-The Arian controversy really started in the year 318 AD, with a presbyter at Alexandria by the name of Arius, who began spreading the heresy that only the Father is God and that the Son is a created being or creature.
-Arius was strongly opposed by his bishop Alexander of Alexandria.
-In 320, Alexander convened a council of Egyptian bishops, and they deposed Arius as a heretic.
-Arius went to Palestine and got the help of other Eastern bishops, especially those who, like him, had studied under Lucian of Antioch. Controversy began to increase within Christendom.
-Emperor Constantine wanted to restore unity to the Christian world within his empire, and so he summoned the Council of Nicaea. There were about 300 bishops present at the council.
-After Nicaea, three main parties emerged: Nicenes, Arians, and Origenists (who were essentially semi-Arians). They disputed over the terminology used to express the relationship between the Father and the Son.
-In 328, Athanasius became the new bishop of Alexandria. He became the champion of Nicene orthodoxy.
-The main leader of the Arians (after Arius had died) was Eusebius of Nicomedia. He was extremely influential on the Emperor Constantine.
-In 328, Eusebius of Nicomedia worked to get Arius recalled from exile. Eusebius then worked to have the Nicene bishops deposed and exiled.
-In 335, Eusebius of Nicomedia convinced Emperor Constantine to have Athanasius exiled, by making many false accusations against him, most notably the false idea that Athanasius organized a dock strike in Alexandria, which would have cut off the grain supply.
-When Constantine died, the divide was between Constans, who favored the Nicene Christians, and Constantius, who favoured the Arians.
-Athanasius returned from exile, but was banished again by Constantius. Athanasius and Marcellus of Ancyra chose to flee to Rome, since most of the Western bishops were solidly Nicene in their theology.
-Pope Julius I held a council in 340 where he declared that Athanasius and Marcellus of Ancyra were wrongly deposed.
-The Eastern bishops called a council at Antioch in 341 where they rejected Rome's right to judge the case, and produced an Arian creed which left out the word homoousias. The Origenists preferred to say that the word homoiousias. Though the difference in pronunciation was one letter, the difference in meaning was quite serious. (same substance vs similar substance)
-The Arian controversy was beginning to lead to more division between the East and West. Constans and Constansius summoned the council of Sardica in 343, where the Western bishops declared that Athanasius and the Nicene bishops should be allowed to take part in the council, contrary to the opinion of the Eastern bishops.
-Marcellus of Ancyra lost support, due to his theology being revealed as Sabellian in nature. The East agreed to take back Athanasius in 346.
-In 350, Constans was murdered by a man named Magnetius, and Constantius became the new emperor.
-Constantius was heavily influenced by Arian bishops, which led him to try to force the Western bishops to accept Arianism, exiling those who refused (among whom were people like Hilary of Poitiers).
-In 356, Constantius exiled Pope Liberius and Hosius of Cordoba (who lapsed into Arianism, but recanted on his deathbed and confessed his faith in the deity of Christ).
-Constantius banished Athanasius again in 356; he sent troops into Alexandria to have Athanasius arrested, but Athanasius escaped his grip and went into hiding for six years with a group of Egyptian monks.
-Constantius violently persecuted the Nicene Christians. At one point, his soldiers beat a group of Orthodox Christian women in Alexandria to death.
-In the East, the two main spokesmen for Arianism were Aetius and Eunomius. During the reign of emperor Julian the Apostate, Aetius was ordained as a bishop by the Arians. For a brief period of time, Eunomius was the bishop of Cyzicus.
-Many of the Origenist bishops, along with the Nicenes, were being deposed. One example of this would be Basil of Ancyra.
-Constantius died in 361 AD. Julian the Apostate succeeded him as the new Roman emperor. Julian was raised as a Christian, but abandoned the faith for Neoplatonism.
-Julian allowed all of the exiled bishops to return to their home churches, in an attempt to help snuff out the debate going on within Christendom, but the opposite happened.
-Athanasius returned to Alexandria, now convinced that the Nicenes and Origenists were essentially fighting the same battle. He said that since they accepted the Nicene creed, they were to be regarded as brothers, merely disagreeing over the use of the word homoousias.
-Julian was killed in a battle with the Persians in 363. Valentinian became the new emperor. Valens was an Arian and began to persecute both Nicenes and Origenists. He banished Athanasius again.
-In 366, Valens allowed to Athanasius to return to Alexandria.
-Athanasius' theological anti-Arian successors were the Cappadocian fathers: Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory Nazianzen.
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