The Story From Constantine to Gregory
The councils and the writers in order, from their own texts.
Lactantius wrote that before a battle Constantine was told in a dream to mark the sign of Christ on his soldiers' shields. Eusebius, writing after the emperor died in 337, told of a cross of light seen about noon with the words "Conquer by this", on Constantine's own sworn word.
Constantine and Licinius then wrote to the governors. They granted "both to the Christians and to all men freedom to follow the religion which they choose", and ordered the churches' places restored without payment.
“Caesar’s,” they answered. So Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
The letter of 313 left Christians free under Caesar to give God what is God's.
Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, wrote to Eusebius of Nicomedia about his teaching. "We are persecuted, because we say that the Son has a beginning, but that God is without beginning." His side read Proverbs 8:22 as the Son speaking of his own making.
His bishop Alexander answered that the Son always existed from the Father.
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, upholding all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Alexander's answer to Arius took its words from this verse.
Hebrews 1:3BSB
In 325 the bishops met at Nicaea. Their creed confesses the Son "begotten, not made, being of one substance (homoousion) with the Father" and condemns any who say there was a time when the Son was not.
Eusebius, who was there, counted more than two hundred and fifty bishops; Athanasius later said about three hundred. The ancient collections give the council twenty canons, and its letter reports agreement on the day of Easter.
Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made.
John's word that all things were made through the Word answers a Son who was himself made.
John 1:3BSB
Athanasius became bishop of Alexandria on 8 June 328. His editor Robertson counts five exiles between 335 and 366, and his death in his own city on 2 May 373.
Robertson gives his early book On the Incarnation the probable date 318.
The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Athanasius's On the Incarnation argues from the Word made flesh.
John 1:14BSB
The argument moved to the Holy Spirit. Basil of Caesarea defended giving glory to the Father "with the Son together with the Holy Ghost".
The council of 381 at Constantinople confessed the Spirit "the Lord and Giver-of-Life, who proceedeth from the Father". Its third canon ranked Constantinople after Rome, "because Constantinople is New Rome."
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
The creed's three articles follow the one name of this command to baptize.
In September 386, at Cassiciacum not far from Milan, Augustine heard a child chanting, "Take up and read." He opened Paul and read Romans 13. About 397 he wrote the Confessions.
After Rome was sacked he wrote The City of God, from 413 to 426, on "two cities" formed "by two loves". He died at Hippo in the third month of the Vandal siege.
Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.
It is the verse Augustine read in the garden, as he tells it in the Confessions.
Romans 13:14BSB
Augustine prayed, "Give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt." He reports that Pelagius, at Rome, could not bear the words.
On 1 May 418 a synod at Carthage condemned any who said that grace only forgives past sins and gives no help against sin to come.
For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God,
Paul calls salvation God's gift here, the claim the synod of 418 defended.
In 431 a council met at Ephesus over Nestorius, who would not call Mary the mother of God the Word. Cyril called her the Mother of God because the Word was united to the body born of her.
At Chalcedon in 451 the bishops acclaimed the Tome of Leo of Rome: "Peter has spoken thus through Leo." Their Definition confesses one Christ "in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably."
but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness.
Paul's form of a servant, taken by one who was in the form of God, is the two natures the Definition names.
Leo preached that the church "ever finds Peter in Peter's See." The same council's twenty-eighth canon gave the throne of New Rome equal privileges, and Leo answered that whatever went against the canons of Nicaea was "null and void."
And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
Leo read Christ's word about the rock as a charge that passed to Peter's see at Rome.
Athanasius wrote that Antony heard the Gospel read in church, "went out immediately from the church", and gave away what his forefathers had left him. Benedict founded Monte Cassino in 528 or 529, by the 1911 editor's dating.
Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”
It is the Gospel reading that sent Antony out of the church and into the desert.
Gregory the Great was ordained bishop of Rome on 3 September 590. He wrote to John of Constantinople against the title "universal", which none of the bishops of Rome before him had taken.
Gregory sent the monk Augustine and others to the English, and Bede reports that they landed in Kent nearly forty strong.
Be shepherds of God’s flock that is among you, watching over them not out of compulsion, but because it is God’s will; not out of greed, but out of eagerness;
Peter's charge to shepherd the flock is the office Gregory's Pastoral Rule teaches.
1 Peter 5:2BSB
John 1:3, John 1:14, Matthew 28:19, Romans 13:14, Ephesians 2:8, Philippians 2:7, Matthew 16:18, Matthew 19:21 and 1 more