The Arian Heresy

The first great heresy for the Christian religion is considered to be the Arian heresy-- with the name deriving from its most influential preacher, a parish priest named Arius from Antioch. The Arian heresy arose, in the year 318, from the fact that it was difficult to explain the difference between “the One and the Many, between the ultimate unity that lay behind the visible universe and the incapable variety that exists in the world as we know it”. Arius resolved this problem by preaching Jesus Christ, as the son of God, to be a separate entity from God, and thus not of the same divine material as God. This deviated from orthodox thought as it denied the divinity of Christ and was thus considered to be a denial of orthodox Christianity. The …show more content…
Arius believed that the term “son” must include procreation, but as in the case of Christ, there was no procreation-- he was born of a virgin. Thus, he was not the true “Son” of God, but later begotten from time and as such God was not the father until the Son was created. God, then, must have existed before Christ, resulting in Christ being the firstborn creation. In his teachings, Christ was superior to secondary creations and alike to God with His virtues but not of the same divinity as God Himself. This idea became known as …show more content…
Thus, the rise in Arianism led to such a rise in internal conflict within the Church that it drew his attention. As a result, under the pretence of uniting his kingdom once again, he became another strong adversary to the spread of Arianism. Constantine first attempted to negotiate the matter through the court Bishop Hosius of Cordova, the most influential Bishop of Christendom at that period in history. This had no lasting effect on Arius as his heresy still spread across Alexandria and the Christian Kingdom. Constantine then resorted to requesting Alexander and Arius to internally solve the issue. When this too had failed, Constantine declared the first ecumenical council-- The First Council of Nicea on the 20th May of the year 325. This council was attended by over 300 bishops, clergy and laymen from the Christian kingdom, including Arius and a large following led by Eusebius of Nicomedia. This council lasted for two months, until June, during which both sides bitterly argued for their doctrine-- with references to the scripture to support their view-- to be validated by the congregation of Bishops. Emperor Constantine actually attended the council as well-- adviced by Bishop Hosius on the proceedings, to oversee the decision. The decision reached, at the end of the council, ultimately favoured