The Council of Nicaea & The Nicene Creed

"Constantine I (born February 27, after 280 ce?, Naissus, Moesia [now Niš, Serbia]—died May 22, 337, Ancyrona, near Nicomedia, Bithynia [now İzmit, Turkey]) was the first Roman emperor to profess Christianity. He not only initiated the evolution of the empire into a Christian state but also provided the impulse for a distinctively Christian culture that prepared the way for the growth of Byzantine and Western medieval culture."

"Throughout his life, Constantine ascribed his success to his conversion to Christianity and the support of the Christian God. The triumphal arch erected in his honour at Rome after the defeat of Maxentius ascribed the victory to the “inspiration of the Divinity” as well as to Constantine’s own genius. A statue set up at the same time showed Constantine himself holding aloft a cross and the legend “By this saving sign I have delivered your city from the tyrant and restored liberty to the Senate and people of Rome.” After his victory over Licinius in 324, Constantine wrote that he had come from the farthest shores of Britain as God’s chosen instrument for the suppression of impiety, and in a letter to the Persian king Shāpūr II he proclaimed that, aided by the divine power of God, he had come to bring peace and prosperity to all lands."

"Constantine’s second involvement in an ecclesiastical issue followed the defeat of Licinius, but the controversy over Arianism, with its intricate explorations of the precise nature of the Trinity that were couched in difficult Greek, was as remote from Constantine’s educational background as it was from his impatient, urgent temperament. The Council of Nicaea, which opened in the early summer of 325 with an address by the emperor, had already been preceded by a letter to the chief protagonist, Arius of Alexandria, in which Constantine stated his opinion that the dispute was fostered only by excessive leisure and academic contention, that the point at issue was trivial and could be resolved without difficulty. His optimism was not justified: neither this letter nor the Council of Nicaea itself nor the second letter, in which Constantine urged acceptance of its conclusions, was adequate to solve a dispute in which the participants were as intransigent as the theological issues were subtle. Indeed, for more than 40 years after the death of Constantine, Arianism was actually the official orthodoxy of the Eastern Empire."

- Excerpts taken from the Britannica:

Nicol, D.M., Matthews, J. "Constantine I." Encyclopedia Britannica, May 18, 2025. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Constantine-I-Roman-emperor.

"St. Athanasius (born c. 293, Alexandria—died May 2, 373, Alexandria; feast day May 2) was a theologian, ecclesiastical statesman, and Egyptian national leader. He was the chief defender of Christian orthodoxy in the 4th-century battle against Arianism, the heresy that the Son of God was a creature of like, but not of the same, substance as God the Father. His important works include The Life of St. Antony, On the Incarnation, and Four Orations Against the Arians."

"Athanasius received his philosophical and theological training at Alexandria. In 325 he attended Bishop Alexander of Alexandria as deacon at the Council of Nicaea. A recognized theologian and ascetic, Athanasius was the obvious candidate to succeed Alexander when the latter died in 328. The first years of his episcopate were devoted to visitation of his extensive patriarchate, which included all of Egypt and Libya. During this time he established important contacts with the Coptic monks of Upper Egypt and their leader St. Pachomius. Soon began the struggle with imperialist and Arian churchmen that occupied much of his life. He used political influence against the Meletians, followers of the schismatic bishop Meletius of Lycopolis, who had gone back on the plans made at Nicaea for their reunion with the church, but he refuted specific charges of mistreatment of Arians and Meletians before a hostile gathering of bishops at Tyre (in modern Lebanon) in 335, which he refused to recognize as a general council of the church. When both parties met the emperor Constantine at Constantinople in 336, Athanasius was accused of threatening to interfere with the grain supply from Egypt, and without any formal trial Constantine exiled him to the Rhineland."

"The emperor’s death in 337 allowed Athanasius to return to Alexandria, but Constantine’s son Constantius, emperor in the East, renewed the order of banishment in 338. Athanasius took refuge at Rome under the protection of Constantius’s brother Constans, emperor in the West. An Arian bishop, Gregory, was installed at Alexandria. Athanasius, however, kept in touch with his flock through the annual Festal Letters announcing the date of Easter. Pope Julius I wrote in vain on his behalf, and the general council called for 343 was no more successful—only Western and Egyptian bishops met at Serdica (modern Sofia, Bulgaria), and their appeal for Athanasius was not accepted in the East. In 346, however, Constans’s influence secured his return to Egypt, where he was welcomed as a popular hero."

