section_path: History/Christian Councils
section_name: Christian Councils
paragraph_text: Christian Councils
  
  Christianity became a legal religion of the Roman Empire in the reign of Constantine I (also known as Constantine the Great) by the Edict of Milan in 313. Constantine patronized Christianity and supported it by granting privileges, and became the first Roman Emperor to adopt Christianity, but he did not get baptised until just before he died in Nicomedia. Constantine laid the groundwork for the majority of the population to become Christians, predominantly, the empire's formal religion in 380.
  
  The Nicene Creed, (Ancient Greek: Σύμβολον τῆς Νικαίας, romanized: Sýmbolon tês Nikaías; Latin: Symbolum Nicaenum; lit. ' Symbol of Nicaea ') which declared Jesus to be God, and became the foundation of church doctrine, was adopted at the first Roman Ecumenical Christian council in this city in 325. This council also condemned Gothic Christian Arianism, which was later adopted by many barbarian kingdoms, and led to the destruction of the Western Empire for the century to come.
  
  After shifting the council for four centuries, the Ecumenical Council was held in Nicaea again in 787. This council was called by the Emperor of the Eastern Empire, Constantine VI, Empress Irene, who later became the first female emperor, and attended by Pope Hadrian I. It addressed the iconoclastic controversy and recognized the veneration of Christian images of Jesus and the saints as legitimate. The council also forbade the secular appointment of bishops, thus solidifying the independent authority of the church against that of the state.