Page:History of the First Council of Nice.djvu/90

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THE FIRST ŒCUMENICAL

These things must be understood as bearing a divine and mysterious signification.' Thus reasoned our wisest and most religious emperor. The omission of the word consubstantial was adopted as the pretext for composing the following formulary:

THE ARTICLES OF FAITH MAINTAINED BY THE COUNCIL.^[1]

"We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, the Maker of all things, visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father; he is begotten, that is to say, he is of the substance of God, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten and not made, being of one substance with^[2] the Father; by whom all things, both in heaven and on earth, were made. Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and took our nature, and became man; he suffered, and rose again the third day; he ascended into

↑ Dean Stanley says, "The Creed of the Council of Nice is the only one accepted throughout the Universal Church, and this Council alone, of all ever held, still retains a hold on the mass of Christendom."
↑ Of one substance with, or "consubstantial." The Greek word used here was homoousios. Philostorgius, the Arian, says (book i. chap. 7), that before the Synod was held at Nice, Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, came to Nicomedia [where the emperor resided], and after a convention with Hosius, of Cordova, and the other bishops who were with him, prevailed upon the Synod to declare the Son "consubstantial with" the Father, and to expel Arius from the communion of the church. Dr. Neander remarks, that perhaps there may be some truth in this; but he declares further, that Athanasius was probably the soul of the Homoousian party. Gibbon calls Hosius, or "Osius," as he writes it, the father of the Nicene Creed. It is certain that Hosius was in great favor with the emperor, whom Eusebius represents as introducing, or first advocating, the Homoöusian, a word already familiar to the Platonists, according to Gibbon. But Athanasius denies that Constantine favored the Homoöusian.

[1] Dean Stanley says, "The Creed of the Council of Nice is the only one accepted throughout the Universal Church, and this Council alone, of all ever held, still retains a hold on the mass of Christendom."

[2] Of one substance with, or "consubstantial." The Greek word used here was homoousios. Philostorgius, the Arian, says (book i. chap. 7), that before the Synod was held at Nice, Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, came to Nicomedia [where the emperor resided], and after a convention with Hosius, of Cordova, and the other bishops who were with him, prevailed upon the Synod to declare the Son "consubstantial with" the Father, and to expel Arius from the communion of the church. Dr. Neander remarks, that perhaps there may be some truth in this; but he declares further, that Athanasius was probably the soul of the Homoousian party. Gibbon calls Hosius, or "Osius," as he writes it, the father of the Nicene Creed. It is certain that Hosius was in great favor with the emperor, whom Eusebius represents as introducing, or first advocating, the Homoöusian, a word already familiar to the Platonists, according to Gibbon. But Athanasius denies that Constantine favored the Homoöusian.

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