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NICAEA, COUNCIL OF
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See also:NICAEA, See also:COUNCIL OF . The Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325) is an event of the highest importance in the See also:history of See also:Christianity. Its See also:convocation and its course illustrate the See also:radical revolution which the position of this See also:religion, within the confines of the See also:Roman See also:empire, had undergone in consequence of the See also:Edict of See also:Milan. Further, it was the first See also:oecumenical council, and this fact invested it with a See also:peculiar See also:halo in the eyes of subsequent ages; while among its resolutions may be found a See also:series of decisions which acquired a lasting significance for the See also:Christian See also: This propitiatory attitude originated in the fact that he recognized Christianity—which had successfully braved so many persecutions—as the most vital and vigorous of religions, and as the See also:power of the future. Consequently he directed his energies toward the See also:establishment of a See also:positive relationship between it and the Roman state. But the Church could only maintain its great value for the politician by remaining the same compact organism which it had proved itself to be under the stormy reign of See also:Diocletian. Scarcely, however, did it find itself in the enjoyment of See also:external See also:peace, when violent feuds See also:broke out in its midst, whose extent, and the virulence with which they were waged, threatened to dismember the whole religious See also:body. Donatism in the See also:West was followed by the Arian struggle in the See also:East. The former See also:movement had been successfully arrested, though it survived in See also:North See also:Africa till the 5th See also:century. The conflict kindled by the followed—conceived as a single, coherent See also:story, or is it based Theodor Abeling (Das See also:Nibelungenlied and See also:seine Literatur (See also:Leipzig, on a number of See also:separate stories, popular See also:ballads akin to the Eddas, which the See also:original author of the Nibelungenlied merely collected and strung together? The See also:answer to these questions has been sought by a See also:succession of scholars in a See also:critical comparison of the See also:medieval See also:MSS. of the poem still surviving. Of these 33 are now known, of which to are See also:complete, the See also:rest being. more or less fragmentary. The most important are those first discovered, viz. the MSS. lettered C (Hohenems, 1755), B (Schloss Werdenberg, 1769), A (Hohenems, 1779); and See also:round these the others more or less See also:group themselves. They exhibit many See also:differences: put briefly, C is the most perfectly finished in See also:language and See also:rhythm; A is rough, in places barbarous; B stands See also:half-way between the two. Which is nearest to the original? Karl See also:Lachmann (Zu den Nibelungen and zur Klage, Anmerkungen, 1836) decided in favour of A. He applied to the Nibelungenlied the method which See also:Friedrich See also:August See also:Wolf had used to resolve the Iliad and Odyssey into their elements. The poem, according to Lachmann, was based on some twenty popular ballads, originally handed down orally, but written down about 1190 or 1200. This original is lost, and A—as its roughness of form shows—is nearest to it; all other MSS., including B and C, are expansions of A. The great authority of Lachmann made this See also:opinion the prevalent one, and it still has its champions. It was first seriously assailed by Adolf See also:Holtzmann (Unlersuchungen fiber das Nib., See also:Stuttgart, 1854), who argued that the original could not have been strophic in form—the See also:fourth lines of the strophes are certainly often of the nature of " See also:padding "—that it was written by Konrad (Kuonrat of the Klage), writer to See also:Bishop See also:Pilgrim of See also:Passau about 970-984, and that of existing MSS. C is nearest to this original, B the copy of a MS. closely akin to C, and A an abbreviated, corrupt copy of B. This view was adopted by Friedrich See also:Zarncke, who made C the basis of his edition of the Nibelungenlied (Leipzig, 1856). A new See also:hypothesis was See also:developed by Karl Bartsch in his Untersuchungen fiber das Nibelungenlied (Leipzig, 1865). According to this the original was an assonance poem of the 12th century, which was changed between 1190 and 1200 by two separate poets into two versions, in which pure rhymes were substituted for the earlier assonances: the originals of the Nibelungenlied and Der Nibelunge Not respectively. Bartsch's subsequent edition of the Nibelunge Not (1st ed., Leipzig, 187o) was founded on B, as the nearest to the original. To this view Zarncke was so far converted that in the 1887 edition of his Nibelungenlied he admitted that C shows signs of recension and that the B group is purer in certain details. As a