ARIUS. - Heresiarch, father of Arianism (v.), born in 256 in Libya, died in 336 at Constantinople. A disciple, it seems, of Lucian of Antioch, nothing is known of his life before 306, when he took part in Alexandria in the schism of Meletius. He soon separated from it, and in 306 received diaconate from Bishop Peter of Alexandria. The severity shown by Peter toward the Meletians drove Arius to opposition, and he worked so hard that the bishop excommunicated him. It was only under his successor, Achillas, that he was reconciled with the Church and ordained priest (312). In 313 he was at the head of a church in Alexandria called Baucalis, where his name soon became popular. Contemporaries who have handed down his portrait describe him as tall and thin, of austere habits, with a seductive presence, learned and skilled in dialectic, but proud and greedy for power, cunning and insincere.
For some years he lived in harmony with Alexander, successor of Achillas in the episcopate, but between 318 and 320 (according to others, 323) the first disagreements arose over the consubstantiality of the Word. In expounding Scripture in his church at Baucalis, Arius advanced theories in which the teaching of Lucian of Antioch made headway, with all that it implied of subordination and exegetical and dialectical tendencies contrary to those prevailing in Alexandria. In short, Arius denied the divinity of the Word, presenting Him as a secondary god, substantially different from the Father, whom He had created from nothing and by a free act of will. Bishop Alexander, after showing great patience, rejected Arius’ conceptions, but the latter, heedless of the condemnation, sought support among the episcopate. In response to the rebel’s epistolary campaign, the bishop of Alexandria took countermeasures, and at the same time had the priest of Baucalis and his followers condemned by a synod of 100 bishops convened in his city. Since it became impossible for him to remain in Alexandria, Arius sought refuge with his powerful protector, Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia, who had an orthodox synod declare the doctrine of his friend. This success brought him further support: from Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea he obtained the convocation of a synod that enabled him to intervene with Alexander with a request for Arius’ reinstatement. During his stay in Nicomedia Arius wrote his principal work entitled Thalia (the banquet), of which only fragments remain, handed down by St. Athanasius (Oratio I contra Arianos: PG 26, 16-33; De Synodis, 15: ibid., 26, 705, etc.), and which seems to have been composed partly in prose and partly in verse, according to the meter of the Egyptian poet Sotades: Arius chose this light form to make the doctrine he advocated familiar to the masses. Eusebius of Nicomedia, full of zeal for his protégé, also interested the emperor’s sister, Constantia. Soon Constantine himself took an interest in the conflict, and in a letter urging concord he reproached both Alexander and Arius for raising useless questions. To restore peace and unity, he convened an ecumenical council at Nicaea. The 300 bishops who took part in it in 325 condemned Arius and his doctrine. But he refused to subscribe to the Creed, and Constantine exiled him to Illyricum along with a few obstinate partisans.
Whatever historians may disagree on subsequent events, a change took place in Constantine’s attitude toward the Arians. After a few years, under the influence of his sister Constantia and Eusebius of Nicomedia, Constantine decided to recall the exiles. The opposition of St. Athanasius did not prevent Arius’ rehabilitation, decreed at the Council of Jerusalem (335) following a profession of faith he had issued and judged orthodox by his partisans. Thus, while the patriarch of Alexandria was going into exile, Arius triumphantly entered the city. But the people, faithful to Athanasius, rose up against him, and the emperor, alarmed, summoned him to Constantinople, where, urged on by the Eusebians, he ordered the bishop of the capital to receive Arius into communion with the Church. But on the eve of the ceremony, which was to take place in the basilica of the Holy Apostles, Arius was struck by sudden death as he was crossing the streets of the city, followed by a crowd of adherents (St. Athanasius, De morte Arii: PG 25, 685-90).