Section 504
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22 COUNCIL OF NICE. attached to Arius, and the Synod anathematized them with him.* The writings of Arius were condemned at the same time with himself, and particularly his Thalia.t The question relating to the observance of Easter, which was agitated in the time of Anicetus and Polycarp, and afterwards in that of Victor, was still undecided. It was one of the principal reasons for convoking the council of Nice, being the most import ant subject to be considered after the Arian controversy. It ap pears that the churches of Syria and Mesopotamia continued to follow the custom of the Jews, and celebrated Easter on the four teenth day of the moon, whether falling on Sunday or not. All the other churches observed that solemnity on Sunday only, viz. those of Rome, Italy, Africa, Lybia, Egypt, Spain, Gaul and Britain ; and all Greece, Asia, and Pontus. It was considered indecorous, and as affording occasion of scandal to unbelievers, that while some were engaged in fasting and penitence, others should be indulging in festivity and relaxation. This subject having been discussed, it was decreed to celebrate Easter on the same day, and the oriental prelates promised to conform to the practice of Rome, of Egypt, and of all the West. St. Athanasius remarks a difference of language, in pronouncing on this subject, from that which was used in reference to the faith. With respect to the latter it is said, " this is the catholic * Philostorgius, an Arian historian, of whose work an epitome is extant by Photius, acknowledges that all the bishops agreed to the Nicene Creed, with the exception of Secundus and Theonas. But the Arian prelates who embraced the decision of the council, artfully concealed under the word o/uoovciov the term opoiovaiov, the former signifying of the same substance, and differing in ortho. graphy only by a letter from the latter, which means like, or similar. The course they adopted (in assenting to the decrees of the council,) was by the sug gestion of Constantia, sister of the emperor. Phil. L. I. 8. t It was a chant set to the same measure and music as the infamous songs for merly composed for convivial occasions by Sotades, a Greek post, proverbial for his flagrant immoralities. This was sufficient to render it odious, to say nothing of the erroneous opinions which it contained, for Arius had incorporated into it the substance of his doctrines. He composed several other airs, to insinuate his opinions more agreeably into vulgar and uncultivated minds. Some of them were intended for travellers, sailors, and millers. See Phil. L. II. 2.