These controversies raged for over two hundred years, after which the bishops found new intellectual outlets, if not more rational ones, for their animosities

From The Plato Cult and Other Philosophical Follies (Blackwell, 1991) by David Stove, Chapter 7.

Early in the fourth century Constantine made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire, and at once had reason to regret his having done so; for now not only the Church but the state was convulsed by controversies about the Holy Trinity. These controversies raged for over two hundred years, after which the bishops found new intellectual outlets, if not more rational ones, for their animosities.