Was There a Time?

Browser lacks capabilities required to play.

Upgrade or switch to another browser.

Loading…

/* Runs once when a new game starts. Scores: 0–10, start at 5. Leaning: −5 (Caesarea/Nicomedia circle) to +5 (Alexandria/Jerusalem circle), starts at 0. */ <<set $flock to 5>> <<set $conscience to 5>> <<set $court to 5>> <<set $leaning to 0>> <<set $flags to {}>> <<set $log to []>> <<set $purse to 2>> /* church chest: 0 Empty, 1 Thin, 2 Steady, 3 Comfortable, 4 Full */ <<set $ledger to []>> <<set $chapter to 0>> <<set $where to "sykoussa">> <<set $bishop to null>> <<set $order to [0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11].shuffle()>> <<set $pickIndex to 0>>

<<link "Map">><<run setup.openMap()>><</link>> <<link "Glossary">><<run setup.openGlossary()>><</link>> [[About this game|About]]

<<widget "artwork">><<print setup.artHTML(_args[0], _args[1] || "cover")>><</widget>> {"position":"450,100","size":"100,100"} /* <<adj "flock" 1>> or <<adj "court" -1>> changes a score and keeps it inside its range. In Chapter 5, Conscience can move at most 2 either way from where the chapter began. */ <<widget "adj">><<set _adjKey to _args[0], _adjAmt to Number(_args[1])>><<if _adjKey is "leaning">><<set State.variables[_adjKey] to Math.clamp(State.variables[_adjKey] + _adjAmt, -5, 5)>><<else>><<set State.variables[_adjKey] to Math.clamp(State.variables[_adjKey] + _adjAmt, 0, 10)>><</if>><<if _adjKey is "conscience" and $chapter is 5 and def $c5base>><<set $conscience to Math.clamp($conscience, Math.max(0, $c5base - 2), Math.min(10, $c5base + 2))>><</if>><</widget>> /* <<verdict "Recorded">> — also "Plausible", "Legend", "False". */ <<widget "verdict">><<print '<span class="badge ' + _args[0].toLowerCase() + '">' + _args[0] + '</span>'>><</widget>> /* <<term "presbyter">> or <<term "presbyter" "presbyters">> — a word the player can tap for its definition (from GlossaryData). */ <<widget "term">><<set _termKey to String(_args[0]).toLowerCase()>><<if setup.glossary[_termKey]>><<capture _termKey>><span class="term"><<link `_args[1] || setup.glossary[_termKey].word.toLowerCase()`>><<run setup.showTerm(_termKey)>><</link>></span><</capture>><<else>><span class="term-missing" title="Not in GlossaryData">_args[0]</span><</if>><</widget>> /* <<letter "From the daybook of Timon, deacon" "Timon">> … <</letter>> — the signature is optional. */ <<widget "letter" container>><div class="letter"><p class="letter-from">_args[0]</p><div class="tidy">_contents</div><<if _args[1]>><p class="letter-sign">_args[1]</p><</if>></div><</widget>> /* <<say "hesychios">> … <</say>> — a speech with a portrait (from CharacterData). */ <<widget "say" container>><div class="say"><<print setup.portrait(_args[0])>><div class="say-body"><<print setup.speakerLine(_args[0])>><div class="tidy">_contents</div></div></div><</widget>> /* <<advice>> … <</advice>> — what the archdeacon thinks, behind the round button. Only on decisions where he doesn't already speak in the scene. Keep him in character, not a hint system. */ <<widget "advice" container>><<run setup.currentAdvice = _contents>><</widget>> /* <<record "You kept Hesychios as archdeacon.">> — notes a decision for the chapter-end summary. */ <<widget "record">><<run $log.push({ ch: $chapter, text: String(_args[0]) })>><</widget>> /* <<candidate>> — the current candidate bishop's card (used on ChooseBishop). */ <<widget "candidate">><<set _cb to setup.bishops[$order[$pickIndex]]>><div class="card"><h3>_cb.name</h3><p class="meaning">_cb.meaning</p><p class="origin"><<if _cb.origin is "local">>Raised in the local clergy<<else>>Brought in from abroad<</if>></p><p><<print _cb.story>></p></div><</widget>> /* <<mapview "coast">> or <<mapview "region">> — one of the two maps in the Map pop-up, with tappable places (data in setup.cities). */ <<widget "mapview">><<set _mv to _args[0]>><div class="map-wrap"><img class="map-art" @src="Story.get(_mv is 'coast' ? 'CoastArt' : 'MapArt').text.trim()" alt=""><<if _mv is "region">><span class="map-box" style="left:71.5%;top:71.7%;width:15.8%;height:15.2%"><span class="map-box-label"><<link "Palaestina ›">><<run setup.mapTab("coast")>><</link>></span><<set _wh to setup.cities.find(function (c) { return c.id === $where && c.map === "coast"; })>><<if _wh>><span class="box-here" @style="'left:' + _wh.x + '%;top:' + _wh.y + '%'"></span><</if>></span><</if>><<for _c range setup.cities>><<if _c.map is _mv and $chapter gte _c.from>><<capture _c>><span @class="'pin ' + _c.label + ' ' + _c.kind + ($where is _c.id ? ' here' : '')" @style="'left:' + _c.x + '%;top:' + _c.y + '%'"><<link _c.name>><<replace "#city-card">><<include `"City_" + _c.id`>><</replace>><</link>></span><</capture>><</if>><</for>></div><</widget>> /* THE CHURCH CHEST. Only money that passes through the church’s own chest counts: alms, gifts into the chest, church property, the church’s own spending. Money paid from outside (Severa paying builders, the emperor’s grant, the imperial warrant) never changes it. <<pay 1 "Easter alms">> or <<pay -1 "a purse for Valerius">> changes the chest and notes it for the chapter summary. */ <<widget "pay">><<set _pn to Number(_args[0])>><<set $purse to Math.clamp($purse + _pn, 0, 4)>><<run $ledger.push({ ch: $chapter, text: String(_args[1]), sign: (_pn > 0 ? "+" : "−") + Math.abs(_pn) })>><span class="chest-change">Church chest <<print (_pn > 0 ? "+" : "−") + Math.abs(_pn)>> · _args[1]</span><</widget>> /* <<chest>> — shows the church chest’s current level. */ <<widget "chest">><<print setup.chestHTML()>><</widget>> /* <<unaffordable "Option text" "Why not">> — an option the chest cannot pay for, shown greyed out. */ <<widget "unaffordable">><span class="unaffordable"><span class="ua-label">_args[0]</span><span class="ua-why">_args[1]</span></span><</widget>> /* <<summary>> — lists this chapter's recorded decisions. */ <<widget "summary">><div class="summary"><<for _e range $log>><<if _e.ch is $chapter>><p class="summary-item">_e.text</p><</if>><</for>></div><div class="chest-summary"><p class="chest-head">The church chest this chapter</p><<set _any to false>><<for _e range $ledger>><<if _e.ch is $chapter>><<set _any to true>><p class="chest-line"><span class="chest-sign">_e.sign</span> _e.text</p><</if>><</for>><<if not _any>><p class="chest-line">No change.</p><</if>><<chest>></div><</widget>>

<div class="title-screen"> <h1>Was There a Time?</h1> <p class="subtitle">A bishop’s road to Nicaea, AD 322–325</p> <p class="tag">A One Iota game</p> <div class="choices"> [[Begin|ChooseBishop]] [[About this game|About]] </div> <p class="footer">Bite-size Formation is an independent project, not affiliated with any parish or diocese.</p> </div>

<h2>Credits</h2> <h3>Music</h3> <p class="credit-line"><strong>The Oxyrhynchus hymn</strong> (P. Oxy. XV 1786, late 3rd century), the oldest Christian hymn that survives with its music, found in Egypt. It was written for voices; here its melody is played on a lyre, which Clement of Alexandria said a Christian might sing to at home (<a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/02092.htm" target="_blank"><em>The Instructor</em> 2.4</a>). The rhythm is a modern reading of the papyrus, and the passages whose notes are lost are left silent.</p> <p class="credit-line">Melody as transcribed by Garrett Dunahugh, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Lyre rendering made for this game and shared under the same licence.</p> <p class="credit-line">Sound effects and character portraits were made for this game.</p> <h3>Images</h3> <p class="intro">Photographs of the artworks and objects in this game, with thanks to their photographers. Click a credit to see the original file and its licence.</p> <<print setup.artCredits()>> <<return "Back">>

<h2>About this game</h2> <em>Was There a Time?</em> is a short choice game from Bite-size Formation and a companion to <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/" target="_blank">One Iota</a>. You play a newly made bishop in the years before the Council of Nicaea. The town of Sykoussa and its bishop are invented. The emperors, bishops and councils are real, and each chapter ends with a note on what really happened. I made it as an immersive way into one of the great debates of the early Church, told as accurately and plausibly as I can manage. That debate still leaves its mark on the faith today, and you can hear it: every Sunday, when we stand to say or sing the Creed, we profess that the Son is “consubstantial with the Father”, the very word Nicaea fought over. It is meant to be played alongside One Iota, Bite-size Formation’s guide to the early Church: when a chapter leaves you curious, the bites take the story further. <p><<link "Credits" "ImageCredits">><</link>></p> <a class="kofi" href="https://ko-fi.com/bitesizeformation" target="_blank">Support us</a> <p class="footer">Bite-size Formation is an independent project, not affiliated with any parish or diocese.</p> <<return "Back">>

<h2>Who is the new bishop of Sykoussa?</h2> <p>Sykoussa is a small harbour on the coast road between Joppa and Caesarea: a fig town with a fishing fleet, an imperial post station, and ships putting in overnight on their way up the coast. Its Christians came through the <<term "great-persecution" "Great Persecution">>. Now they are getting used to the quieter, colder hostility of the emperor <<term "licinius" "Licinius">>.</p> <p>This winter their old bishop died. By custom, the clergy and people choose his successor and the bishops of the province must agree. But Licinius has forbidden bishops to gather, so the choice must be made quickly and quietly. Several names are already being spoken in the market.</p> <div class="map-link"><<link "See Sykoussa on the map">><<run setup.openMap()>><</link>></div> <div id="candidate"><<candidate>></div> <div class="choices"> <<link "Accept him as your bishop">><<set _b to setup.bishops[$order[$pickIndex]]>><<set $bishop to clone(_b)>><<for _k, _v range _b.start>><<adj _k _v>><</for>><<goto "Ch1_Title">><</link>> <<link "Another candidate">><<set $pickIndex to ($pickIndex + 1) % setup.bishops.length>><<replace "#candidate">><<candidate>><</replace>><</link>> </div>

/* Opened from "Map" in the side bar. Places and their positions are in Story JavaScript (setup.cities). Each place's card is the passage City_<id>. */ <<set _startTab to setup.cities.some(function (c) { return c.id === $where && c.map === "coast"; }) ? "coast" : "region">> <div class="map-tabs"><span id="tab-coast" @class="_startTab is 'coast' ? 'active' : ''"><<link "Palaestina">><<run setup.mapTab("coast")>><</link>></span><span id="tab-region" @class="_startTab is 'region' ? 'active' : ''"><<link "Eastern Mediterranean">><<run setup.mapTab("region")>><</link>></span></div> <div id="mapview"><<mapview _startTab>></div> <p class="map-key"><span class="key-dot you"></span>You are here <span class="key-dot great"></span>Leading sees <span class="key-dot city"></span>Other cities</p> <div id="city-card"><p class="hint">Tap a place to learn more.</p></div>

data:image/svg+xml;base64,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1000 1318" width="1000" height="1318">
<rect width="1000" height="1318" fill="#EEF1F3"/>
<path d="M-87.4,690.3 L-78.6,697.1 L-46.0,701.5 L-23.7,697.0 L-21.4,699.4 L-22.4,719.2 L-18.3,721.4 L-9.4,715.3 L2.5,711.4 L14.7,711.4 L28.1,700.6 L21.4,729.8 L14.5,732.6 L-14.9,731.9 L-87.7,740.4 L-87.4,690.3 Z M696.7,703.1 L693.7,712.8 L706.2,735.9 L675.4,737.9 L659.2,755.5 L650.4,761.5 L619.5,769.8 L616.2,773.8 L614.7,781.1 L608.9,780.4 L606.5,774.0 L602.4,771.2 L587.1,772.5 L565.7,763.9 L554.1,739.7 L552.7,725.7 L560.6,729.2 L575.1,717.8 L583.5,714.9 L594.1,717.4 L603.5,715.1 L607.6,704.6 L608.9,692.4 L641.0,697.7 L667.3,696.4 L707.3,683.4 L737.8,666.6 L750.5,663.1 L696.7,703.1 Z M155.3,636.5 L150.5,631.2 L154.2,619.1 L150.6,608.1 L167.9,589.3 L195.8,579.7 L195.6,586.6 L188.1,603.9 L181.4,612.6 L183.1,619.5 L172.4,621.5 L161.6,634.2 L155.3,636.5 Z M99.8,690.4 L96.4,685.3 L97.9,679.4 L93.9,670.0 L101.4,656.2 L101.6,649.4 L107.3,646.0 L105.9,657.4 L101.5,666.6 L108.2,682.9 L103.2,684.4 L99.8,690.4 Z M161.3,568.5 L156.6,561.0 L163.4,557.3 L164.0,563.6 L161.3,568.5 Z M80.7,524.5 L82.3,515.9 L78.0,509.1 L91.2,518.4 L89.4,523.0 L80.7,524.5 Z M80.6,548.2 L93.1,535.8 L106.6,529.5 L111.0,528.8 L118.6,532.7 L101.0,542.6 L90.7,543.3 L80.6,548.2 Z M-47.7,526.2 L-53.0,520.2 L-56.0,511.0 L-41.6,497.3 L-38.2,498.6 L-36.1,502.1 L-36.5,514.3 L-39.8,522.1 L-47.7,526.2 Z M-70.2,519.5 L-76.0,518.6 L-78.5,514.8 L-74.9,507.0 L-67.1,502.5 L-63.6,503.7 L-63.3,511.2 L-70.2,519.5 Z M-49.5,589.8 L-55.2,587.8 L-51.5,582.8 L-51.8,575.4 L-46.7,579.6 L-45.4,584.2 L-49.5,589.8 Z M-55.8,555.5 L-64.9,544.7 L-61.8,541.3 L-52.0,549.1 L-55.8,555.5 Z M65.2,431.1 L91.2,435.4 L92.6,441.9 L74.1,448.9 L63.2,442.3 L51.0,440.4 L56.0,434.2 L65.2,431.1 Z M-1.5,461.8 L-0.3,457.5 L7.6,450.0 L18.6,449.6 L30.8,445.7 L18.0,457.1 L-1.5,461.8 Z M-12.3,541.2 L-22.5,541.3 L0.1,525.3 L5.7,529.1 L-1.3,531.6 L-12.3,541.2 Z M33.5,565.9 L29.1,571.3 L23.7,567.5 L23.7,562.3 L29.6,563.9 L33.7,560.9 L32.5,557.6 L40.4,563.3 L33.5,565.9 Z M-68.5,460.7 L-74.0,459.7 L-87.7,445.4 L-67.9,450.4 L-65.3,453.8 L-68.5,460.7 Z M-0.1,393.1 L-11.0,381.4 L-4.2,377.8 L-0.8,372.3 L-3.5,365.6 L-13.0,355.6 L-13.5,348.5 L1.1,345.5 L9.7,351.7 L14.1,352.1 L12.4,358.0 L13.8,377.8 L9.7,380.3 L8.2,387.0 L-0.1,393.1 Z M34.5,273.3 L46.6,283.9 L50.7,290.7 L51.2,299.1 L42.9,294.4 L48.0,303.1 L34.2,305.3 L14.1,299.7 L9.5,293.7 L24.0,281.1 L15.4,281.5 L6.3,292.2 L-8.2,287.5 L-13.7,280.9 L-7.9,271.4 L7.8,269.6 L14.5,266.6 L14.5,262.1 L30.5,261.1 L36.0,266.9 L34.5,273.3 Z M-37.5,151.2 L-48.4,142.3 L-37.8,138.7 L-29.5,144.3 L-27.6,148.4 L-37.5,151.2 Z M-52.6,199.9 L-56.4,215.2 L-64.6,213.6 L-65.8,205.9 L-68.1,206.1 L-71.5,212.8 L-82.3,210.4 L-82.6,194.5 L-67.2,193.9 L-62.7,199.2 L-54.9,192.8 L-48.3,190.7 L-49.3,196.3 L-52.6,199.9 Z M-22.8,183.1 L-29.0,179.8 L-22.7,173.3 L-7.2,168.7 L-2.0,175.2 L-2.6,179.7 L-22.8,183.1 Z M-60.8,473.9 L-60.3,465.7 L-57.2,463.5 L-47.1,467.7 L-52.4,473.3 L-60.8,473.9 Z M771.9,1413.0 L787.9,1330.5 L787.1,1322.9 L776.2,1336.1 L766.4,1353.6 L755.9,1409.0 L750.0,1426.0 L634.8,1426.0 L631.8,1415.7 L631.9,1406.8 L625.5,1385.2 L620.7,1374.9 L602.7,1351.9 L589.6,1326.5 L583.1,1296.6 L575.9,1277.6 L567.8,1282.8 L569.3,1290.8 L562.2,1301.9 L557.9,1314.7 L561.2,1325.2 L575.9,1341.1 L578.9,1348.0 L582.3,1363.1 L581.7,1383.7 L584.1,1390.6 L595.1,1405.9 L603.2,1426.0 L-87.7,1426.0 L-87.7,1068.8 L-67.9,1109.1 L-54.2,1111.4 L-9.4,1099.7 L67.4,1115.9 L109.5,1125.9 L135.1,1143.8 L142.1,1146.0 L160.5,1145.7 L172.6,1156.2 L220.6,1161.3 L269.5,1185.1 L287.6,1181.1 L300.7,1174.6 L344.7,1142.2 L355.2,1138.1 L370.4,1138.8 L385.5,1117.3 L401.0,1115.7 L431.9,1105.5 L428.4,1110.3 L400.3,1121.7 L412.3,1123.1 L438.8,1116.8 L443.2,1102.8 L445.9,1101.6 L455.6,1103.3 L484.6,1117.2 L491.8,1117.5 L516.6,1108.3 L523.2,1112.5 L538.2,1129.9 L533.0,1129.5 L516.9,1114.6 L515.4,1122.1 L506.2,1135.1 L527.1,1142.9 L535.2,1156.7 L544.4,1153.9 L551.0,1145.1 L545.3,1135.0 L554.7,1139.1 L579.2,1159.3 L625.4,1148.6 L631.1,1157.6 L647.2,1152.6 L672.5,1152.7 L693.2,1147.2 L717.2,1133.9 L735.7,1114.5 L744.2,1102.8 L761.3,1070.0 L772.3,1037.5 L782.6,992.4 L799.0,941.6 L811.5,908.3 L818.9,896.3 L834.3,855.6 L843.1,839.2 L846.3,815.8 L860.0,795.4 L870.3,789.4 L875.3,783.5 L875.1,774.7 L867.4,740.2 L867.5,728.1 L872.2,710.4 L868.6,689.2 L856.5,672.9 L863.1,642.9 L873.4,626.8 L860.6,593.1 L866.9,582.7 L893.7,555.4 L893.0,539.4 L881.5,528.2 L847.5,548.3 L844.3,556.1 L836.6,562.1 L824.0,564.5 L804.9,558.0 L772.9,540.2 L763.5,538.3 L754.5,541.8 L728.0,561.3 L697.8,594.7 L675.0,606.9 L659.9,611.0 L652.8,610.1 L607.9,616.3 L596.0,622.7 L573.1,615.7 L559.5,606.8 L537.8,578.1 L528.2,568.8 L506.8,560.4 L469.5,540.0 L459.7,537.8 L407.4,533.1 L401.9,540.5 L399.9,569.8 L395.3,577.9 L393.3,593.1 L390.0,597.4 L384.9,600.3 L371.2,593.4 L358.2,599.7 L323.6,609.7 L293.7,598.6 L282.8,591.5 L275.7,583.7 L273.3,570.4 L268.9,562.8 L266.5,551.7 L260.5,549.3 L254.0,553.8 L247.1,553.6 L217.9,539.8 L202.1,538.9 L192.6,552.4 L177.1,558.0 L176.7,554.2 L182.8,545.4 L158.2,547.0 L145.3,553.7 L127.5,549.7 L128.7,546.0 L143.1,541.6 L175.9,536.7 L182.7,527.2 L195.1,518.9 L196.7,515.4 L146.3,517.8 L118.3,516.4 L115.0,520.5 L110.8,521.1 L109.6,510.0 L114.1,504.9 L134.7,500.9 L133.3,491.6 L122.9,485.4 L120.7,481.7 L113.1,480.9 L107.0,476.5 L105.6,465.5 L100.7,453.3 L93.7,447.5 L94.5,444.3 L107.4,440.2 L110.1,423.2 L108.1,412.8 L82.8,403.7 L77.1,404.6 L70.8,395.6 L59.9,389.1 L51.1,394.4 L25.5,380.6 L30.1,370.5 L36.5,370.8 L37.7,362.9 L32.7,349.8 L33.1,343.1 L38.7,341.3 L45.1,342.5 L51.4,350.3 L53.5,357.9 L52.2,365.3 L59.1,374.3 L61.1,366.7 L63.8,365.3 L67.5,368.6 L75.6,370.2 L96.4,365.6 L100.4,361.7 L85.1,362.1 L79.5,358.5 L73.5,350.3 L67.0,333.9 L79.8,326.7 L88.9,314.7 L80.7,309.6 L76.0,310.8 L71.5,306.7 L70.9,301.0 L74.5,296.4 L74.9,290.0 L59.8,270.9 L79.9,246.6 L78.9,243.1 L72.5,241.7 L9.9,252.0 L8.4,246.2 L13.6,231.6 L13.1,208.2 L15.9,195.5 L27.5,191.8 L41.7,173.1 L64.7,151.2 L88.8,151.6 L98.4,145.6 L112.7,145.2 L116.9,153.8 L129.4,159.9 L151.6,158.9 L162.2,153.2 L151.9,142.4 L155.2,139.4 L164.5,139.0 L174.5,141.6 L175.0,144.1 L169.2,153.4 L172.2,154.5 L200.8,150.9 L230.7,153.8 L263.8,152.4 L268.0,148.6 L244.6,136.8 L259.5,126.3 L337.3,114.7 L337.7,112.3 L295.2,107.0 L273.1,93.1 L267.1,85.6 L271.4,67.3 L276.2,62.5 L291.4,61.8 L343.8,70.1 L381.1,65.2 L421.9,77.3 L461.0,74.8 L469.0,69.4 L478.8,51.9 L533.9,22.8 L553.2,7.6 L647.5,-23.5 L718.7,-17.7 L767.6,-16.9 L790.0,-28.4 L803.1,-24.6 L799.5,-17.0 L800.2,-9.8 L815.6,7.7 L838.4,17.9 L870.2,9.3 L881.7,12.7 L892.9,40.3 L901.6,50.1 L912.8,56.8 L921.9,58.1 L934.0,48.3 L945.4,47.2 L964.2,56.7 L970.7,66.5 L1002.7,74.1 L1032.1,77.9 L1044.7,86.2 L1087.7,94.4 L1087.7,1426.0 L770.9,1426.0 L771.9,1413.0 Z M165.7,-102.6 L153.8,-97.9 L130.2,-72.2 L149.8,-59.4 L173.9,-26.7 L176.7,-18.3 L174.3,-5.9 L179.9,7.7 L192.8,26.5 L205.8,36.0 L258.5,59.6 L268.2,61.6 L259.3,85.5 L243.9,89.2 L190.5,77.7 L168.9,87.4 L153.3,85.0 L131.5,89.3 L125.5,103.7 L110.4,120.2 L67.7,140.7 L41.0,166.2 L28.9,181.1 L17.8,186.3 L22.8,172.6 L22.3,160.5 L39.3,146.4 L63.2,135.7 L69.5,126.8 L9.3,128.4 L0.9,111.4 L-12.7,103.3 L-44.1,98.5 L-59.2,92.6 L-65.8,93.7 L-78.6,87.0 L-87.7,90.2 L-87.7,-108.0 L165.8,-108.0 L165.7,-102.6 Z" fill="#F7F1E6" stroke="#2B1521" stroke-width="2" stroke-linejoin="round" fill-rule="evenodd"/>
<path d="M840.8,1088.5 L837.3,1128.0 L835.2,1131.4 L826.6,1131.6 L824.8,1129.1 L824.7,1113.6 L826.4,1099.9 L830.1,1090.0 L838.5,1084.1 L840.8,1088.5 Z M660.0,322.8 L666.4,324.2 L673.1,333.6 L668.2,348.1 L660.8,354.1 L651.1,350.2 L634.7,338.5 L627.9,327.1 L639.7,306.0 L640.8,288.8 L644.8,289.5 L651.2,296.5 L653.9,303.4 L652.6,309.2 L654.2,318.3 L660.0,322.8 Z M835.3,1147.6 L833.2,1155.4 L826.0,1155.5 L822.5,1147.5 L823.0,1143.5 L828.6,1141.7 L835.3,1147.6 Z M843.5,977.8 L840.1,980.9 L836.3,971.9 L836.8,966.3 L839.0,962.4 L842.0,961.5 L844.1,963.8 L845.2,968.6 L843.5,977.8 Z" fill="#EEF1F3" stroke="#2B1521" stroke-width="1.5"/>
<text x="263" y="907" transform="rotate(0 263 907)" text-anchor="middle" font-family="Georgia,serif" font-style="italic" font-size="22" letter-spacing="6" fill="#8A6F7D">MARE INTERNUM</text><text x="474" y="32" transform="rotate(0 474 32)" text-anchor="middle" font-family="Georgia,serif" font-style="italic" font-size="22" letter-spacing="6" fill="#8A6F7D">PONTUS EUXINUS</text>
<rect x="1" y="1" width="998" height="1316" fill="none" stroke="#B8901F" stroke-width="3"/>
</svg>

