Let me bespeak my reader's patience for a little.

Arius was judged by Athanasius (I was informed) to be erroneous in two points; 1.

in teaching that the Son of God was a creature; _i.e._ that "begotten" and "made" were two words for the same idea: 2.

in teaching, that he had an origin of existence in time; so that there was a distant period at which he was not.

Of these two Arian tenets, the Nicene Creed condemned _the former_ only; namely, in the words, "begotten, not made; being of one substance with the Father." But on _the latter_ question the Creed is silent.