Samoht Ruanedir writes, " I think Constantine and the Fathers of the Nicene Council have been given a bad rap
by Bercot and other Protestant writers. These were not soft, spiritually weak men
who were easily swept away by Constantine and his "agenda". All but a handful bore
the scars of persecution, which greatly touched the emperor. According to an
eyewitness at the council:"
"The General Council having thus received authority from the king,
the fathers directed that there should be gradations in the assembly and
that each Bishop should sit in his place according to his rank. Chairs were
there made for all and the king entered and sat with them. He kissed the spots
which were the marks of Christ in their bodies. Of the 318 fathers, only 11
were free from such marks, whose name were Absalom, Bishop of Edessa, and son
of Mar Ephrem's sister, Jonah of Raikson, Mara of Dora, George of Shegar, Jacob
of Nisibis, Marouta of Mepairkat, John of Goostia, Shimon of Diarbekir, Adai of
Agal, Eusebius of Caesarea and Joseph of Nicomedia. But all the others were more
or less maimed in their persecutions from heretics. Some had their eyes taken
out; some had their ears cut off. Some had their teeth dug out by the roots.
Some had the nails of their fingers and toes torn out; some were otherwise
mutilated; in a word there was no one without marks of violence; save the
above-named persons. But Thomas, Bishop of Marash was an object almost frightful
to look upon; he had been mutilated by the removal of his eyes, nose and lips;
his teeth had been dug out and both his legs and arms had been cut off. He
had been kept in prison 22 years by the Armanites [Armenians] who used to cut
off a member of his body or mutilate him in some way every year, to induce him
to consent to their blasphemy, but he conquered in this fearful contest to the
glory of believers and to the manifestation of the unmercifulness of the
heretics. The fathers took him with them to the Council and when the king saw
him, he fell down upon the ground and worshipped him saying, "I worship thee,
O thou martyr of Christ, who art adorned with many crowns.""
To know this sort of information and to continue to slander the Bishops at the First
Council, is to sin in a grievous way against them. To suggest that they caved
into to a vast compromise of the Faith just for comfort after all they had
endured is a terrible calumny against men who had shown true faithfulness and
indomitable character.