/* Images live in the img folder under these file names. Fill in "author" and "licence" from each file's Commons page ("Use this file"). */ { "ch1-open": { "file": "ch1-open.jpg", "alt": "Greek mosaic inscription in black tesserae on a pale floor, inside a geometric border", "title": "The Akeptous inscription, Christian prayer hall at Kefar ʿOthnay (Legio), near Megiddo", "date": "about AD 230; some scholars argue for later in the 3rd century", "place": "Israel Antiquities Authority", "note": "“The God-loving Akeptous has offered the table to God Jesus Christ as a memorial.” A Roman centurion, Gaianus, paid for the floor.", "author": "Vesafis Tzferris (cojs.org)", "licence": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Akeptous_Inscription_2.jpg" }, "ch1-close": { "file": "ch1-close.jpg", "alt": "Both sides of a small bronze coin: the laureate head of Licinius, and Jupiter standing with an eagle at his feet", "title": "Bronze coin of Licinius: IOVI CONSERVATORI, “to Jupiter the Protector”", "date": "Siscia mint, AD 313–315", "place": "", "note": "The emperor whose orders hang over this chapter, and the god he chose to guard him. Coins like this were in every purse in Sykoussa.", "author": "DmVlKam", "licence": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nummus_-_Licinius_I,_IOVI_CONSERVATORI,_Siscia,_313-315.jpg" }, "ch2-open": { "file": "ch2-open.jpg", "alt": "Floor mosaic of Jonah resting beneath a vine, with fish and small boats around him", "title": "Jonah at rest, with fishermen: floor mosaic from Bishop Theodore’s church, Aquileia", "date": "about AD 313–320", "place": "Basilica of Aquileia, Italy", "note": "Theodore was bishop of Aquileia in these same years; his name is set into this floor.", "author": "YukioSanjo", "licence": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "url": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aquileia_-_Basilica_-_Riposo_Giona_e_scene_di_pesca_(esposizione_33).jpg" }, "ch2-close": { "file": "ch2-close.jpg", "alt": "A brown papyrus page written in Greek capitals, the opening of the Gospel of John", "title": "Papyrus 66: the first page of the Gospel of John", "date": "usually dated about AD 200; some now argue for the early 300s", "place": "Bodmer Library, Cologny (Geneva)", "note": "It begins “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”: the verse a bishop could answer Arius with across the supper table.", "author": "", "licence": "Public domain", "url": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Geneva,_Bodmer_Lab_Ms_Papyrus_66_(P.Bodmer_II_-_PB_2)_fol._1r.jpg" }, "ch3-open": { "file": "ch3-open.jpg", "alt": "The colossal marble head of Constantine, with large upward-looking eyes", "title": "Head of the colossal statue of Constantine", "date": "marble, about AD 312–315", "place": "Capitoline Museums, Rome", "note": "The head alone is about two and a half metres high.", "author": "Jean-Christophe Benoist", "licence": "CC BY 2.5", "url": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rome-Capitole-StatueConstantin.jpg" }, "ch3-close": { "file": "ch3-close.jpg", "alt": "Both sides of a bronze coin: Constantine’s head, and a standard topped with the Chi-Rho piercing a serpent", "title": "Bronze coin of Constantine: SPES PUBLIC, “the hope of the people”", "date": "Constantinople mint, AD 327–328", "place": "", "note": "The labarum, crowned with the Chi-Rho, pierces a serpent, usually read as the defeated Licinius. Some scholars think the coin was quietly withdrawn soon after.", "author": "Classical Numismatic Group", "licence": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "url": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:As-Constantine-XR_RIC_vII_019.jpg" }, "ch4-open": { "file": "ch4-open.jpg", "alt": "A section of the Peutinger Table, a long painted Roman road map, around Nicaea", "title": "The Peutinger Table, the Roman road map, around Nicaea", "date": "a 12th–13th-century copy of a late Roman original", "place": "Austrian National Library, Vienna", "note": "", "author": "", "licence": "Public domain", "url": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tabula_Peutingeriana_Nicaea_Nialia.jpg" }, "ch4-close": { "file": "ch4-close.jpg", "alt": "A weathered stone column carved with a Latin inscription naming Constantine", "title": "Milestone of Constantine", "date": "AD 312–324", "place": "Archaeological Museum, Genoa", "note": "Stones like this stood beside every road of the imperial post, naming the emperor who kept the road open.", "author": "Giovanni Dall’Orto", "licence": "free to use with attribution", "url": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Museo_archeologico_di_Genova_-_Miliario_di_Costantino,_312-324_d.C._-_Foto_di_Giovanni_Dall'Orto,_10_maggio_2023.jpg" }, "ch5-open": { "file": "ch5-open.jpg", "alt": "Marble relief: three identical bearded figures beside Adam asleep on the ground, as Eve is formed", "title": "The “Dogmatic Sarcophagus” (detail)", "date": "about AD 320–350", "place": "Vatican Museums (Museo Pio Cristiano)", "note": "Three identical figures create Eve, often read as the Trinity, though scholars debate it.", "author": "Gx872op", "licence": "Public domain", "url": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dogmatic_sarcophagus.JPG" }, "ch5-close": { "file": "ch5-close.jpg", "alt": "Both sides of a gold coin: Constantine wearing a diadem, eyes raised upward", "title": "Gold coin of Constantine (one and a half solidi), eyes raised to heaven", "date": "Thessalonica mint, AD 327", "place": "", "note": "Eusebius says Constantine had himself shown on his gold coins looking up to God, as if in prayer. The upward gaze also had older, pagan models.", "author": "Classical Numismatic Group", "licence": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "url": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Solidus_multiple-Constantine-thessalonica_RIC_vII_163v.jpg" } }

{"hesychios": "data:image/svg+xml;base64,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", "pyrrhos": "data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZpZXdCb3g9IjAgMCAxMjAgMTIwIj48cmVjdCB3aWR0aD0iMTIwIiBoZWlnaHQ9IjEyMCIgZmlsbD0iI0YxRTlFQyIvPjxnIHN0cm9rZT0iIzJCMTUyMSIgc3Ryb2tlLXdpZHRoPSIyLjYiIHN0cm9rZS1saW5lY2FwPSJyb3VuZCIgc3Ryb2tlLWxpbmVqb2luPSJyb3VuZCI+PHBhdGggZD0iTTYgMTIyIEMxMCA5NiAzNCA4NiA2MCA4NiBDODYgODYgMTEwIDk2IDExNCAxMjIgWiIgZmlsbD0iIzdBNUE0NCIvPjxwYXRoIGQ9Ik01MCA3NiBMNTAgOTAgTDcwIDkwIEw3MCA3NiIgZmlsbD0iI0M5OTM2QSIvPjxwYXRoIGQ9Ik0zNiA1MiBxLTUgMCAtNCA3IHExIDYgNSA1IiBmaWxsPSIjQzk5MzZBIi8+PHBhdGggZD0iTTg0IDUyIHE1IDAgNCA3IHEtMSA2IC01IDUiIGZpbGw9IiNDOTkzNkEiLz48ZWxsaXBzZSBjeD0iNjAiIGN5PSI1MCIgcng9IjIxIiByeT0iMjYiIGZpbGw9IiNDOTkzNkEiLz48cGF0aCBkPSJNMzYgNTQgcS02IC0yMCA2IC0zMCBxNCAtMTAgMTQgLTggcTYgLTYgMTQgLTEgcTEyIDIgMTQgMTQgcTggOCAyIDI0IHEtMyAtMTQgLTEyIC0xOCBxLTEwIDIgLTE4IC0yIHEtMTAgNCAtMTYgMTAgeiIgZmlsbD0iIzJFMjIyNCIvPjxwYXRoIGQ9Ik0zNyA1NCBxLTQgMzAgMjMgMzYgcTI3IC02IDIzIC0zNiBxLTUgMTIgLTEyIDkgcS00IC03IC0xMSAtNyBxLTcgMCAtMTEgNyBxLTcgMyAtMTIgLTkgeiIgZmlsbD0iIzJFMjIyNCIvPjxwYXRoIGQ9Ik01MyA2NyBxNyA0IDE0IDAiIGZpbGw9IiNDOTkzNkEiIHN0cm9rZT0ibm9uZSIvPjxwYXRoIGQ9Ik02MCA1MSBxLTMgOCAwIDEwIiBmaWxsPSJub25lIiBzdHJva2Utd2lkdGg9IjIiLz48Y2lyY2xlIGN4PSI1MSIgY3k9IjUwIiByPSIyLjEiIGZpbGw9IiMyQjE1MjEiIHN0cm9rZT0ibm9uZSIvPjxjaXJjbGUgY3g9IjY5IiBjeT0iNTAiIHI9IjIuMSIgZmlsbD0iIzJCMTUyMSIgc3Ryb2tlPSJub25lIi8+PHBhdGggZD0iTTQ1IDQyIGwxMCAzIE03NSA0MiBsLTEwIDMiIGZpbGw9Im5vbmUiIHN0cm9rZS13aWR0aD0iNCIvPjxwYXRoIGQ9Ik01MyA2NyBoMTQiIGZpbGw9Im5vbmUiIHN0cm9rZS13aWR0aD0iMi4yIi8+PHBhdGggZD0iTTcwIDU0IGw2IDciIHN0cm9rZT0iI0EzNDc0RiIgc3Ryb2tlLXdpZHRoPSIyIi8+PHBhdGggZD0iTTQwIDg4IEw4NCAxMjIiIGZpbGw9Im5vbmUiIHN0cm9rZT0iI0I4OTAxRiIgc3Ryb2tlLXdpZHRoPSI5Ii8+PHBhdGggZD0iTTQwIDg4IEw4NCAxMjIiIGZpbGw9Im5vbmUiIHN0cm9rZS13aWR0aD0iMSIvPjwvZz48L3N2Zz4=", "timon": "data:image/svg+xml;base64,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", "severa": "data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZpZXdCb3g9IjAgMCAxMjAgMTIwIj48cmVjdCB3aWR0aD0iMTIwIiBoZWlnaHQ9IjEyMCIgZmlsbD0iI0YxRTlFQyIvPjxnIHN0cm9rZT0iIzJCMTUyMSIgc3Ryb2tlLXdpZHRoPSIyLjYiIHN0cm9rZS1saW5lY2FwPSJyb3VuZCIgc3Ryb2tlLWxpbmVqb2luPSJyb3VuZCI+PHBhdGggZD0iTTMwIDEyMiBDMjQgODQgMjggMzAgNjAgMTggQzkyIDMwIDk2IDg0IDkwIDEyMiBaIiBmaWxsPSIjNEU1Qjc4Ii8+PHBhdGggZD0iTTYgMTIyIEMxMCA5NiAzNCA4NiA2MCA4NiBDODYgODYgMTEwIDk2IDExNCAxMjIgWiIgZmlsbD0iIzNFNEE2MyIvPjxwYXRoIGQ9Ik01MCA3NiBMNTAgOTAgTDcwIDkwIEw3MCA3NiIgZmlsbD0iI0VCQ0JBNiIvPjxwYXRoIGQ9Ik0zNiA1MiBxLTUgMCAtNCA3IHExIDYgNSA1IiBmaWxsPSIjRUJDQkE2Ii8+PHBhdGggZD0iTTg0IDUyIHE1IDAgNCA3IHEtMSA2IC01IDUiIGZpbGw9IiNFQkNCQTYiLz48ZWxsaXBzZSBjeD0iNjAiIGN5PSI1MCIgcng9IjIxIiByeT0iMjYiIGZpbGw9IiNFQkNCQTYiLz48cGF0aCBkPSJNNjAgNTEgcS0zIDggMCAxMCIgZmlsbD0ibm9uZSIgc3Ryb2tlLXdpZHRoPSIyIi8+PGNpcmNsZSBjeD0iNTEiIGN5PSI1MCIgcj0iMi4xIiBmaWxsPSIjMkIxNTIxIiBzdHJva2U9Im5vbmUiLz48Y2lyY2xlIGN4PSI2OSIgY3k9IjUwIiByPSIyLjEiIGZpbGw9IiMyQjE1MjEiIHN0cm9rZT0ibm9uZSIvPjxwYXRoIGQ9Ik00NiA0MyBoOSBNNjUgNDIgcTUgLTUgOSAtMSIgZmlsbD0ibm9uZSIgc3Ryb2tlLXdpZHRoPSIyLjQiLz48cGF0aCBkPSJNNTMgNjcgaDE0IiBmaWxsPSJub25lIiBzdHJva2Utd2lkdGg9IjIuMiIvPjxwYXRoIGQ9Ik00NyAzOCBxNCAtMiA4IDAgTTY1IDM4IHE0IC0yIDggMCBNNDQgNjAgcTIgMyAwIDYgTTc2IDYwIHEtMiAzIDAgNiIgZmlsbD0ibm9uZSIgc3Ryb2tlLXdpZHRoPSIxLjQiLz48Y2lyY2xlIGN4PSIzOCIgY3k9IjYyIiByPSIyLjYiIGZpbGw9IiNCODkwMUYiLz48Y2lyY2xlIGN4PSI4MiIgY3k9IjYyIiByPSIyLjYiIGZpbGw9IiNCODkwMUYiLz48cGF0aCBkPSJNMzYgNTQgQzM0IDM0IDQ0IDIyIDYwIDIyIEM3NiAyMiA4NiAzNCA4NCA1NCIgZmlsbD0ibm9uZSIgc3Ryb2tlPSIjMkUzODUwIiBzdHJva2Utd2lkdGg9IjUiLz48L2c+PC9zdmc+", "eusebius_c": "data:image/svg+xml;base64,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", "macarius": "data:image/svg+xml;base64,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", "alexander": "data:image/svg+xml;base64,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", "arius": "data:image/svg+xml;base64,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", "valerius": "data:image/svg+xml;base64,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", "horion": "data:image/svg+xml;base64,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", "demetrios": "data:image/svg+xml;base64,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", "hosius": "data:image/svg+xml;base64,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", "zosimos": "data:image/svg+xml;base64,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", "paul": "data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZpZXdCb3g9IjAgMCAxMjAgMTIwIj48cmVjdCB3aWR0aD0iMTIwIiBoZWlnaHQ9IjEyMCIgZmlsbD0iI0YxRTlFQyIvPjxnIHN0cm9rZT0iIzJCMTUyMSIgc3Ryb2tlLXdpZHRoPSIyLjYiIHN0cm9rZS1saW5lY2FwPSJyb3VuZCIgc3Ryb2tlLWxpbmVqb2luPSJyb3VuZCI+PHBhdGggZD0iTTYgMTIyIEMxMCA5NiAzNCA4NiA2MCA4NiBDODYgODYgMTEwIDk2IDExNCAxMjIgWiIgZmlsbD0iIzZCMjM0NiIvPjxwYXRoIGQ9Ik01MCA3NiBMNTAgOTAgTDcwIDkwIEw3MCA3NiIgZmlsbD0iI0REQjA4QSIvPjxwYXRoIGQ9Ik0zNiA1MiBxLTUgMCAtNCA3IHExIDYgNSA1IiBmaWxsPSIjRERCMDhBIi8+PHBhdGggZD0iTTg0IDUyIHE1IDAgNCA3IHEtMSA2IC01IDUiIGZpbGw9IiNEREIwOEEiLz48ZWxsaXBzZSBjeD0iNjAiIGN5PSI1MCIgcng9IjIxIiByeT0iMjYiIGZpbGw9IiNEREIwOEEiLz48cGF0aCBkPSJNMzkgNDggcTAgLTE0IDggLTIwIHEtMiA4IDAgMTQgeiBNODEgNDggcTAgLTE0IC04IC0yMCBxMiA4IDAgMTQgeiIgZmlsbD0iIzhFODU4OSIvPjxwYXRoIGQ9Ik00NyAyOCBxMTMgLTggMjYgMCIgZmlsbD0ibm9uZSIgc3Ryb2tlLXdpZHRoPSIyIi8+PHBhdGggZD0iTTQwIDU4IHEyIDIyIDIwIDIyIHExOCAwIDIwIC0yMiBxLTQgOCAtMTAgNiBxLTQgLTYgLTEwIC02IHEtNiAwIC0xMCA2IHEtNiAyIC0xMCAtNiB6IiBmaWxsPSIjOEU4NTg5Ii8+PHBhdGggZD0iTTUzIDY3IHE3IDQgMTQgMCIgZmlsbD0iI0REQjA4QSIgc3Ryb2tlPSJub25lIi8+PHBhdGggZD0iTTYwIDUxIHEtMyA4IDAgMTAiIGZpbGw9Im5vbmUiIHN0cm9rZS13aWR0aD0iMiIvPjxwYXRoIGQ9Ik00NyA1MSBxNCAtNCA4IDAgTTY1IDUxIHE0IC00IDggMCIgZmlsbD0ibm9uZSIgc3Ryb2tlLXdpZHRoPSIyLjIiLz48cGF0aCBkPSJNNDYgNDMgaDkgTTY1IDQzIGg5IiBmaWxsPSJub25lIiBzdHJva2Utd2lkdGg9IjIuNCIvPjxwYXRoIGQ9Ik01MyA2NiBxNyA2IDE0IDAiIGZpbGw9Im5vbmUiIHN0cm9rZS13aWR0aD0iMi4yIi8+PHBhdGggZD0iTTIyIDEwOCBRNjAgOTQgOTggMTA4IiBmaWxsPSJub25lIiBzdHJva2U9IiNCODkwMUYiIHN0cm9rZS13aWR0aD0iNiIvPjxwYXRoIGQ9Ik0yMiAxMDggUTYwIDk0IDk4IDEwOCIgZmlsbD0ibm9uZSIgc3Ryb2tlLXdpZHRoPSIxLjIiLz48ZyB0cmFuc2Zvcm09InRyYW5zbGF0ZSgyMiA5MikiPjxwYXRoIGQ9Ik0tMTAgMjYgTC0xMCAwIHEwIC02IDQgLTYgTC02IC0xNCBxMCAtNCAzIC00IHEzIDAgMyA0IEwwIC0xNiBxMCAtNCAzIC00IHEzIDAgMyA0IEw2IC0xMiBxMCAtNCAzIC00IHEzIDAgMyA0IEwxMiA0IHEwIDEwIC02IDIyIFoiIGZpbGw9IiNEREIwOEEiLz48cGF0aCBkPSJNLTYgMiBxNiAzIDEyIDAgTS00IDEwIHE1IDIgMTAgMCIgZmlsbD0ibm9uZSIgc3Ryb2tlPSIjQTM0NzRGIiBzdHJva2Utd2lkdGg9IjIiLz48L2c+PGcgdHJhbnNmb3JtPSJ0cmFuc2xhdGUoOTYgOTIpIj48cGF0aCBkPSJNLTEwIDI2IEwtMTAgMCBxMCAtNiA0IC02IEwtNiAtMTQgcTAgLTQgMyAtNCBxMyAwIDMgNCBMMCAtMTYgcTAgLTQgMyAtNCBxMyAwIDMgNCBMNiAtMTIgcTAgLTQgMyAtNCBxMyAwIDMgNCBMMTIgNCBxMCAxMCAtNiAyMiBaIiBmaWxsPSIjRERCMDhBIi8+PHBhdGggZD0iTS02IDIgcTYgMyAxMiAwIE0tNCAxMCBxNSAyIDEwIDAiIGZpbGw9Im5vbmUiIHN0cm9rZT0iI0EzNDc0RiIgc3Ryb2tlLXdpZHRoPSIyIi8+PC9nPjwvZz48L3N2Zz4=", "marcellus": "data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZpZXdCb3g9IjAgMCAxMjAgMTIwIj48cmVjdCB3aWR0aD0iMTIwIiBoZWlnaHQ9IjEyMCIgZmlsbD0iI0YxRTlFQyIvPjxnIHN0cm9rZT0iIzJCMTUyMSIgc3Ryb2tlLXdpZHRoPSIyLjYiIHN0cm9rZS1saW5lY2FwPSJyb3VuZCIgc3Ryb2tlLWxpbmVqb2luPSJyb3VuZCI+PHBhdGggZD0iTTYgMTIyIEMxMCA5NiAzNCA4NiA2MCA4NiBDODYgODYgMTEwIDk2IDExNCAxMjIgWiIgZmlsbD0iIzZCMjM0NiIvPjxwYXRoIGQ9Ik01MCA3NiBMNTAgOTAgTDcwIDkwIEw3MCA3NiIgZmlsbD0iI0M5OTM2QSIvPjxwYXRoIGQ9Ik0zNiA1MiBxLTUgMCAtNCA3IHExIDYgNSA1IiBmaWxsPSIjQzk5MzZBIi8+PHBhdGggZD0iTTg0IDUyIHE1IDAgNCA3IHEtMSA2IC01IDUiIGZpbGw9IiNDOTkzNkEiLz48ZWxsaXBzZSBjeD0iNjAiIGN5PSI1MCIgcng9IjIxIiByeT0iMjYiIGZpbGw9IiNDOTkzNkEiLz48Y2lyY2xlIGN4PSI0MiIgY3k9IjQwIiByPSI2LjUiIGZpbGw9IiMyRTIyMjQiLz48Y2lyY2xlIGN4PSI0OCIgY3k9IjMwIiByPSI2LjUiIGZpbGw9IiMyRTIyMjQiLz48Y2lyY2xlIGN4PSI1NyIgY3k9IjI2IiByPSI2LjUiIGZpbGw9IiMyRTIyMjQiLz48Y2lyY2xlIGN4PSI2NiIgY3k9IjI3IiByPSI2LjUiIGZpbGw9IiMyRTIyMjQiLz48Y2lyY2xlIGN4PSI3NCIgY3k9IjMyIiByPSI2LjUiIGZpbGw9IiMyRTIyMjQiLz48Y2lyY2xlIGN4PSI3OSIgY3k9IjQxIiByPSI2LjUiIGZpbGw9IiMyRTIyMjQiLz48Y2lyY2xlIGN4PSIzOSIgY3k9IjUwIiByPSI2LjUiIGZpbGw9IiMyRTIyMjQiLz48Y2lyY2xlIGN4PSI4MSIgY3k9IjUwIiByPSI2LjUiIGZpbGw9IiMyRTIyMjQiLz48cGF0aCBkPSJNNDAgNTggcTIgMjIgMjAgMjIgcTE4IDAgMjAgLTIyIHEtNCA4IC0xMCA2IHEtNCAtNiAtMTAgLTYgcS02IDAgLTEwIDYgcS02IDIgLTEwIC02IHoiIGZpbGw9IiMyRTIyMjQiLz48cGF0aCBkPSJNNTMgNjcgcTcgNCAxNCAwIiBmaWxsPSIjQzk5MzZBIiBzdHJva2U9Im5vbmUiLz48cGF0aCBkPSJNNjAgNTEgcS0zIDggMCAxMCIgZmlsbD0ibm9uZSIgc3Ryb2tlLXdpZHRoPSIyIi8+PGNpcmNsZSBjeD0iNTEiIGN5PSI1MCIgcj0iMi4xIiBmaWxsPSIjMkIxNTIxIiBzdHJva2U9Im5vbmUiLz48Y2lyY2xlIGN4PSI2OSIgY3k9IjUwIiByPSIyLjEiIGZpbGw9IiMyQjE1MjEiIHN0cm9rZT0ibm9uZSIvPjxwYXRoIGQ9Ik00NiA0MyBoOSBNNjUgNDIgcTUgLTUgOSAtMSIgZmlsbD0ibm9uZSIgc3Ryb2tlLXdpZHRoPSIyLjQiLz48cGF0aCBkPSJNNTYgNjcgcTQgNSA4IDAgcS00IC0yIC04IDAiIGZpbGw9IiM3QTJFM0EiIHN0cm9rZS13aWR0aD0iMi4yIi8+PHBhdGggZD0iTTIyIDEwOCBRNjAgOTQgOTggMTA4IiBmaWxsPSJub25lIiBzdHJva2U9IiNCODkwMUYiIHN0cm9rZS13aWR0aD0iNiIvPjxwYXRoIGQ9Ik0yMiAxMDggUTYwIDk0IDk4IDEwOCIgZmlsbD0ibm9uZSIgc3Ryb2tlLXdpZHRoPSIxLjIiLz48L2c+PC9zdmc+", "onesimus": "data:image/svg+xml;base64,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", "diodoros": "data:image/svg+xml;base64,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"}

