BARBARI

BARBARI. — The word, of Greek origin, originally meant those who stammered, that is, those who spoke a language different from Greek, and was therefore applied even to peoples of ancient civilization such as the Carians, Persians, and Egyptians. As Hellenic national consciousness and a proud sense of superiority grew, however, the word came to designate peoples of an inferior, uncultured, and uneducated civilization. The word passed into Latin, initially retaining its original linguistic meaning, so much so that one could say *Plautus vortit barbare* to mean "he translated from Greek into Latin." Later, in

Roman usage, the term took on the meaning of "uncivilized," "uncultured," and "savage."

The first Christian preaching among the peoples properly called *barbari* (barbarians) occurred in regions outside the Roman Empire. In Arabia, which Trajan had annexed to the empire and which was inhabited by semi-nomadic populations (Arabs, Nabataeans), the Christian preaching arrived promptly. Origen, who visited the region several times from Egypt, played a significant role there as an apologist and defender of orthodox Christian doctrine. Archaeological remains of churches and Christian mosaic floors attest to a notable Christian flourishing (see ARABIA).

Among the missions, the one to India stands out as particularly remote from the borders of the Roman Empire. Tradition attributes this mission to St. Bartholomew the Apostle. The Sicilian Panteno, a teacher at the Didaskaleion of Alexandria, traveled to India in the second half of the 2nd century to preach the good news (by "India," should one properly understand the Indian peninsula or southern Arabia?). There, he allegedly found copies of the Gospel of St. Matthew in Aramaic, brought by St. Bartholomew (see). There is no difficulty in admitting that Panteno could have traveled to India. During his lifetime, an Egyptian-Roman merchant fleet regularly departed each year from the port of Myos Hormos on the Red Sea to the Levantine seas, and shortly before, an unknown author compiled the *Periplus of the Erythraean Sea*, which has been preserved. Naturally, the account of finding the Gospels in Aramaic is less certain (see INDIA).

According to tradition, the saints Frumentius and Edessius (see), the first preachers of Christianity in the region, arrived in Ethiopia (4th century) on their return journey from India. Their story is narrated by Rufinus (d. 410), and according to this account, it is known that the king of Aksum, Ezana, was in contact with Constantius II and embraced Christianity. Later, through the work of Egyptian missionaries, the Ethiopians became Monophysites (see ETHIOPIA).

On the northern coasts of the Black Sea, it is possible that some groups of Christians lived, but their existence is not proven. This is not the case, however, on the western coasts of the same sea in what was known as *Scythia Minor*, where Greek colonies existed and which was part of the Roman province of *Moesia Inferior*, nor in the *Chersonesus Taurica* (Crimea), where Miletian colonies had also arrived and where the Bosporan kingdom had been established.

It is now fitting to consider the activity of Christian propaganda among those peoples who were more properly known at the time as *barbari* and who later invaded and shattered the Western Empire, forming the most compact nucleus of Christian peoples.

It is possible that Christianity penetrated among these *barbari* very early, but it is understandable that, lacking in their homelands a social organization of the Greco-Roman type, lacking cities, the preaching of the Good News was left to the zeal of itinerant missionaries. There were no centers of gathering, hierarchies, or places of worship, and thus primitive traces have disappeared. Even in the 5th century, some bishops of Gaul noted with some regret that in the *tractus Armicanus*, where the remnants of the Britons expelled by the Angles and Saxons were located, itinerant priests celebrated the sacred mysteries on portable altars (cf. L. Duchesne, in *Revue de Bretagne et de Vendée*, 7 [1885], p. 4).

To the usual difficulties of lack of roads, hostility of semi-wild populations, suspicious and ill-disposed toward foreigners, must be added the frequent state of internal wars among the various tribes and external wars against the empire. And when, gradually, barbarian populations settled within the borders of the empire, their conditions for Christian preaching did not immediately improve.

The *barbari* began their existence within the empire’s borders with all kinds of violence and brutality. The Christians, who had never been rebels against the empire, who accepted and admired its institutions, who appreciated its benefits, and who believed the *pax romana* to be willed by Divine Providence—who, moreover, had recently experienced the immense joy of seeing the empire become Christian—could not immediately shed the deep-seated, centuries-old feeling of contempt and repugnance that civilized peoples felt toward the *barbari*. This sentiment was now exacerbated by the arrogance and ferocity of the newcomers. The belief that the fall of Rome would signify the end of the world led many to view these invaders as instruments of evil destined for divine punishment. This feeling of horror was especially evident during the incursions of the Huns. Time was needed for such deep-rooted prejudices to soften and for a less unchristian spirit to emerge.

