Arius

Cyrenaic presbyter and founder of Arianism (died 336)

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Lived 250–336, aged 86

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Era
250–336
Aged 86

Summary

Updated 2026-06-10

A fourth-century presbyter whose argument with his bishop accidentally lit a theological wildfire that split Christianity for centuries — though historians now say he barely mattered himself, just the spark.

Biography

About

Arius was a Cyrenaic presbyter and ascetic who lived from around 250 to 336. His theology held that Jesus Christ was created by God the Father before all else, the true Firstborn, not coeternal with the Father — a view called radical subordinationism. When he clashed with his bishop, the dispute exploded into what became the Arian Controversy, though the opposing camps had already formed and the fight was inevitable. Constantine convened the First Council of Nicaea in 325 to resolve the fracture; Arianism was condemned and opposition to it hardened into the Nicene Creed, written as "a delibera…

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In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Arius

Arius

saidundated

If the Father begat the Son, he that was begotten had a beginning of existence: and from this it is evident, that there was a time when the Son was not.

— As quoted in Church History, by Socrates of Constantinople, Book I, Ch. 5

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