Last we left off, Constantine had just
called together a council of Christian bishops from around the known world. They
were to resolve all the challenges of the Church so that he, Constantine, could
get back to uniting the empire under Christianity. The council was set to
tackle issues ranging from what day to celebrate Easter, to how to heal the
Meletian schism; a sect like the Donatists, who are concerned with the re-admittance of lapsed priests into the Church. This council was also going to
formalize how the liturgy was given, provide rules for the structure of the
Church, and set down some guidelines for being a priest. No living in the houses
of young women, no self-castration, no engaging in usury - you know that sort of
thing. But above all they were there to deal with the one thing: the Arian Heresy.
This was the main topic; the front-and-center issue that everybody
had come to discuss. It was tearing apart the Christian world, and it was
time it came to an end. So 318 bishops assembled in one
late Spring 325 CE, in the coastal Anatolian town of Nicea, to settle this
once and for all. The conference center was arrayed in splendor by the Emperor;
the bishops and all their aides and advisors were guests of the Empire,
housed, fed and cared for at Imperial expense. But more than that, the Emperor
himself would be in attendance. That's just how important this was to
Constantine. Constantine set the tone for the meeting, walking in, not surrounded by guards, as
was the norm for the person of the Emperor, but rather entering surrounded
only by a few friends. This wasn't a battle - it was a time to come together.
And so it began. The debate was vigorous, using all the rhetorical art the
Roman world was famous for. Laity and clerics both engaged in arguing the
merits of each side, while the Emperor sat there, gently reminding everyone that they were
all Christians here, and that they needn't treat each other like enemies of the
faith. And for weeks the discussions went on, contentious, impassioned, on at
least one occasion breaking out into a brawl, but for all this the truth was
that most of the bishops were relatively moderate, looking to come to the correct
answer but believing that an answer could be found that both sides had
agree to - and the Emperor himself was happy to embrace anything that would
just get all these guys to agree. So the discussions really resolved down to the
point of view of two men: Arius, the namesake of Arianism, whose unbending views
had caused the council to be summoned in the first place, and a man named Athanasius. Athanasius was a deacon of Alexandria,
where the whole Arian Schism began. He was an ardent anti-Arian, and he intended
to do everything in his power to make sure that no compromise with the Arians
was reached. And so time rolled forward with the council split - no overwhelming
majority willing to come down on either side. Debate continued on how to achieve a
compromised position, but the discussion wound in circles as these two men: Athanasius and Arius, dominated the discussion and kept any chance of truly
finding a middle ground at bay. Still, time and again the Emperor reminded them
all that they were here to heal the Church - that, as Romans and as
Christians, they were more alike than different, and that they should be able
to find a way to work such esoteric theological differences out. But
Constantine, powerful, intelligent and adroit as he was, was not the type of
subtle theologian that Athanasius turned out to be, because as the debate moved on
Athanasius began to introduce the term 'homoousian' into the discussion. And
this was a throw of the dice because 'homoousian' means 'of the same substance',
which made many of the bishops a little uneasy, as it had been used in other
heretical context before to claim that there was no difference between God the
Son and God the Father. But Athanasius knew that this was a term that Arius
had objected to in the past, and that he would never agree to any compromise that
involved using the term 'homoousian'. So, Athanasius started to appear to be the
reasonable one. He could look as if he were slightly willing to bend, knowing
that no compromise he ever offered would be accepted so long as it could be
worded talking about Christ as homoousian. And here's where the debate
really began to get rowdy, because now people had to polarize. You had to agree
with this term or not, as no one was going to compromise around it There was one last attempt at bringing
everyone together, though, trying to get people to meet in the middle and say
that Christ was 'homoiousian', or, 'of similar nature to God', but by now this was
thoroughly rejected by all those who had declared themselves firmly on one
side or another. And even as this compromise was being discussed, Athanasius was secretly pulling people over to his side. While the great debate
was happening in public, the anti-Arian faction was making deals and
persuading people in private. Slowly, bishop by bishop, they assembled a
majority coalition, and soon that majority was threatening damnation and
excommunication for anybody who followed the heretical Arian formulation. And so those less
firm in their Arian beliefs began to switch sides as well; not wanting to
risk their immortal souls, or perhaps their positions in the church, almost
every delegate signed onto the homoousian idea of Christ. Only Arius himself, one
deacon and two other bishops refused to sign what would become known as the
Nicene Creed, cementing the Trinitarian view of Christ. And thus, Arianism was
declared heresy, its teachings anathema, and its preaching an exilable offense.
And so the Emperor got up, dusted off his chlamys, and thought to himself "Job well done!" I mean, after all, he had
brought all the priests together, they had basically all agreed on... something,
and he could now exile those few who had disagreed, unity would be restored
and he could get back to ruling the Empire. But it's not quite that simple
because a few months later, Constantine found he also had to exile a
man named Eusebius - a prelate who had signed the Creed but who continued to
refuse to condemn Arius. This may seem like a small thing - one man being exiled
over taking a half-hearted stand not condemning his friend - but Eusebius was
actually a distant relative of Constantine's, and unlike Arius, who is
principally known in Egypt and the ecclesiastical circles of the East,
Eusebius was a member of Constantine's court. In fact that's why he had to exile him;
because he kept pushing for Arius in Constantine's inner circle long after
Constantine was good and done with this whole heresy thing. But, Constantine's
sister liked Eusebius, and soon he was recalled from exile. But if there was any
doubt which side Eusebius was on, his exile cemented him as a firm Arian and
so he worked at court, day by day to soften the Emperor's views on Arianism.
And, as even exiling its principal supporters and declaring the belief
heretical hadn't actually stamped out the Arian beliefs, Constantine began to
be receptive to the idea of a softer rapprochement than he had previously been. A
kind of 'coexistence'. After all, he wanted harmony in his empire. But harmony was
not on Eusebius' mind. He schemed against Athanasius, never publicly
putting himself in opposition to him, but getting other groups to accuse Athanasius of a myriad of crimes. At last, through a rigged trial, he was able to
get Athanasius convicted, and he convinced the Emperor that it was
actually Athanasius who is now preventing the rift in the Christian
Church to heal, with his diehard refusal to readmit schismatics into the Church, and that he should be exiled. Meanwhile
Eusebius had also succeeded in getting Arius recalled. So with Athanasius
exiled and Arius recalled, the Arian doctrine began to gain strength in the
Empire again. Constantine himself would, at the very
end of his life, be baptized by Eusebius. And his son? His son would be a diehard
Arian throughout his rule. And, though after hundreds of years the Nicene Creed
would eventually win out, this reprieve for Arianism allowed it to spread and slip
out of the Empire, for Eusebius ordained a Goth named Ulfilas to go on a mission
to the Gothic tribes, and he was successful, converting many and cementing Arian
Christianity as the Christianity of the northern tribes. And this is one of the
reasons that the Gothic tribes never really integrated into the Roman Empire.
It's one of the reasons that, rather than become assimilated like so many other
groups, they remained separate; integral to the empire but never really being
part of it. And in the end, it's part of why they tore the Empire apart. Join us
next time as we jump a few hundred years ahead, for the Monophysite Heresy, which
plagued Justinian and destroyed the unity of Eastern Rome.
Considering how this people handled the history of the start of WWI and simply shrugged off people pointing out wrong facts, I don't trust them really with anything else.
Yeah, that brawl? That was Saint Nicholas punching Arius in the face.
Yes, that St. Nicholas.
Santa Claus sucker punched a guy
I always thought we needed a history lesson by Alvin and the Chipmunks.
how is it possible for someone to have a voice like that and narrate videos?