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| How he ordered a Council to be held at Nicæa.
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Chapter
VI.—How he ordered a Council to be
held at Nicæa.
Then as
if to bring a divine array against this enemy, he convoked a general
council, and invited the speedy attendance of bishops from all
quarters, in letters expressive of the honorable estimation in which he
held them. Nor was this merely the issuing of a bare command but the
emperor’s good will contributed much to its being carried into
effect: for he allowed some the use of the public means of conveyance,
while he afforded to others an ample supply of horses3236
for their transport. The place, too,
selected for the synod, the city Nicæa in Bithynia (named from
“Victory”), was appropriate to the occasion.3237
| 3237 The probably apocryphal version of the summoning letter given by
Cowper (Syr. Misc.) from the Syriac gives the reason of the
choice of Nicæa, “the excellent temperature of the
air” there. | As soon then as the imperial
injunction was generally made known, all with the utmost willingness
hastened thither, as though they would outstrip one another in a race;
for they were impelled by the anticipation of a happy result to the
conference, by the hope of enjoying present peace, and the desire of
beholding something new and strange in the person of so admirable an
emperor. Now when they were all assembled, it appeared evident that the
proceeding was the work of God, inasmuch as men who had been most
widely separated, not merely in sentiment but also personally, and by
difference of country, place, and nation, were here brought together,
and comprised within the walls of a single city, forming as it were a
vast garland of priests, composed of a variety of the choicest
flowers.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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