For the Roman Catholic version of the history, Moehler, _Athanasius der Grosse_, 1844; Newman, _Arians of the Fourth Century_. For short sketches giving the relation of Arianism to Church history in general, *Allen, _Continuity of Christian Thought_, 1884 (contrast of Greek and Latin Churches); *Sohm, _Kirchengeschichte im Abriss_, 1888. NOTE. The present work is largely, though not entirely, an abridgement of my _Studies of Arianism_. The Conversion of the Goths, which gives the best side of Arianism, has been omitted as belonging more properly to another volume of the series. THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY. * * * * * CHAPTER I. _THE BEGINNINGS OF ARIANISM_. Arianism is extinct only in the sense that it has long ceased to furnish party names. It sprang from permanent tendencies of human nature, and raised questions whose interest can never perish. As long as the Agnostic and the Evolutionist are with us, the old battlefields of Athanasius will not be left to silence. Moreover, no writer more directly joins the new world of Teutonic Christianity with the old of Greek and Roman heathenism. Arianism began its career partly as a theory of Christianity, partly as an Eastern reaction of philosophy against a gospel of the Son of God. Through sixty years of ups and downs and stormy controversy it fought, and not without success, for the dominion of the world. When it was at last rejected by the Empire, it fell back upon its converts among the Northern nations, and renewed the contest as a Western reaction of Teutonic pride against a Roman gospel. The struggle went on for full three hundred years in all, and on a scale of vastness never seen again in history. Even the Reformation was limited to the West, whereas Arianism ranged at one time or another through the whole of Christendom. Nor was the battle merely for the wording of antiquated creeds or for the outworks of the faith, but for the very life of revelation. If the Reformation decided the supremacy of revelation over church authority, it was the contest with Arianism which cleared the way, by settling for ages the deeper and still more momentous question, which is once more coming to the surface as the gravest doubt of our time, whether a revelation is possible at all. [Sidenote: The doctrine of the Lord's person.]