[sral]

At least from the time of the Apostolic Fathers (the generation right after the Apostles).
Jesus is referred to as somehow Divine. Exactly how that Divinity worked out wasn't codified until Nicea. By the time of the Nicea, the Deity of Jesus was the dominant view, with Arius's teaching (Jesus was God's First Creation, the Divine Son, who then was Co- or Sub-Creator with his Father God, and worthy to receive a form of worship & to be called Divine by association) a strong second.

To the Jesus-Deity party, this teaching compromised the Oneness of God by stating that God would create a secondary "god" who then could be worshipped, it seemed more in keeping with their view of monotheism to regard Jesus as eternally an aspect/person within the One God. Also, it compromised the fullness of salvation by having our Savior regarded as a Super-Angel or Sub-deity rather than as fully God; and it compromised the full compassionate love of God by having God delegate our saving to a go-between rather than taking it on Himself.

In short, while it wasn't a settled issue, by the time of Nicea, the main view was Jesus as God, the only real rival view was Jesus as Sub-God, while the view that Jesus was a man exalted to Divine Sonship (the Ebionite view & also held by some Gnostics who believed the Divine Christ possessed the man Jesus at his baptism by John, seemingly promoted in THE DA VINCI CODE) did not register at all within the Church.