Tag: Fifth Century

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Arianism dominated after the Fall of Rome.

Overview

In the fourth century, the Church functioned as part of the Empire, with the emperor as its head. On the other hand, the bishops shared in the political and judicial powers of the State.

In 380, Emperor Theodosius made Nicene Christianity the State Religion of the Roman Empire. 

In the next (fifth) century, Germanic people, who previously migrated into the Empire, attained such high numbers and such high positions in the Roman military that they dominated the Western Empire. They were Arians because they were converted to Christianity through the missionary efforts of the Arian Church. However, they tolerated the Roman Church. In fact, the Roman Church grew in strength.

This is an article in the series on the Origin of the Trinity doctrine. The current article considers the events of the Fifth Century.

Fall of the Roman Empire

Emperor Theodosius

Theodosius became emperor in 379. The next year, in 380, he issued the Edict of Thessalonica, making Nicene theology the only legal religion in the Roman Empire. 

While the Nicene Creed still identifies the “one God” as the Father, Theodosius’ edict identified the “one God” as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. His edict was, therefore, a significant development from the Nicene Creed in the direction of the Trinity doctrine as we know it today. [Show More]

The Edict of Thessalonica outlawed all forms of non-Nicene Christianity. Through further decrees over the next few years, Theodosius ruthlessly persecuted all opposition to Nicene theology. He expelled their bishops, forbade ‘heretics’ to meet and preach, and confiscated and gave their churches to Nicene bishops. He was responsible for the first official executions of Christian ‘heretics’. [Jones 1964, p. 164] [Show More]

The West became Germanic-dominated.

Large numbers of Germanic peoples migrated into the Empire over the preceding centuries. Many of them were recruited into the Roman army, to such an extent that the Imperial Forces became dependent on Germanic soldiers. They were also appointed to top positions in the military. Since Roman generals were very influential in the Roman Empire, this gave these ‘barbarians’ much political power.

Soon after Theodosius died in 395, Germanic people effectively had control of the Western Roman Empire. Nevertheless, the Graeco-Roman population still treated them as second-class citizens. Therefore, to demand equal rights and permanent residency in the empire, the Germanic people revolted against the severe conditions of their tenure in the Roman Empire. They sacked Rome in 410 and again in 455. (See Fall of the Roman Empire.)

Although they dominated the Western Empire already from the beginning of the 400s (the fifth century), they tolerated figurehead Western Roman Emperors until 476, when Odoacer—an Germanic chieftain—deposed the last Western Roman Emperor and soon subjected the whole of Italy.

The Germanic people then divided the territory of the Western Empire between the Germanic tribes. However, these tribes continued to function as part of the Roman Empire. In name at least, they were subject to the Emperor in Constantinople. For these reasons, historians today prefer to refer to the TRANSFORMATION of the Western Roman Empire; rather than to its FALL. It was a slow process over several decades during which the Germanic people wrestled control of the Western Empire from the Romans. 

The Germanic people were Arians.

Theodosius had exterminated opposition to Nicene theology from among the Roman people. But the Germanic nations (called ‘barbarians’ by the Romans) converted to Christianity through the Church’s missionary efforts in the time before Theodosius, when ‘Arianism’ dominated the church. Despite Theodosius’ efforts, they remained Arians. Consequently, after they had taken control of the Western Roman Empire, it was once again ‘Arian’. dominated. [Show More]

The Roman Church

United with the Roman Empire.

The Roman Church survived throughout this period. There are at least two reasons why we might have expected the Church in Rome to perish with the demise of the Western Empire:

Firstly, as stated, while the Roman Church was Nicene, the Germanic peoples were ‘Arian’. 

Secondly, the Roman Church was part of the government of the Roman Empire. After Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in 313 AD, the Church became united with the state. Division of church and state was not a reality. The emperors not only decided which religions were legal, but they also acted as the ultimate judges in doctrinal disputes. Effectively, they were the head of the church. [Show More]

For example:

Emperor Constantine had a huge role in the decisions of the Council of Nicaea. He called the council, guided the discussions, proposed and enforced the important word homoousios, and exiled the bishops who refused to sign the Creed. [Show More]

When Theodosius I became emperor in 379, the imperial capital was solidly Arian. But he almost immediately outlawed all non-Trinitarian forms of Christianity, exiled Arian bishops, and excluded Arians from the Council of 381. (See Theodosius.)