/* One scene per line: passage | sound | (optional) only when… Sounds are files in audio/sfx/: harbour, waves, rooster, footsteps, cart, door, dinner, scribing, marching, hammer, hall, fire, tear. A line with "abroad" applies only to a bishop brought in from abroad; "refused" only if the bishop refused the creed. */ Ch1_01 | rooster Ch1_02 | harbour Ch1_03 | footsteps Ch1_04 | door Ch1_05 | harbour Ch1_06 | scribing Ch1_07 | waves Ch2_01 | harbour Ch2_02 | dinner Ch2_03 | footsteps Ch2_03 | harbour | abroad Ch2_04 | scribing Ch2_05 | door Ch2_06 | dinner Ch2_07 | harbour Ch3_01 | marching Ch3_02 | door Ch3_03 | dinner Ch3_04 | scribing Ch3_05 | hammer Ch3_06 | hall Ch3_07 | waves Ch4_01 | door Ch4_02 | cart Ch4_03 | cart Ch4_04 | footsteps Ch4_05 | dinner Ch4_06 | door Ch4_07 | rooster Ch5_01 | hall Ch5_02 | fire Ch5_03 | tear Ch5_04 | scribing Ch5_05 | hall Ch5_06 | scribing Ch5_07 | dinner Ch5_07 | cart | refused

data:image/svg+xml;base64,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

/* One term per line: key | Word as shown | Definition Use <<term "key">> or <<term "key" "words to show">> in a passage to make the words tappable. Order doesn't matter: the side-bar Glossary sorts itself. */ archdeacon | Archdeacon | The bishop’s chief deacon, in charge of the church’s money, its care for the poor, and much of its day-to-day running. catechumen | Catechumen | Someone preparing for baptism, usually through a long period of instruction ending at Easter. homoousios | Homoousios | Greek for “of the same substance”: the word the Council of Nicaea used to confess that the Son is God in the same full sense as the Father. The English Mass renders it “consubstantial”. metropolitan | Metropolitan | The bishop of a province’s chief city, who presided over the other bishops of the province. In Palestine, that was the bishop of Caesarea. presbyter | Presbyter | From the Greek for “elder”: a priest serving under the bishop. Arius was a presbyter in Alexandria. see | See | A bishop’s diocese, from the Latin <em>sedes</em>, “seat”. synod | Synod | A meeting of bishops to settle questions of faith or discipline. Licinius had forbidden them. thalia | Thalia | “Festivity”: the title of Arius’s work setting out his teaching in popular verse. aelia | Aelia Capitolina | The Roman name for Jerusalem after the emperor Hadrian refounded it as a colony in the 130s. It was still the city’s official name in the 320s. alexander | Alexander of Alexandria | Bishop of Alexandria from about 312 to 328. He was Arius’s bishop, and his first and firmest opponent. antony | Antony of Egypt | The most famous of the early desert hermits. By the 320s, disciples had gathered around him in the Egyptian desert. arius | Arius | A presbyter of Alexandria, in charge of the church of Baucalis, who taught that the Son of God was created: “there was a time when he was not.” The Council of Nicaea condemned his teaching in 325. baucalis | Baucalis | A district by the harbour in Alexandria, and the church there where Arius was presbyter. constantine | Constantine | Emperor in the West from 306, and the first emperor to favour Christianity. He defeated Licinius in 324 to rule the whole Empire, and called the Council of Nicaea. Like many in his day, he put off baptism, and was baptised only on his deathbed in 337. donatists | The African schism | After the persecution, the church in Roman Africa split over bishops accused of handing the Scriptures over to the authorities. The rival party came to be called Donatists. eusebius-caesarea | Eusebius of Caesarea | Bishop of Caesarea from about 313, a scholar, and the author of the first history of the Church. He sympathised with Arius before Nicaea, but signed its creed. eusebius-nicomedia | Eusebius of Nicomedia | Bishop of Nicomedia, the eastern imperial capital, close to the emperor’s household, and Arius’s most powerful supporter. Like Arius, he had studied under Lucian of Antioch. great-persecution | Great Persecution | The last and fiercest Roman persecution of Christians, begun by the emperor Diocletian in 303. In the East it lasted, on and off, until 313: Christians were imprisoned, executed, or sent to the mines. gregory | Gregory the Wonderworker | Bishop of Neocaesarea in Pontus in the mid-200s, remembered for bringing much of his region to the faith. licinius | Licinius | Emperor in the East from 313 to 324. He first agreed with Constantine to tolerate Christians, then turned against them: he forbade bishops to meet, and pushed Christians out of the army and his court. Constantine defeated him in 324. lucian | Lucian of Antioch | A scholar and teacher at Antioch, martyred in 312. Several of his former pupils later took Arius’s side. macarius | Macarius of Jerusalem | Bishop of Jerusalem from about 314. Arius named him among his opponents. pamphilus | Pamphilus | A presbyter of Caesarea who built up its great Christian library. He was martyred in about 310; Eusebius of Caesarea was his pupil. phaeno | Phaeno | Copper mines south of the Dead Sea. During the Great Persecution, Christian prisoners were sent there to work, many of them maimed first. deaconess | Deaconess | A woman appointed to serve the women of the church: assisting at their baptism, visiting them, and teaching them. The eastern churches had deaconesses from at least the 200s. excommunicate | Excommunicate | To cut someone off from communion: from receiving the Eucharist and sharing in the Church’s common prayer, until they are reconciled. paulinus | Paulinus of Tyre | Bishop of Tyre and one of Arius’s strongest supporters in the East. Eusebius of Caesarea admired him, and dedicated the last book of his Church History to him. patrophilus | Patrophilus of Scythopolis | Bishop of Scythopolis in northern Palestine, and one of Arius’s firmest friends. agoranomos | Market inspector | In a Greek city, the official who checked weights, measures and prices in the market, and fined anyone who cheated. basilica | Basilica | A large hall with a central nave and aisles, used for Roman law courts and markets. Once the persecutions ended, it became the model for Christian churches. chrysopolis | Chrysopolis | A town on the Asian shore of the Bosporus, opposite Byzantium, where Constantine finally defeated Licinius in September 324. eustathius | Eustathius of Antioch | Bishop of Antioch from about 324, a learned and determined opponent of Arius’s teaching. hosius | Hosius of Corduba | Bishop of Corduba in Spain, a confessor of the Great Persecution, and Constantine’s trusted adviser on church affairs. He lived to be about a hundred. athanasius | Athanasius | Alexander’s deacon and secretary at Nicaea, then bishop of Alexandria from 328 to 373. He spent his life defending the faith of Nicaea, and was exiled five times for it. cursus | Imperial post | The Roman state’s network of roads and stations, with fresh horses, wagons and beds for officials on the emperor’s business. Constantine let the bishops use it to reach the council. marcellus | Marcellus of Ancyra | Bishop of Ancyra and a fierce opponent of Arius at Nicaea. Later he was deposed, accused of making the Father and the Son one person. paphnutius | Paphnutius | A bishop from the Thebaid in Upper Egypt who lost an eye in the persecution, and was honoured at Nicaea as a confessor. paul-neocaesarea | Paul of Neocaesarea | A bishop from near the Euphrates whose hands were crippled with a red-hot iron under Licinius. He came to Nicaea as a living witness of the persecution. sabellius | Sabellius | A teacher in Rome in the early 200s, condemned for saying that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one person appearing in three ways, like an actor wearing three masks. traditor | Traditor | Latin for “one who hands over”: a Christian, especially a cleric, who surrendered the Scriptures to the authorities during the Great Persecution. anathema | Anathema | A solemn condemnation by the Church, declaring a teaching false and cutting off those who hold it from communion. The creed of Nicaea ended with one. homoiousios | Homoiousios | Greek for “of like substance”: one letter, an iota, longer than homoousios, “of the same substance”. Thirty years after Nicaea, it became the watchword of bishops who wanted to soften the creed. paul-samosata | Paul of Samosata | Bishop of Antioch in the 260s, condemned in 268 for teaching that Jesus was a mere man indwelt by God’s Word. He was said to have used the word homoousios, which made some bishops wary of it. theognis | Theognis of Nicaea | Bishop of Nicaea and a friend of Arius. He signed the creed of 325 but not the condemnation of Arius, and was exiled with Eusebius of Nicomedia a few months later. philogonius | Philogonius of Antioch | A lawyer who became bishop of Antioch around 319, and one of the first bishops to oppose Arius. He died at the end of 324, most probably in December, and Eustathius succeeded him.

/* One character per line: id | Name | Role | Portrait image: a file such as img/name.png, or - for the built-in line drawing Use <<say "id">> … <</say>> in a passage. Portraits go in the img folder, e.g. img/hesychios.png */ hesychios | Hesychios | keeper of the church’s accounts | - pyrrhos | Pyrrhos | preacher and confessor | - timon | Timon | deacon | - severa | Severa | landowner and patron | - eusebius_c | Eusebius | bishop of Caesarea | - macarius | Macarius | bishop of Jerusalem | - alexander | Alexander | bishop of Alexandria | - arius | Arius | presbyter of Alexandria | - valerius | Valerius | soldier, dismissed from the army | - horion | Horion | presbyter of Alexandria, Arius’s friend | - demetrios | Demetrios | the magistrate’s clerk | - hosius | Hosius | bishop of Corduba, the emperor’s adviser | - zosimos | Zosimos | senior presbyter of Sykoussa | - paul | Paul | bishop of Neocaesarea, confessor | - marcellus | Marcellus | bishop of Ancyra | - onesimus | Onesimus | a runaway slave boy | - diodoros | Diodoros | a rhetorician, an old friend | -

<h3>Sykoussa</h3> <p class="city-sub">Your see · a small harbour between Joppa and Caesarea</p> Figs, wine and fish sauce go out by sea. News comes in on every ship. <<if $flock gte 7>>Your people are with you.<<elseif $flock lte 3>>There is grumbling in the market about the new bishop.<<else>>The town is still taking your measure.<</if>>

<h3>Caesarea</h3> <p class="city-sub">Chief city of Palaestina · Bishop: Eusebius</p> Your metropolitan, a celebrated scholar and historian. His church keeps the great library begun by the martyr Pamphilus. <<if $leaning lte -2>>Eusebius writes to you warmly and often.<<elseif $leaning gte 2>>Letters from Caesarea have grown short and formal.<<else>>Eusebius is waiting to see what kind of bishop you will be.<</if>>

<h3>Jerusalem</h3> <p class="city-sub">Officially Aelia Capitolina · Bishop: Macarius</p> Hadrian rebuilt the city as a Roman colony and renamed it, but Christians still call it Jerusalem. Its bishop answers to Caesarea, an arrangement Jerusalem’s bishops did not always accept quietly. <<if $leaning gte 2>>Macarius counts you a friend.<<elseif $leaning lte -2>>Macarius has heard which way you lean, and is cool towards you.<<else>>Macarius has not yet made up his mind about you.<</if>>

<h3>Alexandria</h3> <p class="city-sub">Egypt’s great port · Bishop: Alexander</p> Where the quarrel began. Arius was the presbyter in charge of the church of Baucalis, down by the harbour. <<if $chapter is 1>>Alexander and the bishops of Egypt and Libya have cut Arius off.<</if>> <<if $leaning gte 2>>Alexandria counts you among its friends.<</if>>

<h3>Antioch</h3> <p class="city-sub">Chief city of Syria · Bishop: Philogonius</p> Where the disciples were first called Christians. Arius names its bishop among his opponents. <<if $chapter gte 3>>Philogonius has died. The new bishop, Eustathius, is a hard, clever man and no friend of Arius. Early in 325, a synod met here and excommunicated three bishops, Eusebius of Caesarea among them.<</if>>

<h3>Nicomedia</h3> <p class="city-sub">The emperor Licinius’s capital · Bishop: Eusebius</p> Not your metropolitan: this Eusebius is close to the imperial household, and Arius’s most powerful friend. <<if $chapter gte 2>>Arius has gone north to stay with him.<</if>> <<if $chapter gte 3>>Licinius surrendered here in 324. The city, and its bishop, now answer to Constantine.<</if>>

<h3>Nicaea</h3> <p class="city-sub">A lakeside city in Bithynia · Bishop: Theognis</p> A pleasant, well-connected city close to the imperial residence at Nicomedia. <<if $chapter gte 4>>The emperor has moved the great council here. In early summer 325, more than two hundred and fifty bishops crowd into the town.<</if>><<if $chapter gte 5>> On 19 June the council agreed its creed.<</if>>

<h3>Joppa</h3> <p class="city-sub">Harbour town · the next port south</p> An old port, bigger and busier than yours. Here Peter raised Tabitha from the dead and saw the vision of the sheet let down from heaven (Acts 9–10).

<h3>Lydda</h3> <p class="city-sub">Inland town, also called Diospolis · Bishop: Aetius</p> Where Peter healed Aeneas (Acts 9). Arius names its bishop among his friends.

<h3>Gaza</h3> <p class="city-sub">Trading city on the road to Egypt</p> Its bishop, Silvanus, was beheaded at the mines of Phaeno in 311, near the end of the Great Persecution. The city itself remains stubbornly pagan.

<h3>Scythopolis</h3> <p class="city-sub">Chief city of the Jordan valley · Bishop: Patrophilus</p> A rich Greek city on the road to Damascus. Its bishop is one of Arius’s firmest friends.

<h3>Ephesus</h3> <p class="city-sub">Chief city of Asia</p> One of the great cities of the Empire. Paul preached here for more than two years, and by tradition the apostle John spent his last years here.

<h3>Tarsus</h3> <p class="city-sub">Chief city of Cilicia</p> Paul’s home town, on the main road from Syria into Asia Minor through the Cilician Gates.

<h3>Ancyra</h3> <p class="city-sub">Chief city of Galatia · Bishop: Marcellus</p> A crossroads in the middle of Asia Minor. Bishops met here in 314 to decide how to treat Christians who had lapsed under persecution. <<if $chapter gte 4>>The great council was first summoned to meet here, before the emperor moved it to Nicaea.<<elseif $flags.councilCalled>>The emperor has called a great council of bishops to meet here this summer.<</if>>

<<artwork "ch1-open" "cover">> <p class="chapter-no">Chapter 1</p> <h2 class="chapter">Three Pairs of Hands</h2> <p class="when">Sykoussa, Palaestina · c. AD 322</p> <div class="choices"> [[Begin the chapter|Ch1_01]] </div>

The church in Sykoussa is a house that became a church long before anyone now living was born: a courtyard, a long room, a stone table, and the smell of salt and lamp oil. Three bishops slipped into town before dawn, one at a time. The emperor <<term "licinius" "Licinius">> has forbidden bishops to visit one another’s churches, so nobody mentions that they are here. You kneel. Three pairs of hands press down on your head, and the Gospel book is held open above you. When the prayer ends, the people shout, “Worthy!” and for one moment you believe them. By midmorning your guests are gone. You are $bishop.name, bishop of a fig town. You have a church with a leaking roof, a few hundred families, and one appointment that cannot wait. The church needs an <<term "archdeacon">> to keep the purse, the list of the poor, and the keys. Two names are whispered to you. Hesychios has kept the accounts for twenty years. He has never raised his voice, never been arrested, and never lost a coin. Pyrrhos preached in the market all through the persecution until the magistrates had him flogged, and he would do it again tomorrow. <<if $bishop.id is "theodoulos">> Pyrrhos was flogged in the same week you were sent to the mines. Neither of you has forgotten it. <</if>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Keep Hesychios. Steady hands, steady accounts." "Ch1_02">><<set $flags.archdeacon to "hesychios">><<adj "court" 1>><<record "You kept Hesychios, the careful accountant, as your archdeacon.">><</link>> <<link "Appoint Pyrrhos. This is no time for a quiet man." "Ch1_02">><<set $flags.archdeacon to "pyrrhos">><<adj "court" -1>><<record "You made Pyrrhos, the flogged preacher, your archdeacon.">><</link>> </div>

<<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">> <<say "hesychios">>“The roof, Father, will cost more than we have. I have written down exactly how much more.”<</say>> <<else>> <<say "pyrrhos">>“Three things you are already doing wrong, Father.” He is right about two of them.<</say>> <</if>> A month later, a merchant off an Alexandrian ship presses a packet into your hand at the harbour and glances over his shoulder. It is a copy of a letter from <<term "alexander" "Alexander">>, bishop of Alexandria, to bishops everywhere. One of his <<term "presbyter" "presbyters">>, a man named <<term "arius" "Arius">>, is teaching that the Son of God was made out of nothing, and that “there was a time when he was not.” Alexander and the bishops of Egypt and Libya have cut him off, and they want every church to know. Under Licinius’s law, you are not supposed to be receiving letters from other bishops at all. <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>“Read it aloud and the magistrate hears of it by supper. Keep it in the chest and Alexandria hears that you kept it. Sending it to Caesarea costs one messenger, and puts the decision on a man with a bigger church than ours. I would send it, Father. But then, I am the one who counts the messengers.”<<else>>“Alexander wrote it to be read, Father. Nobody lights a lamp to put it under a bushel. Read it on Sunday, and let Licinius’s clerk take notes, if he can write that fast.”<</if>><</advice>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Read it aloud at the Sunday assembly." "Ch1_03">><<set $flags.readAlexander to true>><<adj "leaning" 1>><<adj "court" -1>><<adj "conscience" 1>><<record "You read Alexander’s letter aloud to the assembly, Licinius or no Licinius.">><</link>> <<link "Keep it to yourself for now." "Ch1_03">><<adj "court" 1>><<adj "conscience" -1>><<record "You kept Alexander’s letter to yourself.">><</link>> <<link "Send a copy to Caesarea and wait for your metropolitan’s view." "Ch1_03">><<set $flags.askedCaesarea to true>><<adj "leaning" -1>><<record "You sent Alexander’s letter to Caesarea and waited for Eusebius’s view.">><</link>> </div>

<<if $flags.readAlexander>> On Sunday you read the letter aloud. The room goes very quiet at “there was a time when he was not,” and very loud afterwards. By evening, half the town has an opinion about a presbyter none of them has ever met. <<elseif $flags.askedCaesarea>> You send the copy up the coast road to Caesarea, and wait. Your metropolitan does not reply at once. Great scholars, you are learning, reply when they are ready. <<else>> You lock the letter in the chest under your bed. It is surprisingly hard to sleep on top of a heresy. <</if>> A bishop is meant to know his churches, and you have four. There is the church in town. There is Kefar Tamra, a day’s walk into the hills, where the church is a barn and the presbyter is also the village blacksmith. There is the fishermen’s chapel at the river mouth, out past the salt pans. And there is the chapel on Severa’s estate, where her tenants and slaves hear the readings on feast days, and where Severa has already sent twice to ask when you are coming. Lent will be here before you know it. There is time for one visit. <<if $bishop.id is "malchos">> Kefar Tamra is where you were born. Everyone there will expect you to come to them first. <</if>> <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>“Go to Severa’s first, Father. She pays for half of what we do, and she has already asked twice. If she has to ask a third time, she will stop asking and start counting.”<<else>>“Go where nobody goes, Father. The fishermen have not seen a bishop since before the persecution. Severa has seen plenty.”<</if>><</advice>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Walk up to Kefar Tamra, to the church in a barn." "Ch1_04">><<set $flags.visit to "village">><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "On your first visit as bishop, you walked up to the church in a barn at Kefar Tamra.">><</link>> <<link "Go down to the fishermen’s chapel at the river mouth." "Ch1_04">><<set $flags.visit to "fishermen">><<record "On your first visit as bishop, you went to the fishermen’s chapel at the river mouth.">><</link>> <<link "Accept Severa’s invitation to her estate." "Ch1_04">><<set $flags.visit to "severa">><<adj "court" 1>><<record "On your first visit as bishop, you went to Severa’s estate.">><</link>> </div>

<<switch $flags.visit>> <<case "village">> The barn at Kefar Tamra smells of hay and goats and, faintly, of incense. The blacksmith-presbyter has scrubbed his hands for the Eucharist until they are raw, and they are still black. Half the village crowds in.<<if $bishop.id is "malchos">> Your mother’s cousins have baked enough bread for a legion.<</if>> Two families stand on opposite sides of the barn and pretend not to see each other. Nobody tells you why, and you are too new to ask. <<case "fishermen">> The fishermen’s chapel is a hut with a reed roof and a stone table, and the whole hamlet is waiting on the shore when your boat comes in. You bless the boats, the nets and a very confused goat. Afterwards they feed you grilled mullet on the sand, and tell you, carefully, that the last bishop who came was taken away by soldiers. You promise to come back. <<default>> Severa’s estate has olive presses, a bathhouse, forty tenants, and a chapel with a mosaic floor that she wants you to admire, and you do. At dinner the magistrate is among her guests, and he and Severa talk across you as if you were a piece of furniture they had both paid for. On the way home you think about her forty tenants, and wonder how many of them chose to be Christians, and how many were told. Next morning a purse arrives from the estate for the church’s chest, with no note, which is itself a note. <<pay 1 "Severa’s gift after your visit">> <</switch>> In early spring, a man in a soldier’s cloak with the badges cut off comes to the church door. His name is Valerius. He served twelve years in the garrison at Caesarea, until his officers ordered every man to sacrifice to the emperor’s gods. Valerius refused. They took his belt, his rank and his pay, and turned him out with a wife, two small daughters, and nothing else. <<say "valerius">>“I can carry, dig, and guard a door, Father. I am not asking for alms.” He stops. “Well. I am asking for alms. But I would rather work.”<</say>> The magistrate’s clerk happens to be passing, as he so often does. He remarks, to no one in particular, that the emperor takes a dim view of anyone who makes heroes of his discarded soldiers. <<if $bishop.id is "zacchaios">> You know this clerk. You know exactly what he is paid, and exactly what he is paid on the side. <</if>> <<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">> <<say "hesychios">>“The list of the poor is long already, Father. And the clerk can count.”<</say>> <<else>> <<say "pyrrhos">>“Put him on the door, Father. Let the clerk see who guards our house.”<</say>> <</if>> <<if $bishop.id is "kyriakos">> You do not know this man’s name, but you know his face: the stance, and the shame he is trying not to show. Not long ago it was yours. <</if>> <<chest>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Take him in openly: a place on the list of the poor, and the church door to guard. (Chest −1)" "Ch1_05">><<pay -1 "Valerius and his family taken onto the list of the poor">><<set $flags.soldier to "sheltered">><<adj "court" -1>><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "You took in Valerius, the dismissed soldier, and set him to guard the church door.">><</link>> <<link "Help him quietly: a purse from the chest, and a letter to a Christian farmer in the hills. (Chest −1)" "Ch1_05">><<pay -1 "a purse for Valerius">><<set $flags.soldier to "quiet">><<adj "court" 1>><<record "You helped Valerius quietly, with a purse and a letter to a farm in the hills.">><</link>> <<link "Send him away. The church cannot afford the emperor’s attention." "Ch1_05">><<set $flags.soldier to "refused">><<adj "court" 1>><<adj "flock" -1>><<record "You turned Valerius away from the church door.">><</link>> </div>

<<if $flags.soldier is "sheltered">> Valerius takes to the church door as if it were a city gate. Nobody gets past him without a greeting, a question, and a hard look at their sandals. The clerk writes something down. <<elseif $flags.soldier is "quiet">> Valerius goes inland with his family and your letter. You hear nothing more, which these days counts as good news. <<else>> Valerius nods as though he had expected it, and walks back down to the harbour. For weeks you look for him in the crowd at the fish market. You do not see him. <</if>> By Lent, the Alexandrian ships are bringing more than grain. The sailors on the quay are singing something new: a soaring little tune, easy to pick up, the kind that has a whole crowd swaying by the second time round. <p class="lyric">Before the light, before the sea,<br>the Father spoke, and there was you:<br>first of all creation,<br>lifted high above the rest.</p> It sounds devout. It is meant to. Only on the third hearing do you notice who is doing the making. It is one of <<term "arius" "Arius’s">> songs. He has written them, people say, for sailors, millers and travellers, and set them to tunes everyone already knows. By the third week of Lent the fishermen’s children are singing it in the street.<<if $flags.visit is "fishermen">> Some of them are the children from the river mouth who watched you bless the boats.<</if>> They have no idea what it means. Neither, you suspect, do most of the sailors. That is rather the point. <<if $bishop.id is "isidoros">> You know this tune. Half the Alexandrian waterfront was whistling it before you left. <<elseif $bishop.id is "domnos">> You heard Arius set words to tunes years ago, in Antioch. He was always good at it. <<elseif $bishop.id is "eutychios">> You catch yourself humming it, and are appalled. You could write a better tune than this by Sunday. You are almost sure of it. <</if>> <<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">> <<say "hesychios">>“It is only a song, Father. Songs pass.” He does not sound sure.<</say>> <<else>> <<say "pyrrhos">>“Forbid it at the assembly, Father. Today.”<</say>> <</if>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Forbid it. No Christian in Sykoussa is to sing it, and you will preach against it." "Ch1_06">><<set $flags.songs to "banned">><<adj "leaning" 1>><<adj "flock" -1>><<record "You forbade Arius’s song and preached against it.">><</link>> <<link "Answer a tune with a better tune: teach your people a hymn of the true faith." "Ch1_06">><<set $flags.songs to "hymn">><<adj "court" -1>><<adj "conscience" 1>><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "You answered Arius’s song with a hymn of your own.">><</link>> <<link "Leave it alone. It is a sailors’ song; it will pass." "Ch1_06">><<set $flags.songs to "ignored">><<adj "leaning" -1>><<adj "conscience" -1>><<record "You let Arius’s song run its course.">><</link>> </div>

