Gothic Christianity

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Gothic Christianity refers to the Christian religion of the Goths and sometimes the Gepids, Vandals, and Burgundians, who may have used the translation of the Bible into the Gothic language and shared common doctrines and practices.

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The Gothic tribes converted to Christianity sometime between 376 and 390 AD, around the time of the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Gothic Christianity is the earliest instance of the Christianization of a Germanic people, completed more than a century before the baptism of Frankish king Clovis I.

The Gothic Christians were followers of Arianism. [1] Many church members, from simple believers, priests, and monks to bishops, emperors, and members of Rome's imperial family followed this doctrine, as did two Roman emperors, Constantius II and Valens.

After their sack of Rome, the Visigoths moved on to occupy Spain and southern France. Having been driven out of France, the Spanish Goths formally embraced Nicene Christianity at the Third Council of Toledo in 589.

Origins

Gothic place of settlement and their raids into the Roman Empire in the 3rd century Gothicinvasions ukr.png
Gothic place of settlement and their raids into the Roman Empire in the 3rd century

During the 3rd century, East Germanic people, moving in a southeasterly direction, migrated into the Dacians' territories previously under Sarmatian and Roman control, and the confluence of East Germanic, Sarmatian, Dacian and Roman cultures resulted in the emergence of a new Gothic identity. Part of this identity was adherence to Gothic paganism, the exact nature of which, however, remains uncertain. Jordanes' 6th century Getica claims the chief god of the Goths was Mars. Gothic paganism is a form of Germanic paganism.

Descriptions of Gothic and Vandal warfare appear in Roman records in Late Antiquity. At times these groups warred against or allied with the Roman Empire, the Huns, and various Germanic tribes. In 251 AD, the Gothic army raided the Roman provinces of Moesia and Thrace, defeated and killed the Roman emperor Decius, and took a number of predominantly female captives, many of which were Christian. This is assumed to represent the first lasting contact of the Goths with Christianity. [2]

Conversion

The conversion of the Goths to Christianity was a relatively swift process, facilitated on the one hand by the assimilation of Christian captives into Gothic society, [2] and on the other by a general equation of participation in Roman society with adherence to Christianity. [3] The Homoians in the Danubian provinces played a major role in the conversion of the Goths to Arianism. [4] Within a few generations of their appearance on the borders of the Empire in 238 AD, the conversion of the Goths to Christianity was nearly all-inclusive.

The Christian cross appeared on coins in Gothic Crimea shortly after the Edict of Tolerance was issued by Galerius in 311 AD, and a bishop by the name of Theophilas Gothiae was present at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. [2] However, fighting between Pagan and Christian Goths continued throughout this period, and religious persecutions – echoing the Diocletianic Persecution (302–11 AD) – occurred frequently. The Christian Goths Wereka and Batwin and others were martyred by order of Wingurich ca. 370 AD, and Sabbas the Goth was martyred in c. 372 AD.

Even as late as 406, a Gothic king by the name of Radagaisus led a Pagan invasion of Italy with fierce anti-Christian views.

Bishop Ulfilas

The initial success experienced by the Goths encouraged them to engage in a series of raiding campaigns at the close of the 3rd century, many of which resulted in having numerous captives sent back to Gothic settlements north of the Danube and the Black Sea. Ulfilas, who became bishop of the Goths in 341 AD, was the grandson of one such female Christian captive from Sadagolthina in Cappadocia. He served in this position for the next seven years. In 348, one of the remaining Pagan Gothic kings (reikos) began persecuting the Christian Goths, and he and many other Christian Goths fled to Moesia Secunda in the Roman Empire. [5] He continued to serve as bishop to the Christian Goths in Moesia until his death in 383 AD, according to Philostorgius.

Ulfilas was ordained by Eusebius of Nicomedia, the bishop of Constantinople, in 341 AD. Eusebius was a pupil of Lucian of Antioch and a leading figure of a faction of Christological thought that became known as Arianism, named after his friend and fellow student, Arius.

First page of the Codex Argenteus, the oldest surviving manuscript of the 4th century Bible translation into Gothic. Codex Argenteus.jpg
First page of the Codex Argenteus, the oldest surviving manuscript of the 4th century Bible translation into Gothic.

