Of their number, and if anything yet more eminent, is said to have been also Spyridon, a Cyprian bishop, a man one of the order of the prophets, as far as we have learned even from the account of those who had seen him. This man, even when set in the episcopate, remained a shepherd of sheep. But one night, when thieves had come to the fold and had stretched out their wicked hands to make an opening for leading out the sheep, they were held fast by certain invisible bonds, and remained until daylight as though delivered over to torturers. But when the old man, going forth in the morning to lead the sheep to pasture, came, he saw the young men hanging restrained in the fold without any human bonds. And when he had learned the cause of the crime, he loosed by a word those whom their deserts had bound:
and lest their nocturnal labor should turn out for them in vain: "Take for yourselves, O young men," he said, "one ram, lest you seem to have come without cause—the ram which it would have been better to obtain by prayer than by theft." They relate of him also this wonderful deed: he had a daughter named Irene, who, having served him well, died a virgin. After her death a certain man came saying that he had entrusted a certain deposit to her. The father had not known of the matter. Search was made throughout the whole house, but nowhere was that which was demanded found. Yet the man who had entrusted it persisted, and pressed hard with weeping and tears, testifying that he would even bring an end to his own life unless he should recover what he had entrusted.
Moved by his tears, the old man hastened to his daughter's tomb, and called her by name. Then she from the tomb said: "What do you wish, father?" "The deposit of that man," he said, "where did you place it?" But she, pointing out the place, said: "There you will find it buried." Returning home, he found the thing just as his daughter had answered from the tomb, and handed it over to the one who demanded it back. But many other wonderful deeds of his are reported, which even now are celebrated by the mouth of all. Such, then, were the many men who in those times still shone forth in the Churches of the Lord, of whom very many were in that council. But Athanasius too, at that time deacon of Alexander the bishop of Alexandria, was present at the deliberations, aiding the old man in very many ways.
Meanwhile the assembly was conducted day by day, and they did not dare to decide so great a matter easily or rashly. Arius was frequently summoned into the council, and by continual discussion his assertions were examined, and what ought to be held against them, or established, was sought with the utmost weighing. But after long and much discussion it pleased all, and as if by one mouth and heart of all it was decreed, that ὁμοούσιον (homoousion) ought to be written—that is, to confess the Son to be of the same substance with the Father—and this was pronounced by the most firm sentence of all. Only seventeen are said to have been there to whom the faith of Arius was more pleasing, affirming that the Son of God was created externally out of things not existing, and not begotten from the very deity of the Father.
The sentence of the priestly council was reported to Constantine. He venerated it as though uttered by God. He declared that if anyone should attempt to oppose it, as one coming against divine decrees, he would drive him into exile. Therefore only six, together with Arius, suffered themselves to be expelled; but the remaining eleven, having taken counsel among themselves, consented to subscribe with the hand alone, not with the mind. The chief author of this dissimulation was Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia. Meanwhile, with some subscribing in truth and others in pretense (as the outcome afterward showed), and with fixed decrees being established concerning each of the several ecclesiastical observances, the council was dissolved.