Constantine evidently shared the same conviction. He had no doubt whatever that the Arian heresy was finally silenced. So we find him writing to the church at Alexandria, declaring that all points which seemed to be open to different interpretations have been thoroughly discussed and settled. All must abide by the _chose jugée_. Arius had been proved to be a servant of the Devil. Three hundred bishops had said it, and “that which has commended itself to the judgment of three hundred bishops cannot be other than the doctrine of God, seeing that the Holy Spirit, dwelling in the minds of so many honourable men, must have thoroughly enlightened them as to the will of God.”[104] He took for granted, therefore, that, those who had been led away by Arius would return at once to the Catholic fold. The Emperor also wrote another letter, which he addressed “To the Churches,” in which he declared that each question at issue had been discussed until a decision was arrived at “acceptable to Him who is the inspector of all things,” and added that nothing was henceforth left for dissension or controversy in matters of faith.[105] Most of the letter, indeed, consists of argument shewing the desirability of a uniform celebration of Easter, but one can see that the leading thought in the writer’s mind is that the last word had at length been uttered on the cardinal doctrines of the Christian Faith. The Council had been a brilliant success. The three hundred bishops announced to the Catholic Church the decisions of their “great and holy Synod,” with the explicit declaration that “all heresy has been cut out of the Church.”[106] Arius was banished and Eusebius of Nicomedia with him. The triumph of orthodoxy seemed finally assured. ----- Footnote 104: ὅ γὰρ τοῖς τριακοσίοις ἐπισκόποις ἤρεσεν οὔδεν ἔστιν ἕτερον ἤ τοῦ θεοῦ γνώμη (Soc., i., 9). Footnote 105: ὡς μηδὲν ἔτι πρὸς διχόνοιαν ἢ πίστεως αμφισβητησιν ὑπολείπεσθαι (_ibidem_). Footnote 106: ἐπὶ τὸ πὰσαν αἵρεσιν ἐκκοπῆναι (Soc., i., 9). ----- [Illustration] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration] CHAPTER XII THE MURDERS OF CRISPUS AND FAUSTA We saw in the last chapter how Constantine presided over the deliberations of the bishops at Nicæa, mild, benignant, gracious, and condescending. It is a very different being whom we see at Rome in 326, suspicious, morose, and striking down in blind fury his own gallant son. The contrast is startling, the cause obscure and mysterious, but if the secret is to be discovered at all, it is probably to be found in the jealousies which raged in the Imperial House.