separate Gods, which contradicted the many statements of the Bible about God’s oneness. Arius was also unhappy with Origen’s idea that there could be “degrees” or “grades” of divinity, with the Son being slightly less divine than the Father.1 This view had become the accepted theology of most Eastern bishops, who had a tremendous reverence for Origen’s life and work. But as far as Arius was concerned, there could be no degrees of divinity: an infinite distance separated God from all that was not