In the reign of Constantine, 325, the celebrated First Council of Nicaea was held there against the Arian heresy, and the prelates there defined more clearly the concept of the Trinity and drew up the Nicene Creed.

During the Christianization of Western Europe, this custom was adopted by the Christian churches ( Arian and Catholic ) in the concept of " Eigenkirchen " ( churches owned by the landlord ) which stood in strong contrast to the central church organization of the Roman Catholic Church.

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.

Thus, over the past 1, 500 years, some Christians have used the term Arian to refer to those groups that see themselves as worshiping Jesus Christ or respecting his teachings, but do not hold to the Nicene creed.

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 325, the first ecumenical council ( First Council of Nicaea ) determined that Jesus Christ was God, " consubstantial " with the Father, and rejected the Arian contention that Jesus was a created being.

The Acts of the Council fully set forth the nature of Christ, countering Arian conceptions.

An English translation, entitled A Sovereign Antidote against Arian Poyson, appeared in London, 1719, and again ‘ revised, corrected, and, in a few places, abridged, by Abraham Booth ,’ under the title of The Deity of Jesus Christ essential to the Christian Religion, 1777.

Lelio Sozzini was the first of the Italian Antitrinitarians to go beyond Arian beliefs in print and deny the pre-existence of Christ in his Brevis explicatio in primum Johannis caput – a commentary on the meaning of the Logos in John Chapter 1: 1 – 15 ( 1562 ).

Maurila, an Arian bishop established in Palencia by Leovigild, followed King Reccared's conversion to Catholicism ( 587 ), and in 589 he assisted at the Third Council of Toledo. Cristo del Otero, by Víctorio Macho: the third largest Christ statue in the world, after Christ the King ( statue ) | Christ the King in Świebodzin, Poland, Christ the Redeemer ( statue ) | Cristo Redentor in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Cristo de la Concordia in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Fausto Sozzini converted the Arian section of the Ecclesia Minor from belief in the pre-existence of Christ to the early Unitarian position, and from their rejection of the invocatio Christi.

The most distinctive element in Socinian, as opposed to Arian, Christology is the objection of the personal pre-existence of Christ.

In 358, the Roman Emperor Constantius II requested two councils, one of the western bishops at Ariminum and one of the eastern bishops ( planned for Nicomedia but actually held at Seleucia ) to resolve the Arian controversy over the nature of the divinity of Jesus Christ, which divided the 4th-century church.

This Arian church was originally dedicated in 504 CE to Christ the Redeemer.

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

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

The Christology of Jehovah's Witnesses is also generally regarded as Arian, given their views on development of the Trinity.

Another group that may be considered Arian is the Church of God ( 7th day )-Salem Conference.

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.

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.

This is only 35 years before John Thomas ' 1849 lecture tour in Britain which attracted significant support from an existing non-Trinitarian Adventist base, particularly, initially, in Scotland where Arian Socinian and unitarian ( with a small ' u ' as distinct from the Unitarian Church of Theophilus Lindsey ) views were prevalent.

He is chiefly known by the part he took in the Arian controversy.

It is a source of primary importance for the history of Priscillianism and contains considerable information respecting the Arian controversy.

* The Arian Baptistry is erected by Theodoric the Great, at the same time as the Basilica of Sant ' Apollinare Nuovo ( Ravenna ).

* The Arian baptistery of Santa Maria is built in Ripa ( Rome ).

It contains many sources otherwise lost, specially letters on the Arian controversy ; but it is defective in historical sense and chronological accuracy, and on account of Theodoret's inclination to embellishment and miraculous narrative, and preference for the personal.

* Pope Liberius travels to Sirmium ( Pannonia ) late in the year and agrees to sign documents that effectively undo the Nicene Creed ( which has implicitly disavowed Arianism ) and to sever his relationship with the former Alexandrian patriarch Athanasius, who is replaced as bishop of Alexandria by his Arian opponent George of Cappadocia.

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.

* Council of Sardica: An attempt is made to resolve the Arian controversy, and ground rules for bishops are laid down.

In Philippopolis ( Bulgaria ), they excommunicate Pope Julius, and as a result, the Arian controversy is perpetuated.

* Eusebius of Nicomedia is made bishop of Constantinople while another Arian succeeds Athanasius as bishop of Alexandria under the name Gregory.

The political tension between the Catholic bishops of Arles and the Visigothic kings is epitomized in the career of the Frankish St Caesarius, bishop of Arles 503 – 542, who was suspected by the Arian Visigoth Alaric II of conspiring with the Burgundians to turn over the Arelate to Burgundy, and was exiled for a year to Bordeaux in Aquitaine, and again in 512 when Arles held out against Theodoric the Great, Caesarius was imprisoned and sent to Ravenna to explain his actions before the Ostrogothic king.

Despite his father's origins there is little to suggest that Stilicho considered himself anything other than a Roman, and his high rank within the Empire suggests that he was probably not Arian like many Germanic Christians but rather a Nicene Christian like his patron Theodosius I, who declared Nicene Christianity the official religion of the Empire.

Furthermore, since none of the Scythian monks expressed any kinship, by blood or spiritual, with the Arian Goths who at that time ruled Italy, a Gothic origin for Dionysius is questionable.

Sherlock's work is said to have made William Manning a Socinian and Thomas Emlyn an Arian, and the dispute was ridiculed in a skit entitled " The Battle Royal ", attributed to William Pittis ( 1694?

Born in Alexandria into a poor family, Maximus was the son of Christian parents, who had suffered on account of their religion ; but whether from Pagan or Arian violence is not clear.

The earliest forms of the first part of this Trinitarian doxology are addressed to the Father through ( διά ) the Son and in ( ἐν ) or with ( μετά ) the Holy Spirit, but in the fourth century the custom of using and ( καί ) became universal among Catholics in reaction to Arian use of the prepositions to suggest subordinationism.

The Seventh Arian Confession ( Second Sirmium Confession ) held that both homoousios ( of one substance ) and homoiousios ( of similar substance ) were unbiblical and that the Father is greater than the Son.

* Christadelphians, Church of God General Conference and other " Biblical Unitarians " are typically Socinian in their Christology, not Arian.

* Hanson, R. P. C., The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God: The Arian Controversy, 318-381 ( T .& T.

The Christology commonly called " Arian " holds that Jesus, before his human life, existed as the Logos, a being created by God, who dwelt with God in heaven.

The followers of Catholicism believe that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are three persons of one being ( consubstantiality ), as opposed to Arian Christianity, whose followers believed that Jesus, as a distinct and separate being, was both subordinate to and created by God.

The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God: The Arian Controversy, 318 – 381.