The Arian concept of Christ is that the Son of God did not always exist, but was created by — and is therefore distinct from — God the Father.

) After the dispute over Arianism became politicized and a general solution to the divisiveness was sought — with a great majority holding to the Trinitarian position — the Arian position was officially declared heterodox.

In western Europe Arianism, which had been taught by Ulfilas, the Arian missionary to the Germanic tribes, was dominant among the Goths and Lombards ( and, significantly for the late Empire, the Vandals ); but it ceased to be the mainstream belief by the 8th century.

Because virtually all extant written material on Arianism was written by its opponents, the nature of Arian teachings is difficult to define precisely today.

The letter of Auxentius, a 4th-century Arian bishop of Milan, regarding the missionary Ulfilas, gives the clearest picture of Arian beliefs on the nature of the Trinity: God the Father (" unbegotten "), always existing, was separate from the lesser Jesus Christ (" only-begotten "), born before time began and creator of the world.

However, there is no evidence that his son and ultimate successor, Constantius II, who was an Arian Christian, was exiled.

His advisor in these affairs was Eusebius of Nicomedia, who had already at the Council of Nicea been the head of the Arian party, who also was made bishop of Constantinople.

Ulfilas ' initial success in converting this Germanic people to an Arian form of Christianity was strengthened by later events.

The term “ Arian ” bestowed by Athanasius upon his opponents in the Christological debate was polemical.

The epithet " Arian " was also applied to the early Unitarians such as John Biddle though in denial of the pre-existence of Christ they were again largely Socinians not Arians.

In 386 Justina and Valentinian received the Arian bishop Auxentius, and Ambrose was again ordered to hand over a church in Milan for Arian usage.

However, this was not successful, for according to Gregory of Tours, Amalaric pressured her to forsake her Roman Catholic faith and convert to Arian Christianity, at one point beating her until she bled ; she sent to her brother Childebert I, king of Paris a towel stained with her own blood.

Alaric, too, was a Christian, though an Arian, not Orthodox.

In religion Alaric was an Arian, like all the early Visigothic nobles, but he greatly mitigated the persecution policy of his father Euric toward the Catholics and authorized them to hold in 506 the council of Agde.

Nicaea was convoked by Constantine I in May – August 325 to address the Arian position that Jesus of Nazareth is of a distinct substance from the Father.

He continued to lead the conflict against the Arians for the rest of his life and was engaged in theological and political struggles against the Emperors Constantine the Great and Constantius II and powerful and influential Arian churchmen, led by Eusebius of Nicomedia and others.

While there is no reason to believe the Arian claim, it can be surmised that he was close enough to 30 years old in 328 for them to contemplate raising such an accusation.

It is now accepted by most scholars that the Arian Party was not a monolithic group, holding drastically different theological views that spanned the early Christian theological spectrum.

The term Arian was first coined by Athanasius to describe both followers of Arius, and followers of ideas that he deemed as bad as Arius '.

To orthodox churchmen he was a bigoted supporter of the Arian heresy, to Julian the Apostate and the many who have subsequently taken his part he was a murderer, a tyrant and inept as a ruler ".

* the 9th transferred Arian churches to the bishops of their dioceses ;

Following Adolf von Harnack, many scholars have interpreted the word ( which only appears in this instance ) as denoting a theological school and have therefore seen not only Eusebius but also Arius and other Arian leaders ( among them Maris, Theognis and Asterius ) as pupils of Lucian and have transferred Arian views unto Lucian.

In 385 Ambrose, backed by Milan's populace, refused Valentinian II's imperial request to hand over the Portian basilica for the use of Arian troops.

Catching the impulse from Hilary and confirmed in it by the success of Arian psalmody, Ambrose composed several original hymns as well, four of which still survive, along with music which may not have changed too much from the original melodies.

Constantius ' persistence in his opposition to Athanasius, combined with reports Athanasius received about the persecution of non-Arians by the new Arian bishop George of Laodicea, prompted Athanasius to write his more emotional History of the Arians, in which he described Constantius as a precursor of the Antichrist.

The Arian party, as described by Athanasius, may not have existed in the form he portrayed in his writings.

When Cyril ’ s bishop Maximus died Cyril was appointed bishop by Acasius of Caesaria, who was himself an Arian and viewed Cyril as a theological ally.

By the time of the Byzantine Iconoclasm several centuries later, Eusebius had unfairly gained the reputation of having been an Arian, and was roundly condemned as such by Patriarch Nikephoros I of Constantinople.

