1. Geography and History

As early as a.d. 112 the Province of Bithynia in northwest Asia Minor, on the east coast of the Bosporus, contained many Christians, both urban and rural, as we learn from the salutation of 1 Peter and a famous letter of Governor Pliny (ca. 61–113) to Emperor Trajan (98–117). In this province, some 50 km. (30 mi.) southwest of the imperial seat of Nicomedia (modern Turk. İzmit), lay Nicaea (modern İznik), which, as we know from the council in 325, had…