Arius

A Greek priest in Alexandria and leader of a faction that denied the complete divinity of Jesus Christ. He believed that Jesus Christ was more than man and less than God and that the Father and the Son did not possess the same nature or essence, with no permanent union between Them; the Father alone is eternal and truly God. The resulting controversy concerning these arguments resulted in the assembly of the Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325), the first ecumenical council with bishops from all parts of the Roman world. The council condemned Arius and ruled that God and Christ were of the same substance, coequal and coeternal; their position was expressed in the "Nicene Creed," which continues to be an official stance of most Christian churches.

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