§ 120. THE COUNCIL OF NICEA. 631
Leo the Great, like Constantine, attributes its decrees to the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and ascribes even to its canons perpetual validity; the Greek church annually observes (on the Sunday before Pentecost) a special feast in memory of it. There afterwards arose a multitude of apocryphal orations and legends in gloritication of it, of which Gelasius of Cyzicus in the fifth century collected a whole volume/
The council of Nicaea is the most important event of the fourth century, and its bloodless intellectual victory over a dangerous error is of far greater consequence to the progress of true civilization, than all the bloody victories of Constantine and his successors. It forms an epoch in the history of doctrine, summing up the results of all previous discussions on the deity of Christ and the incarnation, and at the same time regulating the further development of the Catholic orthodoxy for centuries. The Nicene creed, in the enlarged form which it received after the second ecumenical council, is the only one of all the symbols of doctrine which, with the exception of the subsequently added Jllioque^ is acknowledged alike by the Greek, the Latin, and the Evangelical churches, and to tliib day, after a course of fifteen centuries, is prayed and sung from Sunday to Sunday in all countries of the civilized world. The Apostles' Creed indeed, is much more generally used in the West, and by its greater simplicity and more popular form is much better adapted to catechetical and liturgical purposes ; but it has taken no root in the Eastern church ; still less the Athanasian Creed, which exceeds the Nicene in logical precision and completeness. Upon the bed of lava grows the sweet fruit of the vine. The wild passions and the weaknesses of men, which encompassed the Nicene council, are extin-
' Stanly interweaves several of these miraculous legends with graphical minutones3 into the text of his narrative, thus giving it the interest of romance, at the expense of the dignity of historical statement. The simple Spyridion performed, on his journey to the Council, the amazmg feat of restoring in the dark his two mules to hfe by annexing the white head to the chestnut mule, and the chestnut head to its white companion, and overtook the rival bishops who had cut off the heads of the mules with the intention to prevent the rustic bishop from reaching Nicsea iM.\ hurting the cause of orthodoxy by his ignorance ! According to another version of this silly legend the decapitation of the mules is ascribed to malicious Arians.
032 THIED PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
STiiislied, but the faith in tlie eternal deity of Christ hag remained, and so long as this faith lives, the council of Nicaea will be named with reverence and with gratitude.
§ 121. Tlie Avian and Semi-Arian Reaction, a. d. 325-361.
The victory of the council of Nicoea over the views of the majority of the bisbups was a victory only in appearance. It had, to be sui*e, erected a mighty fortress, in which the defenders of the essential deity of Christ might ever take refuge from the assaults of lieresy ; and in this view it was of the utmost importance, and secured the final triumph of the truth. But some of the bishops had subscribed the homoousion with reluctance, or from regard to the emperor, or at best with the reservation of a broad intei-pretation ; and with a change of circumstances they would readily turn in opposition. The controversy now for the first time fairly broke loose, and Ariauism entered the stage of its political development and power. An intermediate period of great excitement ensued, during which council was held against council, creed was set forth against creed, and anatliema against anatiiema was hurled. The pagan Ammianus Marcellinus says of the councils under Constantius : " The highways were covered with galloping bisliops;" and even Athanasius rebuked the restless flutter of the clergy, who journeyed the empire over to find the true faith, and provoked the ridicule and contempt of the unbelieving world. In intolerance and violence the Arians exceeded the orthodox, and contested elections of bishops not rarely came to bloody encounters. The iiilert'erence of imperial politics only poured oil on the flame, and embarrassed the natural course of the theological development.
The personal history of Athanasius was interwoven with the doctrinal controversy ; lie threw himself wholly into the cause which he advocated. The question whether his deposition was legitimate or not, was almost identical with the question whetlier the Niccne Creed should prevail.
Eusebius of Nicomedia and The(^)gnis of Nicaea threw aL