Photinus

FOURTH CENTURY. Bishop of Sirmium. Pupil and former deacon of Marcellus of Ancyra,* learned and eloquent, he was condemned with Marcellus at the Council of Antioch (c.344) and again at a synod in Sirmium (347), but each time remained quietly in Sirmium supported by adherents. He was finally deposed from his see, which he had held for some seven years, and exiled at the Council of Sirmium in 351, after a theological disputation with Basil of Ancyra.* None of his writings have survived, but he seems to have developed Marcellus's doctrine (tending toward Sabellianism*) to an approximation with the views of Paul of Samosata.* Augustine said that Photinus denied Christ's preexistence, though allowing His birth of a virgin and endowment with superhuman excellence. His followers (“Photinians”) were condemned by the Council of Constantinople in 381.