Arius (c.260 - 336) and Arianism

Synopsis

ARIUS (Ἀριοϛ) one of the most famous heretics; b. about 256, in Libya (according to others, in Alexandria); d. 336, at Constantinople. He was educated by Lucian, presbyter in Antioch, and held a prominent position as presbyter in the Church of Alexandria when the Arian controversy with Bishop Alexander began (about 318) concerning the eternal deity of Christ and his equality with the Father (homoousia), which he denied, holding that Christ was of a different essence, and a creature of the Father, though created before the world. He is described as a tall, lean man, with a downcast brow, very austere habits, considerable learning, and a smooth, winning address, but quarrelsome disposition. The Silence of his enemies conclusively proves that his general moral character was irreproachable (like that of Nestorius and Pelagius); and, if it had not been for his heresy, he would have been highly esteemed. His enemies said that the real cause of his opposition to Alexander was a personal grudge, because he was not himself elected bishop; but the subordination views which he had imbibed in the Antiochian school are sufficient to explain the direction of his development and the course of his life. Condemned by the synod of Alexandria (320), he left the city; but he was kindly received both by Eusebius of Caesarea and Eusebius of Nicomedia, and it was evident that not a few of the Asiatic churches favored his ideas. A reconciliation was brought about between him and Alexander; but hardly had he returned to Alexandria before the strife broke out again, and with still greater violence. A letter from Constantine, addressed to Alexander and Arius, and carried to Alexandria by Hosius of Cordova, availed nothing: the whole Christian world rang with the contest. But, in spite of his many and powerful friends, Arius was defeated at the Council of Nicaea (325), and banished to Illyria. Soon, however, a reaction in his favor set in. The Eusebian party espoused his cause more openly, and through Constantia, the sister of the emperor, he got access to the court. He was formally recalled from banishment; and all the chiefs of the Eusebian party were assembled in Constantinople to receive him back into the bosom of the church, when he suddenly died the day before the solemnity (336), at the age of over eighty years, at a time and in a manner that seemed to the orthodox party to be a direct interposition of Providence, and a condemnation of his doctrine; while his friends attributed the death to poison. Athanasius relates the fact in a letter to Serapion, on the authority of a priest, Macarius of Constantinople (De Morte Arii, Opera, ed. Bened. torn. I., pp. 1., 340), and ventures to interpret Providence in the uncharitable style of his age, yet not without some reluctance of his better Christian feeling Epiphanius (Haer. 68, c. 7) compares his death to that of Judas the traitor. Socrates (Hist. Eccl. I., 38) gives the following account: "Going out of the imperial palace, attended by a crowd of Eusebian partisans like guards, Arius paraded proudly through the midst of the city, attracting the notice of all the people. On approaching the place called Constantine’s Forum, where the column of porphyry is erected, a terror, arising from the consciousness of his wickedness, seized him, accompanied by a violent relaxation of the bowels. He therefore inquired whether there was a convenient place near, and, being directed to the back of Constantine’s Forum, he hastened thither. Soon after, a faintness came over him, and, together with the evacuations, his bowels protruded, followed by a copious hemorrhage, and the descent of the smaller intestines. More over, portions of his spleen and liver were carried off in the effusion of blood, so that he almost immediately died." Sozomen (H. E., II., 30) gives a similar account, and adds, that, for a long period, everybody avoided with horror the spot on which Arias died, until a rich Arian bought the place of the public, and built a house on the site, that there might be no perpetual memorial of his death.

His principal work, called ... The Banquet, which he wrote during his stay with Eusebius at Nicomedia, was a defence of his doctrine in an entertaining popular form, half poetry, half prose; but, with the exception of a few frag ments in the tracts of Athanasius, it is lost. A letter of his to Eusebius of Nicomedia, and one to Alexander of Alexandria, are still extant. (See Fabricius, Biblioth. Gr., VIII., p. 309.) His doctrine on the divinity of Christ and his rela tion to the Father has given him a notoriety far outstripping his talents and learning. Nean der (Ch. H., IV., 685) ascribes to him an acute but contracted intellect without the intuitive faculty.

"ARIUS," Philip Schaff, ed., A Religious Encyclopaedia or Dictionary of Biblical, Historical, Doctrinal, and Practical Theology, 3rd edn., Vol. 1. Toronto, New York & London: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1894. p.139.

Primary Sources

	Athanasius, Deposition of Arius.
	Athanasius, Discources Against the Arians, 1.1.3; 1.37; 2.17.
	Athanasius, On the Councils, 2.15-16.
	Athanasius, To the Bishops of Egypt, 2.12.19.
	Athanasius, Defence of the Nicene Tradition, 4.16.
	Athanasius, Letter 54.
	St Augustine, Arianism and Other Heresies. New City Press, 1996. Hbk. ISBN: 1565480384.
	Epiphanius, Panarion 68-69.
	Socrates, Church History 1.5-38.
	Sozomes, Church History 1.15-21; 2.27-30.
	Theodoret, Church History 1.1-6, 13.

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