Council of Nicaea I on the Lord's Supper
The question is not framed in these terms
This locus asks in categories that came later. Assigning a stance would answer on the figure's behalf, so the summary records what was addressed instead.
neither canon nor custom permits that they who have no right to offer should give the Body of Christ to them that do offer.
THE POSITION
The council never defines the Supper, and the question this locus asks — in what sense Christ is present in the bread and wine — is not one it poses. This is the third kind of blank: never framed in these terms, not unsearched. The canons were read in full and what they hold is incidental and disciplinary. Canon 18 regulates who may hand the element to whom, calling it "the Body of Christ" in passing and treating the rite as an offering; Canon 13 forbids withholding communion from the dying and calls it the last and most indispensable Viaticum. Both presuppose a usage; neither states a doctrine, and this corpus does not enter a council as a witness on a question it did not take up.
WHAT OTHERS HOLD HERE
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Settled that the Son is homoousios — of one substance — with the Father, against Arius. Also fixed a common date for Easter and issued 20 disciplinary canons.
Cite this page
"Council of Nicaea I on the Lord's Supper", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/nicaea-1/lords-supper (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/nicaea-1/lords-supper).