As a historian, this prompt is so up my street. I got excited as soon as I saw it. But then I thought…I can only pick one? How do I do that?
I love history. All history. I am fascinated by people and psychology, and I think that has always driven my passion for history. I’m not interested in the minutiae of a battle, for example, but I am fascinated by the events that led up to it including the behaviours of the principal actors within the drama that is history. What incites people to carry out the actions they do. Maybe I should have studied psychiatry rather than history, but pulling on that thread is for another day.
So, I was struggling with picking one historical event that I find the most fascinating. Then, the thought of Constantine popped into my head and his conversion to Christianity. I vaguely remember studying him and writing an essay at university as to whether or not he was a true Christian because he continued to allow punishments such as crucifixion to take place. And while I am fascinated to do a deep dive into whether he truly did convert or it was political expediency, I realised that wasn’t what was floating my boat. No, it was the Council of Nicaea in 325 which he was involved in.
So, what of the Council of Nicaea? Well, it was where the Catholic church as it is today was formed, basically. It’s where they agreed on how to determine when Easter was to be held (not that I understand it to this day) and it is where they determined how religious clerics should live their lives. Prior to the Council of Nicaea, those who were preaching Christianity were allowed to marry and have children but at the Council, this was overturned and anyone devoting their life to spreading the word of the Christian God was to be celibate. This cemented their proposal that Jesus was celibate, which they reinforced by the Gospels they chose to include. And it was decreed that only men could become priests – that while women could serve God as nuns, they could not preach about God. It was also the Council that decided the fate of the two Marys. That the Virgin Mary should be held in the highest regard and the notion of the virgin birth enshrined in ‘fact’ and that Mary Magdalene was the whore. Mary Magdalene’s gospel was cast aside (along with some others which became known as the Gnostic Gospels) and where the content of the New Testament was agreed and enshrined as the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
The Council was where, in short, the patriarchy became even more entrenched.
The impact of the Council of Nicaea is still felt to this day, some 1,700 years later. We still decide when Easter falls because of it. The Catholic church still doesn’t allow women into its inner circle (nuns still tend to be servants) and it still bans its clerics from marriage and sex. The Bible still has the same Gospels, and the Gnostic Gospels remain widely unknown. Patriarchy is still very much alive and well.
The Council also had a distinctly political theme, hence the link with Constantine. Under the pagan religion, there were a multiplicity of gods that people could pray to for specific issues. So, the god of potholes or something. In order to ‘sell’ Christianity to the entire Roman Empire, there needed to be something commensurate in the new religion to give people comfort. Enter saints. The Council established the ‘requirements’ for becoming a saint and identified the initial ones. By the Middle Ages, there was a saint for pretty much every day of the week and certain saints were given particular responsibilities, such as St Christopher, the Patron Saint of Travellers. People could pray to St Christopher as they had to Mercury for protection as they travelled.
The Council also established the The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit, (the Holy Trinity as a whole) to compensate for the reduction of gods. Given there was only supposed to be one deity in the monotheistic religion of Christianity, having Jesus was something of a brain puzzler for the Council. They had eschewed Jesus’ message that we are all one, that we are a part of the universe and whatever creator you believe in (if you do) and instead, reinforced the separation between God and the people, in my view to reinforce the position of patriarchy (note, the Virgin Mary is not a part of the Holy Trinity, it’s only a boys’ club). But the presence of Jesus was a problem – how could Jesus be worshipped as well? Did that not completely go against monotheism? Of course, it does. So, God, Jesus (The Son), and the Holy Spirit (the presence of God on earth) are somehow one (whilst being separate from all else) but meant to provide comfort to those who were used to multiple gods. It was a conundrum and one that, realistically, was hugely fudged. It is now, however, a fundamental belief in Christianity.
I guess I find this so fascinating because it does beg the question – why? Most Christians are completely unaware of the Council and the decisions it made which have entirely shaped the religion they follow. Including the Bible. The why is – on what basis were these decisions made? There is a clear element of it being about the suppression of women, the reinforcement of the patriarchy. Wiping women out of the Christian message essentially, which suggests that women possibly had had a role in early Christianity which was irreconcilable with the Roman patriarchy. Also the need for creating a religion that satisfied the needs of the emperor who had to get the empire to agree with his decision or face being deposed.
It must have been incredibly tense, I would wager there were a huge amount of arguments in the discussions held. But I can’t help but think there is an element of cynicism in the whole process. Marrying all the conflicting agendas present would not be easy but we are talking about a religion. Okay they weren’t to know how it was going to spread throughout the world, how it was going to fight other religions for supremacy, but it was considering the proliferation of it across the Roman Empire, a pretty significant expanse of the known world at that time. It had already taken hold in ways hitherto unheard of to the point where the Roman Emperor was prepared to publicly support it. And they imposed their own agendas onto pretty significant issues.
I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall of the Council of Nicaea to have seen how it all played out, how the decisions were taken and who won more arguments than others. What the discussions were behind the scenes, the politicking, and how the relationships interacted and panned out.
Just fascinating stuff!
Louisa Simpson 