What Were the Aftereffects of the Council of Nicea? | Church History

Aside from the council’s decisions against Arianism, the synod unified the date of Pascha which would be determined by the Patriarch of Alexandria ending a controversy that took place since the second century. The council dictated that there would be no kneeling on Sunday and there should be only one bishop per jurisdiction. The Council was by no means conclusive as it did not put an end to the controversy. The Churches of the East were divided among themselves as some were Arians, some adhered fully to the Nicaean faith, and others adhered to the Nicaean faith but could not accept the theological formulation of “homousious”- the consubstantiality of the Father with the Son. The West was committed to the Nicaean cause in terms of theology, formulation, and pastoral decisions. In the East, some who were Arians began to accept the consubstantiality of the Father and the Son but rejected the divinity of the Spirit. Athanasius had to combat them in four letters he sent to Serapion, a bishop in Egypt, in which he expounded the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Athanasius would die before the controversy surrounding the Holy Spirit, and his legacy would be upheld after him by the Cappadocian Fathers.