<<if $flags.songs is "banned">> The grown-ups stop singing it, at least near the church. The children sing it louder, because now it is forbidden. <<elseif $flags.songs is "hymn">> <<if $bishop.id is "eutychios">>You write the tune yourself, in two evenings. <</if>>By the second Sunday the whole assembly can sing your hymn. By the third, the fishermen are singing it in their boats. The magistrate sends to ask what the noise is. <<else>> The song does not pass. It settles into the town like sand into sandals. <</if>> Holy Week is coming, and with it the most important night of the year. Eleven men and women have spent months as <<term "catechumen" "catechumens">>, standing at the back of the assembly and leaving before the Eucharist. At the Easter vigil you will baptise them. First, by old custom, you hand over the creed: the faith of this church, word by word, to be learned by heart and said back to you before they go down into the water. This year the women must be taught apart, by order of the emperor, so a <<term "deaconess">> will repeat your words to them in the courtyard. Your church says the creed of Caesarea, as its mother church does. It is old and beautiful: “God from God, Light from Light, Life from Life… the first-born of all creation, begotten of the Father before all ages.” “The first-born of all creation” comes straight from Scripture: “He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation” (Col 1:15). It is also, you realise, exactly the kind of phrase Arius’s friends would be glad to hear. If he is the first-born of creation, is he part of it? <<if $bishop.id is "malchos">> The farmers’ wives will need it in Aramaic as well. Whatever you decide, you will be saying it twice. <<elseif $bishop.id is "aphthonios">> You have already prepared a forty-minute explanation. You may need to cut it. <<elseif $bishop.id is "ammonios">> In the desert, the old men taught the faith by living it in front of you for years. Here you have a week and a wax tablet. <</if>> <<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">> <<say "hesychios">>“Hand them what we have always said, Father. Changing the creed in Holy Week is like changing the weights in the market on a feast day: everyone notices, and nobody thanks you.”<</say>> <<else>> <<say "pyrrhos">>“If the creed has a door Arius can walk through, Father, shut it. Eleven souls are going into that water on Saturday night.”<</say>> <</if>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Hand it over exactly as you received it. These words are older than this quarrel." "Ch1_07">><<set $flags.creed to "received">><<adj "leaning" -1>><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "You handed the catechumens your church’s creed exactly as you received it.">><</link>> <<link "Hand it over, and explain it plainly: the Son was never made; he is God from God." "Ch1_07">><<set $flags.creed to "explained">><<adj "leaning" 1>><<adj "conscience" 1>><<record "You handed over the creed and taught plainly that the Son was never made.">><</link>> <<link "Add a line of your own to shut Arius out." "Ch1_07">><<set $flags.creed to "added">><<adj "leaning" 2>><<adj "conscience" -1>><<adj "flock" -1>><<record "You added a line to your church’s creed to shut Arius out.">><</link>> </div>

All week, the catechumens mutter the creed under their breath: at the fish stalls, on the boats, over the bread ovens. Holy Saturday ends in a red sunset over the sea. As the light goes, the whole church walks out through the town gate and down to the shore: old men with lamps, mothers carrying sleeping children, the eleven catechumens in plain tunics, very quiet. The fishing boats are drawn up on the sand. Somewhere a dog barks, and stops. They are out here because they have to be. The emperor’s newest order says Christians must meet in the open country outside the town gates, supposedly for the healthier air. So the vigil is kept on the beach, under the stars, with the lamps guttering in the wind off the sea, and nobody minds nearly as much as the emperor hoped.<<if $flags.visit is "fishermen">> The river-mouth fishermen have rowed up the coast to be there, and their boats ride at anchor beyond the surf, with lamps on their prows.<</if>> <<if $flags.soldier is "sheltered">> Valerius stands at the edge of the lamplight with his back to the dunes, watching the road. Nobody troubles you tonight. <</if>> <<if $bishop.id is "barsabas">> This year, for once, your family’s reckoning of Easter and everyone else’s land on the same Sunday. For once, there is nothing to argue about. <</if>> At cockcrow, the catechumens go down into the water one by one. <<if $flags.creed is "received">> Each says the creed of Caesarea back to you first, word perfect, just as you taught it. <<elseif $flags.creed is "explained">> Each says the creed back to you first. When the youngest reaches “God from God,” she says it as though she has thought about it. <<else>> Each says the creed back to you first, new line and all. Most of them stumble over the new line. One old fisherman gets it right, and looks extremely pleased with himself. <</if>> They come up out of the sea and put on white, and the whole church sings. <<if $flags.songs is "hymn">> They sing your hymn, loud enough to be heard in the town. You hope the magistrate is asleep. <<elseif $flags.songs is "banned">> Down on the quay, a sailor answers with a verse of Arius’s song, and somebody throws a fish at him. <<else>> Somewhere down on the quay, a sailor answers with a verse of Arius’s song. <</if>> For the first time since your consecration, you are not afraid. It lasts the whole of Easter week, while the newly baptised walk about the town in their white garments. Then, a week after Easter, a ship comes in from Alexandria with guests on board. <div class="choices"> [[End the chapter|Ch1_Summary]] </div>

<p class="chapter-no">End of Chapter 1</p> <h2>What you decided</h2> <<summary>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Open the map">><<run setup.openMap()>><</link>> [[Read your letters|Ch1_Letters]] </div>

<h2>Letters</h2> <<letter "From the daybook of Timon, deacon" "Timon">> <<if $flock gte 7>> The people are proud of their new bishop. Old Severa says the church has not been this full since before the persecution. She has offered to pay for the roof, and I fear she will want something for it. <<elseif $flock lte 3>> Fewer at the assembly this week. People talk in the market, and not kindly. <<else>> The people are watching you, as people do with a new bishop. They have not made up their minds. <</if>> <<if $flags.readAlexander>> Word has gone round that you read the Alexandrian letter aloud. I hope the magistrate does not hear of it. <</if>> <<if $flags.soldier is "sheltered">> The magistrate’s clerk has asked twice about the man on our door. Valerius asked him once about his sandals. <</if>> <<if $flags.songs is "hymn">> Even the Alexandrian sailors hum our hymn now, if only to make fun of it. <<elseif $flags.songs is "banned">> The children have made up new words to the forbidden song. I will not write them down. <</if>> <<if $flags.creed is "added">> Some of the older people grumble that the creed they were baptised with was good enough for them. <</if>> <<switch $flags.visit>> <<case "village">>Kefar Tamra has sent down a cheese, with the blacksmith’s respects. <<case "fishermen">>The river-mouth people ask when you will come back. I have told them after Easter. <<case "severa">>Severa tells everyone that you admired her floor. <</switch>> <</letter>> <<if $flags.soldier is "quiet">> <<letter "From the hills, in a farmer’s hand" "Valerius">>We are well. The work is hard and the figs here are terrible. My girls send their thanks. So do I.<</letter>> <</if>> <<if $flags.creed is "added">> <<letter "From Caesarea" "Eusebius">>Your metropolitan has heard that you have been improving the creed of his church. He would be glad to know which council authorised you, so that he may read its decrees.<</letter>> <<elseif $leaning lte -2>> <<letter "From Caesarea" "Eusebius">>A short, friendly note. Your metropolitan hopes you are settling in, and asks to be kept informed of any letters from Egypt.<</letter>> <<elseif $leaning gte 2>> <<letter "From Jerusalem" "Macarius">>Bishop Macarius sends his greetings and his prayers, and asks after you by name.<</letter>> <</if>> <div class="choices"> [[Continue|Ch1_Note]] </div>

<h2>What really happened</h2> <<artwork "ch1-close" "artefact">> <p class="intro">Sykoussa, its bishop and its people are invented. The world around them is not. Scholars date the start of the quarrel anywhere from about 318 to 321; either way, by 322 letters about Arius were travelling all over the East.</p> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> Licinius forbade bishops to meet in synods or visit one another’s churches. He also ordered men and women to worship separately, had women taught only by women, and moved assemblies outside the city gates, supposedly for the healthier air. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/25021.htm" target="_blank">Eusebius, Life of Constantine 1.51–53</a> Read more: <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/myths/07-christians-were-persecuted-non-stop-across-the-whole/" target="_blank">Were Christians persecuted non-stop?</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> Soldiers who would not sacrifice were stripped of their rank and dismissed. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/25021.htm" target="_blank">Eusebius, Life of Constantine 1.54</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> Alexander of Alexandria sent a letter to bishops everywhere condemning Arius’s teaching. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/26011.htm" target="_blank">Socrates, Church History 1.6</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> Arius wrote popular songs for sailors, millers and travellers, set to tunes people already knew. <a href="https://tertullian.org/rpearse/philostorgius_epitome.html" target="_blank">Philostorgius, Church History 2.2</a> Their words are lost. The song in this chapter is invented, but its idea is his: the Son as the first and greatest of God’s creatures. Answering songs with better songs is recorded later: Ambrose did it in Milan in 386. Read more: <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/bites/the-heresy-with-a-catchy-tune/" target="_blank">The heresy with a catchy tune</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> The creed of Caesarea, with “the first-born of all creation”, survives because Eusebius quoted it to the council of Nicaea and in a letter to his church. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/26011.htm" target="_blank">Socrates, Church History 1.8</a> Handing the creed to catechumens before Easter is <<verdict "Plausible">> for the 320s, and recorded in Jerusalem a generation later. Read more: <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/bites/how-the-creed-got-into-the-mass/" target="_blank">How the Creed got into the Mass</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> The earliest Christian handbook, the Didache, asks for baptism in “living” (running) water where possible, and in other water, even warm, if not. Baptising in the sea at Easter is <<verdict "Plausible">>. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0714.htm" target="_blank">The Didache 7</a> Read more: <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/bites/the-first-handbook-with-a-plan-for-warm-water/" target="_blank">The first handbook with a plan for warm water</a></div> <div class="choices"> [[On to Chapter 2|Ch2_Title]] </div>

<<artwork "ch2-open" "cover">> <p class="chapter-no">Chapter 2</p> <h2 class="chapter">Guests from Alexandria</h2> <p class="when">Sykoussa · AD 322–323</p> <div class="choices"> [[Begin the chapter|Ch2_01]] </div>

Easter week ends, as everything in the church ends, with the accounts. The Easter alms are good. <<pay 1 "Easter alms">><<if $flags.soldier is "sheltered">> Valerius and his family eat at the church’s expense, and the chest feels it. <<pay -1 "Valerius and his family’s keep">><</if>> <<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">> <<say "hesychios">>“The Easter alms came to more than last year, Father, and the list of the poor to more again.<<if $flags.soldier is "sheltered">> Valerius eats like two men; I have entered him under ‘defence of the church’.<</if>><<if $flags.creed is "added">> Three of the old families have stopped giving since you changed the creed. They will come back. Probably.<</if>> A quiet year would suit the purse very well. I have learned not to expect one.”<</say>> <<else>> <<say "pyrrhos">>“Eleven baptised, Father, and every one of them can say the creed. Saying it was the easy part. Now they need a year of learning to live by it, even when it costs them something.<<if $flags.songs is "hymn">> And we need a new hymn: the sailors have learned ours, and sing it to tease us.<</if>><<if $flags.soldier is "refused">> And somebody should find out what became of that soldier.<</if>> <<if $purse lte 1>>The purse is thin, but the purse is always thin.<<else>>The chest is healthy for once, which makes me nervous.<</if>> It is the people I worry about.”<</say>> <</if>> The ship from Alexandria ties up a week after Easter, with a hold full of papyrus and three passengers who are not merchants. They come up to the church in dusty travelling cloaks: two young deacons, and an older man with ink-stained fingers and the careful courtesy of someone who has been thrown out of better places than yours. <<say "horion">>“Horion, Father. Presbyter of the church of Alexandria, or I was, until Bishop Alexander decided otherwise. We kept Easter with our own people and sailed the next morning. We travel north with Arius. He follows on a later ship.”<</say>> Alexander has <<term "excommunicate" "excommunicated">> all three of them, along with Arius. Now they are asking for a bed for a few nights, and for something more: to stand at your altar on Sunday and receive the Eucharist with your people. There is an old rule about this, older than any of you: those whom one bishop has cast out, another does not take back. But Horion’s friends in the East, people say, are taking back everyone. <<if $bishop.id is "isidoros">> You know Horion by sight. He used to preach at Baucalis on the Sundays Arius was away, and the dockers liked him better. <<elseif $bishop.id is "felix">> In Carthage it began like this: one bishop’s outcast welcomed at another bishop’s altar, and then two altars, and then two churches. <</if>> <<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">> <<say "hesychios">>“They seem gentle enough, Father. But the whole harbour knows who they are.”<</say>> <<else>> <<say "pyrrhos">>“Bread and a bed, Father. Not the altar.”<</say>> <</if>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Welcome them fully: a bed, and a place at the altar. Let Alexander sort out Alexandria." "Ch2_02">><<set $flags.guests to "communion">><<adj "leaning" -2>><<adj "conscience" -1>><<adj "flock" -1>><<record "You gave Horion and his companions communion, though Alexander had cast them out.">><</link>> <<link "Give them a bed, but not communion. That belongs to their own bishop." "Ch2_02">><<set $flags.guests to "lodging">><<adj "conscience" 1>><<record "You gave Arius’s companions a bed, but not communion.">><</link>> <<link "Send them on to Caesarea, and let your metropolitan decide." "Ch2_02">><<set $flags.guests to "sent">><<adj "leaning" -1>><<adj "court" 1>><<record "You sent Arius’s companions on to Caesarea.">><</link>> </div>

<<if $flags.guests is "communion">> On Sunday, Horion receives the Eucharist at your altar. Half your people do not notice. The other half notice nothing else. <<elseif $flags.guests is "lodging">> Horion thanks you for the bed with real warmth, and on Sunday he stands quietly at the back while your people receive. It is the most dignified thing you have seen all year, and you hate it a little. <<else>> Horion and his deacons take the coast road north. Timon says they spoke well of you on the way out. You are not sure that is a compliment. <</if>> Ten days later, Arius himself comes ashore. You expected a firebrand. You get a tall, stooped old man in a short, plain tunic, thin as a fasting monk, with a soft voice and lowered eyes. He is on his way north to his friend the bishop of <<term "eusebius-nicomedia" "Nicomedia">>. His ship sails at dawn. Tonight, he asks, might he share your table? You can hardly turn a hungry old man away from a meal. The question is what kind of meal it will be. He eats almost nothing. He asks after your people by name, since Horion has told him everything, and he is gentle, courteous, and very funny about Alexandrian bishops. Then, over the figs: <<say "arius">>“They persecute us for saying that the Son has a beginning, and that God has none. Is that so terrible? A son comes after his father. Every child in your town knows that.”<</say>> <<if $bishop.id is "domnos">> He remembers you from Antioch, and says so warmly. That makes it harder. <<elseif $bishop.id is "theodoulos">> He notices your eye, and asks, very gently, where you lost it. When you tell him, he bows his head, and you can see he means it. <</if>> <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>“Feed him, Father: he is old, and ship’s food is terrible. But say as little as you can. Whatever you say at that table will be in Nicomedia within the month, improved.”<<else>>“Do not sit and nod at him, Father. If you share his bread, answer him. If you cannot answer him, do not share his bread.”<</if>><</advice>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Let him talk. You want to hear it from his own mouth." "Ch2_03">><<set $flags.arius to "listened">><<adj "leaning" -1>><<adj "conscience" -1>><<record "You let Arius explain himself over supper.">><</link>> <<link "Answer him across the table: “In the beginning was the Word… and the Word was God.”" "Ch2_03">><<set $flags.arius to "argued">><<adj "conscience" 1>><<record "You answered Arius from the Gospel of John across your own table.">><</link>> <<link "Feed him, but do not pray with him. He is excommunicate." "Ch2_03">><<set $flags.arius to "apart">><<adj "leaning" 1>><<adj "court" -1>><<record "You fed Arius, but would not pray with him.">><</link>> </div>

<<if $flags.arius is "listened">> He talks until the lamp gutters. He is not a monster. He is clever, devout and lonely, and by the end you understand exactly what he believes, which is worse than not understanding it. On the quay at dawn, he thanks you for listening. Nobody in Alexandria has, he says. <<elseif $flags.arius is "argued">> You quote John to him: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn 1:1). He smiles. <<say "arius">>“God, yes. I say so too. A perfect creature of God, but not as one of the creatures.”<</say>> He means every word, and not one of them the way you do. He sails at dawn, still smiling. <<else>> You say grace alone. Arius eats his few figs in silence, bows to you at the end, and sleeps on board. By the time you wake, his ship is a sail on the horizon. <</if>> <<if $bishop.origin is "local">> At midsummer you go up to Kefar Tamra, the hill village where your family has kept olive trees for as long as anyone remembers. It is a day’s walk inland: terraces, goats, a threshing floor, and a church in a barn, served by a country presbyter who is also the village blacksmith. <<if $bishop.id is "malchos">> You were born here. Half the village are your cousins, and the other half remember you as a boy who fell off the threshing sledge. <</if>> You come for the threshing and a quiet week. You get a war.<<if $flags.visit is "village">> The blacksmith-presbyter remembers your winter visit, and so do the two families who stood on opposite sides of the barn. They are no longer pretending not to see each other. They are shouting.<</if>> Two families, old Yohanan’s sons and the widow Nonna’s sons, have been feuding over the village spring for a year. Last summer one family dammed it; this spring the other broke the dam. They have not spoken since, and on Sundays they stand on opposite sides of the barn and will not share the Eucharist with each other. Both families meet you at the threshing floor, with the whole village behind them, and ask you to judge. Paul told the Corinthians to settle their quarrels among themselves rather than before pagan judges (1 Cor 6). The magistrate in Sykoussa would disagree. <<if $bishop.id is "zacchaios">> Somebody, inevitably, makes a joke about sycamore trees. <</if>> <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>Before you set out, Hesychios warned you: “If they ask you to judge, Father, remember that the magistrate takes a fee for every quarrel in the district. He will not thank you for doing his work for nothing.”<<else>>Before you set out, Pyrrhos told you: “A village that will not share the cup has no church in it, Father, whatever is standing in the barn.”<</if>><</advice>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Sit under the village oak and hear both families out, however long it takes." "Ch2_04">><<set $flags.encounter to "village-hear">><<adj "court" -1>><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "At Kefar Tamra, you sat under the oak and judged the quarrel over the spring.">><</link>> <<link "Send them to the magistrate. A bishop is not a judge of springs." "Ch2_04">><<set $flags.encounter to "village-magistrate">><<adj "court" 1>><<adj "flock" -1>><<record "At Kefar Tamra, you sent the quarrel over the spring to the magistrate.">><</link>> <<link "Refuse to judge at all until both families share one table." "Ch2_04">><<set $flags.encounter to "village-table">><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "At Kefar Tamra, you made two feuding families share a table until they settled it themselves.">><</link>> </div> <<else>> Midsummer in Sykoussa means fish: tunny and mullet stacked on the quay, flies, gulls, and the whole town haggling in three languages. You are buying bread when the shouting starts. The <<term "agoranomos" "market inspector">>, a sharp-nosed pagan with no love for Christians, has caught a fishmonger with a false weight. The fishmonger is Glaukos, who sings in your church every Sunday and has seven children. The inspector holds the weight up for the crowd to see. It is lighter than it should be by a good handful of fish. Everyone turns to look at you. <<if $bishop.id is "kyriakos">> The inspector looks at the way you are standing, and you watch him remember that you used to be an officer. <<elseif $bishop.id is "isidoros">> In Alexandria, a weight this short would not even raise an eyebrow. This is not Alexandria. <<elseif $bishop.id is "ammonios">> After ten years of desert silence, the fish market is the loudest place you have ever stood. Everyone in it is waiting for you to speak. <</if>> <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>Hesychios arrives at a trot, wax tablet in hand. “Glaukos gives a basket of fish to the poor every week, Father. Fine him, and the basket stops. Shield him, and the inspector remembers. I cannot tell you which costs more. I can only tell you what the basket costs.”<<else>>Pyrrhos arrives at a run. “He sings in our church, Father, and he cheats in our market. Both of those are your business. Neither of them is the inspector’s.”<</if>><</advice>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Stand by him. He is one of yours, and the inspector hates Christians." "Ch2_04">><<set $flags.encounter to "market-defend">><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "In the fish market, you stood by Glaukos against the inspector.">><</link>> <<link "Let the inspector fine him. The church does not hide cheats." "Ch2_04">><<set $flags.encounter to "market-fine">><<adj "court" 1>><<adj "flock" -1>><<record "In the fish market, you let the inspector fine Glaukos.">><</link>> <<link "Make him pay his customers back fourfold, like Zacchaeus, there and then." "Ch2_04">><<set $flags.encounter to "market-restore">><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "In the fish market, you made Glaukos pay his customers back fourfold.">><</link>> </div> <</if>>

<<switch $flags.encounter>> <<case "village-hear">> It takes three days under the oak. You hear about the spring, the dam, a goat stolen twelve years ago, and a wedding nobody has forgiven. In the end you divide the water by days of the week, and both families grumble equally, which is how you know it is fair. On Sunday they stand on the same side of the barn. Back in Sykoussa, the clerk mentions that he hears the bishop is holding courts of his own now. <<case "village-magistrate">> You send them down to the magistrate in Sykoussa. He charges both families a fee, decides nothing, and the dam goes back up. The next time you visit Kefar Tamra, both families are very polite to you. <<case "village-table">> You refuse to judge until both families sit at one table. It is the most awkward meal of your life. By the third cup, old Yohanan and the widow Nonna are arguing about a wedding twenty years ago. By the fourth, they have settled the spring between themselves, and you have hardly said a word. <<case "market-defend">> You stand by Glaukos, and the inspector backs down with a look you will remember. Your people cheer you all the way up the hill. That evening Glaukos quietly swaps his weight for an honest one, and does not meet your eye. <<case "market-fine">> The inspector fines Glaukos heavily, and makes a speech about Christian honesty that he clearly enjoys. Glaukos’s seven children stare at you from behind the fish baskets. Some of your people do not speak to you for a week. <<default>> You make Glaukos count out the coins himself, four times over, to every customer who can show a short weight. It takes all afternoon and most of his savings. By sunset the inspector has nothing left to fine, and the whole quay is talking about the Christians who pay back more than they owe. <</switch>> In the autumn, two letters arrive in the same week. The first is from Caesarea, in your metropolitan’s elegant hand. <<term "eusebius-caesarea" "Eusebius">> is writing, with other bishops of Palestine and Syria, to Alexander of Alexandria. Arius has been misunderstood, he says: he holds that the Son was begotten before all ages, and is no common creature. Surely brothers can be reconciled. Eusebius would be glad to add your name. The second, from Jerusalem, is much shorter. <<letter "From Jerusalem" "Macarius">>I hear that Caesarea is collecting names. I ask you, as your brother, not to give it yours.<</letter>> Eusebius is the man who laid his hands on your head. He will remember what you do. <<if $bishop.id is "aphthonios">> You learned your theology from his books, in his library. It is very hard to say no to your teacher. <<elseif $bishop.id is "kyriakos">> In the army, you did not refuse your commanding officer. This is not the army. You have to remind yourself twice. <</if>> <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>“Your metropolitan approves our clergy, Father, and his goodwill keeps our affairs quiet. A signature is cheap; a quarrel with Caesarea is not. But read every word before you sign. Eusebius writes beautifully, and the beautiful letters are the ones that hide things.”<<else>>“Macarius asked you as a brother. Eusebius asked you as a metropolitan. Only one of them is asking you to put your name to something you would not say at the altar.”<</if>><</advice>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Sign. Your metropolitan asks it, and peace is worth a signature." "Ch2_05">><<set $flags.letter to "signed">><<adj "leaning" -2>><<adj "conscience" -1>><<record "You added your name to Eusebius’s letter asking Alexander to restore Arius.">><</link>> <<link "Sign, but add a line of your own: that the Son is no creature like the others." "Ch2_05">><<set $flags.letter to "qualified">><<adj "leaning" -1>><<record "You signed Eusebius’s letter, with a qualifying line of your own.">><</link>> <<link "Decline, as politely as you can." "Ch2_05">><<set $flags.letter to "declined">><<adj "leaning" 1>><<adj "conscience" 1>><<record "You declined to sign Eusebius’s letter.">><</link>> </div>

<<if $flags.letter is "signed">> Your name goes south to Alexandria in a bundle of other names. Eusebius sends warm thanks. Macarius sends nothing at all. <<elseif $flags.letter is "qualified">> Eusebius replies within the week, delighted. Arius, he writes, says exactly that himself: a creature, but not like the others. You read the letter twice, and realise you have signed what you meant to refuse. <<else>> You write to Caesarea with all the courtesy you can muster. Eusebius’s reply is short, correct, and colder than the sea in January. From Jerusalem comes a jar of oil from the Mount of Olives, and no letter at all. <</if>> Winter comes in grey off the sea. One morning after prayers, old Severa stops you at the church door. She owns half the olive groves behind the town, pays for a good deal of what the church needs, and has never once waited to be asked her opinion.<<if $flags.visit is "severa">> Since you admired her floor, she has treated you like a promising but slightly disappointing nephew.<</if>> <<say "severa">>“My grandson came home singing that sailors’ song. Then a man from Egypt told him at the fish stalls that the Son of God had a beginning, like the rest of us. So I will ask you plainly, Father, since I am paying for your roof. Was there a time when the Son was not? Yes or no.”<</say>> Half the congregation has stopped to listen. On Sunday you will have to answer her properly, from the Scriptures, in front of everyone. The question is which Scriptures. <<if $bishop.id is "zenobios">> You have known Severa since you were a boy. She asked you in exactly this voice whether you had been stealing her figs. (You had.) <<elseif $bishop.id is "malchos">> Severa asked in Greek. The fishermen behind her are waiting to hear the answer in Aramaic. <<elseif $bishop.id is "aphthonios">> You already know which text you want. It is the hard one. It is always the hard one. <</if>> <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>“Severa pays for the roof, Father, and half the town will be listening. Whatever you preach, keep it short enough that she is still awake at the end.”<<else>>“She asked you yes or no in front of the whole church. Answer her in front of the whole church. Choose the text that settles it, not the one that is easiest to preach.”<</if>><</advice>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Preach on John: “I and the Father are one.”" "Ch2_06">><<set $flags.sermon to "john">><<adj "leaning" 1>><<adj "conscience" 1>><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "You preached on “I and the Father are one.”">><</link>> <<link "Take away their favourite verse: “The LORD created me at the beginning of his work” (Prov 8:22)." "Ch2_06">><<set $flags.sermon to "proverbs">><<adj "conscience" 2>><<adj "flock" -1>><<record "You preached on Proverbs 8:22, Arius’s favourite verse, and took it away from him.">><</link>> <<link "Preach on almsgiving, and answer Severa privately." "Ch2_06">><<set $flags.sermon to "dodge">><<adj "leaning" -1>><<adj "conscience" -1>><<adj "flock" -1>><<record "You preached on almsgiving, and answered Severa privately.">><</link>> </div>

