followers of Arius, a presbyter of the church of Alexandria about the year 315; who maintained, that the Son of God was totally and essentially distinct from the Father; that he was the first and noblest of those beings whom God had created, the instrument by whose subordinate operation he formed the universe; and therefore inferior to the Father both in nature and dignity: also, that the Holy Ghost was not God, but created by the power of the Son.

The Arians owned that the Son was the Word, but denied that Word to have been eternal. They held, that Christ had nothing of man in him but the flesh, to which the Logos or Word was joined, which was the same as the soul in us. See Lardner's Credibility, &c. Vol. IX. b. i. c. 69.

The Arians were first condemned and anathematized by a council at Alexandria in 320, under Alexander, bishop of that city; who accused Arius of impiety, and caused him to be expelled from the communion of the church; and afterwards by 381 fathers in the general council of Nice, assembled by Constantine in the year 325. But, notwithstanding that, it was not extinguished; on the contrary, it became the reigning religion, especially in the East, where it obtained much more than in the West. Arius was recalled from banishment by the Emperor Constantine in two or three years after the council of Nice, and the laws that had been enacted against him were repealed. In the year 335, Athanasius, his zealous opponent, was deposed and banished into Gaul, and Arius and his followers were reinstated in their privileges, and received into the communion of the church. In little more than a year after this, he fell a victim to the resentment of his enemies, and died a tragic death, occasioned probably by poison, or some other violence. The Arian party found a protector in Constantius, who succeeded his father in the empire of the East; and the zeal with which he abetted them produced many animosities and tumults to the time of his death in the year 362. They underwent various revolutions, persecuting and oppressing, under succeeding emperors, according to the degree of interest they had in the civil power, till at length Theodosius the Great exerted every possible effort to suppress and disperse them.

The Arians were divided into various sects, of which ancient writers give an account under the names of Semi-Arians, Eulogians, Actians, Eunomians, Acacians, Pachyrianists, and others. But they have been commonly distributed into three classes, viz. the Genuine Arians, Semi-Arians, and Eunomians.

Arianism was carried in the fifth century into Africa under the Vandals; and into Asia under the Goths; Italy, the Gauls, and Spain, were also deeply infected with it; and towards the commencement of the sixth century, it was triumphant in many parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe. But it sunk almost all at once, when the Vandals were driven out of Africa, and the Goths out of Italy, by the arms of Justinian. However, it revived again in Italy under the protection of the Lombards in the seventh century.

Eusebius seems to have aimed in some measure to restore Arianism at the beginning of the sixteenth century, in his Commentaries on the New Testament. Accordingly, he was reproached by his adversaries with Arian interpretations and glotes, Arian tenets, &c. To which he made little answer, save that there was no hereby more thoroughly extinct than that of the Arians: Nulla benevis magis extirpata quam Arianorum. But the face of things was soon changed. Servetus, a Spaniard by nation, published in 1531 a little treatise against the Trinity, which once more revived the opinions of the Arians in the West. Indeed he rather showed himself a Photianist than an Arian; only that he made use of the same passages of Scripture, and the same arguments against the divinity of our Saviour, with the proper Arians.

It is true, Servetus had not, properly speaking, any disciples; but he gave occasion after his death to the forming of a new system of Arianism in Geneva, much more subtle and artful than his own, and which did not a little perplex Calvin. From Geneva the new Arians went to Poland, where they gained considerable ground; but at length became Socians.

The appellation Arian has been indiscriminately applied in more modern times, to all those who consider Jesus Christ as inferior and subordinate to the Father; and whose sentiments cannot be supposed to coincide exactly with those of the ancient Arians. Mr Whiton was one of the first divines who revived this controversy, in the beginning of the 18th century. He was followed by Dr Clarke, who published his famous book, entitled The Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity, &c. In consequence of which, he was reproached with the title of Semi-Arian. He was also threatened by the convocation, and combated by argument. Dr Waterland, who has been charged with verging towards Trinitarianism, was one of his principal adversaries. The history of this controversy during the present century, may be found in a pamphlet, entitled An account of all the considerable Books and Pamphlets that have been wrote on either side, in the Controversy concerning the Trinity, from the Year 1712; in which is also contained an Account of the Pamphlets written this last Year, on each side, by the Dissenters, to the end of the Year 1719. Published at London 1720.

ARICINA; in mythology, a surname of Diana; under which appellation she was honoured in the forest Aricino, so called from Aricia a princess of the blood royal of Athens. Hippolytus, to whom this princess was married, is said to have erected a temple to Diana in this forest, where he was concealed after his resurrection by Esculapius, and to have established a priest and festivals.