result of all this critical study Herr Abeling comes to the following conclusions. The poem was first written down by a wandering See also:minstrel about 971 to 991, was remodelled about 1140 by Konrad,' who introduced interpolations in the spirit of See also:chivalry and was perhaps responsible for the See also:metre; during the See also:wars and miseries of the next fifty years See also:manners and See also:taste became barbarized and the See also:fine traditions of the old popular See also:poetry were obscured, and it was under this See also:influence that, about 1190, a jongleur (Spielmann) revised the poem, this recension being represented by group B. After 1190, during the See also:Golden See also:Age of the See also:art poetry (Kunstdichtung) of the See also:Minnesingers (q.v.), a professional poet (See also:Rudolf von See also:Ems?) again remodelled the poem, introducing further interpolations, and changing the See also:title from Der Nibelunge Not into Das Nibelungenliet, this version being the basis of the group C. The MS. A, as proved by its partial excellence, is based directly on Konrad's See also:work, with additions borrowed from B. 'Bartsch and others ascribe its authorship, with much plausibility, to an See also:Austrian See also:knight of the See also:race of Kiirenberg, the earliest of the courtly lyric poets, whose lyrics are written in the Nibelung See also:strophe. Thus compare Kurenberg's lyric (Lachmann and See also:Haupt, See also:Des Minnesangs Fruhling, 4th ed., F. See also:Vogt, Leipzig, 1888) " Ich each mir einen valken See also:mere danne ein See also:jar " with the Nibelungen Not (Bartsch) Av. i. 13 " troumte Kriemhilde. Wie See also:sis zuge einen valken, stare scoen' und See also:wade." Alexandrian See also:presbyter See also:Arius (q.v.) assumed greater dimensions and a more formidable See also:character. Constantine at first attempted to restore quiet in See also:Alexandria by transmission of an See also:epistle by Bishop See also:Hosius of See also:Cordova, but his admonitions were fruitless. Accordingly, since other debatable points were at issue, he had recourse to an institution previously evolved by the Christian Church—the convocation of a synod to pronounce on burning questions—qualifying it, however, to correspond with the altered circumstances. He convened a council, designed to represent the whole Church of the empire, at Nicaea in See also:Bithynia, a See also:town situated no great way from the imperial summer-See also:residence of See also:Nicomedia and within easy reach by See also:sea of the See also:Oriental bishops. Among the various estimates of the number of delegates, the statement of See also:Athanasius, who speaks of 318 members, has dominated the tradition. In consequence of the vast distances, the \Vest was but weakly represented. From See also:Spain, Hosius—the above-mentioned bishop of Cordova—made his See also:appearance; from See also:Gaul, Nicasius of See also:Dijon; from See also:Dalmatia, Domnus of Stridon; from See also:Italy, See also:Marcus of See also:Calabria with two presbyters as deputies of the Roman bishop See also:Silvester; and from North Africa, Caecihan of See also:Carthage. Thus an immense See also:majority of the synod hailed from the East. The bishops of the three most important metropolises were See also:present—See also: A clearly defined standpoint with regard to this problem—the relationship of See also:Christ to See also:God—was held only by the attenuated group of Arians and a far from numerous See also:section of delegates, who adhered with unshaken conviction to the Alexandrian view. The bulk of the members occupied a position between these two extremes. They rejected the formulae of Arius, and declined to accept those of his opponents; that is to say, they were merely competent to establish negations, but lacked the capacity, as yet, to give their attitude of See also:compromise a positive expression. In the See also:main they perpetuated the See also:line of See also:Origen. That the majority of the council should have adopted this neutral tendency is easily intelligible when we consider the state of See also:theology at that See also:period. True, at Nicaea this majority eventually acquiesced in the ruling of the Alexandrians; yet this result was due, not to See also:internal conviction, but partly to indifference, partly to the pressure of the imperial will—a fact which is mainly demonstrated by the subsequent history of the Arian conflicts. For if the Nicaean synod had arrived at its final decision by the conscientious agreement of all non-Arians, then the See also:confession of faith there formulated might indeed have evoked the continued antagonism of the Arians, but must necessarily have been championed by all else. This, however, was not the See also:case; in fact, the creed was assailed by those very bodies which had composed the laissez-faire centre at Nicaea; and we are compelled to the conclusion that, in this point, the voting was no criterion of the inward convictions of the council. In the synod, an Arian confession of