<<if $flags.sermon is "john">> You preach on John: “I and the Father are one” (Jn 10:30). The Son is not a lesser god, you tell them, or God’s first and finest creature. He and the Father are one. Severa nods once, which from her is a standing ovation. On Monday, down at the harbour, the Alexandrian sailors have their answer ready. One, yes, they say: one in will, the way a man and his wife are one. It is a true sermon you preached. It is not, you realise, a finished one. <<elseif $flags.sermon is "proverbs">> You go straight for the verse Arius’s friends love best: “The LORD created me at the beginning of his work” (Prov 8:22). Proverbs is Solomon’s poetry, you tell them. When Wisdom speaks in it, she speaks the way a poet lets a city or a river speak. And God was never without his Wisdom, any more than the sun is ever without its light. If these words point to the Son at all, they speak of him becoming man: the eternal Word taking on a created human nature, for our sake. They do not say there was a time when he was not. The sermon runs an hour. The fishermen fall asleep. Severa stays awake to the end, frowning, and tells you afterwards that she understood about half of it, and that half was right. On Monday, the Alexandrian sailors at the harbour are noticeably quieter about Proverbs. <<else>> You preach on almsgiving. It is a good sermon. Nobody remembers a word of it. Severa leaves before the end, and you answer her afterwards in her own courtyard, where nobody else can hear. <</if>> In spring, a carefully worded invitation comes from Caesarea. Your metropolitan is having a few friends to dinner: <<term "paulinus" "Paulinus of Tyre">>, <<term "patrophilus" "Patrophilus of Scythopolis">>, and a dozen bishops of Palestine and Syria. It is not a <<term "synod">>, the letter says. Synods are forbidden. It is dinner. Everyone knows what is on the menu. Arius’s presbyters want permission to keep gathering their own congregations, as presbyters in Alexandria always have, while they wait for Alexander to forgive them. The bishops of Palestine will decide whether to give it. If the governor’s men take an interest, calling it dinner will not save anyone. <<if $bishop.id is "felix">> Two altars in one city. You have seen this before. It does not end at dinner. <<elseif $bishop.id is "kyriakos">> You know exactly how many soldiers it takes to arrest a dozen old men at dinner. Four, and one of them can stay outside. <</if>> <<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">> <<say "hesychios">>“Go if you must, Father, but go by the inland road, and take nothing in writing. Dinners are not against the law. Minutes are.”<</say>> <<else>> <<say "pyrrhos">>“Go, and say what you think. If the governor wants to arrest a dozen bishops for eating fish, let him explain it to the Christians in his own household.”<</say>> <</if>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Go, and argue against it. Two altars in one city is a schism." "Ch2_07">><<set $flags.synod to "against">><<adj "leaning" 1>><<adj "court" -1>><<adj "conscience" 1>><<record "You went to the dinner at Caesarea and argued against Arius’s separate assemblies.">><</link>> <<link "Go, and vote with your metropolitan: let them gather, if they submit to Alexander and keep trying to make peace with him." "Ch2_07">><<set $flags.synod to "with">><<adj "leaning" -1>><<adj "court" -1>><<adj "conscience" -1>><<record "You went to Caesarea and voted with Eusebius to let Arius’s presbyters gather their people.">><</link>> <<link "Stay home. Write that the emperor’s law forbids it, and that you will pray for them." "Ch2_07">><<set $flags.synod to "away">><<adj "court" 1>><<record "You stayed away from the dinner at Caesarea.">><</link>> </div>

<<if $flags.synod is "against">> You speak against it, and lose. The bishops grant Arius’s presbyters their congregations, on condition that they submit to Alexander and keep trying to make peace with him. Paulinus of Tyre pats your hand and calls you “new”. Eusebius calls you “conscientious”, which is worse. <<elseif $flags.synod is "with">> The vote goes as Eusebius wished. Arius’s presbyters may gather their people, on condition that they submit to Alexander and keep trying to make peace with him. Everyone agrees it is a sensible compromise. Nobody believes Alexander will think so. <<else>> The bishops meet without you and grant Arius’s presbyters their congregations, on condition that they submit to Alexander and keep trying to make peace with him. You hear about it from Timon, who heard it from a fishmonger. <</if>> Summer comes and goes. The figs ripen and split in the heat, and the whole town smells of them. <<if $flags.soldier is "sheltered">> Valerius has trained three fishermen’s sons to keep the church door, and drills them like a centurion. <</if>> <<if $flags.songs is "hymn">> Your hymn has reached Joppa. A merchant sings it to you, badly, not knowing it is yours. <</if>> <<if $flags.guests is "communion" or $flags.arius is "listened">> A letter comes from Horion in Nicomedia. Arius has been welcomed there like a son, and the bishop has written to half the churches of the East on his behalf. <</if>> In the autumn, the ships from the north bring a different kind of news. Constantine, emperor of the West, has chased an army of Goths across the Danube and deep into Licinius’s lands, without asking leave. Licinius is said to be furious. Down on the quay, the sailors have stopped singing Arius’s song. They are talking about war. For the first time, you wonder which emperor you will be praying for this time next year. <div class="choices"> [[End the chapter|Ch2_Summary]] </div>

<p class="chapter-no">End of Chapter 2</p> <h2>What you decided</h2> <<summary>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Open the map">><<run setup.openMap()>><</link>> [[Read your letters|Ch2_Letters]] </div>

<h2>Letters</h2> <<letter "From the daybook of Timon, deacon" "Timon">> <<if $flock gte 7>> The church is full every Sunday, and Severa has stopped complaining about the roof, which is how we know she is pleased. <<elseif $flock lte 3>> Some families have started going to the Alexandrians’ meetings down by the harbour instead of ours. I do not know how to stop them. <<else>> The people are steady. They argue about Arius in the market, but they still come on Sunday. <</if>> <<if $flags.guests is "communion">> People keep asking me whether we are in communion with Alexandria or against it. I do not know what to tell them. <</if>> <<if $flags.sermon is "proverbs">> The fishermen ask whether next Sunday’s sermon might be shorter. <<elseif $flags.sermon is "dodge">> Severa told the whole fish market that you answered her “in private, like a man buying fish he is ashamed of”. <</if>> <<if $flags.synod is "away">> The governor’s men did visit Caesarea, I hear. They found nothing but a dinner. <</if>> <<switch $flags.encounter>> <<case "village-hear">>Word comes down from Kefar Tamra that the two families are now godparents to each other’s grandchildren. <<case "village-magistrate">>The dam at Kefar Tamra is back up, I hear. <<case "village-table">>Kefar Tamra has sent down a basket of figs and a jar of oil, from both families, on one donkey. <<case "market-defend">>The market inspector has started weighing our people’s fish twice. <<case "market-fine">>Glaukos’s wife no longer brings us fish for the poor. <<case "market-restore">>The fish market has started calling an honest weight “a bishop’s pound”. <</switch>> <</letter>> <<if $flags.letter is "declined" or $flags.synod is "against">> <<letter "From Jerusalem" "Macarius">>You will have heard what was decided at Caesarea. Do not lose heart. Alexander knows who his friends are, and so do I.<</letter>> <<elseif $flags.letter is "signed" or $flags.synod is "with">> <<letter "From Caesarea" "Eusebius">>Your metropolitan thanks you for your good sense this year. Peace is a harder thing to build than a quarrel, he writes, and it needs builders.<</letter>> <</if>> <<if $flags.guests is "lodging">> <<letter "From Nicomedia" "Horion">>Thank you for the bed. I did not take the refusal of the altar as unkindness. When this is over, I hope to stand at it with you.<</letter>> <</if>> <div class="choices"> [[Continue|Ch2_Note]] </div>

<h2>What really happened</h2> <<artwork "ch2-close" "artefact">> <p class="intro">Horion, Severa, Glaukos, Kefar Tamra and Sykoussa are invented. Arius, Eusebius, Macarius and the dinner at Caesarea are not.</p> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> There was already a rule that people excommunicated by one bishop should not be received by another. The Council of Nicaea repeated it as its fifth canon. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3801.htm" target="_blank">Council of Nicaea, canon 5</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> Arius wrote to Eusebius of Nicomedia that Eusebius of Caesarea and “all the bishops of the East” were on his side, except a few, Macarius of Jerusalem among them. His complaint at supper comes from the same letter: “we are persecuted because we say that the Son has a beginning, but that God is without beginning.” <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/27021.htm" target="_blank">Theodoret, Church History 1.4</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> Arius asked Paulinus of Tyre, Eusebius of Caesarea and Patrophilus of Scythopolis to let his presbyters keep gathering their people. Bishops assembled in Palestine agreed, on condition that he submit to Alexander and seek peace with him. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/26021.htm" target="_blank">Sozomen, Church History 1.15</a> Eusebius’s sympathy for Arius grew partly from the school of Origen, whose library he inherited at Caesarea. Read more: <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/stories/origen-genius-confessor-and-suspect/" target="_blank">Origen: genius, confessor and suspect</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> Proverbs 8:22, “The LORD created me”, was the favourite text of Arius’s side. Athanasius later answered it at length, reading it of the Word taking flesh for our sake. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/28162.htm" target="_blank">Athanasius, Discourse 2 Against the Arians</a> Arius’s side read “I and the Father are one” as a oneness of will, and Athanasius answers that too. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/28163.htm" target="_blank">Discourse 3</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Plausible">> A bishop settling a village quarrel, or facing down a market inspector. Bishops were already settling disputes between Christians, as Paul urged (1 Cor 6:1–6), and Constantine later gave their judgments the force of law.</div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Plausible">> Arius stopping at a small harbour on his way north. He did go from Egypt to Palestine and on to Nicomedia, but his route is unknown. Compare that with a much older disagreement that ended at the same table: <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/stories/two-bishops-who-disagreed-and-prayed-together/" target="_blank">Two bishops who disagreed and prayed together</a></div> <div class="choices"> [[On to Chapter 3|Ch3_Title]] </div>

<<artwork "ch3-open" "cover">> <p class="chapter-no">Chapter 3</p> <h2 class="chapter">A New Emperor</h2> <p class="when">AD 324 – early 325</p> <div class="choices"> [[Begin the chapter|Ch3_01]] </div>

For most of 324, the war happens somewhere else: rumours, then ships that do not come, then grain prices nobody wants to talk about. In late September the news arrives all at once. Constantine has beaten Licinius twice: at Adrianople in Thrace in July, and at <<term "chrysopolis" "Chrysopolis">>, across the water from Byzantium. Licinius has surrendered at Nicomedia. His wife, who is Constantine’s sister, begged for his life, and Constantine has spared it. For the first time in living memory, the whole Empire has one emperor, and he is a Christian, though, like many in his day, not yet baptised. But grain is dear after a year of war, and the list of the poor is longer than it has ever been. <<pay -1 "bread for the poor, after the war">> <<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">> <<say "hesychios">>“Bread has gone up by a third since the summer, Father, and the list of the poor with it. If the new emperor means what they say he means, I would like him to begin with the price of grain.”<</say>> <<else>> <<say "pyrrhos">>“Twenty years, Father. Diocletian, Maximinus, Licinius. Twenty years of watching the road for soldiers. Now it is over, and I keep waiting to feel glad, and I cannot, not yet. Perhaps tomorrow.”<</say>> <</if>> By evening the forum is full. Someone has pulled Licinius’s statue off its plinth and is dragging it towards the harbour, to cheers. Half your congregation is in the crowd, in the mood crowds get into after twenty years of being afraid. Then somebody remembers the magistrate’s clerk: the man who wrote things down, who asked about the soldier at your door, who counted your people every Easter. His name, it turns out, is Demetrios. The crowd starts up the hill towards his house. <<if $flags.soldier is "sheltered">> Valerius looks at you, then at the crowd, and waits for an order. <</if>> <<if $bishop.id is "zacchaios">> You know Demetrios. You once shared an office with him. He was a terrible clerk, and he has three small children. <<elseif $bishop.id is "theodoulos">> Some of the people in that crowd remember who sent you to Phaeno. So do you. <<elseif $bishop.id is "kyriakos">> You know exactly what a crowd like this does next. <</if>> <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>“If you go up that hill, Father, go up it alone. A crowd will not stone a bishop on the first night of a Christian emperor, but it might stone a deacon. And whatever you decide, decide it quickly.”<<else>>“He wrote our names down for ten years, Father. And for ten years I have prayed every night for God to repay him. Tonight God seems to be taking me at my word, and I find I do not like it.”<</if>><</advice>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Go up the hill yourself and stand in front of his door." "Ch3_02">><<set $flags.mob to "stood">><<adj "court" 1>><<adj "flock" -1>><<record "On the night of the victory, you stood in front of Demetrios’s door.">><</link>> <<link "Call your people into the church to give thanks, and keep them there till morning." "Ch3_02">><<set $flags.mob to "church">><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "On the night of the victory, you called your people into the church to give thanks.">><</link>> <<link "Let the crowd have its night. After twenty years, they have earned it." "Ch3_02">><<set $flags.mob to "let">><<adj "court" -1>><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "On the night of the victory, you let the crowd have its way.">><</link>> </div>

<<if $flags.mob is "stood">> You stand in Demetrios’s doorway in your best cloak and say nothing at all. The crowd mutters, stops, and drifts back down to the harbour to throw the statue into the sea. Behind you, Demetrios is weeping. Some of your people will not forgive you for this for a while. <<elseif $flags.mob is "church">> You call your people into the church, and most of them come, singing. The thanksgiving lasts until dawn. Others break Demetrios’s shutters in the night, but nobody lays a hand on him. <<else>> You let them have their night. Demetrios is dragged into the street and beaten: not badly, but badly enough. On Sunday your people come to the Eucharist glowing. You find it hard to look at them. <</if>> Within weeks, the emperor’s edicts reach the coast. Exiles may come home. Confiscated property is to be returned. For your church, that means the olive grove seized in the persecution and sold off at auction: twelve old trees, and the oil from them, come back to you. <<pay 1 "the church’s olive grove, restored">> Christians dismissed from the army may have their rank back, or an honourable discharge. And all over the town, people who never gave the church a second glance are suddenly very interested in it. One morning Demetrios himself is standing at the church door, cap in hand. <<if $flags.mob is "stood">> <<say "demetrios">>“You stood in my doorway, Father. For ten years I wrote down every name in your church for men who wanted you dead. I should like to know what kind of God makes a man do that. I should like to be enrolled.”<</say>> <<else>> <<say "demetrios">>“The emperor is a Christian now, Father, and I have a family to think of. I am told the governor’s office will look kindly on men of the faith. I should like to be enrolled.” He at least has the grace to look embarrassed.<</say>> <</if>> <<if $bishop.id is "zacchaios">> A collector of other people’s secrets, asking to come in. You were one too, once. <<elseif $bishop.id is "kyriakos">> The same edict would give you back your old rank. You read it twice, and find you do not want it. <</if>> <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>“He knows every family in this town, Father, and what each of them owes the magistrate. I would much rather have that man inside the church than outside it. I would also count the spoons.”<<else>>“Ten years he wrote our names down for the persecutors, Father. Now he wants his own written in our book. Christ forgave Peter, I know. He also made him say it three times.”<</if>><</advice>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Enrol him. Christ ate with tax collectors; Demetrios can stand at the back with the catechumens." "Ch3_03">><<set $flags.clerk to "enrolled">><<adj "court" 1>><<adj "flock" -1>><<record "You enrolled Demetrios, the magistrate’s clerk, as a catechumen.">><</link>> <<link "Make him wait a year, helping with the list of the poor, before you enrol him." "Ch3_03">><<set $flags.clerk to "wait">><<record "You made Demetrios wait a year, working for the poor, before enrolling him.">><</link>> <<link "Refuse him. Let him find his faith somewhere the emperor isn’t watching." "Ch3_03">><<set $flags.clerk to "refused">><<adj "court" -1>><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "You turned Demetrios away from the church door.">><</link>> </div>

<<if $flags.clerk is "enrolled">> Demetrios stands at the back with the catechumens, very straight and very alone. After a month, Severa does, and that settles it. <<elseif $flags.clerk is "wait">> Demetrios turns up for the list of the poor every morning at dawn, with his own wax tablet. He is, your archdeacon admits through his teeth, an excellent clerk. <<else>> Demetrios goes up the coast road to Caesarea, where Eusebius enrols him at once. You hear he is very happy there. <</if>> In October you have your presbyters to dinner: old Zosimos, who has been a presbyter longer than anyone can remember; the blacksmith from Kefar Tamra, in his one good tunic; three others; and your archdeacon, counting the lamps. For the first time in twenty years it is safe to tell the stories, and everyone tells them. Who hid the chalice in a well. Who was flogged, and how many strokes, and how it felt. Who was dragged into the magistrate’s court and walked out again because the magistrate’s wife was a catechumen. The wine goes round, and round again. Zosimos says nothing all evening. When the others have gone, he stays behind. <<say "zosimos">>“In the first year, Father, when Diocletian ordered the holy books handed over, the magistrate’s men came to my door. I had a wife and three small sons. I gave them the Gospel book and the psalter, and they burned them in the forum. I have never told anyone. Tonight they were all telling their stories, and I could not breathe.”<</say>> Men like him were called <<term "traditor" "traditors">>: handers-over. By the strictest rules he should have been removed from the altar long ago. In Africa, the whole church split over men like him. <<if $bishop.id is "felix">> This is exactly how Africa broke: over men like Zosimos, and whether God could still use them. <<elseif $bishop.id is "theodoulos">> You went to the mines rather than hand them anything. He handed them a book. You wait to feel angry, and find that you do not. <<elseif $bishop.id is "zenobios">> You have known Zosimos all your life. He baptised you. <</if>> <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>“Father, half the clergy of the East handed something over in those years, and the other half were lucky. A secret like this costs nothing until somebody tells it.”<<else>>“He has carried this alone for twenty years, Father. Whatever you decide, do not let him carry it alone for one more night.”<</if>><</advice>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Absolve him, and keep his secret." "Ch3_04">><<set $flags.zosimos to "kept">><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "You absolved Zosimos, and kept his secret.">><</link>> <<link "Ask him to tell the presbyters himself, and stand beside him when he does." "Ch3_04">><<set $flags.zosimos to "told">><<record "You stood beside Zosimos while he told the presbyters his secret.">><</link>> <<link "Ask him to step back from the altar for a season of penance, until Easter." "Ch3_04">><<set $flags.zosimos to "penance">><<adj "flock" -1>><<record "You asked Zosimos to step back from the altar for a season of penance.">><</link>> </div>

<<switch $flags.zosimos>> <<case "kept">> Zosimos goes home lighter than he came. The secret stays between the two of you, and God. Sometimes, at the altar, you catch him looking at the Gospel book as if someone might still take it away. <<case "told">> Zosimos tells them the next evening, with you beside him. There is a long silence. Then the blacksmith from Kefar Tamra gets up, walks round the table and embraces him, and one by one the others do the same. <<default>> Zosimos stands at the back with the penitents all winter, white-haired among the young sinners. People talk, and then, because it is Zosimos, they stop talking and start bringing him bread. <</switch>> In November, a copy of a letter from the emperor reaches every church in the East. It is addressed to Alexander and Arius, and it has been carried to Alexandria by <<term "hosius" "Hosius">>, the old Spanish bishop who travels everywhere with Constantine. The emperor has heard about the quarrel, and he is not impressed. It all began, he writes, with an idle question and a careless answer, about matters too fine for ordinary people to need to hear. He begs them both to forgive each other, and to give him back his quiet days and peaceful nights. Eusebius of Caesarea, your metropolitan, writes to his bishops that the letter should be read in every church. The emperor has spoken, and the quarrel is over. You read the letter again. The emperor is a good man and a great soldier, and he thinks this is an argument about words. <<if $bishop.id is "felix">> You have watched this emperor settle a church quarrel before, in Africa. He began with letters. He ended with soldiers. <<elseif $bishop.id is "barsabas">> Hosius has also been told to settle the date of Easter, the courier says. You make a note to be very busy that week. <<elseif $bishop.id is "isidoros">> Hosius will be in Alexandria by now. You can picture Alexander’s face as he reads the word “idle”. <</if>> <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>“It is the emperor’s letter, Father. I would read it beautifully, add nothing, and leave the rest to God and Hosius.”<<else>>“He calls it a quarrel about words, Father. So was “Jesus is Lord”, once, and people died rather than say “Caesar is Lord” instead.”<</if>><</advice>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Read it to your people, and preach peace: Christians should not tear each other apart." "Ch3_05">><<set $flags.trifle to "peace">><<adj "court" 1>><<adj "leaning" -1>><<adj "conscience" -1>><<record "You read the emperor’s letter and preached peace.">><</link>> <<link "Read it, and then tell them gently that the emperor is mistaken: whether the Son is God is no small question." "Ch3_05">><<set $flags.trifle to "corrected">><<adj "court" -1>><<adj "conscience" 1>><<record "You read the emperor’s letter, and told your people he was mistaken.">><</link>> <<link "Read it with no sermon at all. Let them hear the emperor’s words, and pray." "Ch3_05">><<set $flags.trifle to "plain">><<record "You read the emperor’s letter without a word of your own.">><</link>> </div>

<<if $flags.trifle is "peace">> Your people go home relieved. Down at the harbour, the Alexandrian sailors tell everyone that the emperor has taken Arius’s side. He hasn’t, quite. Nobody believes you. <<elseif $flags.trifle is "corrected">> Your people are startled to hear their bishop disagree with the emperor, and a little thrilled. The governor’s office hears about it within the week. <<else>> You read the emperor’s letter and sit down. The silence afterwards is the longest you have heard in that room. Old men weep. Constantine writes a very good letter. <</if>> Early in the winter, a letter arrives from the governor’s office. The emperor wishes the churches of the East to be repaired, enlarged, or built anew, and the governor is to pay. Sykoussa’s share is more money than the church has seen in its whole life. It is the emperor’s money, not the church’s: the governor’s office will pay the builders directly, and none of it will pass through your chest. Whatever it builds, though, the church will have to keep. Severa has spent two years paying for the roof out of her olive money, one beam at a time. She says she is delighted the emperor will pay for the rest. She says it twice, which is once more than she needs to. <<if $bishop.id is "ammonios">> The old men in the desert built nothing but cells. You feel absurdly guilty about the roof. <<elseif $bishop.id is "eutychios">> A <<term "basilica">> would have an echo. You try very hard not to think about the echo. <</if>> <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>“I have done the sums three ways, Father. The emperor will build the basilica, and we shall be lighting and mending it until the end of the world. The poor will eat the money in one winter. The guesthouse will cost us something every month from the day it opens<<if $purse lt 2>>, and with the chest as it is, we could not keep it open a month<</if>>. I recommend we finish Severa’s roof first. That, at least, I can afford.”<<else>>“We have met in a house since before my grandfather was born, Father, and the Holy Spirit never complained of the ceiling. The emperor will want something he can see from the road. I would spend his money on people he will never see.”<</if>><</advice>> <<chest>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Build a proper basilica, worthy of a church that no longer has to hide." "Ch3_06">><<set $flags.grant to "basilica">><<adj "court" 1>><<record "You spent the emperor’s grant on a new basilica.">><</link>> <<link "Finish the roof, and spend the rest on the poor this winter." "Ch3_06">><<set $flags.grant to "poor">><<adj "court" -1>><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "You spent the emperor’s grant on the poor.">><</link>> <<if $purse gte 2>> <<link "Finish the roof, and build a guesthouse by the harbour for sick sailors and travellers. (Its upkeep will come from the chest.)" "Ch3_06">><<set $flags.grant to "hospice">><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "You built a guesthouse by the harbour for sick sailors and travellers.">><</link>> <<else>> <<unaffordable "Finish the roof, and build a guesthouse by the harbour for sick sailors and travellers." "The chest could never keep it running.">> <<link "Build the guesthouse anyway, if Severa will pay for its upkeep and have her name carved over the door." "Ch3_06">><<set $flags.grant to "hospice">><<set $flags.endowed to "severa">><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "You built a guesthouse by the harbour, with Severa paying for its upkeep and her name over the door.">><</link>> <</if>> </div>

<<if $flags.grant is "basilica">> An architect comes down from Caesarea with a model in wax, and half the town comes to look at it. The builders are promised for the spring. The inscription planned for the new door thanks the emperor; Severa reads the draft twice and says nothing. The list of the poor, your archdeacon notes, does not get any shorter. <<elseif $flags.grant is "poor">> Severa’s roof is finished within the month, and the poor eat well for the rest of the winter. The governor’s office sends a short note asking where the building is. <<else>> Severa’s roof is finished within the month, and work begins on a long, low house by the harbour, with room for twelve beds and a kitchen.<<if $flags.endowed is "severa">> Severa has already approved the lettering for the inscription. It is larger than the door.<</if>> <</if>> In the first weeks of 325, a summons comes from Antioch. Old <<term "philogonius" "Philogonius">> has died, and the church there has chosen <<term "eustathius" "Eustathius">>, a hard, clever man and no friend of Arius’s teaching. Hosius is on his way back from Alexandria, where Alexander and Arius did not, in the end, give the emperor back his quiet nights. Synods are no longer forbidden. The bishops of Syria, Palestine and the lands around are to meet at Antioch, with Hosius presiding. You go. Everyone goes. At Antioch the synod sets out a creed against Arius’s teaching, and asks every bishop to sign it. Nearly every bishop does. Three do not: Theodotus of Laodicea, Narcissus of Neronias, and your own metropolitan, Eusebius of Caesarea. The synod declares the three of them excommunicated. It is not for ever: they may defend themselves at the great council the emperor is planning. Then the creed comes to you, with the pen. <<if $bishop.id is "aphthonios">> Eusebius taught you everything you know about the Scriptures. He is sitting across the room, very still, not looking at you. <<elseif $bishop.id is "domnos">> Antioch is home. Half the bishops in this room sat in Lucian’s lectures with you, and half of those are pretending they did not. <<elseif $bishop.id is "felix">> This is how it went in Africa: a council, a list, and names on the wrong side of it. <</if>> <<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">> <<say "hesychios">>“Sign, Father, and let us go home. Hosius speaks for the emperor, and the emperor pays for roofs. Eusebius will survive a little excommunication. He is a very survivable man.”<</say>> <<else>> <<say "pyrrhos">>“This is what it was all for, Father: the letter, the songs, the creed on the beach. Sign it with a steady hand.”<</say>> <</if>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Sign it." "Ch3_07">><<set $flags.antioch to "signed">><<adj "leaning" 1>><<adj "court" 1>><<adj "conscience" 1>><<record "At Antioch, you signed the creed against Arius.">><</link>> <<link "Sign it, then stand and ask the synod to deal gently with your metropolitan." "Ch3_07">><<set $flags.antioch to "pleaded">><<record "At Antioch, you signed the creed, and spoke up for Eusebius.">><</link>> <<link "Refuse, and stand with your metropolitan." "Ch3_07">><<set $flags.antioch to "refused">><<adj "leaning" -2>><<adj "court" -1>><<adj "conscience" -1>><<record "At Antioch, you refused to sign, and stood with Eusebius.">><</link>> </div>

