The West (part one)

The fifth century marked the collapse of the imperial system in Italy, Germany, Britain, Gaul, Spain, and North Africa, but not of the imperial “idea” …

Imperial Unity and Christian Divisions: The Church AD 450 – 680, John Meyendorff

Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Burgundians, Vandals: Germanic tribes establishing themselves as rulers over what was the western part of the Roman Empire. While they had the strength to conquer, they had neither the strength nor desire to destroy the cultural legacy. They would accept a legal fiction as foederati (“guests,” or “allies”) of the Romans. But the reality was understood.

The Roman majority would retain Roman law, but the Germanic tribes brought their traditions with them. They also brought their Arian Christianity with them. Eventually, their language and their Arianism would fade away (the Roman bishop being the major agent of this change), but not quickly and often not peacefully on the part of the tribes.

Rome without the emperor left the door open for the Pope to become the symbol of the empire. Rome would act as an agent of imperial decrees, but not when the emperor in Constantinople fell into heresies such as Arianism or Monophysitism (the term used to describe non-Chalcedonian). Yes, this prestige for Rome was partly due to imperial decisions, but also to the fact that they occupied the chair of St. Peter.

Rome saw itself as the head of a Church “body,” but not only in a spiritual sense – instead, additionally as a concrete and legally definable organism. There was resistance to the claims, both in the East and in the West, while at the same time the missionary zeal of Rome obtained universal and well-deserved respect.

On the Danube and Beyond

As Arianism was the official confession of most Germanic rulers in Central Europe, the interrelations between the Church and the Barbarians was limited to areas south of the old Roman Danubian frontier. On the borderlands, there did remain a significant presence of catholic Christianity, even where Barbarian culture was dominant. Further northwest (south of Vienna), the monk St. Severinus converted many Arians to the orthodox faith.

The British Isles: St. Patrick; the Irish Monks

Like Gaul, with which it entertained constant relations, Celtic Britain, in the fourth century, included a Christian minority and became closely integrated in a Christian Roman world.

Bishops from the island would participate in councils related to the Arian disputes; Pelagius, whose doctrines caused concern to Augustine, was a Britton; there were episcopal sees in what are today York, London, and Lincoln. Then there was the missionary activity of St. Ninian, who built the first Christian church in Scotland around the year 400.

After 407, Barbarian invasions on the continent caused the Romans to leave Britain. By 441, the island was invaded by the pagan Angles and Saxons from Northern Germany. The local Celts would find refuge in what is today Cornwall, Wales, and French Brittany.

There are legends about the spread of Christianity in Scotland and Ireland. As for the evangelization of Ireland, the real credit goes to St. Patrick, a lay missionary. Born into a family of Christian Brittons, he was kidnapped at the age of 16 by “Scottish” raiders, and spend six years as a slave in Ireland. He would escape, travel to Gaul and Italy, then return to Ireland as a missionary. He would baptize thousands, and establish the clerical structure of the new church.

The Celtic church led a somewhat marginal existence – almost indigenous, thus creating some ecclesiological and canonical problems. Yet the missionary zeal, especially of the Irish monks, was remarkable. Some communities would claim hundreds, even thousands, of monks.

Generally accepted ecclesiological practices would have to wait for the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons in the early seventh century under the auspices of pope Gregory.

Spain: Arians and Orthodox

The Christian faith was established in Spain by the early fourth century. Bishop Ossius of Cordoba was the main ecclesiastical advisor to Constantine and he played a key role at Nicaea. Yet, as in other countries, the Barbarian invasions of the fifth century would bring many Arian tribes to the country; this would bring the catholic church into a difficult period.

An experience of miracles at the tomb of St. Martin would bring the king of the Suevi to convert to the orthodox faith around the middle of the sixth century. This would be followed by the Visigoths, converting at the Council of Toledo in 589 – the same council that introduced the filioque.

The intention of the filioque was to emphasize the divinity of the Son against the Arians. Was anyone in Toledo aware of the objections to this? Remarkably, probably not. Meyendorff considers the future ramifications of this decision (as it was adapted in the Frankish world), yet the addition was made causally and perhaps inadvertently in a “rather peripheral” country in the Christian world.

Africa: Arian Persecutions

Five northern provinces of Africa, except for contemporary northern Morocco, constituted a separate diocese. This covered what is today Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya. By the beginning of the fifth century, the Christianization of the region had been completed. Tertullian, Cyprian, and Augustine provided a meaningful theological tradition.

While a substantial proportion of the population still belonged to the Donatist schism, an external menace would soon enough present itself: the region would be occupied by Arian Vandal kings. These turned out to be persecutors of those holding to Nicaean orthodoxy.

Conversion required a new baptism, and the Roman laws against heresy were now applied to the orthodox Christians. The treatment of “heretics” was especially brutal; the capture of Carthage in 430 was accompanied by massacres. Bishops and clergy were banished, and of 164 communities in the region surrounding Carthage before the invasions, only three were occupied by orthodox bishops.

Liturgical books destroyed; bishops tortured or exiled or turned to slaves; hundreds of executions; thousands of deportations; certainly countless conversions to Arianism.

Hilderic took steps to reverse this, in 525. He wanted to integrate the Vandal kingdom in the Empire. Hence, all anti-catholic decrees were abolished, and the church was allowed to organize itself. Yet, these changes would not survive: Gelimar would lead an anti-Roman rebellion and imprison Hilderic. Yet, by this time the empire had the means to fight back, under Justinian I.

A Roman expedition would destroy the Vandal kingdom in a six-month campaign in 534. Gelimar was captured and paraded through the streets of Constantinople and the male Vandal population was either massacred or sold into slavery. All the previous rights of the catholic church were restored in Byzantine Africa. All separatists – Arian and Donatist – were placed under ban.

Conclusion

There is much more. St. Augustine, and, of course, Rome – especially Pope Leo. These will be covered, each in its own post.