other · 351 · Sirmium
Photinus was a deacon of Marcellus of Ancyra and became bishop of Sirmium, an imperial residence and one of the great cities of the Danube. He carried his master's theology to its end: that the Word is not a distinct person eternally but God's reason going out into action, and that Christ therefore had no existence at all before Mary — a man indwelt and exalted, which is Paul of Samosata's position arrived at from the Nicene side rather than against it. He was condemned at Milan in 345 and again in 347 and stayed in his see both times, because the people of Sirmium would not give him up. Only the council held at Sirmium itself in 351, in the emperor's presence, removed him. The creed that council issued is the interesting part: written to condemn Photinus, it also quietly avoided the Nicene word, which is how the reaction against Nicaea did much of its work — not by attacking the council but by writing creeds that answered somebody else and left it out.
How much popularity does it take to survive three councils?
More than he had, but only just — it took the third one and the emperor.