One purpose of the council was to resolve disagreements arising from within the
Church of Alexandria over the nature of
the Son in his relationship to the Father: in particular, whether the Son had been 'begotten' by the Father from his own being, and therefore having no beginning, or else created out of nothing, and therefore having a beginning.
[12] St. Alexander of Alexandria and
Athanasius took the first position; the popular
presbyter Arius, from whom the term
Arianism comes, took the second. The council decided against the Arians overwhelmingly (of the estimated 250–318 attendees, all but two agreed to sign the creed and these two, along with Arius, were banished to Illyria).
[13]