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 (the Syriac and Coptic translations), 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.

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Arianism is a Christological doctrine considered heretical by all modern mainstream branches of Christianity. It is 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bastarnae</span> Ethnic group, 200 BCE - 300 CE, east of the Carpathians

The Bastarnae, sometimes called the Peuci or Peucini, were an ancient people who between 200 BC and 300 AD inhabited areas north of the Roman frontier on the Lower Danube. The Bastarnae lived in the region between the Carpathian Mountains and the river Dnieper, to the north and east of ancient Dacia. The Peucini were a subtribe who occupied the region north of the Danube Delta. Their name was sometimes used for the Bastarnae as a whole.

<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">Jordanes</span> 6th-century Byzantine writer; historian of ancient Romans and Goths

Jordanes, also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat, widely believed to be of Gothic descent, who became a historian later in life.

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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 Western Roman Empire, drawing upon the large Gothic populations who had settled in the Balkans in the 4th century. 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 Theodoric the Great.

<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 a large part of the former Western Roman Empire described as a Res Publica, had received the former Western imperial regalia from Constantinople in 497 which he used, was referred to by the imperial title princeps by the Italian aristocracy and exercised imperial powers recognized in the East, such as naming consuls.

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

Ulfilas (Greek: Ουλφίλας; c. 311 – 383), known also as Wulfila(s) or Urphilas, was a 4th century Gothic preacher of Cappadocian Greek descent. He was the apostle to the Gothic people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moesia</span> Historical region of the Balkans

Moesia was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans south of the Danube River. As a Roman domain Moesia was administered at first by the governor of Noricum as 'Civitates of Moesia and Triballia'. It included most of the territory of modern eastern Serbia, Kosovo, north-eastern Albania, northern parts of North Macedonia, Northern Bulgaria, Romanian Dobruja and small parts of Southern Ukraine.

<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 centered in Italy

The Ostrogothic Kingdom, officially the Kingdom of Italy, was a barbarian kingdom established by the Germanic Ostrogoths that controlled Italy and neighbouring areas between 493 and 553. Led by Theodoric the Great, the Ostrogoths killed Odoacer, a Germanic soldier and erstwhile leader of the foederati. Odoacer had previously become the de facto ruler of Italy following his deposition of Romulus Augustulus, the final emperor of the Western Roman Empire, in 476. Under Theodoric, the Ostrogothic kingdom reached its zenith, stretching from modern southern France in the west to the modern western Serbia in the southeast. Most of the social institutions of the late Western Roman Empire were preserved during his rule. Theodoric called himself Gothorum Romanorumque rex 'King of the Goths and Romans', demonstrating his desire to be a leader for both peoples.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancient history of Transylvania</span>

In ancient times, Romans exploited the gold mines in what is now Transylvania extensively, building access roads and forts to protect them, like Abrud. The region developed a strong infrastructure and economy, based on agriculture, cattle farming and mining. Colonists from Thracia, Moesia, Macedonia, Gaul, Syria, and other Roman provinces were brought in to settle the land, developing cities like Apulum and Napoca into municipiums and colonias.

<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.

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

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>

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

Gothic paganism or Gothic polytheism 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

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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. 24 (3). Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter: 549–584. doi:10.1515/zac-2020-0053 (inactive 2024-09-02). eISSN   1612-961X. ISSN   0949-9571. S2CID   231966053.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of September 2024 (link)
  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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