Three hundred years after the Messiah, his Father’s peace be upon him, Constantine appeared. His father was one of the Roman rulers, who during a hunting expedition in the land of Ḥarrān had married Helena, a Christian woman who followed the ways of the early monks. When the aforementioned Constantine was born, he studied philosophy, excelled in it, and came to feel some inclination toward the Christianity embraced by his mother. He therefore granted its adherents a measure of esteem, all the while remaining upon the philosophers’ creed.
When his father died and he succeeded to the throne, he governed his subjects with justice; the people loved him, he rose in stature, gained control over all of Syria along with al-Jazīrah, and his prestige grew until he became the first of the Caesars.
In his time a dispute arose among the Christians between Alexander, the patriarch of Alexandria, and one of their scholars named ʿAbd Allāh ibn Arius. Alexander maintained that Jesus was the Son of God—exalted is God above what he claims—whereas Ibn Arius held that Jesus was God’s servant and messenger. A party of Christians followed Ibn Arius, but the larger faction—though in error—sided with their patriarch. Ibn Arius and his supporters were then barred from entering the church. Seeking redress, he appealed against Alexander and his followers to King Constantine. The king questioned him about his doctrine; Ibn Arius explained that the Messiah is a servant and messenger of God and argued his case, and the king inclined toward his view.
Those present said to Constantine, “You should summon his opponent and hear what he has to say.” The king therefore ordered Alexander to be brought before him, and he summoned from every province each bishop and everyone versed in the Christian faith, gathering also the four patriarchs of Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome, and Alexandria. It is said that over the span of one year and two months more than two thousand bishops assembled. He convened them in a single council—the first of their three famous councils—yet they differed among themselves with wide-ranging, divergent opinions.
Some small groups espoused doctrines that none of the others accepted: fifty held to one creed, eighty to another, ten to yet another, forty to a different view, a hundred to one opinion, two hundred to another, a faction followed Ibn Arius’s position, and yet another group subscribed to a different belief. When their disagreement intensified and spread, King Constantine was left bewildered—although he already distrusted any religion other than the Sabean faith of his Greek forebears.
He therefore turned to the largest contingent that shared a single doctrine and found them to be three hundred and eighteen bishops who had united on Alexander’s view; he found no other faction equal to their number. “These,” he said, “are more deserving that their opinion be supported, for they are the most numerous group.” He then met with them privately, placed his sword and signet ring in their midst, and declared, “I see that you are the majority of the sects and that you have agreed upon your doctrine …”