Between 348 and 383, Ulfilas likely presided over the translation of the Bible from Greek into the Gothic language, which was performed by a group of scholars. [5] [6] Thus, some Arian Christians in the west used vernacular languages – in this case Gothic – for services, as did many Nicaean Christians in the east. See also: Syriac versions of the Bible and the Coptic Bible), while Nicaean Christians in the west only used Latin, even in areas where Vulgar Latin was not the vernacular. Gothic probably persisted as a liturgical language of the Gothic-Arian church in some places even after its members had come to speak Vulgar Latin as their mother tongue. [7]

Ulfilas' adopted son was Auxentius of Durostorum, and later of Milan.

Later Gothic Christianity

The Gothic churches had close ties to other Arian churches in the Western Roman Empire. [7]

After 493, the Ostrogothic Kingdom included two areas, Italy and much of the Balkans, which had large Arian churches. [7] Arianism had retained some presence among Romans in Italy during the time between its condemnation in the empire and the Ostrogothic conquest. [7] However, since Arianism in Italy was reinforced by the (mostly Arian) Goths coming from the Balkans, the Arian church in Italy had eventually come to call itself "Church of the Goths" by the year 500.

Related Research Articles

Arianism is a Christological doctrine first attributed to Arius, a Christian presbyter who preached and studied in Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God the Father with the difference that the Son of God did not always exist but was begotten/made before "time" by God the Father; therefore, Jesus was not coeternal with God the Father, but nonetheless Jesus began to exist outside time as time applies only to the creations of God.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goths</span> Early Germanic people

The Goths were Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ostrogoths</span> 5th–6th-century Germanic ethnic group

The Ostrogoths were a Roman-era Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Gothic kingdoms within the Roman Empire, based upon the large Gothic populations who had settled in the Balkans in the 4th century, having crossed the Lower Danube. While the Visigoths had formed under the leadership of Alaric I, the new Ostrogothic political entity which came to rule Italy was formed in the Balkans under the influence of the Amal dynasty, the family of Theodoric the Great.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theodosius I</span> Roman emperor from 379 to 395

Theodosius I, also called Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. During his reign, he succeeded in a crucial war against the Goths, as well as in two civil wars, and was instrumental in establishing the creed of Nicaea as the orthodox doctrine for Christianity. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule the entire Roman Empire before its administration was permanently split between the West and East.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theodoric the Great</span> King of the Ostrogoths (r. 471–526) & Visigoths (r. 511–526); King of Italy (r. 493–526)

Theodoricthe Great, also called Theodoric the Amal, was king of the Ostrogoths (475–526), and ruler of the independent Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy between 493 and 526, regent of the Visigoths (511–526), and a patrician of the Eastern Roman Empire. As ruler of the combined Gothic realms, Theodoric controlled an empire stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Adriatic Sea. Though Theodoric himself only used the title 'king' (rex), some scholars characterize him as a Western Roman Emperor in all but name, since he ruled large parts of the former Western Roman Empire, had received the former Western imperial regalia from Constantinople in 497, and was referred to by the title augustus by some of his subjects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ulfilas</span> Goth bishop and theologian (c. 311–383)

Ulfilas, also spelled Ulphilas and Orphila, all Latinized forms of the unattested Gothic form *𐍅𐌿𐌻𐍆𐌹𐌻𐌰 Wulfila, literally "Little Wolf", was a Goth of Cappadocian Greek descent who served as a bishop and missionary, participated in the Arian controversy, and is credited with the translation of the Bible into Gothic. He developed the Gothic alphabet – inventing a writing system based on the Greek alphabet – in order for the Bible to be translated into the Gothic language. Although the translation of the Bible into the Gothic language has traditionally been ascribed to Ulfilas, analysis of the text of the Gothic Bible indicates the involvement of a team of translators, possibly under his supervision.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christianisation of the Germanic peoples</span> Conversion of Germanic peoples to Christianity

The Germanic peoples underwent gradual Christianization in the course of late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. By AD 700, England and Francia were officially Christian, and by 1100 Germanic paganism had also ceased to have political influence in Scandinavia.

The Acacians, or perhaps better described as the Homoians or Homoeans, were a non-Nicene branch of Christianity that dominated the church during much of the fourth-century Arian Controversy. They declared that the Son was similar to God the Father, without reference to substance (essence). Homoians played a major role in the Christianization of the Goths in the Danubian provinces of the Roman Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ostrogothic Kingdom</span> 493–553 kingdom in Italy and neighbouring areas

The Ostrogothic Kingdom, officially the Kingdom of Italy, existed under the control of the Germanic Ostrogoths in Italy and neighbouring areas from 493 to 553.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gothic Bible</span> Bible translation

The Gothic Bible or Wulfila Bible is the Christian Bible in the Gothic language spoken by the Eastern Germanic (Gothic) tribes in the Early Middle Ages.

