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Question 61 · The Church

What happened at the Council of Nicaea?

What the sources show

Council of Nicaea c. 325 · Eusebius of Caesarea c. 325The creed

About 300 bishops met at Nicaea in 325, called by Constantine. They issued a creed confessing the Son "from the substance of the Father ... of one substance with the Father", and condemned Arius's sayings by name. Eusebius of Caesarea, who was there, wrote home explaining that “from the substance” meant the Son is from the Father, not a part of him. 123

Council of Nicaea (synodal letter, in Socrates) c. 325 · Council of Nicaea c. 325

They also ended the Easter dispute, so that the East would keep Easter with Rome and Alexandria, and passed twenty canons on church order. They did not decide which books are in the Bible, a common myth. 456

The answers given:
ApostolicBefore NicaeaNicaea and afterMiddle AgesReformation to today

Scroll through the centuries, or tap a dot. J K move between witnesses.

Nicaea to Chalcedon

325–451
325c. AD
The creed

Council of NicaeaCreed of Nicaea (in Socrates, Church History 1.8) Creed

We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of all things seen and unseen. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, only-begotten, that is, from the substance of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father, through whom all things came to be, things in heaven and things on earth; who for us men and for our salvation came down and was made flesh and became man, suffered, and rose on the third day, ascended into the heavens, and is coming to judge the living and the dead. And in the Holy Spirit.

The creed adds anathemas on those who say of the Son "there was when he was not" or that he is from another substance, created, or changeable.

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325c. AD
The creed

Council of NicaeaCreed of Nicaea (in Socrates, Church History 1.8) Anathemas

But those who say "there was when he was not", and "before he was begotten he was not", and that he came to be from nothing, or who say that the Son of God is from another hypostasis or substance, or created, or changeable, or alterable: these the holy catholic and apostolic Church anathematizes.

These are Arius's own slogans. Arius and two bishops who refused to sign were exiled.

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325c. AD
The creed

Eusebius of Caesarea c. 260–c. 339 ADLetter to his church (in Socrates, Church History) 1.8

And indeed “from the substance” was agreed by them to indicate that the Son is from the Father, but not as a part of him. In this sense it seemed good to us too to assent to the meaning, since pious teaching prescribes that the Son is from the Father, but is not a part of his substance.

Eusebius, a bishop present at Nicaea, wrote home to Caesarea explaining why he had signed, though he had hesitated over the unscriptural word homoousios (“of one substance”): in the sense agreed, it meant the Son is truly from the Father, not a physical part of him. His letter goes on in the same terms to defend “begotten, not made”.

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325c. AD
Easter

Council of Nicaea (synodal letter, in Socrates)Letter to the Church of Alexandria, in Socrates, Church History 1.9

We also bring you the good news about agreement on the most holy Pascha, that this point too was settled by your prayers: all the brothers in the East who used to keep it with the Jews will from now on keep it in agreement with the Romans, with us, and with all who have kept the Pascha with us from of old.

Nicaea set no calendar rule in its canons; it agreed that all would keep Easter on a Sunday, independently of the Jewish reckoning.

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325c. AD
Easter

Council of NicaeaCanons Canon 20

Since there are some who kneel on the Lord's day and on the days of Pentecost, so that everything may be observed uniformly in every parish, it has pleased the holy council that prayers be offered to God standing.

The last canon guards the Easter settlement in practice: kneeling, the posture of penitence and fasting, is ruled out on Sundays and through the fifty days of Pentecost, the season of the resurrection feast.

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325c. AD
The creed

Council of NicaeaCanons Canon 19

Concerning the Paulianists, who afterwards take refuge with the Catholic Church, the rule laid down is that they be rebaptized in every case. ... If any of them in former times were examined among the clergy, and are found blameless and beyond reproach, let them be rebaptized and then ordained by the bishop of the Catholic Church; but if the examination shows them unfit, they must be deposed.

The twenty canons policed the creed's border: the Paulianists, followers of the condemned Paul of Samosata, were treated as standing outside the faith, so their baptism counted for nothing and had to be done again. The council that wrote the creed also enforced it in discipline.

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339c. AD
The creedIndirect: does not say it outright

Eusebius of Caesarea c. 260–c. 339 ADLife of Constantine 3.13

While very many proposals were put forward by each party and much dispute arose at first, the emperor listened to all without resentment and received their proposals with sustained attention. Taking up in turn what was said by each party, he gently brought the stubbornly contentious together; and speaking to each man mildly — in Greek, for he was not unacquainted with it — he was sweet and pleasing, persuading some, shaming others by his words, praising those who spoke well, and driving all toward concord, until he made them of one mind and one belief on all the matters in dispute.

This is Eusebius's posthumous panegyric of Constantine, written after the emperor's death in 337 by a bishop who was present at Nicaea. It is our only narrative of the emperor's own part in the debates, and it idealizes him as peacemaker; the creed itself, quoted above, is the harder evidence.

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How this page was made

Every early quote was read in its Greek or Latin and translated for this page by Claude (Opus 5.5) on 13 October 2026. Each line names the printed edition it was read from. A quote marked indirect does not state the answer outright; read its note. A writer's silence is never counted as an answer.