Arīus
(
Ἄρειος). A celebrated writer and theologian of
Alexandria, who denied the eternal divinity and consubstantiality of the Second Person of the
Trinity. Though much persecuted for his heresy, he succeeded in winning the favour of the
emperor Constantine, and supplanted his great opponent St. Athanasius. When about to enter the
cathedral at Constantinople in triumph, he suddenly died, A.D. 336. From him the sect of the
Arians gets its name.