In the synod, an Arian confession of faith was first brought forward and read ; but it aroused such a storm of indignation that obviously, in the interests of a restoration of ecclesiastical peace, there could be no question of its acceptance. On this, Eusebius of Caesarea submitted the baptismal creed of his com munity. Since the creed dated from a period anterior to the out break of the Arian struggle, its reception would have been equivalent to a declaration on the part of the council that it declined to define its position with reference to the controversy of the hour. That the greater number of delegates were not dis inclined to adopt this subterfuge, and to shelve the actual solution of the whole problems by recognition of this or some similar neutral formula, is extremely probable. But the emperor saw that, if the difficulties were eluded in any such way, it was in evitable from the very nature of the case, that they should rise again in an accentuated form, and that consequently no pacifica tion could be expected from this policy.
Accordingly Constantine proposed that the Caesarean creed should be modified by the insertion of the Alexandrian pass words (including the decisive term 6,uoobatos, "identical in nature"), as if for the purpose of more accurate definition, and by the deletion of certain portions. That he appreciated the
import of these alterations, or realized that this revision was virtually the proclamation of a new doctrine, is scarcely probable. The creed thus evolved by an artificial unity was no ratification of peace : in fact, it paved the way for a struggle which convulsed the whole empire. For it was the proclamation of the Nicene Creed that first opened the eyes of many bishops to the significance of the problem there treated ; and its explanation led the Church to force herself, by an arduous path of theological work, into compliance with those principles, enunciated at Nicaea, to which, in the year 325, she had pledged herself without genuine assent.
the Histories of Dogma by Harnack, Loofs and Seeberg ; articles in Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics and Herzog-Hauck, Realencykloptidie, 3rd ed.; Bethune-Baker, Introduction to the early History of Christian Doctrine; Gore, Dissertations on Subjects connected with the Incarnation; and (from another point of view) Mellone, "Athanasius the Modernist" in The Price of Progress (1924). In addition to the Arian problem, the council dealt with the question of the "lapsed" in the recent persecu tion, the question of "heretical baptism" and other matters (see Hefele, History of Councils, vol. i.).