The leaders of the gathering—the men who presided over the council—were the Patriarch of Alexandria, the Patriarch of Antioch, and the Bishop of Jerusalem. The Patriarch of Rome sent two envoys in his stead. All present agreed to anathematize Arius and his followers, pronouncing a curse upon him and upon everyone who voiced his doctrine. They then drew up the Creed, declaring that the Son is begotten of the Father before the creation of all beings, and that the Son shares the Father’s very essence and is not created. They further resolved that the Christians’ Pascha (Easter) must fall on a Sunday so that it would come after the Jews’ Passover, and that the Jewish Passover must never coincide with their Pascha on the same day. They also forbade bishops to have wives. From the time of the Apostles until the Council of the Three Hundred and Eighteen (1), bishops had been married men: when a married man was made a bishop, his wife remained with him and was not separated from him—except for the patriarchs, who had no wives, nor would anyone who had a wife be elevated to the patriarchate.

He said: They departed honoured and favoured, and that occurred in the seventeenth year (2) of Emperor Constantine’s reign. Thereafter Constantine enacted three ordinances:

1. The destruction of idols and the execution of all who worshipped them.
2. That only the sons of Christians be entered in the imperial register, and that they alone hold the positions of princes and military commanders.
3. That he establish for the people the Friday (3) of Pascha, and that the Friday following it not—