ters, a man of an acute mind and
fluent, at first denied the truth of Alexander's positions, on the
ground that they were allied to the Sabellian errors, which were
condemned by the Church; and then, going to the opposite extreme, he
maintained that the Son is totally and essentially distinct from the
Father; that he was only the first and noblest of those created beings
whom God the Father formed out of nothing, and the instrument which the
Father used in creating the material universe, and therefore that he was
inferior to the Father both in nature and in dignity. No one of the
ancients has left us a connected and systematic account of the religion
professed by Arius and his associates.

The opinions of Arius were no sooner divulged than they found very many
abettors, and among them men of distinguished talents and rank, both in
Egypt and the neighboring provinces. Alexander, on the other hand,
accused Arius of blasphemy before two councils assembled at Alexandria,
and cast him out of the Church. He was not discouraged by this disgrace;
but retiring to Palestine he wrote various letters to men of
distinction, in which he labored to demonstrate the truth of his
doctrines, and with so much success that he drew over immense numbers to
his side, and in particular Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, who was a man
of vast influence. The emperor Constantine, who considered the
discussion as relating to a matter of little importance and remote from
the fundamentals of religion, at first addressed the disputants by
letter, admonishing them to desist from contention. But when he found
that nothing was effected by this measure, and that greater commotion
was daily rising throughout the empire, he in the year 325 summoned that
famous council of the whole Church which met at Nice in Bithynia, to put
an end to this controversy. In this council, after various altercations
and conflicts of the bishops, the doctrine of Arius was condemned,
Christ was pronounced to be of the same essence with the Father, Arius
was sent into exile in Illyricum, and his followers were compelled to
assent to a creed or confession of faith composed by the council.

No part of church history, perhaps, has acquired more celebrity than
this assembly of bishops at Nice to settle the affairs of the Church;
and yet it is very singular that scarcely any part of ecclesiastical
history has been investigated and explained more negligently. The
ancient writers are not ag