CHAPTER III.
THE CAUSES WHICH LED CONSTANTINE TO CONVOKE THE UNIVERSAL SYNOD, COMMONLY CALLED "THE GENERAL COUNCIL OF NICE."
After the death of the wicked tyrants, Maxentius, Maximin, and Licinius, says Theodoret,[1] the storm abated which their atrocity, like a furious whirlwind, had excited against the church. The hostile winds were hushed, and tranquillity ensued. This was effected by Constantine, a prince deserving of the highest praise; who, like the divine apostle, was not called by man, or through man, but by God. He enacted laws prohibiting sacrifices to idols, and commanding churches to be erected. He appointed believers to be the governors of the provinces, ordered that honor should be shown to the priests, and threatened with death those who dared to insult them.
The churches which had been destroyed were rebuilt; and others, still more spacious and magnificent than the former ones, were erected. Hence the concerns of the church were smiling and prosperous, while those of her opponents were involved in disgrace and ruin. The temples of the idols were closed; but frequent assemblies were held, and festivals celebrated, in the churches……
At this time Peter was bishop of Alexandria, a
- ↑ This Christian historian, whose text I intend to quote, as well as his ideas, was born at Antioch, in Syria, about A. D. 387, and died about A. D. 458. He was bishop of Cyrus in his fatherland; although at one time a Nestorian, on account, probably, of his personal friendship for Nestorius, who rejected the title—"Mother of God"—as it was applied to the Virgin Mary. But he renounced that "heresy" in 435. Theodoret compiled a history of the church from A. D. 322 to A. D. 427.—See Edw. Walford's Translation.