"Athanasius’s “golden decade” of peace and prosperity followed, during which he assembled documents relating to his exiles and returns in the Apology Against the Arians. Nevertheless, after the death of Constans in 350 and the following civil war, Constantius, as sole emperor, resumed his pro-Arian policy. Again political charges were brought against Athanasius, his banishment was repeated, and in 356 an attempt was made to arrest him during a vigil service. This time he withdrew to Upper Egypt, where he was protected in monasteries or friendly houses. In exile he completed his massive theological work Four Orations Against the Arians and defended his conduct in the Apology to Constantius and Apology for His Flight. The emperor’s persistence and reports of persecution at Alexandria under the new Arian bishop George led him, in the more violent History of the Arians, to treat Constantius as a precursor of Antichrist."

"The death of Constantius, followed by the murder of the unpopular George in 361, allowed Athanasius to return triumphantly once more to his see. In 362 he convened the Synod of Alexandria, during which he appealed for unity among those who held the same faith but differed in terminology. The way was thus prepared for the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity—“three Persons in one substance”—which stresses distinctions in the Godhead more than Athanasius usually had done. The new emperor, Julian the Apostate, rather petulantly ordered Athanasius to leave Alexandria, and he sailed up the Nile again, remaining in exile in Upper Egypt until Julian’s death in 363. In 365 the emperor Valens, who favoured Arianism, ordered his exile once more, but this time the popular bishop merely moved to the outskirts of Alexandria for a few months until the local authorities persuaded the emperor to reconsider. Finally, Athanasius spent a few years in peace before his death in 373."

- Excerpts taken from the Britannica:

Hardy, E.R. "St. Athanasius." Encyclopedia Britannica, April 28, 2025. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Athanasius.

"The Cappadocian Fathers were Basil of Caesarea, his friend Gregory of Nazianzus and his younger brother Gregory of Nyssa. They came from the Roman province of Cappadocia, in modern Turkey. They shared a common ambition to integrate Christianity with all that was good in classical culture." (Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought, pg. 36)

"Basil was born into a wealthy Christian family, in about 330. He had a good education in both Christianity and the classics and philosophy. His education came to a climax at Athens, where he studied from 351 and met Gregory of Nazianzus. On his return home he taught rhetoric for a while, but then was baptized and pursued the monastic life." (Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought, pg. 36)

"Gregory of Nazianzus also came from the Cappadocian nobility. His father was bishop of Nazianzus. He studied at Athens where he met Basil. Eventually he became Basil's follower and joined him in his monastic retreat. Gregory's ecclesiastical career was a succession of frustrations. His father appointed him presbyter at Nazianzus, but that was not a success. Then Basil pushed him into becoming bishop of a small town, in the interests of ecclesiastical politics and the struggle against Arianism. Gregory never took up his duties there. Finally, he became bishop of the Nicene party at Constantinople, the Eastern capital. This was a crucial position and Gregory devoted himself wholeheartedly to it. In 380 he preached five famous Theological Orations, in defense of Nicene orthodoxy. In 381 he played a leading role at the Council of Constantinople." (Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought, pg. 36-37)

"Gregory of Nyssa, who was born in about 335, was Basil's brother and disciple. He was the most intellectual of the trio and for a time became a rhetorician...In 371 Basil bullied him into becoming bishop of Nyssa. For a few years he was deposed and replaced by an Arian, but otherwise he remained bishop there for the rest of his life." (Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought, pg. 37)

"The Cappadocians are remembered especially for their opposition to Arianism and their trinitarian teaching. They fused together the Nicene belief that the Father and Son are homoousios (of one substance) and the Origenist belief that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three hypostases or beings. The one substance of the Godhead exists simultaneously in three different hypostases..." (Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought, pg. 37) The Cappadocians offered a clear explanation of how the unity and the threeness of God are to be related. But their explanation lays them open to the charge of tritheism. (Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought, pg. 38) "In addition to Arianism, the Cappadocians also had to face the Macedonians. These were a group under bishop Macedonius who, like the Egyptian Tropici, affirmed the deity of the Son but held the Holy Spirit to be a creature. Basil answered them in The Holy Spirit. He affirmed the deity of the Spirit, though without explicitly calling him God. Gregory of Nazianzus, who outlived Basil, was more explicit and openly called the Holy Spirit God." (Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought, pg. 39) "Another heresy faced by the Gregories was Apollinarianism. Apollinaris denied that Jesus had a human soul or mind. If I am a soul dwelling in a body, Jesus was the Word dwelling in a body. Thus the Word took the place of a human soul in Jesus. This had been acceptable Alexandrian teaching for some time and Athanasius held something similar. But Apollinaris took it to an extreme and by his time the deficiencies of such a view were widely recognized. The Gregories argued that Jesus Christ had to be fully human in order to save us fully." (Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought, pg. 39)

~ Excerpt taken from Tony Lane's "A Concise History of Christian Thought"