ter somewhat, he sent
Hosius, the Bishop of Cordova, to Alexandria; but, finding that the
remedy was altogether inadequate, he was driven at last to the memorable
expedient of summoning the Council of Nicea, A.D. 325. It attempted a
settlement of the trouble by a condemnation of Arius, and the
promulgation of authoritative articles of belief as set forth in the
Nicene Creed. As to the main point, the Son was declared to be of the
same substance with the Father--a temporizing and convenient, but, as
the event proved, a disastrous ambiguity. The Nicene Council, therefore,
settled the question by evading it, and the emperor enforced the
decision by the banishment of Arius.

[Sidenote: The fortunes of Arius.]

"I am persecuted," Arius plaintively said, "because I have taught that
the Son had a beginning and the Father had not." It was the influence of
the court theologians that had made the emperor his personal enemy.
Constantine, as we have seen, had looked upon the dispute, in the first
instance, as altogether frivolous, if he did not, in truth, himself
incline to the assertion of Arius, that, in the very nature of the
thing, a father must be older than his son. The theatrical exhibitions
at Alexandria in mockery of the question were calculated to confirm him
in his opinion: his judgment was lost in the theories that were
springing up as to the nature of Christ; for on the Ebionitish, Gnostic,
and Platonic doctrines, as well as on the new one that "the logos" was
made out of nothing, it equally followed that the current opinion must
be erroneous, and that there was a time before which the Son did not
exist.

[Sidenote: His condemnation as a heretic.]

[Sidenote: The Nicene Creed.]

But, as the contest spread through churches and even families,
Constantine had found himself compelled to intervene. At first he
attempted the position of a moderator, but soon took ground against
Arius, advised to that course by his entourage at Constantinople. It was
at this time that the letter was circulated in which he denounced Arius
as the image of the Devil. Arius might now have foreseen what must
certainly occur at Nicea. Before that council was called everything was
settled. No contemporary for a moment supposed that this was an assembly
of simple-hearted men, anxious by a mutual comparison of thought, to
ascertain the truth. Its aim was not to compose such a creed as would
give unity to the Church, but one so worded that the Ar