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This paper discusses Eusebius’ account of the Council of Nicaea in the Vita Constantini. The scarce attention devoted by Eusebius to the theological matters debated at Nicaea must not be intended as an attempt to cover up his own involvement in Arianism; on the contrary, Eusebius shares completely Constantine’s view according to which highly controversial issues must be discussed only within restricted intellectual and ecclesiastical elites, without affecting the Christian flock. Both Constantine and Eusebius think of councils as a body of arbitration, whose aim is solving conflicts about the entitlement of episcopal sees and, by consequence, the legitimate ownership over Church estates, which constitute the endowment for bishops’ euergetism, Constantine’s main concern.
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This paper discusses Eusebius’ account of the Council of Nicaea in the Vita Constantini. The scarce attention devoted by Eusebius to the theological matters debated at Nicaea must not be intended as an attempt to cover up his own involvement in Arianism; on the contrary, Eusebius shares completely Constantine’s view according to which highly controversial issues must be discussed only within restricted intellectual and ecclesiastical elites, without affecting the Christian flock. Both Constantine and Eusebius think of councils as a body of arbitration, whose aim is solving conflicts about the entitlement of episcopal sees and, by consequence, the legitimate ownership over Church estates, which constitute the endowment for bishops’ euergetism, Constantine’s main concern.
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