Arius

ARIANISM: WHO IS JESUS?
PROF. M. M. NINAN
Arius found powerful friends in Eusebius of Nicomedia, Eusebius of Casarea, Paulinus of Tyre,
Gregory of Berytus, Aetius of Lydda, and other bishops who either shared his view, or at least
considered it viable alternate perspective
He took refuge with Eusebius at Nicomedia,and presented his teachings in half-poetic work, Thalia
(" The Banquet"), of which Athanasius has preserved fragments.
The attention of the Emperor Constantine was called to the controversy, and in a letter to
Alexander and Arius be pronounced it a mere battle of words, a wrangle over things
incomprehensible; he also sent Hosius of Cordova to Egypt to mediate between the contending
parties. From political considerations, however, at the suggestion of certain bishops, he called the
first ecumenical council of the Church, to settle the Arian controversy together with the question of
the time of celebrating Easter and the Meletian schism in Egypt.
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