Arius

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In Canto XIII of Paradiso, at v. 127, St. Thomas mentions Arius alongside Sabellius and "those fools," describing them as heretics who, like swords that distort faces in mirrors, have deformed the meaning of the Scriptures (vv. 127-129). The note to the verse specifies that these are two of the most famous heretics of the early Christian era and that their doctrines are anti-Trinitarian, erring in opposite ways regarding the Trinity: Sabellius by reducing the persons to the unity of the essence, Arius by multiplying the substances. According to the same note, Arius was a priest of Alexandria who died in 336 and denied that the Son was coeternal and consubstantial with the Father, that is, that he possessed divine nature; his doctrine, called Arianism, gained many followers and was condemned at the Council of Nicaea in 325. The reference is part of the celebration of the Trinity that characterizes the Heaven of the Sun.