The ‘Germans’ tolerated the Roman Church.

Given the unity of the Roman Church and the Roman Empire, one might have expected the Germanic peoples to oppose the Roman Church in the West. However, the Roman Church survived in the West. The new Arian rulers in the Western Empire allowed the Roman Church (the Church of the Roman Empire) to co-exist unimpeded. The Germanic people, after they took control of the Western Empire, intended to remain part of the Roman Empire and tolerated the Roman Church because it was an official part of the Roman system of government; accountable to the emperor. The Germanic people voluntarily—in name at least—subjected themselves to the Roman Emperor, who reigned from the east. Consequently, Arianism and the Trinitarian Church of the Roman people existed side by side. The Jewish Encyclopaedia describes the situation:

“Most Germanic peoples—such as the eastern and western Goths, as also the Franks, the Lombards, the Suevi, and the Vandals—were baptized into Arian Christianity. These tribes settled in widely spread districts of the old Roman empire. A large number of Jews, already resident in those lands, fell under Arian domination. In contrast with the domination of the orthodox church, the Arian was distinguished by a wise tolerance and a mild treatment of the population of other faiths. This conduct was traceable to some degree to certain points of agreement between the Arian doctrine and Judaism. The very insistence upon the more subordinate relationship of the Son to the God-father is much nearer to the Jewish doctrine of the Messiah than to the conception of the full divinity of the Son, as enunciated at Nicaea.” (Kohler, Kaufmann; Krauss, Samuel. “ARIANISM”. Jewish Encyclopedia. Kopelman Foundation.)

The tolerance of the Arian tribes towards other religions resulted in entirely distinct Arian and Trinitarian systems of churches and bishops in the previous Western Empire. 

Although the Arian Germanic tribes were generally tolerant towards Nicene Christians, the Vandals in North Africa tried to force their Arian beliefs on their North African Nicene subjects, exiling Nicene clergy, dissolving monasteries, and exercising heavy pressure on non-conforming Nicene Christians. This matter will become important when we read of Emperor Justinian’s efforts in the sixth century to regain control of the Western Empire, for the first ‘barbarian’ nation that he attacked was the Vandals.

The Roman Church became stronger.

Actually, instead of perishing, the Church in Rome grew in strength after the ‘barbarians’ wrestled control of the western provinces from the original Graeco-Roman population (Britannica). The reasons include the following:

(A) The Church had a strong, centralized organization: The pope in Rome is the head of the Church. All clergy, including bishops and priests, fell under his authority. Bishops supervised priests; the lowest-ranking members of the clergy. For most people, local priests served as the main contact with the Church.

(B) At the same time, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, there was no single state or government that united all people who lived on the European continent. The transformation of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century was a time of great political chaos and warfare and the well-organized church became the only stabilizing force. As secular governments came and went, the Papacy remained. The church was a stable force during an era of constant warfare and political turmoil.

(C) The Church also bonded people together. It gave a sense of communal identity. At the local level, the village church was a unifying force in the lives of most people. It served as a religious and social center. Religious holidays, especially Christmas and Easter, were occasions for festive celebrations.

Arians converted to the Roman Church.

One consequence of the growing strength of the Roman Church was that the Germanic peoples converted to the Trinity doctrine, rather than to Arianism. The Franks were the first to convert.

The Franks and the Anglo-Saxons also were Germanic peoples but never were Arians. They entered the Western Roman Empire as Pagans.

The Franks were the first to convert. In 496, Clovis, king of the Franks, converted to Nicene Christianity—as opposed to the Arianism of most other Germanic tribes. Consequently, sometime between 496 and 508, Clovis I forcibly converted the Franks to Christianity. (So much for religious freedom!) This led to widespread conversion among the Frankish peoples across what is now modern-day France, Belgium, and Germany.

Æthelberht of Kent did the same for the Anglo-Saxons (see also Christianity in Gaul and Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England). 

Visigothic Spain was Arian until 589. 

The Lombards were Arians until the 7th century.

CONCLUSIONS

The religious preferences of the Roman Emperors determined the Christology of the church. The current article refers to the roles which Constantine and Theodosius played. As the next article will show, in the sixth century, Emperor Justinian gave Arianism a death wound and it died during the subsequent Byzantine Papacy. The fact that the church today is dominated by the Trinity doctrine is the direct result of decisions taken by Roman Emperors.

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