Bernard of Clairvaux's biographer and other sources accuse some Cathars of Arianism, and some scholars see Cathar Christology as having traces of earlier Arian roots.

* Arian sources

It contains many sources otherwise lost, specially letters on the Arian controversy ; but it is defective in historical sense and chronological accuracy, and on account of Theodoret's inclination to embellishment and miraculous narrative, and preference for the personal.

However, other sources depict these men in far more positive light: for example Cassiodorus describes Cyprianus and Opilio as " utterly scrupulous, just and loyal " and mentions they are brothers and grandsons of the consul Opilio ; Theodoric was feeling threatened by international events: the Acacian Schism had been resolved, and the Catholic Christians aristocrats of his kingdom were seeking to renew their ties with Constantinople ; the Catholic Hilderic became king of the Vandals and put his sister Amalafrida to death ; and Arian Christians in the East were being persecuted.

In western Europe Arianism, which had been taught by Ulfilas, the Arian missionary to the Germanic tribes, was dominant among the Goths and Lombards ( and, significantly for the late Empire, the Vandals ); but it ceased to be the mainstream belief by the 8th century.

The letter of Auxentius, a 4th-century Arian bishop of Milan, regarding the missionary Ulfilas, gives the clearest picture of Arian beliefs on the nature of the Trinity: God the Father (" unbegotten "), always existing, was separate from the lesser Jesus Christ (" only-begotten "), born before time began and creator of the world.

Ulfilas ' initial success in converting this Germanic people to an Arian form of Christianity was strengthened by later events.

He brought Ulfilas into the Arian priesthood and sent the latter to convert the heathen Goths.

Ulfilas converted many among the Goths, preaching an Arian Christianity, which, when they reached the western Mediterranean, set them apart from their Orthodox neighbors and subjects.

Socrates Scholasticus gives Ulfilas a minor role, and instead attributes the mass conversion to the Gothic chieftain Fritigern, who adopted Arianism out of gratitude for the military support of the Arian emperor.

* Ulfilas, Arian priest and translator of the Bible into Gothic

While theology of the Arians was declared a heresy at the First Council of Nicea in 325 AD, the missionary work of the bishop Ulfilas converted the pagan Goths to Arian Christianity in the 4th Century.

During the reign of Constantius II, the Arian Gothic convert Ulfilas was consecrated a bishop by Eusebius of Nicomedia and sent to missionize his people.

( In fact they had been Christianized by the Arian Ulfilas, but Leander's theme was reconciliation.

400 ), an Arian Christian theologian, adopted son of Ulfilas.

The Arian concept of Christ is that the Son of God did not always exist, but was created by — and is therefore distinct from — God the Father.

A letter from Arius to the Arian Eusebius of Nicomedia succinctly states the core beliefs of the Arians:

Constantine I ( emperor ) | Constantine burning Arian books, illustration from a compendium of canon law, ca.

Following the Protestant Reformation from 1517, it did not take long for Arian and other non-trinitarian views to resurface.

Catching the impulse from Hilary and confirmed in it by the success of Arian psalmody, Ambrose composed several original hymns as well, four of which still survive, along with music which may not have changed too much from the original melodies.

Nicaea was convoked by Constantine I in May – August 325 to address the Arian position that Jesus of Nazareth is of a distinct substance from the Father.

Most of the rumors circle from the same source of Saint Jerome who claimed “ Cyril was an out and out Arian, was offered the see on Maximus death on the condition that he would repudiate his ordination at the hands of that Bishop ”.

This is only 35 years before John Thomas ' 1849 lecture tour in Britain which attracted significant support from an existing non-Trinitarian Adventist base, particularly, initially, in Scotland where Arian Socinian and unitarian ( with a small ' u ' as distinct from the Unitarian Church of Theophilus Lindsey ) views were prevalent.

The council confirmed the Nicene Creed and dealt with other matters such as the Arian controversy as it met in the church of Hagia Irene from May to July 381.

