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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: TUM-VAN |
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ULFILAS (c. 311-383) , the apostle of Christianity to the Gothic race, and, through his translation of the Scriptures into Gothic, the father of Teutonic literature, was born among the Goths of the trans-Danubian provinces about the year 311.1 The Arian historian Philostorgius (Hist. eccl. ii. 5) says that his grand-parents were Christian captives from Sadagolthina in Cappadocia, who had been carried off to the lands beyond the Danube in the Gothic raid of 264, and became so naturalized that the boy received a Gothic name, Wulfila (Little Wolf). 1 Krafft gives 313 as the date; Waitz, 318. An authoritative record of the outlines of his life was only discovered early in the 19th century in a writing of Auxentius of Milan, his pupil and companion. At an early age Ulfilas was sent, either as an envoy or as a hostage
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The life of Ulfilas during the following thirty-three years is marked by only one recorded incident (Sozomen iv. 24), his visit to Constantinople in January 36o, to attend the council convened by the Arian or Homoean party. His work and influence were not confined to his own immediate flock, but radiated by means of his homilies and treatises, and through the disciples he despatched as missionaries, among all the Gothic tribes beyond the Danube. Thus the Church beyond the Danube, which had not been extinguished on Ulfilas's withdrawal, began to grow once more, and once more had to undergo the fires of persecution. Catholic missionaries had not been wanting in the meanwhile, and in the indiscriminate persecution by Athanaric, between 37o and 375, Catholics and Arians stood and fell side by side. The religious quarrel either accentuated, or was accentuated by, political differences, and the rival chiefs, Athanaric and Frithigern, appeared as champions of Paganism and Christianity respectively. Then followed the negotiations with the emperor Valens, the general adhesion of the Visigoths under Frithigern to Arian Christianity, the crossing of the Danube by himself and a host of his followers, and the troubles which culminated in the battle of Adrianople and the death of Valens (378). The part played by Ulfilas in these troublous times cannot be ascertained with certainty. It may have been he who, as a " presbyter christiani ritus," conducted negotiations with Valens before the battle of Adrianople; but that he headed a previous embassy asking for leave for the Visigoths to settle on Roman soil, and that he then, for political motives, professed himself a convert to the Arian creed, favoured by the emperor, and drew with him the whole body
opinion which caused the dispute. His pupil Auxentius describes how, " in the name of God," he set out upon his way, hoping to prevent the teaching of these new heretics from reaching " the churches of Christ by Christ committed to his charge." No sooner had he reached Constantinople than he fell sick, " having pondered much about the council," and before he had put his hand to the task which had brought him he died, probably in January 383. A few days later there died, also in Constantinople, his old enemy and persecutor, Athanaric.The Arianism of Ulfilas was a fact of pregnant consequence for his people, and indirectly for the empire. It had been his lifelong faith, as we learn from the opening words of his own confession " Ego Ulfilas semper sic credidi.'' If, as seems probable from the circumstances of his ordination, he was a semi-Arian and a follower of Eusebius in 341, at a later period of his life he departed from this position, and vigorously opposed the teaching of his former leader. He appears to have joined the Homoean party, which took shape and acquired influence before the council of Constantinople in 36o, where he adhered with the rest of the council to the creed of Ariminum, with the addendum that in future the terms uaderacr s and o(ata should be excluded from Christological definitions. Thus we learn from Auxentius that he condemned Homoousians and Homoiousians alike, adopting for himself the Homoean formula
The other legacy bequeathed by Ulfilas was of less questionable value. His version of the Scriptures is his greatest monument. By it he became the first to raise a barbarian tongue to the dignity of a literary language; and the skill, knowledge and adaptive ability it displays make it the crowning testimony of his powers as well as of his devotion -to his work. The personal qualities of the man may be inferred from his pupil's description of him as " of most upright conversation, truly a confessor of Christ, a teacher of piety, and a preacher of trutha man whom I am not competent to praise according to his merit, yet altogether keep silent I dare not." See Waitz, Das Leben des Ulfilas (184o) ; W. L. Krafft, Kirchengeschichte der deutschen Volker (Abth. i., 1854); H. Bohmer in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie,3 vol. xxi. ; W. Bessell, Das Leben des Ulfilas (186o) ; C. A. Scott, Ulfilas, Apostle of the Goths (1885). (C. A. S.) End of Article: ULFILAS (c. 311-383) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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