The question arises whether the doctrine of the Theodotians was really Monarchian, since a special and apparently independent place was given the Holy Ghost beside the Father. Al though it is not clear how the hypo- stasis of the Holy Ghost was reconciled with the unity of the Godhead, it is at least certain that in the Theodotian Christology the Spirit was regarded merely as a "power." They differed from their opponents not in their concept of God, but in their views of Christ. For if an eternal Son of God, or anything resembling that Son, appeared in the Old Testament, then the traditional estimate of Jesus could no longer be retained; nor would the theory of the Man anointed by the Spirit suffice to establish the preeminent magnitude of the revelation of God in Christ. It thus becomes clear why, under the spur of theological speculation, the old ChristologY gave place at a comparatively early date to the complete and essential apotheosis of Jesus.
Twenty or thirty years later another attempt was made by Artemas to revive the early Christology, apparently at Rome. The sources here are scanty, for Eusebius confined his excerpts from the work against Artemas and its appendix, the "Little Labyrinth," almost exclusively to the Theodotians. It is plain, however, that the followers of Artemas claimed that the ancient Christology which they defended had been distorted by Zephyrinus. Wherein they differed from the Theodotians is uncertain, and they clearly agreed with them in denying the epithet "God" to Jesus. Artemas was still living in excommunication at Rome about 270, as is shown by the condemnation of Paul of SamoBata by the Synod of Antioch (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., vii. 30). It is evident, moreover, that he must be considered a dynamistic Monarchian; while by his association with Paul of Samosata he eclipsed the fame of Theodotus in the East. In him dynamistic Monarchianism exhausted itself at Rome without ever gaining importance in the Church. The adherents of Artemas are probably implied by Novatian when in his De trinitate, he speaks of those who considered Jesus simply as a man, and he is also mentioned by Methodius (Symposium, viii. 10). Hilary of Poitiers, in his De hinitate (especially x. 18 sqq., 50 sqq.), shows how various were the Christologies existing in the West in the middle of the fourth century. Even as late as the beginning of the fifth a certain Marcus was expelled from Rome for maintaining Photinian views and founded a community in Dalmatia. Though there is no evidence that Photinus' doctrines ever gained much following in the West, it is noteworthy that Augustine, even when preparing to enter the Catholic Church, entertained a Christology essentially Photinian (Conf., vii. 19 [25]).
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