The Arian heresy came to surface when Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, attempted to explain "the Unity of the Holy Trinity" to a group of clergy and presbytery (318 or 319). Arius accused him of Sabellian views, and expressed his own view: "If... the Father begat the Son, he that was begotten had a beginning of existence: and from this it is evident that there was a time when the Son was not. It therefore necessarily follows, that he had his subsistence from nothing.
