Ancient Church atNicea

Constituted primarily by bishops from the East along with a few from the West, this council was summoned and presided over by the Emperor Constantine. It thus established a precedent for the subordination of the church to the state in the East. The council established regulations for the life of the church following the cessation of persecution. It also rejected Arianism when it condemned the teaching that the Word of God or Son of God was a creature or any less divine than the Father. It declared that Christ was of one substance (homoousios) with God the Father. This statement became a crucial element of the Nicene Creed and a hallmark of Nicene orthodoxy in both East and West.