18 XI (4.45 Warsaw time): Marta Szada (Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika), Arianism in fifth-century Gaul: the limitations of the study

Abstract

The Goths and Burgundians of the fifth century made “Arianism” a living Christian tradition in predominantly Nicene Gaul. We might expect that the return of heresy, which had seemingly received the decisive blows in the end of the fourth century, caused anxiety of many Gallic Nicenes but the sources paint a picture more difficult in interpretation. The evidence about the “Arians” and their church is scarcer than for other regions and suggests that the Nicenes had a limited interest in “Arianism” and little encouragement to write about it, whether in good or bad light. In the paper, I will consider why “Arianism” made so little impression on the fifth-century writers and what it may tell us about the Nicene-“Arian” relations and the actual significance of “Arianism” for the Gothic and Burgundian polities emerging in fifth-century Gaul.