Sabellianism

Many legends have grown up around Bishop Gregory of Neocaesarea, earning him the name Thaumaturgus (Greek for "wonder-worker").

In his “Exposition of the Faith,” Gregory attacks the teachings of Sabellianism (also known as modalism, modalistic monarchianism, or modal monarchism), the nontrinitarian belief that the Heavenly Father, Resurrected Son, and Holy Spirit are different modes or aspects of one God (for us only), rather than three distinct persons (in Himself).

God was said to have three "faces" or "masks".

The question is: "is God's threeness a matter of our falsely seeing it to be so (Sabellianism/modalism), or a matter of God's own essence revealed as three-in-one (orthodox Trinitarianism)?"

Modalists note that the only number ascribed to God in the Holy Bible is One and that there is no inherent threeness ascribed to God explicitly in scripture.

Arianism by the 320s has become so widespread in the Christian church and spurred such disunity that Constantine, prompted by Hosius, convokes the Council of Nicaea in May 325, the first ecumenical council held by the church, meant to settle the relationship between the persons of the Trinity. (This is not Constantine's first attempt to reconcile orthodox and heretical factions in Christianity, but it is his first use of the imperial office to impose a settlement.)

A lengthy and heated debate ensues among the attendees, nearly all of whom come from the eastern Mediterranean region.

Athanasius may have accompanied Alexander to Nicaea, who, called as a theological expert, leads the council in defending the unity of Christ as both God and man, promoting his “homoousios” ("of one substance") doctrine to establish the full divinity and equality of Christ with the Father, as against the Arian position of “homoiousios” ("of like substance").

Eusebius of Caesarea, having become embroiled in the controversy raised by Arianism over the nature of the Trinity, seeks to reconcile the opposing parties.

Not naturally a spiritual leader or theologian, but as a very learned man and a famous author who enjoys the special favor of the emperor, he comes to the fore among the three hundred members of the council and is prominent in its transactions.

The confession that he proposes becomes the basis of the formula approved at Nicaea, which Eusebius, although disinclined to fully support the “homoousios” doctrine propounded by Alexander and Athanasius, eventually signs, largely in deference to Constantine.

The council issues a decision, formalized in the Nicene Creed, declaring that God the Father and God the Son, or Christ, are of one identical and eternal substance.

The Arian belief in a Christ created by and thus inferior to the Father is thus deemed heretical, and Arius himself is excommunicated and banished.

The Nicaean Creed simultaneously rejects Monarchianism (the belief that God the creator is supreme but shared his power with Christ, the logos or Word) and Sabellianism, or Modalism (the belief that the three persons of the Trinity are modes or aspects of the same God).

The council also makes disciplinary decisions concerning the status and jurisdiction of the clergy in the early church and establishes the date on which Easter is to be celebrated.

Hosius is influential in securing the inclusion in the Nicene Creed of the key word homoousios, to affirm that God the Son and God the Father are of the same substance.

The Council, which represents the first stage in the rigidification of Christianity, officially changes the date of Easter from Passover and forbids Jews from owning Christian slaves or converting pagans to Judaism.

In this year also, Constantine outlaws gladiatorial combat in the Roman Empire.

Those who were condemned to become gladiators for their crimes are to work from now on in the mines.

Eustathius of Antioch, a native of Side in Pamphylia, had been bishop of Beroea from around 320, and had become patriarch of Antioch shortly before the Council of Nicaea in 325.

In that assembly he had distinguished himself zealously against the Arians, but his anti–Arian polemic against Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea have made him unpopular among his fellow bishops in the East.

Eustathius opposes the growing influence of Origen and his practice of an allegorical exegesis of scripture, seeing in his theology the roots of Arianism.

Having reproached Eusebius for deviating from the Nicene faith, Eustathius is in turn charged with Sabellianism, and a synod convened at Antioch in 330 accuses him, condemns him, and passes a sentence of deposition, which is confirmed by the emperor.

The people of Antioch rebel against this action, while the anti-Eustathians propose Eusebius as the new bishop, but he declines.

Both parties meet Constantine at Constantinople at the end of 355.

Athanasius is accused of threatening to interfere with the grain supply from Egypt, and without any formal trial Constantine exiles him to the Rhineland.

At the same synod, another opponent is successfully attacked: Marcellus of Ancyra had long opposed the Eusebians and had protested against the reinstitution of Arius.

Accused of Sabellianism, he will be deposed in 336.

The Nicene Creed prescribed in 380 is again defined at the beginning of 381 and ecclesiastically sanctioned, as it were, in the summer of this year by a church council summoned to Constantinople by Theodosius, chiefly to confront Arianism.

Meletius of Antioch presides but dies during the Council; Gregory of Nyssa, whose brother Basil had died early in 379, delivers Meletius’s funeral oration.

The Council, attended by more than 150 bishops, all from the Eastern portion of the empire, reaffirms the Nicene Creed, firmly rejecting Arianism, as well as Modalism and Monarchianism.

Apollinarianism, which had been opposed by Basil, together with Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Athanasius because of the doctrine’s implication that Christ was not fully human, is also condemned, as are the Eunomians, as the followers of Eunomius’s extreme brand of Arianism have become known.

In formulating the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, the Council defines the position of the Holy Spirit within the Trinity, describing the Holy Spirit as proceeding from God the Father.

It follows Athanasius in affirming the equality of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, declaring them separate persons but coequal and of one substance.

The council’s canons establish the authority of the metropolitan bishops over their dioceses and give the bishop of the capital a primacy similar to that of the bishop of Rome.

It also deposes Constantinople’s Arian bishop, Maximus.

Gregory of Nazianzus, who has influenced Jerome during the three years he has spent in Constantinople, plays a leading role at the council, but opposition to his claim to the Maximus’ vacated bishopric makes him decide to return to Nazianzus.

The gathering, considered the second ecumenical council, universally imposes the Nicaean faith: Christianity as preached by Peter is to be the sole official religion of the Roman Empire; orthodoxy is defined as the doctrines proclaimed by the bishops of Rome and Alexandria.

The Council’s new theological formulas persuade most Arians to convert to orthodoxy.

Theodosius seeks new possibilities for coexistence, recognizing after a series of costly and inconclusive campaigns that the barbarians can no longer be expelled from the provinces by force and that he can count on Gratian for only limited assistance.

This had resulted in the friendly reception, in 381, of Therving chieftain Athanaric (who died at Constantinople a fortnight after his arrival) and the conclusion of an unprecedented treaty of alliance, or foedus, with the main body of the Thervings in the fall of 382.

Pledging themselves to lending military assistance, the Goths are assigned territory for settlement between the lower Danube and the Balkan mountains.

Under this novel arrangement, an entire people is to be settled on imperial soil while retaining its autonomy.

Theodosius may hope that these Goths will become integrated, as had a group of Goths who in around 350 had settled near Nicopolis in Moesia; their leader, Bishop Ulfilas, undertakes missionary work among the parties to the foedus of 382.