The First Council of Nicaea

According to Socrates, Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, objected to the teaching of his bishop, Alexander of Alexandria. If the Father begot the Son, he argued, the Son had a beginning, and there was a time when he was not (Socrates, Church History 1.5–6). In his own words, “the Son has a beginning, but … God is without beginning” (Theodoret, Church History 1.4). Alexander excommunicated him, and other bishops took sides (Socrates, Church History 1.5–6). Constantine sent Hosius of Cordoba to Alexandria with a letter urging peace (Socrates, Church History 1.7). When that failed he summoned the bishops to Nicaea (Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.6–7).

No minutes of the council survive; it is known from its own documents and from what participants wrote afterwards. Eusebius of Caesarea describes bishops from Mesopotamia to Spain; the bishop “of the imperial city”, too old to travel, sent presbyters (Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.6–7), whom Socrates names as presbyters of Rome (Socrates, Church History 1.13). Counts of the bishops differ: Eusebius says more than 250 (Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.8), Eustathius of Antioch about 270 (Theodoret, Church History 1.7), Athanasius “three hundred more or less” and later 318 (Athanasius, Defence of the Nicene Definition 3) (Athanasius, To the Bishops of Africa 2). By Eusebius’s account Constantine opened the sessions in the palace and joined in the debate (Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.10–14).

Eusebius told his own church that he had offered a creed and that the emperor urged its acceptance with one word added, homoousios, “of one substance” (Socrates, Church History 1.8). Athanasius, who attended as Alexander’s deacon (Socrates, Church History 1.8), says the bishops wanted to use only the words of Scripture, found that Arius’s supporters could take each phrase in their own sense, and so wrote that the Son is “from the essence” of the Father and “one in essence” with him (Athanasius, Defence of the Nicene Definition 19–20). The creed calls the Son “begotten, not made” and “of one substance” with the Father, and condemns those who say there was a time when he was not (Creed of Nicaea (325)). The council condemned Arius and two Libyan bishops who stood by him (Council of Nicaea (325) synodal letter), and the emperor exiled Arius (Socrates, Church History 1.8).

The bishops also agreed that all churches should keep Easter on the same day and no longer follow the Jewish reckoning (Council of Nicaea (325) synodal letter) (Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.18–19). Of their twenty canons, the fourth requires a bishop to be appointed by the bishops of his province, at least three being present and the rest consenting in writing, with confirmation left to the metropolitan (Council of Nicaea (325) canon 4). The sixth lets “the ancient customs” stand by which the bishop of Alexandria has authority over Egypt, Libya and Pentapolis, “since the like is customary for the Bishop of Rome also”, and keeps the privileges of Antioch and the other provinces (Council of Nicaea (325) canon 6). The seventh gives the bishop of Jerusalem a place of honour by ancient custom, saving the rights of the metropolis (Council of Nicaea (325) canon 7), and the twentieth has prayer said standing on Sundays and in the days of Pentecost (Council of Nicaea (325) canon 20).

The creed did not end the dispute: Athanasius records a series of rival formulas issued by later councils (Athanasius, On the Councils 21–30). The longer creed recited today is linked with the First Council of Constantinople of 381 (Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed). Chalcedon reaffirmed the creed of Nicaea (Definition of Chalcedon). The main traditions appeal to Nicaea in their own documents: the Catholic Church (Catechism of the Catholic Church 465), the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox (Orthodox–Oriental Orthodox Agreed Statement (1990) 8), the Church of the East (Common Christological Declaration (1994)), and the churches of the Reformation in their confessions (Augsburg Confession article 1) (Thirty-Nine Articles article 8).