The Council of Nicaea was called by Emperor Constantine for June 325, after he had defeated his rivals for power and assumed full rule of the Empire. He wished to solemnly celebrate the twentieth anniversary of his reign, to proclaim universal peace, religious concord throughout the Church and unity of worship, and to establish a single day of Easter for the whole Church in the Empire. A common creed was established and a series of twenty disciplinary canons were drawn up to regulate the most important ecclesiastical matters. For the Emperor, the most important thing was the unity of the Church, on which he wished to base the unity of the State, so he sought the reconciliation of schismatics and heretics, excluding any condemnation. These canons remained in the legislation of the Church for many centuries, and the creed, with changes and additions, eventually became the main Credo of the Church, as the “Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed”
