<P> Arius emphasized the supremacy and uniqueness of God the Father, meaning that the Father alone is almighty and infinite, and that therefore the Father's divinity must be greater than the Son's . Arius taught that the Son had a beginning, and that he possessed neither the eternity nor the true divinity of the Father, but was rather made "God" only by the Father's permission and power, and that the Son was rather the very first and the most perfect of God's creatures . </P> <P> The Arian discussions and debates at the council extended from about May 20, 325, through about June 19 . According to legendary accounts, debate became so heated that at one point, Arius was struck in the face by Nicholas of Myra, who would later be canonized . This account is almost certainly apocryphal, as Arius himself would not have been present in the council chamber due to the fact that he was not a bishop . </P> <P> 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 . Greek words 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 initially disliked by many bishops because of its associations with Gnostic heretics (who used it in their theology), and because their heresies had been condemned at the 264--268 Synods of Antioch . </P> <P> According to surviving accounts, the presbyter Arius argued for the supremacy of God the Father, and maintained that the Son of God was created as an act of the Father's will, and therefore that the Son was a creature made by God, begotten directly of the infinite, eternal God . Arius's argument was that the Son was God's very first production, before all ages . The position being that the Son had a beginning, and that only the Father has no beginning . And Arius 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 the Son of God 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", and that He 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 biblical statements such as "the Father is greater than I", and also that the Son is "firstborn of all creation". </P>

Which key christian doctrine did the first council of nicaea ratify