presbyter of Alexandria, and afterwards bishop of that see, advocated
the ancient belief that the three persons in the godhead of Father, Son
and Holy Ghost is but one God, that Christ is consubstantial or
co-eternal with the Father, and that he became man to perform his
mission of redemption. Such, in brief, is what is known as the
Athanasian or Trinitarian Creed. The other party, headed, by Arius,
another presbyter of Alexandria, advocated the belief in one God alone
and that Christ, having no existence until begotten of the Father, is
not consubstantial or co-eternal with him. Such, in substance,
constitutes what is known to the Trinitarian or Orthodox Christians as
the Arian or Unitarian heresy. Could stronger evidence be adduced that
this controversy was the result of ignorantly making a distinction
where there is no difference, for whether Trinitarian or Unitarian the
mythical genius of the sun is the God to whom they all paid supreme
adoration, although the Christians of to-day would deny it most
emphatically.

The faction, advocating the Trinitarian creed having converted the
Emperor to their belief, and influencing him to enforce it as a
fundamental doctrine of the Christian theology, he, in the year 325,
summoned, at his own expense, a general council of bishops and priests
to meet at Nice, in Bithynia, a province of Asia Minor. When they had
assembled he appeared among them, clad in gorgeous attire, with a
jewel-studded diadem upon his royal brow, and, seated upon a gilded
chair, presided over their deliberations. A minority of them, holding
"most contumaciously" to the Arian heresy, and refusing to change their
views at the bidding of the Emperor, he banished them from their
respective bishoprics, while the majority adopted the Trinitarian
creed, and appealing to Constantine to suppress the writings of Arius
he issued an edict for that purpose, which we present as follows: