[gothic-l] Re: "Eruli", "Goths", "Danes" and wherefrom the runes

[AElfric and Ursula]

Hails!

<<Tell, me that you are joking please;-) Of course, most Goths were
firm and astute Christians in the 5th and 6th century. They had their
own bishops and theological tradition. The process of convergence
started already in the late 3rd century. Theoderic the Great, himself
was proud to be born to Christian parents. In fact, his mother was a
Catholic, and possibly a Roman.>>

The idea that "*most* Goths were astute Christians in the 5th century" is not supported by the sources or accepted by many leading authors.
The Goths did not convert to Christianity easily or sincerely. Heather mentions how "the Tervingi resisted the spread of Christianity in at least two periods of persecution, in 347/8 and from 369 onwards (Heather, Goths and Romans 105). Athanaric ordered the persecution of Christians because "the ancestral religion was becoming debased" no doubt from the negative influence of Christianity on the traditional Gothic culture, values and community solidarity.  In the opinion of Eunapius, "the Tervingian refugees had only feigned their Christianity in order to be admitted by the Romans" (Wolfram, Goths 84).

"The Goths would seem to have been afraid that Christianity would undermine that part of Gothic identity which was founded in their common inherited beliefs, so that religion was not just an individual concern, but also a political issue standing in some relation to Gotho-Roman affairs."  The Goths officially adopted the Arian Christianity of the emperor Valens in 376 not because of the more than half a century of unsuccessful missionary work, which was completely rejected by the Goths; the Tervingi accepted Christianity to please the emperor who was admitting them into Roman lands. The Gothic priests carried the old cult images with them in the crossing, which further substantiates the insignificance of this surface conversion to the new religion.

The Goths adopted the belief of emperor Valens, but according to Heather and Matthews, this conversion was not an "adherence body and soul to a new set of beliefs, but...rather a determination to change public practice (106f). "Ultimately, Christianity provided a necessary commonality for prolonged assimilation among the lower classes, but this process took centuries. The nobility, on the other hand, viewed Christianity in essentially political terms (Burns 149).

It is also important to note that the Heruli and the Ostrogoths did not convert to Christianity in 375 like the Visigoths who settled within the Roman empire. The Ostrogoths only began to truly incorporate Christian tradition shortly before their demise, and therefore, for the duration of their history, whether "officially" Christian or not, they remained culturally pagan. The Ostrogoths did not convert until the later 400s, which was the first time any real missionary work was done among the Goths.

When the Huns settled along the Danubian plain in the southern part of old Roman Dacia they blocked direct contact between the Ostrogoths [and also the Heruli] and the Christian centers in the south...Christianity did not suddenly make the Goths a new people. Theoderic really began to build on Imperial/Christian traditions of kingship only after the settlement in Italy. Ceremonies traditional to his people and their great warlords marked the early stages in the growth of his power. Despite his attempts and those of his grandson Athalaric and his daughter Amalaswintha to incorporate the dress and ceremonies of the eastern imperial court into Ostrogothic kingship, the raising of Witiges on a shield amid a circle of raised swords demonstrates how little progress had been made...the nobility did not give up their pagan beliefs any more than the commoners (Burns 150/160).

Albareiks



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