The Goths, Gepids, Vandals, and Burgundians were East Germanic groups who appear in Roman records in late antiquity. At times these groups warred against or allied with the Roman Empire, the Huns, and various Germanic tribes.

In historiography, the Later Roman Empire traditionally spans the period from 284 to 641 in the history of the Roman Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taifals</span>

The Taifals or Tayfals were a people group of Germanic or Sarmatian origin, first documented north of the lower Danube in the mid third century AD. They experienced an unsettled and fragmented history, for the most part in association with various Gothic peoples, and alternately fighting against or for the Romans. In the late fourth century some Taifali were settled within the Roman Empire, notably in western Gaul in the modern province of Poitou. They subsequently supplied mounted units to the Roman army and continued to be a significant source of cavalry for early Merovingian armies. By the sixth century their region of western Gaul had acquired a distinct identity as Thifalia.

Christianity began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the 1st century in the Roman province of Judea, from where it spread throughout and beyond the Roman Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christianity in the 4th century</span> Christianity-related events during the 4th century

Christianity in the 4th century was dominated in its early stage by Constantine the Great and the First Council of Nicaea of 325, which was the beginning of the period of the First seven Ecumenical Councils (325–787), and in its late stage by the Edict of Thessalonica of 380, which made Nicene Christianity the state church of the Roman Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christianity in late antiquity</span> Christianity in the Roman Empire (c.313 - c.476)

Christianity in late antiquity traces Christianity during the Christian Roman Empire — the period from the rise of Christianity under Emperor Constantine, until the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The end-date of this period varies because the transition to the sub-Roman period occurred gradually and at different times in different areas. One may generally date late ancient Christianity as lasting to the late 6th century and the re-conquests under Justinian of the Byzantine Empire, though a more traditional end-date is 476, the year in which Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustus, traditionally considered the last western emperor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gothic persecution of Christians</span>

There is a record of Gothic persecution of Christians in the third century. According to Basil of Caesarea, some prisoners taken captive in a Gothic raid on Cappadocia around 260 preached the gospel to their captors and were martyred. One of their names was Eutychus. Bishop Dionysius of Caesarea sent messengers to the Goths to ransom captives and there was still a written record of these attempts in Basil's time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gothic paganism</span> Original religion of the Goths

Gothic paganism was the original religion of the Goths before their conversion to Christianity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theophilus (bishop of the Goths)</span>

Theophilus was a Gothic bishop who attended the First Council of Nicaea in 325 CE and was among those who signed the Nicene Creed. His name is also sometimes spelled Theophilas, such as Theophilas Gothiae, or Theophilos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christianization of the Franks</span> Conversion during the 5th and 6th centuries

Christianization of the Franks was the process of converting the pagan Franks to Catholicism during the late 5th century and early 6th century. It was started by Clovis I, regulus of Tournai, with the insistence of his wife, Clotilde and Saint Remigius, the bishop of Reims.

References

  1. ↑ Goff, Jacques Le (2000-01-01). Medieval Civilization 400–1500. New York: Barnes & Noble. ISBN   9780760716526.
  2. 1 2 3 Simek, Rudolf (2003). Religion und Mythologie der Germanen. Darmstadt: Wiss. Buchges. ISBN   978-3534169108.
  3. ↑ Todd, Malcolm (2000). Die Germanen: von den frühen Stammesverbänden zu den Erben des Weströmischen Reiches (2. unveränd. Aufl. ed.). Stuttgart: Theiss. p. 114. ISBN   978-3806213577.
  4. ↑ Szada, Marta (February 2021). "The Missing Link: The Homoian Church in the Danubian Provinces and Its Role in the Conversion of the Goths". Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum / Journal of Ancient Christianity. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter. 24 (3): 549–584. doi:10.1515/zac-2020-0053. eISSN   1612-961X. ISSN   0949-9571. S2CID   231966053.
  5. 1 2 Heather, Peter; Matthews, John (1991). The Goths in the fourth century (Repr. ed.). Liverpool: Liverpool Univ. Press. pp. 141–142. ISBN   978-0853234265.
  6. ↑ Ratkus, Artūras (2018). "Greek ἀρχιερεύς in Gothic translation: Linguistics and theology at a crossroads". NOWELE. 71 (1): 3–34. doi:10.1075/nowele.00002.rat.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Amory, Patrick (2003). People and identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489-554 (1st pbk. ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 238, 489–554. ISBN   978-0521526357.
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