[1] Preparing for a journey to Tarsus, he called on the bishop of Tarsus, Diodorus, who was attending the First Council of Constantinople (one of the ecumenical councils), to ask if he could take letters for him; his appearance and manners struck Diodorus so forcibly that he at once determined that he should be advanced as a candidate for Bishop; making an excuse of attending to some other business, he took Nectarius to see Meletius of Antioch.

[1] Nectarius was duly baptized and his clothes were changed for the robes of a Bishop of the Imperial City and became at once president of the First Council of Constantinople.

On arrival they received a letter from the synod of Milan, inviting them to a great general council at Rome; however, they indicated that they must remain where they were because they had not made any preparations for such long a journey.

However, they sent three (Syriacus, Eusebius and Priscian of Lydia) with a synodal letter to Pope Damasus I, archbishop Saint Ambrose and the other bishops assembled in the council at Rome.

[1] In his 15th letter (to the bishops of Illyria) he indicated that the church in Rome had finally agreed to recognize both Nectarius of Constantinople and Flavian I of Antioch.

[1] After this, Nectarius returned home, full of anxiety and consulted the Novatianist Bishop Agelius, who felt himself unsuited to arbitrate on such a controversy.

Sisinnius I suggested that they should produce the testimonies of the old Fathers of the Church on the doctrine of the Son, and first ask the heads of the several parties whether they accepted these authorities or desired to anathematise them.

[1] After this, Theodosius I forbade all sectaries, except the Novatianists, to hold divine services or to publish their doctrines or to ordain clergy, under threat of severe civil penalties.

The presbyter penitentiary was added to the ecclesiastical roll about the time of the Novatianist schism when that party declined to communicate with those who had lapsed in the Decian persecution.