On the other hand, the presence of the *barbari* within the empire’s borders was a reality that could not be ignored; indeed, it was expanding and consolidating, while the empire’s inability to defend itself became increasingly evident. As De Labriolle rightly writes: “Should the churches have confined themselves to lamenting the past and admit that, bound to a civilization in evident decline, Christianity should perish with it?” (*A. Fliche and V. MARTINO G, op. cit.*, bibl., IV, p. 356). Thus began that inevitable evolution that would bring Christianity closer to the invaders, a process greatly facilitated by the cultural and moral superiority of the Christian ecclesiastical hierarchies. De Labriolle further observes: “The Catholic hierarchy could not fail to notice that its position was continually improving, that its social function was becoming predominant. It felt far freer and more powerful in the face of the divided, scattered, incoherent forces of the *barbari* than it had within the powerful organism of the Roman State. With its regular structure, its solidarity, its dominion over souls, the Catholic hierarchy represented that order of which all vaguely felt the need; indeed, it represented something even more authoritative than order itself: the right to speak in the name of God and, if necessary, to invoke heavenly vengeance upon whoever failed to recognize its authority” (*ibid.*, p. 358).

In the regions beyond the Danube and the Rhine, there are no reliable records of Christian communities or bishops before the 4th century, not even in the province of Dacia, which had been part of the Roman Empire for a century and a half (107–274).

Irenaeus’ testimony regarding the “churches founded in Germany” (*Adversus haereses*, I, 10, 2) likely refers to the two provinces of Germania (Superior and Inferior), particularly the more markedly Roman cities of Trier, Cologne, and Mainz, for which bishops are known from the 3rd century onward. The great masses of barbarian populations beyond the Rhine and Danube remained pagan, and their paganism is only imperfectly known through late medieval legends.

But when these peoples formed themselves into more solid and stable groupings and entered Roman territory, establishing kingdoms there, Christian propaganda among them became easier and more successful. Conversions often occurred en masse: the baptism of the chieftain brought that of the entire tribe. By the middle of the 4th century, among the Goths—who had long been governed by a strong monarchy—there was the first general conversion and the establishment of a church. The Goth Wulfila (v.), consecrated bishop for his people by Eusebius of Nicomedia, returned to his homeland and zealously devoted himself to preaching and civilizing his people. Introducing an alphabetic writing system in place of the old runic characters, he translated a large part of the sacred books into Gothic. He then carried out his apostolate particularly among those Visigoths who, driven out by the Huns, had fled toward the Roman frontier and had been received into imperial territory by Emperor Valens.

The Christianity accepted and propagated by Wulfila, however, was distinctly Arian, as he had received it from the consecrating bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia and as it was practiced and favored in the eastern half of the empire by Constantius II and Valens. Arianism was long observed by the Goths and by other barbarian peoples who gradually, especially under the influence of the Goths—who were better organized and more civilized than the rest—converted to Christianity. Thus, when the faith of the Council of Nicaea was restored as the faith of the empire through the efforts of Emperors Gratian and Theodosius, Arianism remained until the 6th and 7th centuries as the national religion of the barbarians, sometimes practiced with fanatical intolerance. Among these peoples, the Vandals particularly distinguished themselves by establishing a regime of persecution against Catholics in Africa that at times reached extreme severity. The Ostrogoths in Italy, the Burgundians in the Rhone valleys, the Suevi, the Alans, and the Visigoths who settled in Gaul and later moved into Spain were also Arians, though without reaching the point of fanatical persecution of Catholics. Even the Lombards, who among other Germanic peoples had retained rough customs, when they arrived in Italy were partly still pagan and partly had adopted Arianism from other Germans. At first they were not well-disposed toward Catholics until St. Gregory the Great, with the help of the pious Queen Theodolinda, succeeded in initiating their conversion to Catholicism. Later than the others, the Franks converted to Christianity when they had already established a Frankish state in northern Gaul under King Clovis. Since, however, their Christianity developed in contact with and under the influence of Gallo-Roman Catholic populations, they did not pass through an Arian stage.

