First Council of Nicaea

== Effects ==
[[File:COUNCIL OF NICEA Fresco in the Sistine Salon Vatican t.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|A fresco depicting the First Council of Nicaea at the [[Vatican City|Vatican]]'s Sixtine Salon]]
In the short-term, the Council did not completely solve the problems it was convened to discuss, and a period of conflict and upheaval continued for some time. Constantine was succeeded by two Arian emperors in the Eastern Empire: his son, [[Constantius II]], and [[Valens]]. Valens could not resolve the outstanding ecclesiastical issues and unsuccessfully confronted [[Basil of Caesarea|St. Basil]] over the Nicene Creed.<ref>{{cite magazine |date=February 1968|title=Heroes of the Fourth Century |magazine=Word Magazine |publisher=Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America |pages=15–19 |url=http://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/patrology/heroes_of_4th_century_pt2.htm}}</ref>

Pagan powers within the empire sought to maintain and at times re-establish paganism into the seat of the emperor (see [[Arbogast (magister militum)|Arbogast]] and [[Julian the Apostate]]). Arians and Meletians soon regained nearly all of the rights they had lost, and consequently Arianism continued to spread and be a subject of debate within the Church during the remainder of the 4th century. Almost immediately, Eusebius of Nicomedia, an Arian bishop and cousin to Constantine I, used his influence at court to sway Constantine's favor from the proto-orthodox Nicene bishops to the Arians.<ref name="Davis 1983 77">{{harvnb|Davis|1983|p=77}}</ref>

Eustathius of Antioch was deposed and exiled in 330. Athanasius, who had succeeded Alexander as Bishop of Alexandria, was deposed by the [[First Synod of Tyre]] in 335, and Marcellus of Ancyra followed him in 336. Arius returned to Constantinople to be readmitted into the Church but died shortly before he could be received. Constantine died the next year, after finally receiving baptism from Arian Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia, and "with his passing the first round in the battle after the Council of Nicaea was ended".<ref name="Davis 1983 77" />