In fact, during his time in the Imperial court, the Eastern court and the major positions in the Eastern Church were held by Arians or Arian sympathizers.

He was so influential that even after his death, Constantius II heeded his and Eudoxus of Constantinople's advice to attempt to convert the Roman Empire to Arianism by creating Arian Councils and official Arian Doctrines.

Meanwhile, several Germanic tribes were converted to Arian Christianity by the missionary Wulfila, who devised an alphabet to translate the Bible into the Gothic language.

" The movement spread in areas controlled by the Roman Empire and Arian Goths, and the Persian Empire ; it continued to develop in the Mediterranean and Middle East before and during the 2nd and 3rd centuries.

Meanwhile, the Goths were converted from paganism to Arian Christianity by the Gothic missionary Wulfila, who devised the Gothic alphabet to translate the Bible.

Initially pagan, the Goths were in the 4th century converted to Arian Christianity by the Gothic missionary Wulfila, who devised an alphabet to translate the Bible.

The two friends then entered a period of close fraternal cooperation as they participated in a great rhetorical contest of the Caesarean church precipitated by the arrival of accomplished Arian theologians and rhetors.

The Visigoths, for example, were converted to Arian Christianity around 360, even before they were pushed into imperial territory by the expansion of the Huns.

Although often considered an Arian, Constantius ultimately preferred a third, compromise version that lay somewhere in between Arianism and the Nicene Creed, retrospectively called Semi-Arianism.

In the turmoil after the death of Constantine in 337, in order to establish himself as sole emperor, Julian's zealous Arian Christian cousin Constantius II led a massacre of most of Julian's close relatives.

His mother was an Arian, sister of Clearchus, also an Arian, and a paternal granddaughter of Gallus ( born c. 370 ), son of Anastasia ( born c. 352 ) and husband, in turn daughter of Flavius Claudius Constantius Gallus and wife and cousin Constantina.

He then moved to Moesia ( within the Roman Empire ) under the protection of the Arian Emperor Constantius II.

He is succeeded by Pope Liberius as the 36th pope who immediately writes to Constantius II requesting a council at Aquileia to discuss the former Alexandrian patriarch Athanasius, who opposes the Arian belief to which the emperor subscribes.

Here his free utterance of extreme Arian views led to popular complaints, and Eudoxius was compelled, by command of the emperor, Constantius II, to depose him from the bishopric within a year of his elevation to it.

Constantius was an Arian and his brothers were Nicene Christians.

The Semi-Arian emperor Constantius II came to Constantinople, convened a synod of Arian bishops, banished Paul I, and, to the disappointment of Macedonius, translated Eusebius of Nicomedia to the vacant see.

Constantius II, who succeeded Constantine, was an Arian sympathizer Following the abortive effort by Julian the Apostate to restore paganism in the empire, the emperor Valens — himself an Arian — renewed the persecution of Nicene hierarchs.

During the reign of Constantius II, the Arian Gothic convert Ulfilas was consecrated a bishop by Eusebius of Nicomedia and sent to missionize his people.

A letter exists from the Emperor Constantius II to King Ezana and his brother Saizanas, in which he vainly requested them to substitute the Arian bishop Theophilus for Frumentius.

Prior to this date, Constantius II ( 337-361 ) and Valens ( 364-378 ) had personally favored Arian or Semi-Arian forms of Christianity, but Valens ' successor Theodosius I supported the Trinitarian doctrine as expounded in the Nicene Creed from the 1st Council of Nicea.

Constans, Augustus in Rome, favored the Nicene bishops while Constantius, Augustus in Constantinople, often supported Arian ones.

In Philippopolis, they anathemized the term homoousios, in effect excommunicating Pope Julius I as well as their rivals at the Council in Sardica, and introduced the term Anomoian and as a result, the Arian controversy was perpetuated, rather than resolved, as was the original intention of the Roman emperors Constans and Constantius along with Pope Julius who called the Council of Sardica.

More Arian pressure led to Constantius writing a letter demanding whether he alone was going to remain obstinate.

A surviving letter from the Arian Roman Emperor Constantius II is addressed to ' Ezana and his brother Se ' azana, and requests that Frumentius be sent to Alexandria to be examined for doctrinal errors ; Munro-Hay assumes that ' Ezana either refused or ignored this request.

When Laurentius died, King Agilulfus wished to secure the election of an Arian bishop, but the Romans managed to put Constantius and the Lombards and Milaneses started to align with Rome.