<<set $flags.councilCalled to true>> <<if $flags.antioch is "signed">> You sign. Across the room, Eusebius watches you do it, and nods, as if you have confirmed something he expected. Afterwards Macarius embraces you like a brother. <<elseif $flags.antioch is "pleaded">> You sign. Then you stand and remind the synod that Eusebius has been a confessor and a scholar, and a father to half the bishops in the room. Hosius listens courteously. The sentence stands, with time to answer at the great council. At the door, Eusebius stops you. “Thank you,” he says. “You are wrong. But thank you.” <<else>> You set down the pen. The room goes very quiet. Hosius asks you, gently, whether you understand what you are doing. You say you do. By evening your name has been added to the list after Narcissus of Neronias: excommunicated, until the great council. Eusebius walks out beside you without a word, and at the gate he puts his hand on your shoulder. <</if>> You sail home along the coast in early spring, past Laodicea and Tyre, with the mountains still white behind them. <<if $flags.grant is "basilica">> At home, the builders have dug the foundations of the new basilica, and taken down half of Severa’s garden wall to do it. <<elseif $flags.grant is "hospice">> At home, the guesthouse by the harbour is finished. Its first patient is an Alexandrian sailor with a broken leg, who complains about everything and leaves a donation. <</if>> <<if $flags.soldier is "sheltered">> At home, Valerius has been offered his old rank back under the emperor’s edict. He has turned it down, he tells you, because the church door has no commanding officer who makes him sacrifice. <<elseif $flags.soldier is "refused">> On the quay at Antioch, a centurion had saluted you as you boarded: Valerius, in a new cloak, with his badges sewn back on. He did not say anything. He did not need to. <</if>> <<if $flags.clerk is "enrolled">> Demetrios meets your ship, with a list of everything that happened while you were away. <</if>> <<if $flags.antioch is "refused">> Timon meets you on the quay looking grey. Word has arrived before you. Half the town knows their bishop is excommunicated, and the other half is working out what that means. <</if>> Halfway home, a fast ship of the imperial post overtakes yours. Its captain shouts the news across the water. The emperor has called every bishop in the world to a great council, to settle Arius and Easter once and for all. It will meet at Ancyra, in the summer. The emperor is paying for everyone’s journey. <div class="choices"> [[End the chapter|Ch3_Summary]] </div>

<p class="chapter-no">End of Chapter 3</p> <h2>What you decided</h2> <<summary>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Open the map">><<run setup.openMap()>><</link>> [[Read your letters|Ch3_Letters]] </div>

<h2>Letters</h2> <<letter "From the daybook of Timon, deacon" "Timon">> <<if $flock gte 7>> We have never had so many people. Some of them are here for God and some for the emperor, and I cannot always tell which. Neither, I suspect, can they. <<elseif $flock lte 3>> Some of our oldest families have stopped coming. They say the church has changed since the emperor became a Christian. I am not sure they are wrong. <<else>> The new people are learning the psalms. The old people are learning to share their benches. <</if>> <<if $flags.mob is "let">> Demetrios’s wife crosses the street when she sees any of us. <</if>> <<switch $flags.grant>> <<case "basilica">>The builders say the new church will be finished by next Easter. They said that last month as well. <<case "poor">>Not one child in the town went hungry this winter. I have never been able to write that before. <<case "hospice">>The guesthouse has had sailors from Alexandria, Tyre and Rhodes. One of them has asked to be baptised. <</switch>> <<if $flags.antioch is "refused">> People ask me whether their bishop is still a bishop. I tell them yes. I hope I am right. <</if>> <<if $flags.zosimos is "told">> The presbyters have been kinder to one another since Zosimos spoke. <<elseif $flags.zosimos is "penance">> Zosimos asks me to tell you that he is counting the days to Easter. <</if>> <</letter>> <<if $flags.antioch is "refused">> <<letter "From Caesarea" "Eusebius">>We are in good company, you and I, whatever Antioch thinks. I shall see you at Ancyra. Bring your best arguments, and something warm to wear: Galatia is cold.<</letter>> <<elseif $flags.antioch is "pleaded">> <<letter "From Caesarea" "Eusebius">>I have not forgotten what you said at Antioch. I shall answer for my faith at the great council, and I hope you will be there to hear it.<</letter>> <<else>> <<letter "From Jerusalem" "Macarius">>Antioch has spoken plainly at last. Now the whole Church will speak. I hope we shall travel to the council together.<</letter>> <</if>> <<if $flags.soldier is "quiet">> <<letter "From the hills" "Valerius">>The emperor has given me my rank back. I am going north with the army. My wife and the girls will stay on at the farm. The farmer says the girls are better at picking figs than I ever was, which is true, and unkind. Pray for me.<</letter>> <</if>> <div class="choices"> [[Continue|Ch3_Note]] </div>

<h2>What really happened</h2> <<artwork "ch3-close" "artefact">> <p class="intro">Demetrios, Zosimos, Valerius and Sykoussa are invented. The war, the emperor’s letters and the synod of Antioch are not.</p> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> Constantine defeated Licinius at Adrianople and at Chrysopolis in 324. Licinius surrendered, and was spared at the plea of his wife, Constantine’s sister. He was put to death the next year. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/26011.htm" target="_blank">Socrates, Church History 1.4</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> After his victory, Constantine recalled exiles, returned confiscated property, offered dismissed Christian soldiers their rank back or an honourable discharge, and wrote to bishops offering public money to repair and enlarge their churches. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/25022.htm" target="_blank">Eusebius, Life of Constantine 2.20–46</a> Eusebius later complained of the “hypocrisy of those who crept into the Church” to win the emperor’s favour. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/25024.htm" target="_blank">4.54</a> Read more: <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/myths/11-constantine-made-christianity-the-official-religion-of-the/" target="_blank">Did Constantine make Christianity the official religion?</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> Constantine wrote to Alexander and Arius, calling their dispute a small matter that had grown from an idle question, and begging them to give him back his quiet days and nights. Hosius of Corduba carried the letter to Alexandria. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/25022.htm" target="_blank">Eusebius, Life of Constantine 2.64–72</a> Read more about Hosius: <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/stories/the-centenarian-who-signed/" target="_blank">The centenarian who signed</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> Early in 325, a synod at Antioch, probably with Hosius presiding, issued a creed against Arius’s teaching. Theodotus of Laodicea, Narcissus of Neronias and Eusebius of Caesarea refused to sign, and were excommunicated until the great synod. The synod’s letter survives only in Syriac, rediscovered in 1905; a few scholars have doubted it, but most accept it. <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/eusebius-caesarea" target="_blank">New Catholic Encyclopedia, “Eusebius of Caesarea”</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Plausible">> A provincial bishop at Antioch. The letter lists fifty-six bishops from Syria, Palestine and the provinces around, so one more from a small coastal see is entirely possible. Read more about Constantine: <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/stories/the-christian-emperor-baptised-on-his-deathbed/" target="_blank">The Christian emperor baptised on his deathbed</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> In 303, Diocletian’s first edict against the Christians ordered their churches destroyed and their Scriptures handed over and burned. Clergy who surrendered the books were called traditors, and in Africa the church split over whether bishops consecrated by them were true bishops. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250108.htm" target="_blank">Eusebius, Church History 8.2</a> Read more: <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/stories/too-strict-to-be-reconciled/" target="_blank">Too strict to be reconciled</a></div> <div class="choices"> [[On to Chapter 4|Ch4_Title]] </div>

<<artwork "ch4-open" "cover">> <p class="chapter-no">Chapter 4</p> <h2 class="chapter">The Imperial Post</h2> <p class="when">Spring – early summer 325</p> <div class="choices"> [[Begin the chapter|Ch4_01]] </div>

<<set $where to "sykoussa">> Easter 325 is the first anyone in Sykoussa can remember keeping indoors, in daylight, with the doors open to the street. <<if $flags.grant is "basilica">> The new basilica is still a hole in the ground with half of Severa’s garden wall in it, so you keep the feast in the old house, as you always have. <<else>> You keep it in the old house, under Severa’s new roof. For once, it does not rain. <</if>> Twenty-three are baptised. Nobody watches the road. A few old families kept their Easter a month ago, by the Jewish reckoning, as some churches in Syria still do and as their grandparents always did. It has never troubled anyone. The Easter alms are the best anyone can remember. <<pay 1 "Easter alms">><<if $flags.grant is "hospice" and $flags.endowed isnot "severa">> The guesthouse by the harbour eats a little of the chest every month, as your archdeacon warned it would. <<pay -1 "the guesthouse’s upkeep">><</if>><<if $flags.zosimos is "penance">> Zosimos is back at the altar for the first time since his penance, and weeps all through the vigil.<</if>> <<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">> <<say "hesychios">>“Twenty-three baptised, Father, and the best Easter alms I have ever counted. Which is fortunate, because the emperor is paying for your journey and nobody is paying for the church while you are on it. I have made a list of everything that can go wrong in four months. It is a long list.”<</say>> <<else>> <<say "pyrrhos">>“Twenty-three baptised, Father, and not one of them had to come at night. I keep counting them. Whatever they decide at the great council, these are the people who will have to live with it. Say it plainly when you get there.”<</say>> <</if>> The emperor’s warrant arrived in Lent: a sheet of parchment under the imperial seal, entitling the bishop of Sykoussa and his party to horses, wagons, beds and bread at every station of the <<term "cursus" "imperial post">> between here and the council. With it came a second letter from the emperor. The council will not meet at Ancyra after all, but at Nicaea, a lakeside town near his palace at Nicomedia: the bishops from Italy and the West are coming, the air there is excellent, and he wishes to be present himself. The emperor pays for the journey; your chest pays only for the odd expense along the way. Your archdeacon will travel with you, as archdeacons do: to carry the papers, count the money, and remember what everyone said. <<if $flags.clerk is "enrolled" or $flags.clerk is "wait">> Demetrios reads the warrant twice and pronounces it genuine, which is more than the governor’s office managed. <</if>> You will be gone for months. Someone must keep the church. <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>“Zosimos will keep the peace and lose the keys, Father. Timon will keep the keys and lose the peace. I have left Timon a list either way.”<<else>>“The presbyters will sulk if you pass over Zosimos, and Severa will run the town whoever you choose. Choose the man you would trust with the altar, not the one you would trust with the accounts.”<</if>><</advice>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Old Zosimos, the senior presbyter: slow, kind, and loved by everyone." "Ch4_02">><<set $flags.deputy to "zosimos">><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "You left old Zosimos, the senior presbyter, in charge at home.">><</link>> <<link "Timon the deacon: young, quick, and already doing half the work." "Ch4_02">><<set $flags.deputy to "timon">><<adj "court" 1>><<adj "flock" -1>><<record "You left Timon the deacon in charge at home, over the presbyters’ heads.">><</link>> <<link "Zosimos in name, with Severa keeping an eye on him." "Ch4_02">><<set $flags.deputy to "severa">><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "You left Zosimos in charge, with Severa keeping an eye on him.">><</link>> </div>

<<set $where to "caesarea">> <<if $flags.deputy is "zosimos">> When you tell Zosimos he will be keeping the church while you are away, he weeps, and promises to change nothing at all. You believe him entirely. <<elseif $flags.deputy is "timon">> Timon takes the keys with a short bow. Behind him, two of the presbyters exchange a look you will think about all the way to Nicaea. <<else>> When you tell Zosimos he will be in charge, with Severa keeping an eye on him, he is delighted. Severa is more delighted, and does not bother to hide it. <</if>> You leave a week after Easter with your archdeacon, two servants, and a mule that hates everyone.<<if $flags.soldier is "sheltered">> Valerius has appointed himself your escort, and will not discuss it.<</if>> The first station is at Caesarea, and the yard is full of bishops. Eusebius is there, with three wagons, two of them full of books. <<if $flags.antioch is "refused">> He embraces you. Two excommunicates on the road to their own trial, he says, should at least share a wagon. <<elseif $flags.antioch is "pleaded">> He thanks you again for Antioch, and offers you a seat. <<else>> He is perfectly courteous, and does not mention Antioch, which is how you know he has not forgotten it. <</if>> Macarius of Jerusalem has one wagon, a driver who swears at every mile, and a spare seat. It is a long way to Nicaea. Whoever you travel with, you will talk about nothing but the council. <<if $bishop.id is "aphthonios">> Eusebius has brought his library, or most of it. You could ride for a month among those books and never look out of the window. <<elseif $bishop.id is "zacchaios">> The station-master is overcharging everyone for fodder. You recognise the technique. <<elseif $bishop.id is "kyriakos">> You travelled by the imperial post as an army officer. The same surly station-masters, the same watered wine. The only difference is that the passengers are bishops now, not soldiers. <</if>> <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>“Eusebius has the better wagon and the better food, Father. Macarius’s driver swears at every mile, but they say he has never overturned a wagon in his life. If it were my bones, I would choose the driver.”<<else>>“You will spend a month beside whoever you choose, Father. Choose the man you would want beside you when the vote is taken.”<</if>><</advice>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Ride with Eusebius, and his books." "Ch4_03">><<set $flags.companion to "eusebius">><<adj "leaning" -1>><<record "You rode north with Eusebius of Caesarea.">><</link>> <<link "Ride with Macarius." "Ch4_03">><<set $flags.companion to "macarius">><<adj "leaning" 1>><<record "You rode north with Macarius of Jerusalem.">><</link>> <<link "Keep your own wagon, and your own counsel." "Ch4_03">><<set $flags.companion to "alone">><<record "You rode north in your own wagon.">><</link>> </div>

<<set $where to "antioch">> <<if $flags.companion is "eusebius">> Eusebius is the best company you have ever had. He knows the history of every town you pass, and the emperor’s opinion of most of them. By Tarsus he has explained to you, very gently, why the word that everyone is whispering about would be a disaster. <<elseif $flags.companion is "macarius">> Macarius talks about Jerusalem: the hill where the Lord was crucified and buried, covered over with a pagan temple for two hundred years, and what he would give to dig it up. <<else>> You read, you pray, and you watch the country change: olive groves, then hills, then mountains with snow still on them. <</if>> <<if $bishop.origin is "local">> At Antioch the post station is the size of a small town: stables, baths, an inn, and a yard where three hundred mules are all complaining at once. You were in this city only weeks ago for the synod, and it still makes you feel like a country cousin. When your servants unload the baggage wagon, there is a boy in it. He is about fourteen, thin, and very frightened, and his back is striped with old weals. His name, of all things, is Onesimus. He belongs to a merchant in Laodicea who beats him, he says. He is a Christian, baptised last Easter, and when he heard there were bishops on the road he climbed into the first wagon he thought might be theirs. “Father,” he whispers, “are bishops allowed to buy people? Because if he sells me, I would rather it was to you.” Before long, a man in a good cloak comes into the yard asking the grooms about a runaway boy. He is the merchant’s agent, and he tells the station-master he has leave to sell the boy on the spot if he finds him: runaways are more trouble than they are worth. Hiding a runaway slave is against the law, and your wagon travels on the emperor’s warrant. Paul once sent a runaway called Onesimus back to his master Philemon, with a letter asking him to receive the boy “no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother” (Philem 16). <<if $bishop.id is "zacchaios">> You know exactly what a boy like this is worth on the market, and you hate that you know. <<elseif $bishop.id is "theodoulos">> You know marks like the ones on his back. <</if>> <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>“The law is the law, Father, and the agent has a copy. Whatever you do, do not do it with the emperor’s warrant in your hand. And if you mean to buy him, <<if $purse gte 3>>the chest can bear it, just. Let me do the haggling.<<else>>the chest cannot bear his price. We would have to beg it from someone.<</if>>”<<else>>“Paul sent Onesimus back with a letter, Father. He also told Philemon to receive him as a brother. Remember both halves.”<</if>><</advice>> <<chest>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Send him back to his master with a letter, as Paul sent Onesimus to Philemon." "Ch4_04">><<set $flags.road to "returned">><<adj "court" 1>><<record "At Antioch, you sent the runaway boy Onesimus back to his master, with a letter.">><</link>> <<link "Hide him in the baggage, and tell the agent nothing." "Ch4_04">><<set $flags.road to "hidden">><<adj "court" -1>><<record "At Antioch, you hid the runaway boy Onesimus in your baggage.">><</link>> <<if $purse gte 3>> <<link "Buy him from the agent with money from the chest, and free him before the bishop in the church of Antioch. (Chest −2)" "Ch4_04">><<pay -2 "the price of Onesimus’s freedom">><<set $flags.road to "freed">><<adj "flock" -1>><<record "At Antioch, you bought the runaway boy Onesimus and freed him in church.">><</link>> <<else>> <<unaffordable "Buy him from the agent, and free him before the bishop in the church of Antioch." "The chest cannot stretch to his price.">> <<link "Ask the church of Antioch to help pay his price, and promise to repay it from next year’s alms. (Chest −1, and a debt)" "Ch4_04">><<pay -1 "towards Onesimus’s price, with a debt to the church of Antioch">><<set $flags.road to "freed">><<set $flags.owesAntioch to true>><<adj "leaning" 1>><<record "At Antioch, you freed Onesimus with help from the church of Antioch, and owe it a debt.">><</link>> <</if>> </div> <<else>> At Antioch the post station is the size of a small town: stables, baths, an inn, and a yard where three hundred mules are all complaining at once. In the bathhouse, someone shouts your name. It is Diodoros, whom you have not seen in years: a pagan and a rhetorician, as handsome and as pleased with himself as ever, on his way to the court at Nicomedia in the hope of a post. <<switch $bishop.id>> <<case "isidoros">>You studied rhetoric together in Alexandria, and he always won the prizes. <<case "ammonios">>He knew you before the desert, when you still argued law cases for a living and dressed better than he did. <<case "domnos">>You sat in the same rhetoric school at Antioch, before you went to Lucian and he went to the theatre. <<case "kyriakos">>He was the tribune’s secretary in your old legion, and wrote your commendations. <<default>>You were schoolboys together in Carthage, and he still owes you a pen-knife. <</switch>> Over dinner he laughs at you, but kindly. Bishops on the public post, he says; bishops with warrants; bishops eating the emperor’s bread. Who would have thought it, twenty years ago, when Christians were hiding in cellars? Then, over the second cup, he asks a favour. He hears that a bishop called Eusebius has the emperor’s ear. A letter of introduction from a fellow bishop would open a great many doors. <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>“A friend at court is worth a great deal, Father, and a letter costs nothing but ink. I merely note that the ink is ours.”<<else>>“He wants a bishop’s name to climb with, Father. Give him something better than a ladder.”<</if>><</advice>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Write him the letter. He is a good man, and the court could use more of them." "Ch4_04">><<set $flags.road to "letter">><<adj "court" 1>><<record "At Antioch, you wrote your old friend Diodoros a letter of introduction to Eusebius of Nicomedia.">><</link>> <<link "Refuse, kindly. A bishop’s letter is not a ticket to court." "Ch4_04">><<set $flags.road to "refused">><<adj "court" -1>><<record "At Antioch, you refused your old friend Diodoros a letter to court.">><</link>> <<link "Write him a different letter: an invitation to come and hear the Gospel, signed with your name." "Ch4_04">><<set $flags.road to "invited">><<record "At Antioch, you gave your old friend Diodoros an invitation to hear the Gospel instead.">><</link>> </div> <</if>>

<<set $where to "tarsus">> <<switch $flags.road>> <<case "returned">> You give Onesimus a letter for his master, in your own hand, asking him to receive the boy as a brother. The agent reads it, shrugs, and takes him. Onesimus looks back once from the gate. <<case "hidden">> You tell the agent you have seen no one, which is a lie, and he goes away, which is a mercy. Onesimus rides north under a pile of blankets, and your archdeacon develops a sudden interest in counting the baggage. <<case "freed">> Your archdeacon haggles the agent down to a price that leaves them both unhappy.<<if $flags.owesAntioch>> Eustathius’s deacons count out the rest from their own chest, and your archdeacon writes down the debt in a very small, very unhappy hand.<</if>> Next morning, in the great church of Antioch, Onesimus stands before Bishop Eustathius and the whole congregation and is declared free. He asks if he may come with you to Nicaea. You can hardly say no. <<case "letter">> You write the letter. Diodoros kisses you on both cheeks and leaves for Nicomedia at dawn, singing. <<case "refused">> Diodoros laughs, says you were always impossible, and pays for dinner anyway. <<default>> Diodoros reads your invitation twice and laughs. Then he folds it carefully and tucks it inside his tunic rather than into his baggage. <</switch>> Beyond Tarsus the road climbs into the mountains, towards the pass they call the Cilician Gates. At the last station before the pass, the station-master has three fresh horses and five bishops who want them. One of the five is <<term "paul-neocaesarea" "Paul of Neocaesarea">>, from beyond the Euphrates. In the last years of Licinius, the governor’s men pressed a red-hot iron into both his hands. They are curled and useless now. His deacon has to feed him, and he cannot hold the reins. When you arrive, he is laughing at something. The station-master, who can read a warrant, offers you first pick. <<if $bishop.id is "theodoulos">> You know that kind of laughter. You learned it at Phaeno, where it was the one thing the guards could not take from you. <<elseif $bishop.id is "kyriakos">> You could probably make this station-master find two more horses by morning. Officers learn how. Bishops, it seems, do not. <</if>> <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>“The warrant says three horses, Father, and the emperor says ‘promptly’. I have done the sums.” He looks at Paul’s hands for a long moment. “Give him the horses. If we arrive with the stragglers, I will find us a stable, and I will enter the two days in the accounts as alms.”<<else>>“Father, that man held his hands in the fire so that the rest of us could keep ours. Whatever you do, do not make him ask.”<</if>><</advice>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Give your horses to Paul and his party, and wait two days for fresh ones." "Ch4_05">><<set $flags.horses to "gave">><<adj "court" -1>><<record "At the Cilician Gates, you gave your horses to Paul of Neocaesarea and waited.">><</link>> <<link "Take the horses. The warrant names you, and the council will not wait." "Ch4_05">><<set $flags.horses to "kept">><<adj "court" 1>><<record "At the Cilician Gates, you took the horses.">><</link>> <<link "Take Paul into your own wagon, and feed him on the road yourself." "Ch4_05">><<set $flags.horses to "shared">><<adj "leaning" 1>><<record "At the Cilician Gates, you took Paul of Neocaesarea into your wagon.">><</link>> </div>

<<set $where to "ancyra">> <<if $flags.horses is "gave">> Paul blesses you with both ruined hands, very carefully, and rides off still laughing. You wait two days in a station that smells of mule, and reach Galatia among the stragglers. <<elseif $flags.horses is "kept">> You take the horses. Paul waves you off with a smile, entirely without reproach. You think about his hands for the next hundred miles. <<else>> Paul rides in your wagon all the way across Cappadocia. You feed him bread and lentils with a spoon, and he tells you about the prison, and the iron, and what it is like to be unable to pray with folded hands. <<say "paul">>“I pray with open hands now,” he says. “I think God prefers it.”<</say>> <</if>> The road to Nicaea runs through Ancyra, and Ancyra is cold, as everyone promised. It is also full of bishops passing through, and of bishops from the East who set out early and never received the emperor’s second letter. The bishop of Ancyra is angrier about the change than anyone. <<term "marcellus" "Marcellus">> is fierce, clever and fast-talking, and he spent the winter preparing to host the council of his life. He has not forgiven the emperor for moving it, and he does not intend to let a change of address stop him. He invites you to dinner with a dozen bishops who think as he does. They mean to arrive at Nicaea with one voice: Arius condemned, his friends condemned, no compromise. Over the wine, Marcellus explains his own view. <<say "marcellus">>“Arius says there was a time when the Son was not. I say God was never without his Word: the Word is in God as my reason is in me. One God. Absolutely one. Who could argue with that?”<</say>> At first it sounds like the strongest possible answer to Arius. Then you are not so sure. If the Word is in God the way your reason is in you, is the Son really anyone at all? It begins to sound like <<term "sabellius" "Sabellius">>, who said that Father and Son were one person wearing two masks. Marcellus asks you to join them. <<if $bishop.id is "felix">> This is how it went in Africa: the men most certain they were defending the faith were the first to break it. <<elseif $bishop.id is "domnos">> At Lucian’s school, they would have called this nothing but Sabellius in a new cloak, and laughed. <<elseif $flags.companion is "eusebius">> Eusebius warned you about men like Marcellus all the way from Caesarea. It is irritating to find him partly right. <</if>> <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>“A dinner of twelve bishops who all agree with each other, Father, and a host who does not stop talking. I would eat well, sign nothing, and leave early.”<<else>>“He hates Arius, Father, and so do I. So for once I am the one telling you to be careful: after the third cup he sounds a little like Sabellius, and I would not want to be standing next to him when somebody notices.”<</if>><</advice>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Join them. Arius must be stopped, and these are the men to stop him." "Ch4_06">><<set $flags.marcellus to "joined">><<adj "leaning" 2>><<adj "conscience" -1>><<record "At Ancyra, you joined Marcellus’s party.">><</link>> <<link "Thank him for the dinner, but say you will make up your own mind at Nicaea." "Ch4_06">><<set $flags.marcellus to "declined">><<adj "court" 1>><<record "At Ancyra, you thanked Marcellus for the dinner, but would not join his party.">><</link>> <<link "Tell him gently that he goes too far the other way: one God, but Father and Son are not one person." "Ch4_06">><<set $flags.marcellus to "warned">><<adj "leaning" -1>><<adj "conscience" 1>><<record "At Ancyra, you warned Marcellus that his answer went too far the other way.">><</link>> </div>

