In the spirit of the day I should probably follow and contribute to the digression :-) As Jim D. probably knows, the resemblance of his "solution" to the issues we were discussing is not coincidental.
Unitarians claim a direct descendancy from the "Eastern" dissenters from the Empire: in this case, the Arians who were contemporaries and neighbors of the Gnostics and had their origins in Alexandria. Arian missionaries converted the Germanic tribes (Goths, Vandals, Lombards, etc) who probably found it essential to be outside the Roman structures. Unitarians then trace their links to individual northern European thinkers (I have never seen evidence for this) until the open Unitarian revival in Germany\Hungary\Poland in the 1500s (which certainly drew historical inspiration from the Germanic Arians). Of course the movement later found its way to England.
The Arians apparently did not take on the Eastern mysticism/esoteric knowledge of the Gnostics which the Greco-Roman world (with their love of reason) must have despised. Likewise the Arians avoided taking sides in the East/West "culture wars" over the physical vs. spiritual nature of Christ. Their solution was "logical": only one God. To me this sounds like they had a social base among the Hellenic elite of eastern cities (Alexandria being very Hellenic). A blend of Eastern dissent without being steeped in Eastern popular culture. With their more "universalist" framework, these ideas could be more readily transplanted to Northern Europe.
The good news: even losing ideas rooted in dissent against the Empire seem to last a very very long time. Who knows what seeds we could plant today.
Paul