After forty years under the control of Arian bishops, the churches of Constantinople were now restored to those who subscribed to the Nicene Creed ; Arians were also ejected from the churches of other cities in the Eastern Roman Empire thus re-establishing Christian orthodoxy in the East.

Meanwhile, the Goths were converted from paganism to Arian Christianity by the Gothic missionary Wulfila, who devised the Gothic alphabet to translate the Bible.

Arian Visigothic nobility kept apart from the local Catholic population.

On February 1, 484 he organized a meeting of Catholic bishops with Arian bishops, but on February 24, 484 he forcibly removed the Catholic bishops from their offices and banished some to Corsica.

310 – 383 ;), bishop, missionary, and Bible translator, was a Goth or half-Goth and half-Greek from Cappadocia who had spent time inside the Roman Empire at the peak of the Arian controversy.

But if Priscillianist bishops hesitated to be barred from their sees, a passionately concerned segment of Christian communities in Iberia were disaffected from the more orthodox hierarchy and welcomed the tolerant Arian Visigoths.

His conversion to the Roman Catholic form of Christianity served to set him apart from the other Germanic kings of his time, such as those of the Visigoths and the Vandals, who had converted from pagan beliefs to Arian Christianity.

Of all the various disagreements within the Christian Church, the Arian controversy has held the greatest force and power of theological and political conflict, with the possible exception of the Protestant Reformation.

Such a deep controversy within the Church during this period of its development could not have materialized without significant historical influences providing a basis for the Arian doctrines.

Some historians define and minimize the Arian conflict as the exclusive construct of Arius and a handful of rogue bishops engaging in heresy ; but others recognize Arius as a defender of ' original ' Christianity, or as providing a conservative response against the politicization of Christianity seeking union with the Roman Empire.

) After the dispute over Arianism became politicized and a general solution to the divisiveness was sought — with a great majority holding to the Trinitarian position — the Arian position was officially declared heterodox.

Because virtually all extant written material on Arianism was written by its opponents, the nature of Arian teachings is difficult to define precisely today.

However, there is no evidence that his son and ultimate successor, Constantius II, who was an Arian Christian, was exiled.

This mosaic in Basilica of Sant ' Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna has had images of the Arian king, Theoderic, and his court removed.

His advisor in these affairs was Eusebius of Nicomedia, who had already at the Council of Nicea been the head of the Arian party, who also was made bishop of Constantinople.

" None of these attempts were acceptable to the defenders of Nicene orthodoxy: writing about the latter councils, Saint Jerome remarked that the world " awoke with a groan to find itself Arian.

When the Germanic peoples entered the Roman Empire and founded successor-kingdoms in the western part, most had been Arian Christians for more than a century.

The conflict in the 4th century had seen Arian and Nicene factions struggling for control of the Church.

In contrast, in the Arian German kingdoms established on the wreckage of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, there were entirely separate Arian and Nicene Churches with parallel hierarchies, each serving different sets of believers.

However, the Vandals tried for several decades to force their Arian beliefs on their North African Nicene subjects, exiling Nicene clergy, dissolving monasteries, and exercising heavy pressure on non-conforming Christians.

However, much of southeastern Europe and central Europe, including many of the Goths and Vandals respectively, had embraced Arianism ( the Visigoths converted to Arian Christianity in 376 ), which led to Arianism being a religious factor in various wars in the Roman Empire.

Grimwald, King of the Lombards ( 662 – 671 ), and his young son and successor Garibald ( 671 ), were the last Arian kings in Europe.

The term “ Arian ” bestowed by Athanasius upon his opponents in the Christological debate was polemical.

In many ways, the conflict around Arian beliefs in the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries helped firmly define the centrality of the Trinity in Nicene Christian theology.

Thus, over the past 1, 500 years, some Christians have used the term Arian to refer to those groups that see themselves as worshiping Jesus Christ or respecting his teachings, but do not hold to the Nicene creed.