Arius
An Alexandrian presbyter who taught that the Son of God had a beginning and was not eternal as the Father is. The Council of Nicaea condemned his teaching in 325, and the dispute that bears his name lasted for most of the century.
Arius was a presbyter at Alexandria under Bishop Alexander of Alexandria. Socrates says that he took the bishop’s teaching on the unity of the Trinity for a revival of Sabellius, and argued against it that a begotten Son must have had a beginning (Socrates, Church History 1.5). Little of his own writing survives. In a letter to Eusebius of Nicomedia he complains that he is persecuted for saying that the Son has a beginning while God has none (Theodoret, Church History 1.4), and Athanasius quotes lines from his Thalia, a statement of his views in verse (Athanasius, On the Councils 15). Almost everything else is reported by his opponents.
The First Council of Nicaea condemned his teaching (Council of Nicaea (325) synodal letter) and Constantine exiled him (Socrates, Church History 1.8). He was later recalled. Socrates, and Athanasius in a letter based on an eyewitness, relate that he died suddenly at Constantinople on the day before he was to be received back into communion; both tell it as a judgement on him (Socrates, Church History 1.37–38) (Theodoret, Church History 1.13).
In the timeline
- May AD 325, firm dateThe First Council of Nicaea
Constantine gathers some three hundred bishops at Nicaea over the teaching of Arius. They confess the Son to be “of one substance with the Father”, agree a common date for Easter and issue twenty canons. Catholic, Orthodox and Reformation churches still appeal to the council.