Editing Arianism (section)

===Council of Constantinople===
{{Main|Theodosius I}}
It was not until the co-reigns of Gratian and Theodosius that Arianism was effectively wiped out among the ruling class and elite of the Eastern Empire. Valens died in the [[Battle of Adrianople]] in 378 and was succeeded by [[Theodosius I]], who adhered to the Nicene Creed.{{efn|Early in his reign, during a serious illness, Theodosius had accepted Christian baptism. In 380 he proclaimed himself a Christian of the Nicene Creed, and he called a council at Constantinople to put an end to the Arian heresy (which, contrary to Nicene doctrine, claimed Jesus was created), which had divided the empire for over half a century. At Constantinople, 150 bishops gathered and revised the Nicene Creed of A.D.&nbsp;325 into the creed we know today. Arianism has never made a serious challenge since.<ref>{{cite web |title=Theodosius I |url=https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/rulers/theodosius-i.html|access-date=2021-01-16 |website=Christian History |date=8 August 2008 |language=en}}</ref>}} This allowed for settling the dispute. Theodosius's wife St [[Aelia Flacilla|Flacilla]] was instrumental in his campaign to end Arianism.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}

Two days after Theodosius arrived in Constantinople, 24 November 380, he expelled the [[Arian]] bishop, [[Demophilus of Constantinople]], and surrendered the churches of that city to [[Gregory of Nazianzus]], the [[Homoiousian]] leader of the rather small Nicene community there, an act which provoked rioting. Theodosius had just been baptized, by bishop Acholius of Thessalonica, during a severe illness, as was common in the early Christian world. In February he and [[Gratian]] had published an edict that all their subjects should profess the faith of the bishops of Rome and Alexandria (i.e., the Nicene faith),<ref>{{cite web |first=J.B. |last=Bury |title=History of the Later Roman Empire |at=Vol.&nbsp;1 Chap.&nbsp;XI |website=penelope.uchicago.edu |publisher=University of Chicago |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/BURLAT/11*.html |access-date=2021-01-16}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf202.iii.xii.iv.html |title=Sozomen's Church History VII.4 |publisher=ccel.org}}</ref> or be handed over for punishment for not doing so.

Although much of the church hierarchy in the East had opposed the Nicene Creed in the decades leading up to Theodosius's accession, he managed to achieve unity on the basis of the Nicene Creed. In 381, at the [[First Council of Constantinople|Second Ecumenical Council]] in Constantinople, a group of mainly Eastern bishops assembled and accepted the [[Nicene Creed of 381]],<ref>The text of this version of the [[Nicene Creed]] is available at {{Cite web |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.ix.iii.html |title=The Holy Creed Which the 150 Holy Fathers Set Forth, Which is Consonant with the Holy and Great Synod of Nice |publisher=ccel.org |access-date=27 November 2010}}</ref> which was supplemented in regard to the [[Holy Spirit in Christianity|Holy Spirit]], as well as some other changes: see [[Comparison of Nicene Creeds of 325 and 381]]. This is generally considered the end of the dispute about the Trinity and the end of Arianism among the Roman, non-Germanic peoples.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Arianism {{!}} Definition, History, & Controversy {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Arianism |access-date=2022-04-20 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>