The Emperor’s Festival and Farewell to the Bishops

At the very time these decrees were passed by the council, the twentieth anniversary of Constantine’s reign was being celebrated; for it was a Roman custom to hold a feast in the tenth year of every reign. So the emperor thought the moment fitting. He invited the synod to the festival and gave them suitable gifts. [a]

When they were preparing to return home, he called them all together and urged them to be of one mind about the faith and at peace among themselves, so that no disputes might creep in among them from then on. After many other urgings of the same kind, he ended by commanding them to be diligent in prayer, and always to pray to God for himself, his children and the empire. Having spoken in this way to those who had come to Nicaea, he said farewell to them.

He wrote to the churches in every city, to make plain to those who had not been present what the synod had set right. To the church of Alexandria especially he wrote at greater length, urging them to lay aside all dissent and to be united in the faith the synod had issued. For this, he wrote, could be nothing other than the judgment of God, since it had been established by the Holy Spirit through the agreement of so many and such distinguished high priests, and approved after careful inquiry and testing of every doubtful point.