ed his rhetorical powers in
public debates on the question, and, the strife spreading, the Jews and
Pagans, who formed a very large portion of the population of Alexandria,
_amused themselves with theatrical representations of the contest on the
stage--the point of their burlesques being the equality of age of the
Father and the Son_. Such was the violence the controversy at length
assumed, that the matter had to be referred to the emperor
(Constantine).

At first he looked upon the dispute as altogether frivolous, and perhaps
in truth inclined to the assertion of Arius, that in the very nature of
the thing a father must be older than his son. So great, however, was
the pressure laid upon him, that he was eventually compelled to summon
the Council of Nicea, which, to dispose of the conflict, set forth a
formulary or creed, and attached to it this anathema:

"The Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematizes those
who say that there was a time when the Son of God was not, and
that, before he was begotten, he was not, and that, he was
made out of nothing, or out of another substance or essence,
and is created, or changeable, or alterable."

Constantine at once _enforced_ the decision of the council by the civil
power.[381:1]

Even after this "subtle and profound question" had been settled at the
Council of Nice, those who settled it did not understand the question
they had settled. Athanasius, who was a member of the first general
council, and who is said to have written the _creed_ which bears his
name, which asserts that the true Catholic faith is this:

"That we worship _One_ God as Trinity, and Trinity in
Unity--neither confounding the persons nor dividing the
substance--for there is one person of the Father, another of
the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost, but the Godhead of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost _is all one_,
the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal,"

--also confessed that whenever he forced his understanding to meditate
on the divinity of the Logos, his toilsome and unavailing efforts
recoiled on themselves; _that the more he thought the less he
comprehended; and the more he wrote the less capable was he of
expressing his thoughts_.[382:1]

We see, then, that this great question was settled, not by the consent
of all members of the council, but simply because the _majority_ were in
favor of it. Jesus of Nazareth was "Go