and to abolish the sacrifices offered to it (1). The townspeople refused, so he resorted to a stratagem and said, “If you were to dedicate this festival to Michael, the angel of God, that would be more fitting, for this idol can neither benefit nor harm!” They accepted his proposal; he smashed the idol, fashioned a cross out of its metal, and renamed the temple the Church of Michael.

When the Patriarch of Alexandria barred Arius from entering the church and pronounced a curse upon him, Arius (2) left in protest. Accompanied by two bishops, he sought help from Constantine, saying, “He has overstepped his authority and expelled me from the church unjustly.” He asked the emperor to summon the Patriarch of Alexandria so that he might debate him before the emperor. Constantine therefore dispatched an envoy to Alexandria (3), brought the patriarch to court, and convened a debate between him and Arius.

Constantine said to Arius, “Explain your doctrine.”

Arius replied, “I say that the Father existed when the Son did not. Then He brought the Son into being, and the Son was His Word, yet a newly-produced creature. Thereafter He entrusted the matter to that Son—the Christ who is called the Word—so that he became the creator of the heavens, the earth, and all that lies between them, as he says in the Gospel: ‘He has granted me authority over heaven and earth.’ Thus he created them by virtue of the authority conferred upon him. The Word then took flesh from the Virgin Mary and from the Holy Spirit and became a single Christ.

“Thus Christ now comprises two realities: Word and body—yet both are created.”