Britain, though so remote from the classical world and only incorporated into the Roman Empire under Claudius, nevertheless showed a more prompt adherence to Christianity than almost all the Germanic peoples. Three British bishops were present at the Synod of Arles in 316, and in Britain, around the middle of the 4th century, Pelagius was born, whose doctrines St. Augustine had to combat.

Ireland, which remained always outside the boundaries of the empire, received Christian missionaries sent by Pope Celestine I (422–432), but its conversion is especially due to the Briton St. Patrick, who, trained in ecclesiastical learning by Germanus of Auxerre, landed there in 432 and carried out intense apostolic work until 461.

Canon Law. – By the term “barbarians” here we refer in particular to the Germanic peoples who settled at the borders of the empire.

The oldest traces of Germanic law, found in Caesar (*De Bello Gallico*) and Tacitus (*Germania*, *Agricola*), attest to the primitiveness of this law and the absence of that sense of justice and equity that characterized Roman law, even in its initial phase. In the same period in which Tacitus depicts the Germans, any penetration of Christian influence into their legal customs must be excluded.

In the territory of Germany proper, only in the 8th century, through the work of Winfrid, later St. Boniface, can one speak of a true and proper movement toward the Catholic faith.

The situation was different, however, for the Germans living outside their homeland. When the barbarians, especially those forming part of the *militiae foederatae*, took possession of the provinces of the Roman Empire and gradually established their rule there (beginning in the 5th century), most of them had abandoned their idolatrous beliefs to embrace Arian Christianity. Slowly, however, they came into contact with Roman civilization, now informed by Christian principles.

It is well known that imperial legislation, beginning with Constantine, had developed predominantly under the influence of the Church and its doctrine. On the other hand, for this very reason the Church had adopted much of Roman law and used it in its external relations. Through these two converging approaches—the Romano-Christian civilization and the direct work of the Church—the Germans gradually changed their own norms, increasingly incorporating Roman and canon law elements into their legal systems.

Thus, when the *Lex Ribuaria* adopted through Roman law the institution of manumission in churches (*manumissio in ecclesiis*) and accentuated its spiritual motive and external formalities in a Christian sense, it then proceeded to declare openly that the Church itself lives according to Roman law, thereby revealing the two sides of the new spiritual orientation of the people to whom this law was directed: Christian Romanitas and the law of the Church.

Here is the relevant text:

“Hoc etiam iubemus, qualescumque Francus Ribuarius seu tabularius servum suum pro animae suae remedium seu pro precio secundum legem Romanam liberare voluerit, ut (eum) in ecclesia coram presbyteris, diaconibus, seu cuncto clero et plebe, in manu episcopi servo cum tabulas tradat, et episcopus archidiaconum iubeat, ut ei tabulas secundum legem Romanam, quam ecclesia vivit, scribere faciat” (ed. Sohm, in *MGH, Leges*, V, p. 242).

The Church, for its part, also became a propagator of Roman law among the barbarian peoples, seeing in these laws a suitable instrument for the easier dissemination of its moral principles, without, however, neglecting to review these laws and adapt them to its equity and spiritual doctrine when it deemed necessary.

Indeed, it was Pope Gregory the Great who, at the end of the 6th century, began sending texts of Roman law to Spain and England, after having appropriately modified them, so that his legates might make known their new spirit and recommend their use. At times, the barbarian laws themselves directly incorporated the norms of the Church, especially after the conversion of their peoples to Catholicism. This occurred with the Franks under Clovis in the 5th century and the Lombards in the 7th, particularly through the efforts of Queen Theodelinda. Lombard legislation was strongly influenced by Christian doctrine, especially from the reign of King Authari, but it was truly the subsequent Lombard lawgiver king, Liutprand, who radically modified various aspects of Lombard law, drawing inspiration from Church doctrine. He affirmed that his purpose was to benefit «pro salute animae et gentis nostrae salvatione» (prologue of the edition of the year 728), «ut omnes in pace et gratia Dei vivere valeant» (cap. 35).

Included in the adoption of canon-law institutions by this king in Lombard legislation was the transformation of marriage, no longer understood as «the subjugation of the woman, according to the original Germanic concept, but as a union which God commands» (cap. 117), in which the man «with only the ring, with subarrhation». This is the rite of the wedding ring (subarrhation with the ring), understood as a signum fidei. By receiving the ring, the woman, no longer a passive object of the marriage contract, expressed her consent and made it known to the spouse and the orator. Through the evident influence of the Church, Liutprand also adopted the institution of bequests for the soul, with his «donatio post obitum» (cap. 6), while also bending the law of his people to accommodate testamentary dispositions, unknown to genuine Germanic custom. The same king expressly adopted the canonical norm of impediments to marriage due to degrees of kinship, affirming «quia canones sic habent» (cap. 32), «quia Deo teste papa urbis Romae qui in omni mundo caput ecclesiasticum et sacerdotum est, per suam epistolam nos adoravit» (sic!), «ut tale coniugium fieri nullatenus permitteremus» (cap. 33).