faith was first brought forward and read; but it aroused such a See also:storm of indignation But this artificial unity was no ratification of peace: in fact, it paved the way for a struggle which convulsed the whole empire. For it was the See also:proclamation of the Nicene Creed that first opened the eyes of many bishops to the significance of the problem there treated; and its explanation led the Church to force herself, by the arduous path of theological work, into compliance with those principles, enunciated at Nicaea, to which, in the See also:year 325, she had pledged herself without genuine assent. In addition to the Arian impasse, there was the See also:schism of Bishop Meletius of Lycopolis in the Thebaid, whose See also:settlement Constantine had added to the See also:programme of the council. He and See also:Peter, bishop of Alexandria, had come into conflict over the treatment of the " backsliders " (lapsi) in the Diocletian persecution; and their strife acquired additional bitterness from the fact that it was extended to See also:cover the prerogatives of the Alexandrian bishopric. Peter had composed a See also:treatise advocating moderate principles and censuring the courtship of martyrdom for its own See also:sake, then gone so far as to See also:save himself by See also:flight. Meletius, on the other See also:hand, represented the most rigorous school, and allowed himself high-handed infringements of the See also:law. When this had resulted in his deposition by a synod, a See also:faction still adhered to him, and the Meletians became a schismatic community; and such they remained even after the See also:death of Peter (311), who demonstrated by his martyrdom that his counsels of moderation were not prompted by cowardice. This Meletian schism made for disorder in the ecclesiastical See also:life of See also:Egypt all the more because its followers sided with Arius. The Nicene Council broke the strength of the movement by great concessions to the Meletian bishops, and, at the same See also:time, expressly recognized the supreme rights of the Alexandrian see over Egypt, See also:Libya and the Pentapolis. Since, in the See also:resolution dealing with this point (See also:canon vi.), reference was made to the analogous and undisputed See also:suzerainty of the Roman see—over II the ten suburbican provinces, attached to the See also:diocese of See also:Rome and including See also:middle and See also:lower Italy, with the islands of See also:Sicily, See also:Corsica and See also:Sardinia—this decision enshrines an important piece of See also:evidence for the history of the papacy. On this opportunity, his See also:ancient privileges were restored to the bishop of Jerusalem, who, in consequence of the See also:political history of the See also:Holy See also:Land, had been subordinated to the See also:metropolitan of Caesarea (canon vii.). The path was smoothed for the readmittance of the Novatians (Cathari) into the church, by recognizing, in this case, their clergy, with the See also:bare stipulation that the laying-on of hands should follow their written promise to be faithful to the doctrine of the See also:Catholic Church (canon viii.). With regard to the much-debated question as to the termination of the See also:Easter festival, the synod committed itself so far as to pronounce in favour of the Alexandrian See also:cycle—a settlement which entailed such important results in See also:practical life that it was communicated to the Christian churches by Constantine in a circular See also:letter. The problem, whether a See also:baptism, performed by heretics in the name of Christ or the Trinity, should See also:rank as a baptism or not, had given rise to an animated controversy between the Roman bishop See also:Stephen, who answered in the affirmative, and See also:Cyprian of Carthage, who gave an equally decided negative. The council followed the Roman practice, merely declaring the nullity of baptisms imparted by the adherents of See also:Paul of See also:Samosata (canon xix.). An important See also:provision, in point of ecclesiastical law, was that the chirotony of a bishop required the presence of at least three other bishops of his See also:province, while the See also:confirmation of the choice remained at the disposal of the metropolitan (canon iv.). A further regulation was that two provincial synods should be held annually (canon v.); but a law enacting the See also:celibacy of the clergy was rejected at Nicaea, since Paphnutius, an aged bishop of Egypt who had been tested in persecution, warned his See also:col-leagues against the danger of imposing too arduous a yoke upon the priesthood, and defended the sanctity of See also:marriage.
As Constantine had convened the synod, so he determined its conclusion. A brilliant banquet in the imperial palace—of which Eusebius of Caesarea gives an enthusiastic See also:account—marked its close, after which the bishops were See also: (1904), pp. 9 sqq. (C. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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