The Lord be with you! By the late fourth century, the Catholic Church was ascendent in the Roman Empire and expanding well outside its borders. Proclaiming the Gospel to the barbarians was no easy task.
Who were these barbarians? How did they differ from the Romans? Let us oversimplify. A civilization is a group of related people (a nation) that has its own language, customs, and at least a city. One cannot overemphasize how important the development and maintenance of cities were in human history. Nevertheless, most people in any ancient civilization did not live in their cities but were farmers. Usually, 10% of the population lived in urban areas and the other 90% were in small towns or villages across the countryside.
Barbarians lacked cities. The Gauls, Germans, Slavs, etc all had languages and decent technologies but they did not create large cities. Their power came from their interlocking families and ties of honor. Also, some barbarians like the Magyars were nomadic having no permanent settlements.
A funny thing happened when these barbarians settled near the Roman Empire: trade. As these groups exchanged goods with the Empire, they also sent a good number of their men as mercenaries into the Roman army. Later on Rome would discover that Roman armies mostly staffed by barbarians were, in effect, barbarian armies.
Accordingly, the first missionaries outside the Empire had a rough idea of the peoples they would encounter. Much more superstitious than Imperials, the pagan beliefs of many tribes were quite brutal. For example, many German tribes decided disputes not through courts but combat! Before the fall of the Western Empire, missionary contact was quite limited.
Much more common was for a barbarian tribe to settle in the Empire and become Christian…mostly. Let us take the Vandals for an example. They were allowed to settle in modern day Slovenia by the Empire. As they lived there they began to believe in Arian Christianity. Although the Church had condemned this belief, it was easier for the Vandals - and many other tribes - to believe that Jesus was God’s chosen and not really God.
Converting these Arian Christians to Nicene Christians became the major work of evangelization for the next few centuries. The following pattern would repeat. Tribe moves into the Empire. Tribe becomes sort of Christian as it moves further into the Empire. After several generations the tribe has its own priests and bishops and begins to understand the Trinity. Full conversion into Roman and Christian culture and mores.
We are now ready to understand one of the most important events in Western history: the fall of the Western Empire. The political disintegration of the Western Empire will leave the Church as the bulwark of civilization. Care of the soul will lead to care of the body.
In His Sacred Heart,
Fr. John
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