He existed before the Son. But this controversy really revolves around Arius because he was especially persuasive about spreading this view of the relationship between the Father and the Son manifested by Jesus. And at the Council of Nicaea, many of the bishops throughout Christendom are in attendance. It's known as the First Ecumenical Conference. The word ecumenical comes from the Greek word for the inhabited earth. So you can view it as the church leaders from the inhabited earth in order to create a consensus about what it means to be a Christian. And Arius of Alexandria was there to defend his position, but the majority of those there did not like his point of view.