For those who like to say that Christianity was “invented” by the Emperor Constantine, well, this is your day! It was on this day in 325 that the emperor convened what has come to be called the First Council of Nicaea. While a birthday wish for Christianity is a tad over the top, it is an enormously significant marker in the consolidation of a Christian orthodoxy. The council, the first of seven recognized as “universal” within mainstream Christianity established what is now considered the “correct” understanding of Jesus’ relationship to the godhead and anathematized the other views then in contention, came up with the first draft of what we call the Nicene creed, set a formula for calculating Easter, and began the process of developing canon law, notable for its prohibition on self-castration, among other things. However, contrary to Voltaire’s entertaining fiction, the canon of scripture was not set at this council, nor, beyond addressing Jesus as God, did the fullness of the idea of a divine Trinity get resolved, yet. There wouldn’t be a completely recognizable by orthodox Christians statement of the Trinity for another thirty-five years. Still. Big stuff. No doubt, big stuff.
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