Page:History of the First Council of Nice.djvu/28

18 persecuted Christians, and engaged in battle relying upon demons, whom he worshipped as gods. Maximin, and his children, were destroyed, A. D. 313, by Licinius.

Licinius, after some years of peaceful rule in Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, became engaged in other conflicts with Constantine, and, being taken prisoner, was put to death by his conqueror, together with his supporters.

Then Constantine adopted the title of " Victor," and so governed the Roman empire alone.

The exiled and enslaved martyrs were released, the confessors honored, and confiscated estates restored to the proper owners or heirs.

Laws were promulgated forbidding any one to erect images or practise divination, or offer sacrifice in any way in their private houses; churches were ordered to be built, and old ones to be repaired and enlarged. At this time the heathen temples were not closed or suppressed.

Great dissensions had arisen in the church of Egypt about the nature of Christ, and the time to celebrate Easter, by which Constantine was much troubled. He therefore ordered a convention to be held at Nicæa in Bithynia, to which bishops were invited from all parts of the world, hoping that harmony might result from the decision of such a Universal Assembly of the chief Christians of the world.