ble of enduring the fatigue of the journey, had arrived at Nice, he went thither himself, as much from the wish of seeing the bishops, as from the desire of preserving unanimity amongst them. He arranged that all their wants should be liberally supplied. Three hundred and eighteen bishops were assembled. The bishop of Rome, on account of his very advanced age, was necessarily absent; but he sent two presbyters[1] to the Council, for the purpose of taking part in all the transactions. At this period, individuals were richly endowed with apostolical gifts; and many, like the holy apostles, bore in their bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ.[2]
James, bishop of Antioch, a city of Mygdonia, which is called Nisbis by the Syrians and Assyrians, had power to raise the dead, and to restore them to life; he performed many wonderful miracles. Paul, bishop of Neo-Cæsarea, a fortress situated on the banks of the Euphrates, had suffered much from the cruelty of Licinius. He had been deprived of the use of both hands by the application of a red-hot iron, by which the nerves which give motion to the muscles had been contracted and destroyed. Some had the right eye torn out;
- ↑ Vito and Vincentius were their names, says Sozomen and other historians.
- ↑ Of the ten persecutions, the first was that of Nero, A.D. 64; the second, of Domitian, A.D. 95; the third, of Trajan, 107; the fourth, of Adrian, 118; the fifth, of Caracalla, 212; the sixth, of Maximin, 235; the seventh, of Decius, 230; the eighth, of Valerian, 257; the ninth, of Aurelian, 274; and the tenth, and most severe, was begun on Christmas Day, A.D. 303, under Diocletian, when the emperor ordered the doors of the Christian church of Nicomedia to be barred, and then burnt the edifice with every soul within, the number being six hundred. Nicomedia, the chief city of Bithynia, was then the seat of the imperial court, Constantinople not being made such until A.D. 328.
