, Wright and Potter Printing Company, Boston, 1860).

Accompanying Alexander to Nicaea was a young deacon named Athanasius, who would later become the bishop of Alexandria and the greatest defender of Christ’s divinity — an unwavering opponent to Arianism.

An All-Important Iota

Early in the council, Arius was called to express his beliefs regarding the relationship of Jesus with God; the majority of bishops concluded that the beliefs proclaimed were heretical, and they condemned Arius and several of his followers. For the bishops, agreeing to condemn the blasphemous Arian teachings was not their only challenge. They needed to define and defend Church dogma regarding the divinity of Christ and do so in such a way that would be affirmed by all the bishops and clearly understood by the faithful.

The bishops chose to reveal their convictions through a creed. Creeds, also called symbols, were often used in churches to express a profession of faith, such as at a baptism. Several existing creeds were examined in an effort to document what the bishops had decided. Eventually a draft proposal for consideration was put forth. The draft read much like the final adopted creed with one serious exception.

Agreement among the bishops seemed to be forthcoming, but then Constantine, likely prompted by his religious advisers, asked that the Greek word homoousios, meaning consubstantial or of the same substance, be inserted, so the creed read: “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God; the only begotten, begotten of the Father, that is, of the substance of the Father; God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten, not made, of the same substance [homoousios] as the Father; through whom all things were made, both those in heaven and those on earth; who for us men, and our salvation, came down, took flesh, and was made man, suffered, and rose up on the third day, ascended into heaven, and will come to judge the living and the dead. And in the Holy Spirit.”

 

The Emperor Constantine (272-337) presides over the First Council of Nicaea. (© The Holbarn Archive/Bridgeman Images)

The bishops added: “But those who say there was a time when he was not, and that he was made out of what did not exist, or who say that he is of another hypostasis or substance, or that the Son of God is created or subject to change or alteration, the Catholic Church anathematizes” (W.A. Jurgens, “Fathers of The Early Church, Vol. 1.,” The Liturgical Press, 1970).

Constantine agreed with the wording, giving the creed the force of law. Surprisingly, only three bishops refused to sign on to the creed. Historians agree that many Arian bishops who signed did so without committed buy-in and later reverted to their old practices; they would go on to pursue changing the word homoousios (same) to homoiousios (similar). In Greek, the difference between the two words is the Greek letter iota. Thus, the phrase we use even today: not an iota of difference. At Nicaea it meant an enormous difference.

Arius and certain of his followers were sent into exile, and Constantine ordered that all of Arius’ writings be burned. Those opposing Arius had won the battle but not the war. Arianism did not end at Nicaea.

From his exile, Arius continued to spout his profane doctrine and found many more followers from across the empire, especially in the barbaric tribes migrating to Europe. His biggest opponent would be Athanasius.

Defender of Christ’s Divinity

Following Bishop Alexander’s death in 327, Athanasius, younger than 40 years old, was elected bishop of Alexandria. He held the position until his death in 373, but 17 of those years would be spent in exile. In the six years following Nicaea, Emperor Constantine began to soften his position against the Arians. He asked Athanasius to receive Arius back into the Diocese of Alexandria. Athanasius refused, setting off a firestorm of Arian attacks against him. These attacks were supported by every emperor following Constantine until Theodosius I (r. 379-395). The Arians carried out numerous plots and continuously spread lies to discredit Athanasius. In 335 he was banished by Emperor Constantine to Germany, mostly for his unwillingness to moderate his beliefs. After a year he was allowed to return to Alexandria, but the reprieve was short-lived, and four additional times he had to live in exile from his diocese.

Arianism became increasingly popular. Poems by Arius were turned into songs reflecting his beliefs, and travelers, traders and seamen could be heard singing them throughout the Middle East. One included a line: “There was a time when the Son was not.” Despite the agreement at Nicaea, the debate continued, and the empire divided. It was Athanasius who stood against the Arians; history would dub him the “Father of Orthodoxy.”

 

St. Athanasius. (AdobeStock)

In 336, Constantine called Arius back to Constantinople and ordered the bishop of Constantinople to give Arius holy Communion. En route, legend holds, Arius suffered a severe stomach attack, his body burst open and he died. Some Christians believed God had taken vengeance against the Arian heresy. A year later, Constantine died. These deaths did not favor Athanasius. Several of Constantine’s sons, who succeeded him as emperor, sided with the Arians more actively and condemned the decrees of Nicaea. If Jesus the Son and God the Father were equals, bishops were equal to the emperor in matters regarding the Church. The Roman emperors considered Athanasius and his followers a threat that had to be undermined.

Athanasius ceaselessly promoted the divinity of Christ and supported the Nicaea decisions. In “A Letter Concerning the Decrees of Nicaea” (350/351), he wrote: “In the beginning he [the devil] sowed you [Arians] with the seeds of this impiety, and now he persuades you to slander the ecumenical council, because it committed to you in writing not your doctrines, but those which from the beginning were handed down by those who were eye-witnesses and ministers of the Word. For the faith which the council confessed in writing is the faith of the Catholic Church. In order to establish this, the blessed fathers wrote as they did, while condemning the Arian heresy.”

While he had no armed force, no ruler on his side, Athanasius was graced with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He never succumbed to the Arian doctrines or attacks by the emperors. By his lifestyle, his writings and preaching, he was resolute in defending the divinity of Jesus. Athanasius died in 373 at the age of 77 and would be honored as a saint and Doctor of the Church. He is one of four Fathers of the Church whose statues surround the Chair of Peter in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Second Ecumenical Council

The Arian controversy continued, prompting Theodosius to call another council of bishops to address Arianism and a new heresy denying the divinity of the Holy Spirit. The council was held May through July 381 at Constantinople, making it the First Council of Constantinople; only Eastern bishops were in attendance. The bishops affirmed the decisions at Nicaea but tweaked the creed in a way that gives us the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed we say today. They added: “born of the Virgin Mary and became man … crucified under Pontius Pilate … seated at the right hand of the Father.”

Importantly, they also added that the Holy Spirit is equal to the Father: “And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who together with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who spoke through the prophets.” In the sixth century, around the time when the Nicene Creed was first introduced into the Mass, some Western churches unilaterally adopted different language regarding the Holy Spirit: “who proceeds from the Father and the Son.” Adding “and the Son” (the filioque) would cause an ongoing split between the Churches of East and West.

Following the First Council of Constantinople, Arianism waned significantly, but it would be another 300 years, specifically among the barbaric tribes, until the heresy no longer threatened Christianity.

Our beliefs today regarding the Most Holy Trinity were prompted by the councils of Nicaea and Constantinople.

D.D. EMMONS writes from Pennsylvania.

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