The orthodox bishops won approval of every one of their proposals regarding the Creed. After being in session for an entire month, the council promulgated on June 19 the original Nicene Creed. This profession of faith was adopted by all the bishops "but two from Libya who had been closely associated with Arius from the beginning". [ 19 ]No historical record of their dissent actually exists; the signatures of these bishops are simply absent from the Creed. ↑Jump back a section
Arian controversy
Main articles: Arius, Arianism, and Arian controversy
The synod of Nicaea, Constantine and the condemnation and burning of Arian books, illustration from a northern Italian compendium of canon law, ca. 825
The Arian controversy began in Alexandriabetween the followers of Arius(theArians) and the followers of St. Alexander of Alexandria (now known as Homoousians). The issue of dispute focused on the precise relationship of the Father and the Son in the Trinity. Though frequently represented today as an issue of Christology, the debate centered more upon the pre-incarnate Son's relationship to the Father, and only secondarily upon the incarnateSon's status. Alexander and his followers believed that the Son was co-eternal with the Father, and divine in just the same sense that the Father is. The Arians believed that the Father's divinity was greater than the Son's, that the Son had a beginning, that he shared neither the eternity nor the true divinity of the Father, but was rather the very first and the most perfect of God's creatures. [ 14 ]
For about two months, the two sides argued and debated, [ 40 ]with each appealing to Scripture to justify their respective positions. According to many accounts, debate became so heated that at one point, Arius was struck in the face by Nicholas of Myra, who would later be canonized. [ 41 ] [ 42 ]
Much of the debate hinged on the difference between being "born" or "created" and being"begotten". Arians saw these as essentially the same; followers of Alexander did not. The exact meaning of many of the words used in the debates at Nicaea were still unclear to speakers of other languages. Greekwords like"essence" ( ousia), "substance" ( hypostasis),"nature" (physis), "person" (prosopon) bore a variety of meanings drawn from pre-Christian philosophers, which could not but entail misunderstandings until they were cleared up. The word homoousia, in particular, was initiallydisliked by many bishops because of its associations with Gnosticheretics (who used it in their theology), and because it had been condemned at the 264–268 Synods of Antioch.
Position of Arius (Arianism)
According to surviving accounts, the nontrinitarian Ariusmaintained that the Son of God was a Creature made from nothing; begotten directly of the Eternal God, and that he was God's First Production, before all ages. And he argued that everything else was created through the Son. Thus, said the Arians, only the Son was directly created and begotten of God; and therefore there was a time that He had no existence. Arius believed that Christ theLogos was capable of His own free will of right and wrong, and that "were He in the truest sense a son, He must have come after the Father, therefore the time obviously was when He was not, and hence He was a finite being", [ 43 ]and was under God the Father. Therefore Arius insisted that the Father's divinity was greater than the Son's. The Arians appealed to Scripture, quoting verses such as John 14:28:"the Father is greater than I", and also Colossians 1:15: "Firstborn of all creation".

Enigmata