<<set $where to "nicaea">> <<if $flags.marcellus is "joined">> You travel on to Nicaea in Marcellus’s party: a dozen bishops who agree about everything, and are already arguing about who will speak first. <<elseif $flags.marcellus is "declined">> You thank Marcellus and leave early. He does not notice; he is explaining something to the bishop on his other side. <<else>> Marcellus listens to you with real interest, and then explains at great length why you are wrong. He is still explaining as you leave. <</if>> Nicaea sits at the end of a long blue lake, behind walls that look as though they have never had to keep anything out. In early summer the town is full to bursting: more than two hundred and fifty bishops, with their presbyters, deacons, servants and mules. You hear Greek, Latin, Syriac and Coptic, and languages you cannot even name. There is a bishop from Persia, and another from the Goths beyond the Danube. <<if $flags.horses is "gave">> You arrive two days after nearly everyone else, and the only bed left is in a stable loft. <</if>> Tonight everyone is eating with their friends, and everyone is counting. Two invitations find you. Eusebius of Nicomedia, the bishop closest to the emperor and Arius’s oldest friend, is giving a dinner for “all who love peace”. Alexander of Alexandria is having a quieter supper with his young deacon and secretary, <<term "athanasius" "Athanasius">>, who is said to be cleverer than any bishop in the town. And the church of Nicaea will be open all night, for anyone who would rather pray. <<if $flags.antioch is "refused">> You are one of the four excommunicated at Antioch. In a day or two you will have to answer for your faith before the whole council. Eusebius of Nicomedia’s invitation says that he looks forward to helping you. <</if>> <<if $bishop.id is "domnos">> Eusebius of Nicomedia sat beside you in Lucian’s lectures. His note says he has saved you a seat. <<elseif $bishop.id is "isidoros">> Half of Alexander’s household knows your family. His note is addressed to you by your childhood name. <<elseif $bishop.id is "felix">> Caecilian of Carthage is here: the bishop whose election split Africa. You have seen his name scratched off a hundred walls. <<elseif $bishop.id is "eutychios">> They will sing the night office in that church. You could not keep away if you tried. <</if>> <<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">> <<say "hesychios">>“Two dinners and a church, Father. I have been counting heads all evening, and every man at Eusebius’s table has already decided, and so has every man at Alexander’s. If you want to be counted, go to dinner. If you want to think, go to church. Either way, eat something.”<</say>> <<else>> <<say "pyrrhos">>“Within days they will ask you what you believe, in front of the emperor. Spend tonight with the people you would want to be standing next to when they ask.”<</say>> <</if>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Dine with Eusebius of Nicomedia and his friends." "Ch4_07">><<set $flags.lastnight to "nicomedia">><<adj "leaning" -2>><<adj "court" 1>><<adj "conscience" -1>><<record "On your first night at Nicaea, you dined with Eusebius of Nicomedia.">><</link>> <<link "Sup with Alexander, and meet his young deacon Athanasius." "Ch4_07">><<set $flags.lastnight to "alexander">><<adj "leaning" 2>><<record "On your first night at Nicaea, you supped with Alexander and Athanasius.">><</link>> <<link "Keep vigil in the church, and see nobody." "Ch4_07">><<set $flags.lastnight to "vigil">><<adj "conscience" 1>><<record "On your first night at Nicaea, you kept vigil in the church.">><</link>> </div>

<<if $flags.lastnight is "nicomedia">> Eusebius of Nicomedia is a charming host: witty, generous, and close enough to the emperor to say so without saying so. Horion is there, and so is Arius himself, older and thinner, who greets you by name. Everyone agrees that peace is the thing. What peace would cost is left until after the wine. <<elseif $flags.lastnight is "alexander">> Alexander is old and tired, and very kind. His deacon Athanasius is small and dark and not yet thirty, and says very little until somebody gets something wrong. Then he says exactly enough. You walk back to your lodging thinking about him. <<else>> The church is cold and nearly empty. Near midnight, an old bishop comes in on a stick and kneels beside you, and you see that one of his eyes is gone. You learn afterwards that it was <<term "paphnutius" "Paphnutius">>, from the Thebaid in Egypt, who lost it for the faith.<<if $bishop.id is "theodoulos">> You lost yours the same way. Neither of you says a word all night, and you have never felt less alone.<</if>> <</if>> At dawn the lake is the colour of pewter. The bishops of the whole world walk up through the town towards the palace in their best cloaks, which for most of them are also their only cloaks: the scarred and the scholarly, the very old and the very sure. <<if $flags.horses is "shared">> Paul of Neocaesarea falls into step beside you, and holds out one curled hand for you to take. <</if>> <<if $flags.road is "freed">> Onesimus carries your cloak, as proud as a deacon. <<elseif $flags.road is "hidden">> Onesimus, who is not officially here, carries your cloak. <<elseif $flags.road is "letter">> Among the courtiers at the palace gate you glimpse Diodoros, in a new cloak. He winks. <</if>> You fall in among them. Somewhere ahead, in the great hall of the palace, a low golden seat is waiting. The emperor is coming. <div class="choices"> [[End the chapter|Ch4_Summary]] </div>

<p class="chapter-no">End of Chapter 4</p> <h2>What you decided</h2> <<summary>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Open the map">><<run setup.openMap()>><</link>> [[Read your letters|Ch4_Letters]] </div>

<h2>Letters</h2> <p class="intro">Letters from home reach you at Nicaea by the imperial post.</p> <<letter "From the daybook of Timon, deacon" "Timon">> <<switch $flags.deputy>> <<case "zosimos">>Zosimos has changed nothing, as he promised, including the lamp that has been broken since Easter. <<case "timon">>The presbyters have stopped speaking to me, Father, except to correct my Greek. Everything else is in order. I have made a list. <<default>>Severa has rearranged the list of the poor, the readers’ rota and the order of the psalms. Zosimos says it is all very restful. <</switch>> <<if $flock gte 7>> The church is full every Sunday, and the new people are asking when you will be home. <<elseif $flock lte 3>> Fewer people come while you are away. I tell myself it is the season. <</if>> <<switch $flags.grant>> <<case "basilica">>The walls of the new basilica are as high as my shoulder. Severa visits them every morning to make sure they are not getting ideas. <<case "hospice">>The guesthouse is full. A ship’s captain from Rhodes has paid the carpenter for two more beds himself. <<case "poor">>Some of the poor ask when the emperor will send money again. I tell them to pray for him. <</switch>> <</letter>> <<if $flags.road is "freed">> <<letter "From the daybook of Timon, deacon (a postscript)" "Timon">>Some of our people grumble that the church’s money bought a stranger’s slave. Others say it is the best thing their money has ever done.<<if $flags.owesAntioch>> I have written our debt to Antioch at the top of next year’s accounts, where nobody can miss it.<</if>><</letter>> <<elseif $flags.road is "returned">> <<letter "From Laodicea, in a careful, childish hand" "Onesimus">>My master read your letter. He has not beaten me since. I say the creed every night, the way they taught me.<</letter>> <<elseif $flags.road is "invited">> <<letter "From Nicomedia" "Diodoros">>I have been to hear a bishop preach. Not yours; you were busy. Do not get excited.<</letter>> <</if>> <<if $flags.deputy is "severa">> <<letter "From Sykoussa" "Severa">>Your church is in excellent order. Zosimos is a dear man, but he cannot count, so I am counting for him. Come home with a decision, Father, and make sure it is the right one.<</letter>> <</if>> <<if $flags.guests is "lodging" or $flags.guests is "communion">> <<letter "From a lodging in Nicaea" "Horion">>I hear you are in the town. Whatever is decided this month, I have not forgotten your bed, or your table.<</letter>> <</if>> <div class="choices"> [[Continue|Ch4_Note]] </div>

<h2>What really happened</h2> <<artwork "ch4-close" "artefact">> <p class="intro">Zosimos, Severa, Onesimus, Diodoros and the bishop of Sykoussa are invented. The journey, the bishops on the road and the move to Nicaea are not.</p> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> Constantine first summoned the bishops to Ancyra, then wrote again moving the council to Nicaea: because the bishops of Italy and Europe were coming, because of the excellent air, and so that he could be present himself. The letter survives only in Syriac. <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/eusebius-caesarea" target="_blank">New Catholic Encyclopedia, “Eusebius of Caesarea”</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> The emperor paid for the journey, letting bishops use the imperial post or supplying horses. More than two hundred and fifty came, including a bishop from Persia and one from the Goths. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/25023.htm" target="_blank">Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.6–9</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> Many bishops at Nicaea bore the marks of persecution. Paul of Neocaesarea had lost the use of both hands to a red-hot iron under Licinius; others had lost eyes or been hamstrung. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/27021.htm" target="_blank">Theodoret, Church History 1.7</a> Read more: <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/stories/the-bishops-who-arrived-with-scars/" target="_blank">The bishops who arrived with scars</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> Marcellus of Ancyra was one of Arius’s fiercest opponents at Nicaea. Years later he was deposed, accused of making the Father and the Son one person. His dinner and his words here are <<verdict "Plausible">>, drawn from his later teaching. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/26011.htm" target="_blank">Socrates, Church History 1.36</a> Read more: <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/stories/athanasiuss-ally-who-went-too-far/" target="_blank">Athanasius’s ally who went too far</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> Athanasius came to Nicaea as Alexander’s deacon, and made his name there arguing against Arius. Three years later he succeeded Alexander as bishop. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/26011.htm" target="_blank">Socrates, Church History 1.8</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> From 316, in the lands he then ruled, Constantine allowed masters to free their slaves publicly in church, before the bishop and the congregation; a law of 321 addressed to Hosius confirmed it. Once he took the East in 324, the same law ran there too. The Church did not yet oppose slavery itself, but freeing slaves was praised as an act of charity. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09066a.htm" target="_blank">Catholic Encyclopedia, “Influence of the Church on Civil Law”</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Plausible">> The route north through Tarsus, the Cilician Gates and Ancyra was the main road from Syria to the Bosporus; a pilgrim listed its post stations a few years later, in 333.</div> <div class="choices"> [[On to Chapter 5|Ch5_Title]] </div>

<<artwork "ch5-open" "cover">> <<set $c5base to $conscience>> <p class="chapter-no">Chapter 5</p> <h2 class="chapter">One Word</h2> <p class="when">Nicaea · Summer 325</p> <div class="choices"> [[Begin the chapter|Ch5_01]] </div>

<<set $where to "nicaea">> The great hall of the palace is long and high and cold with marble, with benches down both walls for the bishops of the whole world. Everyone is standing. Nobody speaks. Then the emperor Constantine comes in. He is tall, and he walks slowly, dressed in purple and gold and jewels like a figure in a mosaic. No soldiers come in with him, only friends. He walks the length of the hall to the low golden seat at the far end, and he does not sit down until the bishops nod to him that he may. A bishop at his right hand gives thanks to God for the emperor. Then the emperor speaks, in Latin, while an interpreter turns it into Greek. He has fought wars, he says, and won them. But a quarrel inside the Church of God is worse than any war, and more painful to him. He begs them to put their differences away and find peace. <<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">> <<say "hesychios">>“I have counted the benches, Father. There is room for three hundred, and every place is taken. I have never seen so many bishops in one room, and I hope never to see so many bishops’ servants in one stable again.”<</say>> <<else>> <<say "pyrrhos">>“He wants peace, Father. So do I. But not the kind you buy by saying nothing.”<</say>> <</if>> For days afterwards, bishops press written petitions into the hands of the emperor’s secretaries: complaints against one another, old grudges, accusations of every kind. A blank sheet is waiting on your table at the lodging. You could add to the pile. <<if $bishop.id is "kyriakos">> You wrote a hundred petitions as an officer. You know exactly how many of them an emperor reads. <<elseif $bishop.id is "zacchaios">> You have seen piles of complaints like this before, on a magistrate’s desk. They never got smaller. <</if>> <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>“The emperor’s secretaries read everything, Father, even when the emperor does not. Ask for grain. Asking for grain is not a crime, even here.”<<else>>“If your brother sins against you, Father, the Gospel says go and tell him between you and him alone. It says nothing about the emperor.”<</if>><</advice>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Write a complaint: Arius’s friends have been setting up altars on your doorstep." "Ch5_02">><<set $flags.petition to "complaint">><<adj "leaning" 1>><<adj "court" -1>><<record "At Nicaea, you handed the emperor a complaint against Arius’s friends.">><</link>> <<link "Write a petition for your church, not against anyone: grain for the poor." "Ch5_02">><<set $flags.petition to "plea">><<adj "court" 1>><<record "At Nicaea, you petitioned the emperor for grain for your poor.">><</link>> <<link "Write nothing. Whatever your grievances are, they can wait for God." "Ch5_02">><<set $flags.petition to "none">><<record "At Nicaea, you handed the emperor no petition at all.">><</link>> </div>

On the appointed day, the emperor has all the petitions brought to him in a heap, still sealed. He has not read them, he says, and he will not. Bishops are not to be judged by men; let God judge between them. Then, in front of everyone, he orders the petitions burned. <<if $flags.petition is "complaint">> Your complaint goes into the fire with the rest. To your surprise, you are relieved. <<elseif $flags.petition is "plea">> A secretary quietly lifts yours out of the heap before it burns. A request for grain, he murmurs, is not an accusation. <<else>> You have nothing in the fire. One of the old confessors, watching it burn, catches your eye and smiles. <</if>> Between the great arguments, the council takes up a smaller one that every family understands: the date of Easter. Alexandria works it out by its own careful reckoning. Some churches in Syria, and a few old families in Sykoussa, still keep it by the Jewish calendar, so that in some years Christians in the same town keep Easter a month apart. The emperor finds this intolerable. He wants one Easter, kept by the whole Church on the same Sunday, and not by the Jewish reckoning. The bishops of Syria are unhappy. You are asked what Sykoussa thinks. <<if $bishop.id is "barsabas">> Your own family is one of those old families. Your grandmother kept Easter this way, and her grandmother before her. <</if>> <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>“Whatever they decide, Father, it is our people who will have to change their fasts and their baking. Promise nothing you cannot explain to Severa.”<<else>>“One Lord, one faith, one baptism, Father. One Easter seems a small thing to ask.”<</if>><</advice>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Speak for one Easter for the whole Church." "Ch5_03">><<set $flags.easter to "one">><<adj "court" 1>><<adj "flock" -1>><<record "At Nicaea, you spoke for one Easter for the whole Church.">><</link>> <<link "Plead for your people’s old custom." "Ch5_03">><<set $flags.easter to "custom">><<adj "court" -1>><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "At Nicaea, you pleaded for your people’s old way of reckoning Easter.">><</link>> <<link "Accept whatever is decided, and promise to bring it in gently at home." "Ch5_03">><<set $flags.easter to "gentle">><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "At Nicaea, you accepted one Easter, and promised to bring it in gently at home.">><</link>> </div>

<<switch $flags.easter>> <<case "one">>The council agrees: one Easter, for the whole Church. The emperor is delighted. You think about the families at home who will have to be told. <<case "custom">>You speak for your people’s custom. The council listens politely, and decides the other way. Word of what you said will reach Sykoussa before you do. <<default>>The council agrees on one Easter for the whole Church. You promise yourself to bring it in at home slowly, one family at a time. <</switch>> Then the real argument begins. It lasts for days. Bishops stand and speak, and sit, and stand again. Arius’s friends set out their faith and are shouted down. A letter from Eusebius of Nicomedia is read aloud. If we say the Son is true God and uncreated, it says, we shall have to confess that he is <<term "homoousios">>, of the same substance as the Father: as if that were the most absurd thing a Christian could possibly say. When the reading ends, someone takes the letter and tears it in pieces in front of everyone. Then your own metropolitan, Eusebius of Caesarea, stands and reads out the creed of his church: the creed of Caesarea, the one your catechumens said back to you on the beach.<<if $flags.creed is "added">> He reads it without the line you added, and does not look at you.<</if>> The emperor praises it. It is good, he says, and sound. He would add only one word to it: homoousios. The hall erupts. The word is not in Scripture, someone shouts. <<term "paul-samosata" "Paul of Samosata">> used it, says another, and was condemned at Antioch nearly sixty years ago. It makes the Father and the Son one person, says a third, looking straight at Marcellus. And from the other side: it is the one word Arius’s friends cannot twist. <<if $flags.marcellus is "warned">> Marcellus catches your eye across the hall. You told him at Ancyra that he went too far. He has not forgotten. <</if>> <<if $flags.sermon is "proverbs">> You have taken on hard words before, from the ambo at home, with the fishermen asleep. These are harder. <</if>> <<if $bishop.id is "aphthonios">> Eusebius taught you that every word in a creed must come from Scripture. You have always believed him. You are no longer sure he is right. <</if>> <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>“Whatever you say, Father, say it briefly. There are three hundred bishops in this hall, and every one of them has prepared a speech.”<<else>>“Arius can say “God from God” and mean “a god from God”, Father. He cannot say “of one substance” without meaning it. That is the whole point of the word.”<</if>><</advice>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Stand and speak for the word: if the Son is truly God, he is of one substance with the Father." "Ch5_04">><<set $flags.word to "for">><<adj "leaning" 1>><<adj "conscience" 1>><<record "In the great debate, you spoke for the word homoousios.">><</link>> <<link "Stand and speak the fears of Eusebius’s side: the word is not in Scripture, and it smells of Paul of Samosata and Sabellius." "Ch5_04">><<set $flags.word to "fears">><<adj "leaning" -1>><<adj "conscience" -1>><<record "In the great debate, you spoke the fears of Eusebius’s side about the new word.">><</link>> <<link "Say nothing, and listen to the old confessors." "Ch5_04">><<set $flags.word to "silent">><<record "In the great debate, you said nothing.">><</link>> </div>

<<switch $flags.word>> <<case "for">>You stand and say it as plainly as you can. Behind Alexander, the young deacon Athanasius nods once. <<case "fears">>You say aloud what many in the hall are thinking. Eusebius of Caesarea thanks you afterwards. Macarius does not look at you for a day. <<default>>You say nothing. The old confessors say almost nothing either. When Paphnutius gets up on his stick, the whole hall falls silent just to look at him. <</switch>> On the nineteenth of June the creed is read out to the whole council, slowly, in Greek. <p class="lyric">We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible;<br>and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, only-begotten, that is, of the substance of the Father;<br>God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God;<br>begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father…</p> It ends with a condemnation. Those who say “there was a time when he was not,” and that he was made out of nothing, the catholic and apostolic Church <<term "anathema" "anathematises">>. There was a time when he was not. You have been hearing those words since the morning a frightened merchant pressed Alexander’s letter into your hand on the quay. Then the signing begins. Hosius signs first. Then the bishops, one after another, on and on: the old and the scarred and the scholarly, the bishop from Persia and the bishop from the Goths. Paul of Neocaesarea’s deacon guides his ruined hand. Theodotus of Laodicea signs, and Narcissus of Neronias, and the excommunication sentence of Antioch is lifted from them. Eusebius of Caesarea stands for a long time with the pen in his hand, and then he signs. <<if $flags.antioch is "refused">> If you sign, the excommunication sentence of Antioch will be lifted from you too. <</if>> <<if $bishop.id is "theodoulos">> Paphnutius signs, one-eyed, without hesitating. You find you are standing straighter. <<elseif $bishop.id is "domnos">> Half of Lucian’s old pupils are signing. The other half are watching each other sign. <<elseif $bishop.id is "felix">> Caecilian of Carthage signs. Whatever Africa thinks of him, the whole Church is signing the same page today. <</if>> The emperor is watching every face. The pen comes to you. <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>“Three hundred bishops are signing, Father, and the emperor has a very good memory for faces. Whatever you believe, do not be the face he remembers.”<<else>>“Read it again before you sign, Father. Every word. Then sign it like a man who means it, or do not sign it at all.”<</if>><</advice>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Sign it gladly. It is the faith you were baptised into." "Ch5_05">><<set $flags.signing to "glad">><<adj "conscience" 1>><<record "On 19 June 325, you signed the creed of Nicaea gladly.">><</link>> <<link "Sign it, though you wish the word homoousios were not in it." "Ch5_05">><<set $flags.signing to "reluctant">><<adj "leaning" -1>><<record "On 19 June 325, you signed the creed, wishing the word homoousios were not in it.">><</link>> <<link "Sign it. Everyone else is, and the emperor is watching." "Ch5_05">><<set $flags.signing to "crowd">><<adj "court" 1>><<adj "conscience" -1>><<record "On 19 June 325, you signed the creed because everyone else did.">><</link>> <<link "Refuse to sign." "Ch5_05">><<set $flags.signing to "refused">><<set $flags.refusedCreed to true>><<adj "court" -1>><<record "On 19 June 325, you refused to sign the creed of Nicaea.">><</link>> </div>

<<if $flags.refusedCreed>> You set down the pen. The hall goes very quiet. Only two others refuse with you: Secundus of Ptolemais and Theonas of Marmarica, the old Libyan bishops who have stood by Arius from the start. By evening the council has deposed all three of you, and the emperor has ordered you into exile with Arius, to Illyricum.<<if $flags.antioch is "refused">> The excommunication sentence of Antioch stands.<</if>> Your archdeacon packs in silence. You leave at dawn. This is your last night in Nicaea. <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>“I have packed the books, Father, and your cloak, and the emperor’s warrant, which I suspect is no longer any use to us. Tell me what you want me to say to them at home.”<<else>>“Whatever you decide tonight, Father, I am coming with you. Do not argue. You will lose.”<</if>><</advice>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Spend it in prayer with Arius and the two Libyan bishops." "Ch5_06">><<set $flags.lastnight5 to "arius">><<adj "leaning" -1>><<adj "conscience" -1>><<record "On your last night in Nicaea, you prayed with Arius and the Libyan bishops.">><</link>> <<link "Spend it with your archdeacon, setting the church’s affairs in order for whoever comes after you." "Ch5_06">><<set $flags.lastnight5 to "order">><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "On your last night in Nicaea, you set the church’s affairs in order for your successor.">><</link>> <<link "Go to Hosius, and ask him to explain once more why you are wrong." "Ch5_06">><<set $flags.lastnight5 to "hosius">><<adj "conscience" 1>><<record "On your last night in Nicaea, you went to Hosius to hear the case once more.">><</link>> </div> <<else>> <<switch $flags.signing>> <<case "glad">>You sign in a clear hand. Afterwards, outside in the sun, you find that your hands are shaking. <<case "reluctant">>You sign. At the end of the bench, Eusebius of Caesarea gives you a small, tired smile of recognition. <<default>>You sign quickly, the way you would swallow medicine. That is rather the point. <</switch>><<if $flags.antioch is "refused">> The excommunication sentence of Antioch is lifted. You are a bishop in good standing again.<</if>> Only two bishops refuse: Secundus of Ptolemais and Theonas of Marmarica, the old Libyan bishops who have stood by Arius from the start. A few days later, the council turns from the faith to the man. Arius is to be condemned by name and deposed, and the emperor will send him into exile with the two Libyans. Every bishop is asked to sign the sentence. Arius is in the hall. He is older and thinner than when he sat at your table and ate your figs, and he looks at no one. <<if $flags.arius is "listened">> You remember him talking until the lamp guttered. <<elseif $flags.arius is "argued">> You remember him smiling at you across the table: a perfect creature, but not as one of the creatures. <<else>> You remember him eating his figs in silence while you said grace alone. <</if>> Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis of Nicaea have signed the creed. Now, quietly, they will not sign this. <<advice>><<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">>“Eusebius of Nicomedia has the ear of the emperor’s sister, Father. Men who refuse beside him tend to be forgiven beside him. But not always, and not soon.”<<else>>“You fed him at your table, Father. That does not make him right. It does mean you should pray for him tonight, whatever you sign today.”<</if>><</advice>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Sign the sentence. His teaching has torn the Church apart." "Ch5_06">><<set $flags.condemnation to "signed">><<adj "leaning" 1>><<adj "conscience" 1>><<record "You signed the sentence on Arius.">><</link>> <<link "Sign it, and ask the emperor to show the man mercy." "Ch5_06">><<set $flags.condemnation to "mercy">><<record "You signed the sentence on Arius, and asked the emperor to show him mercy.">><</link>> <<link "Refuse to sign it, as Eusebius of Nicomedia does." "Ch5_06">><<set $flags.condemnation to "refused">><<adj "leaning" -1>><<adj "conscience" -1>><<record "You refused to sign the sentence on Arius, as Eusebius of Nicomedia did.">><</link>> </div> <</if>>

<<if $flags.refusedCreed>> <<switch $flags.lastnight5>> <<case "arius">>You spend the night with Arius and the two Libyans. Towards dawn they sing his songs, very quietly, and you find that you know the words. <<case "order">>You and your archdeacon work until dawn: lists, keys, the list of the poor, and a note for whoever comes after you about the corner of the roof that still leaks. <<default>>Hosius receives you near midnight: an old man in a plain cloak, who explains it all again, patiently, for an hour. You are not persuaded. You are no longer quite sure that you are not persuaded. <</switch>> Your letter home will have to travel ahead of you, while you travel west. <<else>> <<switch $flags.condemnation>> <<case "signed">>You sign. Arius is led out between two soldiers. He does not look back. <<case "mercy">>You sign, and then you stand and ask the emperor to be merciful to the man. Constantine looks at you for a long moment, and nods. <<default>>You set down the pen beside Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis. Across the hall, Hosius looks up, and then down again. Eusebius of Nicomedia smiles at you as if you have just joined a club. <</switch>> Before the council ends, everyone is writing home. Rumour will reach Sykoussa before any letter does: that the bishops have invented a new word, that the emperor has decided what God is. Eusebius of Caesarea is writing his people a long letter, explaining exactly what he meant by every phrase he signed. You must write yours. <</if>> <<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">> <<say "hesychios">>“Whatever you write, Father, Timon will read it aloud on Sunday, and Severa will read it again on Monday, more slowly. Write it for Severa.”<</say>> <<else>> <<say "pyrrhos">>“Tell them the truth, Father. They will forgive you almost anything except finding it out later from someone else.”<</say>> <</if>> <div class="choices"> <<if $flags.refusedCreed>> <<link "Tell them why you could not sign, and ask them to pray for you." "Ch5_07">><<set $flags.letterhome to "why">><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "From the road into exile, you wrote home telling your people why you could not sign.">><</link>> <<link "Tell them to receive whoever is sent in your place, and keep the peace." "Ch5_07">><<set $flags.letterhome to "obey">><<adj "conscience" 1>><<record "From the road into exile, you told your people to receive your successor and keep the peace.">><</link>> <<link "Tell them to receive no one sent in your place." "Ch5_07">><<set $flags.letterhome to "resist">><<adj "conscience" -1>><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "From the road into exile, you told your people to receive no one in your place.">><</link>> <<else>> <<link "Tell them plainly what the council believes, and that you believe it too." "Ch5_07">><<set $flags.letterhome to "plain">><<adj "conscience" 1>><<adj "flock" 1>><<record "You wrote home plainly: what the council believes, and that you believe it too.">><</link>> <<link "Explain carefully what you meant by every word you signed, as Eusebius of Caesarea is doing." "Ch5_07">><<set $flags.letterhome to "explained">><<record "You wrote home explaining carefully what you meant by every word you signed.">><</link>> <<link "Tell them the emperor has made peace in the Church, and say no more." "Ch5_07">><<set $flags.letterhome to "peace">><<adj "court" 1>><<adj "conscience" -1>><<adj "flock" -1>><<record "You wrote home that the emperor had made peace, and said no more.">><</link>> <</if>> </div>

<<if $flags.refusedCreed>> You leave Nicaea at dawn with Arius and the two Libyans, under an escort that is polite and never lets you out of its sight. Behind you, they say, the council works on through the summer: twenty rules for the Church, from how bishops are to be appointed to the honour due to the bishop of Jerusalem, and one Easter for the whole world. <<if $flags.archdeacon is "pyrrhos">> Pyrrhos rides beside you, as he promised. He has not stopped talking since the city gate. <<else>> Hesychios is going home, to hand over the keys and the accounts to whoever is sent. He has promised to write every month. You believe him entirely. <</if>> In late July, on the road west, you hear that the emperor gave a great banquet for the bishops who signed, to mark the twentieth year of his reign. You try not to think about it, and fail. <<else>> Over the following weeks, the council works through its other business: twenty rules for the Church. A new bishop is to be appointed by the bishops of his province, at least three of them together, as you were by three pairs of hands, with the metropolitan confirming it. The bishop of Jerusalem is to be honoured, saving the rights of Caesarea; Macarius beams, and Eusebius of Caesarea does not. No bishop is to move from one see to another. And nobody is to kneel to pray on Sundays, or in the fifty days of Easter. In late July, while the council is still sitting, the emperor gives a banquet for the bishops to mark the twentieth year of his reign. Guards with drawn swords line the gate of the palace, and the bishops walk between them without fear, the way they once walked into prisons. Inside, some recline at the emperor’s own table. Eusebius of Caesarea will write that it seemed like a picture of Christ’s kingdom, more like a dream than real life. <<if $flags.road is "freed">> Onesimus waits outside with the servants, in a clean tunic, and tells everyone who will listen that his bishop is inside. <<elseif $flags.road is "letter">> Diodoros is among the courtiers, in a new cloak. He raises his cup to you across the room. <</if>> <<if $flags.condemnation is "refused">> Eusebius of Nicomedia is there too, laughing at the emperor’s jokes. He does not seem worried. You wish you could say the same. <</if>> <</if>> <div class="choices"> [[End the chapter|Ch5_Summary]] </div>

<p class="chapter-no">End of Chapter 5</p> <h2>What you decided</h2> <<summary>> <div class="choices"> <<link "Open the map">><<run setup.openMap()>><</link>> [[What really happened at Nicaea|Ch5_Note]] </div>

<h2>What really happened</h2> <<artwork "ch5-close" "artefact">> <p class="intro">You were not there. Everything else in this chapter, except the words put into invented mouths, comes from the people who were.</p> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> Constantine entered the council hall without guards, dressed in purple and gold, and would not sit until the bishops signalled that he should. He spoke in Latin, through an interpreter, calling strife within the Church worse than any war. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/25023.htm" target="_blank">Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.10–12</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> Bishops handed the emperor written accusations against one another. He burned them unread, saying that bishops could not be judged by men. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/26011.htm" target="_blank">Socrates, Church History 1.8</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> The council agreed that the whole Church should keep Easter on the same day, and not by the Jewish reckoning. It was not one of the twenty canons, and no method of calculation was fixed at Nicaea. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/25023.htm" target="_blank">Constantine’s letter, in Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.18–20</a> Read more: <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/myths/12-the-council-of-nicaea-agreed-that-all-christians/" target="_blank">Did Nicaea settle one date for Easter?</a>. A much older Easter quarrel ended differently: <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/stories/two-bishops-who-disagreed-and-prayed-together/" target="_blank">Two bishops who disagreed and prayed together</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> Ambrose says a letter of Eusebius of Nicomedia, warning that calling the Son uncreated would lead to “homoousios”, was read at the council, and that the bishops took up the word because his side feared it. When the letter was written is uncertain. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/34043.htm" target="_blank">Ambrose, Exposition of the Christian Faith 3.15</a> The word is not in Scripture; neither is “Trinity”. Read more: <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/myths/13-the-word-trinity-appears-in-the-bible/" target="_blank">Is the word “Trinity” in the Bible?</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> Eusebius of Caesarea presented his church’s creed; the emperor approved it and asked only that “homoousios” be added. Eusebius then wrote to his people explaining how he understood every phrase he had signed. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/26011.htm" target="_blank">Eusebius’s letter to his church, in Socrates, Church History 1.8</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> The creed was agreed on 19 June 325, ending with its condemnation of those who said “there was a time when he was not”. Only Secundus of Ptolemais and Theonas of Marmarica refused, and were exiled with Arius. The council also issued twenty canons, including the honour of Jerusalem (canon 7), the ban on bishops moving sees (canon 15), and standing to pray on Sundays and in Eastertide (canon 20). <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3801.htm" target="_blank">First Council of Nicaea</a> Read more: <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/bites/how-the-creed-got-into-the-mass/" target="_blank">How the Creed got into the Mass</a>, <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/myths/06-the-creed-we-say-at-mass-is-word/" target="_blank">Is the Creed at Mass word for word from Nicaea?</a>, and <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/myths/01-the-council-of-nicaea-decided-which-books-belong/" target="_blank">Did Nicaea decide which books belong in the Bible?</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Legend">> St Nicholas of Myra slapping Arius in the middle of the council. The story first appears centuries later, and Nicholas’s name is not on the oldest lists of the bishops who were there. Read more: <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/myths/03-st-nicholas-slapped-arius-at-the-council-of/" target="_blank">Did St Nicholas slap Arius at Nicaea?</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> In July 325 Constantine celebrated the twentieth year of his reign with a banquet for the bishops, who walked unafraid between guards with drawn swords. The council probably went on sitting into August. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/25023.htm" target="_blank">Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.15</a></div> <div class="choices"> [[See how your story ends|EndingRouter]] </div>

/* Picks the ending. Order matters: refusing the creed first, then refusing the sentence on Arius, then Conscience. Thresholds are placeholders until the whole game has been played through. */ <<if $flags.refusedCreed>> <<goto "Ending_Illyricum">> <<elseif $flags.condemnation is "refused">> <<goto "Ending_Iota">> <<elseif $conscience gte 8>> <<goto "Ending_LightFromLight">> <<elseif $conscience gte 4>> <<goto "Ending_PenAndFootnote">> <<else>> <<goto "Ending_ThreeHundred">> <</if>>

<<set $ending to "A">> <p class="chapter-no">Ending</p> <h2 class="chapter">Illyricum</h2> <p class="when">You would not sign the creed</p> The road runs west: over the straits, through Thrace, and on into the cold country of Illyricum, where nobody has heard of Sykoussa and nobody much cares what a bishop believes about the Son of God. The council says you are no longer a bishop. In your own mind you are still the bishop of Sykoussa, and every morning you say the prayers for a church a thousand miles away. <<switch $flags.letterhome>> <<case "why">>Your letter reaches Sykoussa before you are halfway to the Danube. Timon reads it aloud on Sunday, and the church is very quiet. <<case "obey">>Your people do as you asked. When a new bishop comes from Caesarea, they receive him with sore hearts, and keep the peace. <<default>>Your people do as you asked. When a new bishop comes, half the town will not receive him, and for a while there are two altars in Sykoussa, as there once were in Carthage. <</switch>> History is not kind to the men who refused at Nicaea. Secundus and Theonas are barely remembered. Arius will be recalled, and will die in Constantinople on the eve of his return to communion. But the creed you would not sign will outlive you all. A creed built on it will be said in your own church every Sunday, long after the name of its bishop in 325 has been forgotten. <<include "EpilogueFlock">> <<include "EpilogueCourt">> <<include "WhatBecame">> <<include "FinalNote">> <<include "EndingFooter">>

<<set $ending to "E">> <p class="chapter-no">Ending</p> <h2 class="chapter">An Iota of Difference</h2> <p class="when">You signed the creed, but not the sentence on Arius</p> You go home from Nicaea a bishop in good standing, having signed the creed and refused the sentence. For three months, nothing happens. Then, in the autumn, a letter comes from the emperor. Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis of Nicaea have been sent into exile for sheltering Arius’s friends and defying the council’s judgement. And so, the letter says, have you. Many years later, a historian on Arius’s side will tell a story about men like you: that when they signed the creed at Nicaea, they slipped in one tiny letter, an iota, and wrote <<term "homoiousios">>, “of like substance”, instead of homoousios, “of the same substance”. So, he says, they never truly signed it at all. It is almost certainly a legend. But it is the kind of legend people tell about men who sign one thing and refuse the next. One iota. It was never really about the iota. <<include "EpilogueFlock">> <<include "EpilogueCourt">> <<include "WhatBecame">> <<include "FinalNote">> <<include "EndingFooter">>

<<set $ending to "B">> <p class="chapter-no">Ending</p> <h2 class="chapter">Light from Light</h2> <p class="when">You signed the creed, and you believe it</p> <<if $flags.signing is "crowd">> You signed with the crowd that day, and you were half ashamed of it. But somewhere on the long road home you find that you believe every word. <<elseif $flags.signing is "reluctant">> You signed wishing the word homoousios were not in the creed. By the time you are home, you are glad it is. <</if>> You go home from Nicaea with the creed in your satchel and its words in your mouth: God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God. On the first Sunday back, you read it to your people. The old fishermen who never understood a word of the quarrel understand this: that the one they pray to at the altar is God himself, and not God’s finest creature. <<if $flags.letterhome is "explained">> Your letter home was careful, perhaps more careful than it needed to be. Standing in front of them, you find you do not need the footnotes. <</if>> It does not end at Nicaea. Within a few years Arius’s friends are back at court, and some of the bishops who signed beside you will be driven out for keeping faith with what they signed. The fight will go on for fifty-six years, until another council, at Constantinople in 381, says it all again, more fully. You will live long enough to learn that one signature is never the last one asked of you. <<include "EpilogueFlock">> <<include "EpilogueCourt">> <<include "WhatBecame">> <<include "FinalNote">> <<include "EndingFooter">>

<<set $ending to "C">> <p class="chapter-no">Ending</p> <h2 class="chapter">A Pen and a Footnote</h2> <p class="when">You signed, and kept your reservations</p> You signed the creed. You also made very sure, afterwards, that nobody could say you had signed anything you did not mean. <<if $flags.letterhome is "explained">> Your letter home ran to four pages. Every phrase is there: what “of the substance” means, and what it does not; what “of one substance” might be taken to mean, and how you take it. Eusebius of Caesarea, reading a copy, says it is very well done. Coming from him, it is a compliment, and you are not sure you want it. <<else>> You find yourself explaining it for years: in letters, at synods, over dinner. What you meant, and what you did not. Eusebius of Caesarea, who does the same, becomes a close friend. <</if>> You keep your see, and your reputation for good sense. Nobody calls you a heretic. Nobody calls you a confessor either. In the long quarrel that follows Nicaea, you are respected by both sides, and trusted completely by neither. <<include "EpilogueFlock">> <<include "EpilogueCourt">> <<include "WhatBecame">> <<include "FinalNote">> <<include "EndingFooter">>

<<set $ending to "D">> <p class="chapter-no">Ending</p> <h2 class="chapter">Three Hundred and Eighteen</h2> <p class="when">Your name is on the list</p> Later generations will call them the three hundred and eighteen fathers of Nicaea, after the three hundred and eighteen servants of Abraham, and they will remember every one of them as a hero of the faith. Your name is on the list. <<if $flags.signing is "crowd">>You signed because everyone was signing, and the emperor was watching, and it was easier than not signing.<<else>>You signed. On the day it felt like conviction. Looking back, you are no longer sure it was more than habit.<</if>> Nobody will ever know. The creed was true whether or not your signature was; that was rather the point of it. In the years that follow, some of the men who signed beside you will work quietly to undo it. Narcissus of Neronias and Theodotus of Laodicea signed too. You notice that you are not surprised. You notice, too, that you are not much troubled, and that troubles you a little more. <<include "EpilogueFlock">> <<include "EpilogueCourt">> <<include "WhatBecame">> <<include "FinalNote">> <<include "EndingFooter">>

<h3>Your people</h3> <<set _fb to ($flock gte 7 ? "high" : ($flock gte 4 ? "mid" : "low"))>> <<set _exiled to ($ending is "A" or ($ending is "E" and $court lte 3))>> <<if _exiled>> <<switch _fb>> <<case "high">>Every winter a parcel comes from Sykoussa: dried figs, a jar of oil, a new cloak, and letters from half the town, some of them very badly spelled. <<case "mid">>Letters come from Sykoussa now and then. They grow shorter as the years go by. <<default>>No letters come. In Sykoussa, people have learned not to say your name. <</switch>> <<elseif $ending is "E" and $court gte 7>> <<switch _fb>> <<case "high">>When you leave Sykoussa for your new see, the whole town walks you down to the harbour, weeping. The fishermen row after your ship as far as the point. <<case "mid">>Sykoussa gives you a polite farewell and a basket of figs. <<default>>Sykoussa does not seem sorry to see you go. <</switch>> <<else>> <<if $ending is "E">>You come home from exile in 328.<</if>> <<switch _fb>> <<case "high">>Sykoussa loves you. Children are named after you, and the fishermen bless their boats in your name, which is not strictly correct, and you do not have the heart to stop them. <<case "mid">>Life in Sykoussa goes on, peaceful and uneventful, and in time you come to think that this is no small blessing. <<default>>Your people keep their distance. They come on Sundays, and leave quickly. Severa, when she looks at you at all, looks disappointed. <</switch>> <</if>>

<h3>The years after</h3> <<set _cb to ($court gte 7 ? "high" : ($court gte 4 ? "mid" : "low"))>> <<switch $ending>> <<case "A">> <<if _cb is "high">>In 327 the emperor softens, and recalls Arius, and you with him. But there is another bishop in Sykoussa now, and you end your days as a guest in other men’s churches. <<elseif _cb is "mid">>You stay in Illyricum for years, teaching the children of a garrison town to read. When at last you are allowed home, nobody quite knows what to call you. <<else>>You never come back. You die in Illyricum in a hard winter, still praying every morning for a church a thousand miles away.<</if>> <<case "E">> <<if _cb is "high">>In 328 the emperor recalls you, with Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis. Within a few years your friends at court find you a far greater see than Sykoussa, in plain breach of the fifteenth canon of the council you sat in. Nobody mentions it. Eusebius of Nicomedia will end his own days as bishop of Constantinople, having baptised the dying emperor. <<elseif _cb is "mid">>In 328 the emperor recalls you, with Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis, and you go home to Sykoussa, older and quieter, to the church you left. <<else>>When Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis are recalled in 328, your name is not on the list. Somebody, somewhere, has simply forgotten it. You die in exile, still not sure what you would have signed, if you had it all to do again.<</if>> <<case "B">> <<if _cb is "high">>Your name is spoken well at court. When a great see falls vacant, they offer it to you. You remember the fifteenth canon, which you signed, and you decline. They think you are being modest. You are being exact. <<elseif _cb is "mid">>You stay in Sykoussa all your life, and keep the faith of Nicaea in it, through every change of wind at court. <<else>>When the tide turns at court, the men who kept faith with Nicaea are the first to go. Eustathius of Antioch is driven out; Asclepas of Gaza is driven out; and so, in time, are you. You die in exile. The creed you kept outlives the men who drove you out.<</if>> <<case "C">> <<if _cb is "high">>Your name is spoken well at court. When a great see falls vacant, they offer it to you, and you accept, and write a careful letter explaining why the fifteenth canon does not quite apply in your case. It is a very good letter. <<elseif _cb is "mid">>You stay in Sykoussa all your life, and keep the peace in it. <<else>>When the tide turns at court, nobody thinks to drive you out. Nobody thinks about you at all.<</if>> <<default>> <<if _cb is "high">>When Eusebius of Nicomedia’s friends return to power, you rise with them: a comfortable career, and a seat at every council that tries to soften Nicaea. <<elseif _cb is "mid">>You stay in Sykoussa all your life, and the years pass very quietly. <<else>>You are forgotten, at court and at councils. In Sykoussa, at least, they remember you on your feast day.<</if>> <</switch>>

<h3>What became of them</h3> <<if $flags.archdeacon is "hesychios">> <p class="epi"><strong>Hesychios</strong> <<if $ending is "A">>hands over the keys to the new bishop, with a list of everything that is wrong with the roof, and writes to you every month for the rest of his life.<<else>>keeps the accounts of Sykoussa for another twenty years, and never loses a coin.<</if>></p> <<else>> <p class="epi"><strong>Pyrrhos</strong> <<if $ending is "A">>follows you into exile, and preaches to the soldiers of Illyricum, who are not sure what to make of him.<<else>>preaches in the market until he is too old to stand, and then preaches sitting down.<</if>></p> <</if>> <<switch $flags.soldier>> <<case "sheltered">><p class="epi"><strong>Valerius</strong> keeps the church door until his hair is white, and dies with its keys on his belt.</p> <<case "quiet">><p class="epi"><strong>Valerius</strong> rises to be a centurion on the Danube, and retires to the farm in the hills, where his girls still pick the figs better than he does.</p> <<case "refused">><p class="epi"><strong>Valerius</strong> never comes back to Sykoussa. But every Easter, a soldier’s purse arrives for the poor, with no name on it.</p> <</switch>> <<switch $flags.zosimos>> <<case "kept">><p class="epi"><strong>Zosimos</strong> dies an old man, much loved, with his secret still his own.</p> <<case "told">><p class="epi"><strong>Zosimos</strong> spends his last years telling young clergy what he did in 303, so that they will be kinder than the strictest rules.</p> <<case "penance">><p class="epi"><strong>Zosimos</strong> never misses another Easter vigil. He says he is making up for one.</p> <</switch>> <<switch $flags.clerk>> <<case "enrolled">><p class="epi"><strong>Demetrios</strong> is baptised the next Easter, and keeps the church’s records in a hand so neat that the governor’s office tries to steal him back.</p> <<case "wait">><p class="epi"><strong>Demetrios</strong> is baptised after his year with the poor, and later made a deacon. He still counts the spoons.</p> <<case "refused">><p class="epi"><strong>Demetrios</strong> becomes a clerk in the church of Caesarea, and spends the rest of his life copying Eusebius’s books.</p> <</switch>> <p class="epi"><strong>Severa</strong> outlives everyone. <<if $flags.endowed is "severa">>Her name is still over the guesthouse door, larger than the door.<<elseif $flags.grant is "basilica">>She never quite forgives the inscription over the basilica door.<<else>>She is buried under the roof she paid for.<</if>></p> <<switch $flags.road>> <<case "freed">><p class="epi"><strong>Onesimus</strong> becomes a reader in your church, and then a deacon, and never once takes his freedom for granted.</p> <<case "hidden">><p class="epi"><strong>Onesimus</strong> grows up in Sykoussa, officially nobody’s, until a magistrate who owes Severa a favour draws up his freedman’s papers.</p> <<case "returned">><p class="epi"><strong>Onesimus</strong> is freed in church by his master a few years later, and writes to tell you, in a much less careful hand.</p> <<case "letter">><p class="epi"><strong>Diodoros</strong> gets his post at court, rises high, and never once comes to hear you preach.</p> <<case "refused">><p class="epi"><strong>Diodoros</strong> gets his post at court without your help, and sends you a very good wine every year, out of spite.</p> <<case "invited">><p class="epi"><strong>Diodoros</strong> is baptised, years later, in Nicomedia. He writes to tell you, and adds: do not get excited.</p> <</switch>> <p class="epi"><strong>Horion</strong> follows Arius into exile and out of it again, and dies a presbyter in Alexandria, still sure he was right.</p>

<h2>What really happened next</h2> <p class="intro">You and Sykoussa are invented. What happened after Nicaea is not.</p> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis of Nicaea were exiled a few months after the council, and recalled about three years later. Eusebius of Nicomedia regained the emperor’s favour, baptised the dying Constantine in 337, and became bishop of Constantinople. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/26011.htm" target="_blank">Socrates, Church History 1.14</a> Read more: <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/stories/the-christian-emperor-baptised-on-his-deathbed/" target="_blank">The Christian emperor baptised on his deathbed</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Legend">> The Arian historian Philostorgius claims that Eusebius of Nicomedia and his friends signed “homoiousios”, slipping in an iota, so that they never truly signed the creed. Nothing else supports the story. <a href="https://tertullian.org/rpearse/philostorgius_epitome.html" target="_blank">Philostorgius, Church History, book 1</a> Read more: <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/bites/why-one-iota/" target="_blank">Why One Iota?</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> Arius was recalled, and died suddenly in Constantinople in 336, on the eve of being received back into communion. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/26011.htm" target="_blank">Socrates, Church History 1.38</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> As Eusebius of Nicomedia’s party regained power, firm supporters of Nicaea were driven out: Eustathius of Antioch within a few years of the council, and Athanasius, who was exiled five times between 335 and 366. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/26011.htm" target="_blank">Socrates, Church History 1.24 and 1.35</a> Read more: <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/stories/the-murder-victim-who-turned-up-alive/" target="_blank">The murder victim who turned up alive</a> and <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/bites/an-easter-letter-with-a-list/" target="_blank">An Easter letter with a list</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> Hosius of Corduba, who probably presided at Nicaea, was forced at nearly a hundred to sign an Arian-leaning creed at Sirmium in 357. By Athanasius’s account, he repented before he died. Read more: <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/stories/the-centenarian-who-signed/" target="_blank">The centenarian who signed</a></div> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> In 381 the Council of Constantinople reaffirmed the faith of Nicaea and completed its creed. It is the Creed still said at Mass on Sundays. <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3808.htm" target="_blank">First Council of Constantinople</a> Read more: <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/bites/how-the-creed-got-into-the-mass/" target="_blank">How the Creed got into the Mass</a></div> <h3><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZd5id32nqs" target="_blank">Seventeen hundred years later ▸</a></h3> <div class="claim"><<verdict "Recorded">> On 28 November 2025, Pope Leo XIV and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew prayed together at İznik, the ancient Nicaea, with leaders of other Churches, beside the ruins of the Basilica of St Neophytos on the shore of the lake. It marked 1,700 years since the council, and Leo was the first pope ever to set foot in Nicaea. Some archaeologists think an earlier church on this site remembered the council, but the council itself met in the emperor’s palace. <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/speeches/2025/november/documents/20251128-turchia-incontro-ecumenico.html" target="_blank">Pope Leo XIV, address at İznik</a> Watch: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZd5id32nqs" target="_blank">“An ecumenical encounter for the books”</a> (Rome Reports)</div>

<p class="scores">Your hidden scores: Flock $flock · Conscience $conscience · Court $court · Leaning $leaning · Church chest <<print setup.chestLevels[$purse]>></p> <div class="choices"> <<link "Play again">><<run Engine.restart()>><</link>> <a href="https://oneiota.bitesizeformation.org/" target="_blank">Explore One Iota</a> <a href="https://ko-fi.com/bitesizeformation" target="_blank">Support us</a> </div>