r churches like the Arians. They comforted
themselves with those words of Scripture, 'The churchmen are many, but
the elect are few.'[17]

[Footnote 17: Matt. xx. 16.]

[Sidenote: Close of the council.]

Whatever jealousies might divide the conquerors, the Arian contest was
now at an end. Pontus and Syria were still divided from Rome and Egypt
on the question of Flavian's appointment, and there were the germs of
many future troubles in the disposition of Alexandria to look for help
to Rome against the upstart see of Constantinople; but against Arianism
the council was united. Its first canon is a solemn ratification of the
Nicene creed in its original shape, with a formal condemnation of all
the heresies, 'and specially those of the Eunomians or Anomoeans, of
the Arians or Eudoxians (_Homoeans_), of the Semiarians or
Pneumatomachi; of the Sabellians, Marcellians, Photinians, and
Apollinarians.'

[Sidenote: The spurious Nicene creed.]

The bishops issued no new creed. Tradition indeed ascribes to them the
spurious Nicene creed of our Communion Service, with the exception of
two later insertions--the clause 'God of God,' and the procession of the
Holy Spirit 'from the Son' as well as 'from the Father.' The story is an
old one, for it can be traced back to one of the speakers at the council
of Chalcedon in 451. It caused some surprise at the time, but was
afterwards accepted. Yet it is beyond all question false. This is shown
by four convergent lines of argument. In the first place, (1.) it is _a
priori_ unlikely. The Athanasian party had been contending all along,
not vaguely for the Nicene doctrine, but for the Nicene creed, the whole
Nicene creed, and nothing but the Nicene creed. Athanasius refused to
touch it at Sardica in 343, refused again at Alexandria in 362, and to
the end of his life refused to admit that it was in any way defective.
Basil himself as late as 377 declined even to consider some additions to
the incarnation proposed to him by Epiphanius of Salamis. Is it likely
that their followers would straightway revise the creed the instant they
got the upper hand in 381? And such a revision! The elaborate framework
of Nicaea is completely shattered, and even the keystone clause 'of the
essence of the Father' is left out. Moreover, (2.) there is no
contemporary evidence that they did revise it. No historian mentions
anything of the sort, and no single document connected with the council
gives the slightes