Pliny vs. Brown

I read the Da Vinci code awhile back and my wife is reading it now. This is not a full treatment of the book, I'm sure they exist elsewhere, but I did notice something this morning. My wife brought up a question about Brown's (the author) discussion on the divinity of Jesus. He says that before the council of Nicea in 325, followers of Jesus believed him to be mortal only. This appears to be wrong. David Stern in his commentary on the first chapter of John quotes Pliny the Younger, one of the first pagans to mention Christians. In the Letter to Emperor Trajan, around 112 C.E., Pliny writes that they gather to "recite by turns a form of words" "to Christ as a god". So, according to Pliny, Christians were discussing the divinity of Jesus 200 years earlier than the Council of Nicea.