Yet where it was not possible to overcome Germanic persistence, as in the case of trial by combat, the feud, and ordeals, these institutions were mitigated by the Church’s persuasion. The use of trial by combat was sought to be limited by proposing in its place a regular, though streamlined, judgment. Efforts were made to avoid the feud (family vendetta) by increasingly opposing it with the remedy of equivalent compositions (monetary fines). Ordeals (judgments of God) were combated by demonstrating the emptiness of their probative efficacy and instilling fear of divine punishment in the guilty party who dared impudently to challenge divine wrath.

Some institutions then appear to have been introduced into later Lombard law under the influence of canon principles, such as that of a valid and perfect obligation arising from mere consent (stantia), which contrasts with the Roman pactum nudum, incapable of generating a true obligation.

It should not be overlooked that the Church itself was influenced in its own law by its contact with Germanic law. This was partly due to the existence of ecclesiastical centers living under Germanic law. A typical example in Italy is the monastery of Farfa, which followed Lombard law. From this came the fact that, in many places, canon procedure drew upon Germanic principles and forms, and the legal structure of certain relationships seems to echo the mechanism of corresponding Germanic institutions. In this regard, one may observe the correspondence between the ancient distinction in canon marriage between coniugium initiatum and coniugium ratum (adopted by Gratian in his Decretum) and the Germanic distinction between desponsatio and traditio, indicating the two stages of Germanic marriage. The first phase of both types of marriage represents a true stage, albeit initial and imperfect, of the marital relationship.

Greater, however, was the influence that the Church managed to exert under the Franks and especially from the time of the Carolingians, when the first of these, Charlemagne, was invested with the dignity of Roman Emperor and assumed, among other powers, that of the tutio Ecclesiae.

But this, which was meant to be a function of support and assistance to the Church in its spiritual mission, soon degenerated into immoderate interference in the affairs and discipline of the Church itself, leading to the conflict of the two powers that culminated in the harsh Investiture Controversy.

Nevertheless, this conflict, far from diminishing, heightened religious spirit, and Christian morality increasingly took root in the inspiration of secular law and in the improvement of customs.

Indeed, it was that Peter Crassus, a supporter of Henry IV in his struggle with Gregory VII, who reiterated, from the 147th epistle of Pope Leo I, the principle of the subordination of civil law to canon law, when he wrote in his famous libellus de lite: «in his quae vel dubia fuerint aut obscura, id novimus sequendum, quod nec praeceptis evangelicis contrarium, nec decretis sanctorum patrum inveniatur adversum» (Defensio Enrici IV regis, cap. 4).

The legislation of the Frankish emperors, moreover, was collected by ecclesiastics, as attested by FONTANA (v.) and Benedict the Levite (v.), the latter of whom also introduced into his compilation the tripartite division into ecclesiastical, secular, and mixed capitularies. This formally reveals the predominant adherence of that civil legislation to Christian principles. On the other hand, the deep religious sentiment of that era is revealed in the innumerable series of donations made to the Churches to secure the salvation of the soul, the frequency of entries into monasteries by lay lords, as oblates, and the spirit of widespread penance that preceded and followed the advent of the year 1000.

The same spirit of adventure and the combative nature of the Germanic peoples were turned to good by the Church, giving rise to the first pilgrimages to the Holy Land and the Crusades, along with the establishment of those orders of Christian chivalry that accomplished so many glorious deeds and acts of civilization in the name of faith. In this way, through its slow but sure work of civilization and elevation among the barbarians, of preaching peace and reconciling victors and vanquished, of uplifting the humble classes, of mitigating personal servitude and serfdom, and of deeply instilling Christian principles into the rough consciences of the barbarians—drawing also on the superior law and civilization of the Roman population—the Church fostered that leaven of renewal that bore fruit in the Christian Middle Ages, all aflame with faith and devotion to the noblest ideals, so promising of civilization and so fervent in religious life. — See Pl. LII.