Two important councils of church leaders were held in Nicea (modern Iznik, a city of ruins about 90km south-east of Istanbul, Turkey) in 325 and 787.
The Council of Nicea of 325 is today often associated with a great deal of nonsense arising out of the fictitious yarns spurn by Dan Brown and the movies based on his work. Claims, e.g., that the divinity of Christ and the list of canonical books of the Bible were decided by the loop-sided votes at Nicea, are two of the most popular lies that seem to have afflicted even well-intention Christians.
The Council was called by Emperor Constantine (then still not baptized) mainly to resolve the Arian controversy that was then threatening to split the Church and his kingdom.
The council was attended by some 300 delegates, mostly from the Eastern churches. "The issue was clear-cut, as a brief statement will show. The Arians rejected the idea of a timeless or eternal generation, while Athanasius reasserted this. The Arians said that the Son was created from the non-existent, while Athanasius maintained that He was generated from the essence of the Father. The Arians held that the Son was not of the same substance as the Father, while Athansius affirmed that he was homoousios with the Father." Pulling his weight, Constantine forced a consensus of the Council in what is called the Nicene Creed; it affirmed that 1) Christ is of the being (ousia) of the Father, 2) he was begotten, not made, 3) the Son is one substance (homoousios) with the Father, and 4) the expression "and was made man" was added to the expression that he "became flesh."
Arius was condemned for his teachings, along with his friends and two dissenting bishops, and exiled. This was, naturally enough, a highly unsatisfactory outcome, and the controversy continued in a highly muddied history of plots and schemes that saw Athanasius being exiled four times from his see, before the Council of Chalcedon settled the matter.
You may also wish to read the entry on Athanasius.
Louis Berkhof's entry on the Doctrine of the Trinity in The History of Christian Doctrines, first published in 1937. (Article will open in this panel.)
This council was convened to deal with the question of whether icons—images of Christ, Mary, or of saints—could be used in churches, and their place in the devotional life of the believers.
This question has its root in the decree of the Byzantine emperor Leo banning the veneration of icons in the churches. His reason/s for doing so remains obscure. The decree, however, became a burning issue that church-historians have come to call the Iconoclastic Controversy.
This council, called by Empress Irene, widow of Emperor Constantine V, condemned the iconoclast (those opposing the use of icons) and decided that icons may be "venerated" but not "adored," for adoration belongs to God alone. The decision, however, was not universally embraced, and many emperors and churches continue their iconoclastic policies.
Print Resources (Nicea, 325):
Bruce Ware, Systematic Theology. Lecture 13: The Trinity. BiblicalTraining.org.
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