Constantine enlarged his plans.  If Arian doctrine disturbed Alexandria, Meletius of Lycopolis was giving quite as much trouble about discipline farther up the Nile, and the old disputes about the time of Easter had never been effectually settled.  There were also minor questions about the validity of baptism administered by the followers of Novatian and Paul of Samosata, and about the treatment of those who had denied the faith during the persecution of Licinius.  Constantine, therefore, invited all Christian bishops inside and outside the Empire to meet him at Nicaea in Bithynia during the summer of 325, in order to make a final end of all the disputes which endangered the unity of Christendom.  The ‘city of victory’ bore an auspicious name, and the restoration of peace was a holy service, and would be a noble preparation for the solemnities of the great Emperor’s twentieth year upon the throne.

[Sidenote:  The first oecumenical council.]

The idea of a general or oecumenical council (the words mean the same thing) may well have been Constantine’s own.  It bears the mark of a statesman’s mind, and is of a piece with the rest of his life.  Constantine was not thinking only of the questions to be debated.  However these might be settled, the meeting could not fail to draw nearer to the state and to each other the churches of that great confederation which later ages have so often mistaken for the church of Christ.  As regards Arianism, smaller councils had been a frequent means of settling smaller questions.  Though Constantine had not been able to quiet the Donatists by means of the Council of Arles, he might fairly hope that the authority of such a gathering as this would bear down all resistance.  If he could only bring the bishops to some decision, the churches might be trusted to follow it.

[Sidenote:  Its members.]

An imposing list of bishops answered Constantine’s call.  The signatures are 223, but they are not complete.  The Emperor speaks of 300, and tradition gives 318, like the number of Abraham’s servants, or like the mystic number[5] which stands for the cross of Christ.  From the far west came his chief adviser for the Latin churches, the patriarch of councils, the old confessor Hosius of Cordova.  Africa was represented by Caecilian of Carthage, round whose election the whole Donatist controversy had arisen, and a couple of presbyters answered for the apostolic and imperial see of Rome.  Of the thirteen great provinces of the Empire none was missing except distant Britain; but the Western bishops were almost lost in the crowd of Easterns.  From Egypt came Alexander of Alexandria with his young deacon Athanasius, and the Coptic confessors Paphnutius and Potammon, each with an eye seared out, came from cities farther up the Nile.  All these were resolute enemies of Arianism; its only Egyptian supporters were two bishops from the edge of the western desert.  Syria was less unequally divided.  If Eustathius of Antioch