Story
Athanasius against the world
Who opposed the Nicene wording, what they argued, and how that side lost after Athanasius was already dead.
Step 1
There was when he was not
Arius, a presbyter in Alexandria, taught that the Son is not eternal as the Father is. Opponents quoted him: 'there was when he was not.' He could call the Son a creature, though a perfect one. His poem, the Thalia, survives only in hostile fragments. Bishop Alexander excommunicated him. Athanasius was Alexander's deacon and secretary, not yet a bishop.
Step 2
Homoousios, and two Libyan bishops
At Nicaea in 325 the creed called the Son homoousios, of the same substance, and anathematized Arius's phrases. Tradition says 318 bishops. Eusebius, who was there, says more than 250. Historians usually estimate about 250 to 300. Secundus of Ptolemais and Theonas of Marmarica refused to sign and were exiled with Arius. Athanasius did not vote.
Step 3
Who signed, and who hedged
Eusebius of Caesarea hesitated. Homoousios is not a Bible word, and it had a modalist past. He signed, then explained himself in a letter to his church, later copied by Athanasius and Socrates. Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis of Nicaea are a harder case. A letter in Socrates says they subscribed the creed but not the anathema. Other reports differ. Constantine exiled them within a few months.
Step 4
Tyre, and a man with two hands
In 335 a council at Tyre tried Athanasius on Meletian charges: violence, a broken chalice, and the murder of Bishop Arsenius, whose hand he had supposedly kept. Athanasius produced Arsenius alive. The theatrical detail is his own Apology. The council deposed him anyway. Eusebius of Nicomedia led the accusers. Ursacius and Valens of Mursa were on the commission. Constantine then exiled Athanasius to Trier.
Step 5
Constantius keeps the exile going
After Constantine died in 337, his son Constantius II ruled the East and, later, the whole empire. He exiled Athanasius again in 339, and in 356 drove him into hiding in Egypt. Constantius did not want Arius's old sentences. He wanted a creed without the word substance. He was an emperor, not a voting bishop. The emperor Valens, who later exiled Athanasius for a few months in 365, is a different man from Valens of Mursa.
Step 6
One iota, decades later
Homoiousios means of like substance. It was not a compromise offered at Nicaea. Basil of Ancyra's party took that word up at Ancyra in 358, against both homoousios and the Anomoeans. Aetius and his disciple Eunomius taught that the Son is unlike the Father. In De Synodis (359) Athanasius argued that the 'like in substance' bishops, if they denied that the Son is a creature, could stand with Nicaea. The iota was a later reconciliation, not a vote in 325.
Step 7
Rimini, Seleucia, and a groan
In 359 Constantius held twin councils. At Ariminum the West first defended Nicaea. Phoebadius of Agen led that refusal. Most of those bishops later signed a Homoian formula under pressure. Ursacius and Valens of Mursa pushed it. At Seleucia the majority was Homoiousian, with Basil of Ancyra, and Acacius of Caesarea led the Homoian minority. Jerome, in the Dialogue Against the Luciferians, wrote that the whole world groaned and was astonished to find itself Arian. That is his later verdict, not a roll call.
Step 8
He dies before the victory
Athanasius died in Alexandria on 2 May 373. He did not see the settlement. Basil of Caesarea, in Cappadocia, not at Eusebius's coastal Caesarea, built the next generation's case and died in 379, so he cast no vote in 381. Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa carried it. Winning, if that is the word, belonged to his allies and to an emperor, not to a ballot Athanasius lived to count.
Step 9
Thessalonica, then Constantinople
On 27 February 380 Theodosius's edict from Thessalonica ordered Constantinople to follow the Nicene faith of Damasus of Rome and Peter of Alexandria. It was a law, not a council. Demophilus, the Homoian bishop, refused and left. In 381 an eastern council reaffirmed Nicaea. Meletius of Antioch presided and died during it. Gregory of Nazianzus presided next and resigned. Gregory of Nyssa was there. Eunomians were condemned in absence. Eleusius of Cyzicus brought Pneumatomachians who withdrew. Ambrose and Damasus were not in the room.