501 Early Church History 19: Arian Kingdoms from Ulfilas to Clovis

Posted on by Sean Finnegan

This is part 19 of the Early Church History class.

Even though the Roman Empire chose Nicene Christianity as it’s “orthodoxy,” subordinationist Christianity continued to exist, especially outside among the Germanic tribes. In this episode, you’ll learn about Ulfilas the Missionary to the Goths who not only brought Christianity to these “barbarians,” but also made them an alphabet and translated most of the bible into Gothic. Next, we’ll briefly survey the major Germanic tribes, including the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, Burgundians, Lombards, and finally the Franks. This little known chapter of history when the Arian kingdoms took over the Roman Empire had a massive effects on Europe and North Africa for centuries to come.

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—— Notes ——

Ulfilas, Missionary to the Goths

  • 340 Subordinationist bishops ordained Ulfilas bishop to the Visigoths
  • 341-347 lived with the Goths and preached to them
  • Ulfilas translated the Bible into Gothic.
  • Rule of Faith: “I believe in one God the Father, alone ingenerate and invisible, and in his only-begotten Son, our Lord and God, artificer and maker of the whole creation, who has nobody like him–therefore there is one God the Father of all who is also God of our God–and in one Holy Spirit, the power which illuminates and sanctifies, as Christ said after the resurrection to his apostles, and he (i.e. the Spirit) is not God nor our God, but the minister of Christ … subordinate and obedient in all things to the Son, and the Son subordinate and obedient in all things to his God and Father…”[1]

Huns

  • The Huns were a nomadic confederation of Mongolian tribes who began entering Europe in the fourth century.
  • Ammianus Marcellinus described them as utter savages who never bathed or changed their clothes and lived on their horses.
  • Atilla the Hun (r. 434-453) attacked Persia, the Balkans, Constantinople, Gaul, and Italy, terrifying many within the Roman Empire (both East and West).

Visigoths

  • Eudoxius, Bishop of Constantinople (r. 360-370) succeeding in establishing communion with Visigoths
    • Eudoxius was an Anomean (Heteroousian) like Eunomius
  • 376 Visigoths petitioned the emperor to enter the Roman Empire.
    • Permission was granted, but local Roman leaders badly mistreated the Visigoths.
  • 377 Visigoths rebelled.
  • 378 Visigoths defeated and killed Emperor Valens at the Battle of Adrianople.
  • 410 Alaric sacked and looted Rome.
  • 418 Visigoths settled in Gaul, then Spain
  • 589 Visigoths converted to Catholicism at the Council of Toledo.

Ostrogoths

  • 453 Atilla the Hun died, resulting in rebellion against the Huns.
  • 476 Odoacer removed the last western Roman Augustus from power (Romulus Augustulus).
  • 488-493 Byzantine Emperor Zeno asked Theodoric and Ostrogoths to conquer Italy and rule as his client.
  • 493 Theodoric and Ostrogoths began ruling Italy as Arians over Roman Catholics.
  • 535 Byzantine Emperor Justinian conquered Ostrogoths and retook Italy.

Vandals

  • 406 The Vandals crossed into Gaul, then into Spain in 409.
  • Rome instigated the Visigoths (also in Spain) to attack the Vandals.
  • 419 More Vandals came into Spain.
  • 426 Vandals began raiding North Africa.
  • 428 Under Gaiseric, 80,000 Vandals crossed the Strait of Gibraltar.
  • 430 They conquered most of North Africa (Mauretania).
    • Gaiseric was a devoted Arian who pillaged Catholic churches.
    • The Vandals ruled North Africa for a century over the Roman Catholics.
  • 455 They reinvaded Spain and Italy, sacking Rome.
  • 533 Byzantine Emperor Justinian conquered the Vandals and retook North Africa.

Burgundians

  • 451 Arian Burgundians fought Atilla the Hun on behalf of Rome.
  • 470 Migrated to Gaul and took Lyons
  • 532 Franks defeated Burgundians, absorbing them.

Lombards

  • 568 Audoin the Lombard recruited a massive army made up of several barbarian tribes and invaded Italy.
  • 574 Lombards split Italy into 30+ regions under the command of dukes (duces).
  • Lombard kings were Arian from 6th century until Adaloald in 615
  • By late 7th century, the Lombards became Roman Catholics.

Franks

  • Childeric I (r. 457-481) began uniting Frankish tribes.
  • Clovis I (r. 481-511) killed his rivals and became sole king of the Franks, establishing the Merovingian dynasty, which lasted until 751.
  • Chlotild, the wife of Clovis I, was a Roman Catholic who tried to convince Clovis to become a Christian.
  • 496 In a war with the Alamanni, he was losing and prayed to Christ for military victory. After he won, he and 3,000 from his army converted.
  • Joseph Lynch: “The Franks turned out to be the toughest barbarians.”[2]
  • The Franks flourished until the eighth century and were the ancestors of modern France, Germany, Italy, Holland, and Belgium.

Review

  • Subordinationist Bishop Ulfilas went on a mission to preach Christ to the Goths in the middle of the fourth century.
  • Ulfilas invented a Gothic alphabet and translated the Bible into their language, sparking a movement that eventually led to the conversion of most of the Germanic tribes to Arian Christianity.
  • When hordes of fierce Huns migrated West into Europe, Gothic tribes began migrating into the Roman Empire.
  • Under Alaric, the Arian Visigoths conquered much of the Italian peninsula and even sacked Rome in 410 before migrating to Gaul and Spain.
  • In the fifth century, Arian Ostrogoths under Theodoric conquered Italy and established themselves as a ruling class over the Trinitarian Romans there.
  • In the fifth century, Arian Vandals conquered Spain then migrated to North Africa where they ruled for a century until the time of Justinian.
  • In the fifth century, Arian Burgundians conquered and occupied Gaul until the Franks absorbed them in the sixth century.
  • In the sixth century, Arian and Pagan Lombards conquered much of Italy, but converted to Trinitarian Catholicism in the seventh century.
  • In the late fifth century, Clovis I, king of the Franks, converted from paganism to Trinitarian Christianity, eventually extending influence over surrounding Germanic tribes.

From the fourth to the seventh centuries, Germanic tribes who held to Arian Christianity invaded and conquered much of the western Roman Empire, but either faced defeat by Justinian or else converted to Roman Catholicism.

[1] Auxentius, Letter of Auxentius in R. P. C. Hanson, The Search for a Christian Doctrine of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic 2007), 105.

[2] Joseph Lynch, Early Christianity (New York: Oxford, 2010), 234.

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