Gothic Christianity

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

While one might suppose that the "Gothic Churches" of Europe were built by the Goths, this is not the case. Few structures dating to the Gothic era still exist in Europe, and those don't conform to the style of Gothic architecture, which dates to the Twelfth century. The term "Gothic architecture" was originally a derogatory term meaning something like "crude and barbaric" that did not really relate to the historical Goths.

The Gothic tribes converted to Christianity sometime between 376 and 390 CE as a response to social pressure caused by the invading Huns, among a diverse list of causes.

The Gothic Christians were followers of a doctrine (Homoianism) associated by their opponents with the priest Arius.^[1] The theological differences between this and mainstream Trinitarian Christianity are discussed under Arianism.

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 Catholicism at the Third Council of Toledo in 589.

History

Origins

Roman provinces along the Ister (Danube), showing Dacia, Moesia and Thrace, with Sarmatia to the north and Germania to the northwest.

During the 3rd century, East Germanic peoples, moving in a southeasterly direction, migrated into Dacian 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 a pagan religion, the exact nature of which, however, remains uncertain.^[2] In 238 AD, an army described by the Romans as Gothic crossed the Danube and plundered the Roman province of Moesia Inferior, taking numerous hostages, which were later returned to the Romans in exchange for monetary compensation. Within two years - possibly on the basis of a contractual agreement which ended the same raid^[3] - Goths were enlisted into the Roman Army for Gordian III's campaign against the Persians, which ended in 243-244 AD. At the conclusion of this campaign, the Gothic soldiers were released from military duty and all subventions were stopped. This was met with widespread disapproval, and by 250 AD a large army consisting of Goths, Vandali, Taifalae, Bastarnae and Carpi assembled under the Gothic king Cniva. 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.^[4]

Conversion

The conversion of the Goths to Christianity was a relatively swift process, facilitated on the one hand by the assimilation of (primarily female) Christian captives into Gothic society^[5] and on the other by a general equation of participation in Roman society with adherence to Christianity.^[6] 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 Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.^[4] 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, Batwin and others were martyred by order of Wingurich ca. 370 AD, and Saba was martyred by order of Athanaric in c. 372 AD.

Bishop Wulfila

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. Wulfila, 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 Wulfila and many other Christian Goths fled to Moesia Secunda in the Roman Empire.^[7] He continued to serve as bishop to the Christian Goths in Moesia until his death in 383 AD.^[8]

Wulfila 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 of Alexandria.

Wulfila's Bible translation

First page of the Codex Argenteus, the oldest surviving manuscript of Wulfila's 4th century Bible translation.

Between 348 and 383, Wulfila translated the Bible from Greek into the Gothic language.^[8][9] Thus, some Arian Christians in the west used vernacular languages - in this case Gothic - for services, as did many Nicaean Christians in the east (cf. Syriac and Coptic Bible), while Nicaean Christians in the west only used Latin, even in areas where Vulgar Latin was not the vernacular. Ironically, 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.^[10]

Gothic Christianity in the Roman Empire

According to Patrick Amory, the Gothic churches had close ties to other Arian churches in the Western Roman Empire.^[11]

Later Ostrogothic Christianity

After 493, the Ostrogothic kingdom included two areas, Italy and much of the Balkans, which had large Arian churches.^[12] Arianism had retained some presence among Romans in Italy during the time between its condemnation in the empire and the Ostrogothic conquest.^[12] 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.

Later Visigothic Christianity

Church Figures

• Theophilus, possible predecessor of Wulfila
• Wulfila, or Ulfilas, first bishop of the Goths and bible translator.
• Auxentius of Durostorum, Wulfila's adopted son, and later of Milan.

Political Figures

• Fritigern

References