The  first  task  which  lay  before  him  was  the  restora-
tion of  peace  in  the  church.  In  the  matter  of  the
Donatist  schism,  the  question  had  been  partly  one
of  fact  and  partly  one  of  morals,  and  it  was  not
difficult  to  suggest  and  even  to  enforce  a  com-
promise. But  Constantine,  if  he  believed  it  possible
to  find  as  simple  a  solution  for  the  problem  raised  by
the  Arian  controversy,  was  soon  undeceived.  This
is  no  place  to  discuss  the  details  of  the  strife  which
was  kindled  by  the  preaching  of  Arius  at  Alexandria
in  A.D.  319;  it  will  suffice  to  say  that  the  question
at  issue  was  this — was  the  founder  of  Christianity
creature  or  creator  ?  Between  these  opposing  views
no  true  compromise  was  possible,  and  if  the  former
seemed  to  accord  better  with  the  dictates  of  reason,
faith  refused  to  be  satisfied  save  by  the  deeper
mystery.  In  A.D.  325  Constantine  presided  over  the
sittings  of  the  first  council  of  the  universal  church  at
Nicaea,  where  the  passionate  enthusiasm  of  the  deacon
Athanasius  won  the  first  victory  for  the  formula
destined  to  ultimate  triumph,  which  declared  the
Son  to  be  of  one  Substance  with  the  Father;  but  in
spite  of  the  anathema  pronounced  against  all  who
yet  maintained  that  "  there  was  a  time  when  He  was
not,"  and  the  election  of  Athanasius  to  the  vacant
see  of  Alexandria  in  A.D.  328,  the  dispossessed  Arian
bishops,  notably  the  courtier  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia,


THE  FOUNDING    OF  CONSTANTINOPLE  389

succeeded  in  gaining  the  Emperor's  ear,  and  in  the
closing  years  of  Constantine's  reign  their  party  was
in  the  ascendant.  A  synod  summoned  at  Tyre  to
investigate  certain  charges  against  Athanasius  found
him  guilty  and  pronounced  sentence  of  death,  which
Constantine  commuted  to  exile.  Arius  was  re-
admitted to  communion  by  a  council  held  at  Jeru-
salem, and  although,  by  a  dramatic  stroke  of  destiny,
he  died  suddenly  on  the  eve  of  the  day  fixed  for  his
public  triumph,  Constantine  refused  to  see  the  finger
of  God  in  this  event,  and  on  his  death-bed  received
the  sacrament  of  baptism  at  the  hands  of  an  Arian
bishop.
