shops inside and outside the Empire to meet him
at Nicaea in Bithynia during the summer of 325, in order to make a final
end of all the disputes which endangered the unity of Christendom. The
'city of victory' bore an auspicious name, and the restoration of peace
was a holy service, and would be a noble preparation for the solemnities
of the great Emperor's twentieth year upon the throne.

[Sidenote: The first oecumenical council.]

The idea of a general or oecumenical council (the words mean the same
thing) may well have been Constantine's own. It bears the mark of a
statesman's mind, and is of a piece with the rest of his life.
Constantine was not thinking only of the questions to be debated.
However these might be settled, the meeting could not fail to draw
nearer to the state and to each other the churches of that great
confederation which later ages have so often mistaken for the church of
Christ. As regards Arianism, smaller councils had been a frequent means
of settling smaller questions. Though Constantine had not been able to
quiet the Donatists by means of the Council of Arles, he might fairly
hope that the authority of such a gathering as this would bear down all
resistance. If he could only bring the bishops to some decision, the
churches might be trusted to follow it.

[Sidenote: Its members.]

An imposing list of bishops answered Constantine's call. The signatures
are 223, but they are not complete. The Emperor speaks of 300, and
tradition gives 318, like the number of Abraham's servants, or like the
mystic number[5] which stands for the cross of Christ. From the far west
came his chief adviser for the Latin churches, the patriarch of
councils, the old confessor Hosius of Cordova. Africa was represented by
Caecilian of Carthage, round whose election the whole Donatist
controversy had arisen, and a couple of presbyters answered for the
apostolic and imperial see of Rome. Of the thirteen great provinces of
the Empire none was missing except distant Britain; but the Western
bishops were almost lost in the crowd of Easterns. From Egypt came
Alexander of Alexandria with his young deacon Athanasius, and the Coptic
confessors Paphnutius and Potammon, each with an eye seared out, came
from cities farther up the Nile. All these were resolute enemies of
Arianism; its only Egyptian supporters were two bishops from the edge of
the western desert. Syria was less unequally divided. If Eustathius of
Antioch and Macar