The Synod of the Hundred and Fifty Bishops at Constantinople

The emperor lost no time in calling a synod of the bishops of his own faith, so as to establish the Nicene Creed and appoint a bishop of Constantinople. And since he had some hope of winning the Macedonians over to his own views, he invited the heads of that sect to attend as well. So there met on this occasion, of the Homoousian party: Timothy from Alexandria; Cyril from Jerusalem, who by then accepted the doctrine of the homoousion, having retracted his former opinion; Meletius from Antioch, who had arrived earlier to take part in installing Gregory; Ascholius from Thessalonica; and many others, one hundred and fifty in all. Of the Macedonians the leaders were Eleusius of Cyzicus and Marcian of Lampsacus. These and the rest, most of whom came from the cities of the Hellespont, numbered thirty-six. [a]

They assembled in the month of May, in the consulship of Eucherius and Evagrius. The emperor, together with the bishops who shared his views, did everything he could to bring Eleusius and his followers over to his side. They were reminded of the deputation they had sent by Eustathius to Liberius, then bishop of Rome, and of how, not long before, they had of their own accord entered into communion with the orthodox without distinction. They were shown how inconsistent and fickle it was of them now to try to overturn the faith they had once acknowledged, and in which they had professed agreement with the catholics. But they paid little attention to warnings or rebukes, and chose to hold to the Arian teaching rather than assent to the homoousian doctrine. Having declared this, they left Constantinople. They also wrote to their followers in every city and charged them on no account to agree with the creed of the Synod of Nicaea.

The bishops of the other party stayed on at Constantinople and took counsel about ordaining a bishop, for Gregory, as we said before, had resigned that see and was preparing to go back to Nazianzus. Now there was a man named Nectarius, of a senatorial family, mild and gentle in manner and admirable in his whole way of life, though at that time he held the office of praetor. The people seized on this man and elected him bishop, and he was ordained accordingly by the one hundred and fifty bishops then present. These same bishops also published a decree that “the bishop of Constantinople should have the next rank of honor after the bishop of Rome, because that city was New Rome.” They also confirmed the Nicene Creed once again.

At that time too, patriarchs were established and the provinces were divided among them, so that no bishop might exercise authority over churches outside his own diocese, as had often been done without distinction before, because of the persecutions. To Nectarius, then, were allotted the great city and Thrace. Helladius, Basil’s successor as bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, received the patriarchate of the diocese of Pontus, together with Gregory, Basil’s brother, bishop of Nyssa in Cappadocia, and Otreius, bishop of Melitene in Armenia. To Amphilochius of Iconium and Optimus of Antioch in Pisidia was assigned the diocese of Asia. The oversight of the churches throughout Egypt was entrusted to Timothy of Alexandria. On Pelagius of Laodicea and Diodorus of Tarsus fell the administration of the churches of the East, without infringing, however, on the rank of honor reserved to the church of Antioch and given to Meletius, who was present. They further decreed that, as need arose, the church affairs of each province should be managed by a synod of that province. The emperor approved and confirmed these arrangements. Such was the outcome of this synod.