"Now, bishop, give me thy signature, and communicate this arrangement confidentially unto the others, and let them come and sign also, that the creed may be unanimously signed, and all of these unseemly dissensions banished out of the established Church." The bishop laughed lightly, but signed the confession of faith, and not long afterward all the others did so, except Arius, who was already far upon the road to the heart of Illyricum. Constantine had now completed his long-cherished design of subverting the social and political organization of the primitive Church, and establishing a state religion, of which he might be the head in place of Jesus Christ, in whose name he founded a system that was in open rebellion against the Saviour’s whole life and teachings. It remained only for him to have the action of the OEcumenical Council confirmed by some miraculous circumstances, and the imperial ingenuity was fully equal to the occasion; for two members of the council had died at Nicea during its protracted session, and were buried in the church: With a grand and ostentatious procession by torch-light, the sacred roll of parchment was taken to their tomb and left there through the night, the emperor himself having prayed publicly that, if the departed bishops approved the action of the council, they might in some way signify their assent to the decrees and creed thereof; and early the next morning the signatures of the dead bishops were found upon the parchment! Their endorsement was unequivocal: "We, Chrysanthus and Mysonius, fully concurring with the first Holy and OEcumenical Synod, although removed from earth, have signed the volume with our own hands."