Council of Nicea

Cue (NZERS), 1 June 1944, Page 9

Council of Nicea

At this time two important events occurred, the founding of Constantinople as a new capital in the now more prosperous East and the recognition of Christianity in a.d. 313. Then followed the council of Nicea called by the Emperor in 325 to decide the Arian dispute, at that time threatening the Christian Church with internal disruption. : £ • Constantine, whose full acceptance of the Christian faith was not made until a few

days before his death, did not order the destruction of paganism, but within 60 years the ample revenues of the old Pontifex Maximus, in his time diverted to the Church, had been swollen by the transfer of those of the lesser temples. By 383, the revenues >of the others had also passed to the Christians and at the end of the Century the last temples had been closed—but not all destroyed. The Christian Church, whose main: centres were in Africa, Egypt, Asia Minor and Greece lost little time in applying to the pagans the persecutions which they had resented themselves.- In the resultant struggle, many of the treasures of Antiquity, including the great Library of Alexandria were destroyed by the hasty action of the mobs. Rome remained as always, a stronghold of the older ways, but with a large Christian community. At the end of the 4th Century, the Roman Emperor of the West, Honorius, retired to the security of Ravenna, and. Rome, except for a short space under Valentinian, ceased to be even the capital of the West. Barbarian inroads increased. The Army command passed largely to foreigners and only .the efforts of .such great characters as Stilicho who campaigned even in Britain, preserved Italy from the fate which overtooki it in a.d. 410.