The bishops and their retinues began arriving in early May. Constantine welcomed them warmly and housed them, depending on their age and distinction, either in the palace or in one of the numerous outbuildings rimming the lake. A good many of them bore scars of past persecutions: eye patches covering lost eyes, limps produced by severed hamstrings or Achilles tendons, backs deformed by hard labor in Phoenician mines. How satisfying to provide these sufferers with some of the worldly comforts they had so long deserved! Their gratitude was equally touching. Some bishops apparently believed they had already entered the Kingdom of Heaven, or at least a well-furnished anteroom.
When Jesus Became God, p. 72 – on the occasion of the first ecumenical Christian council at Nicaea in the year 325
– on the occasion of the first ecumenical Christian council at Nicaea in the year 325