Sec. 8.  Relation of this System to Christianity.

The first German nation converted to Christianity was that of the Goths, whose teacher was Ulphilas, born 318, consecrated a bishop in 348.  Having made many converts to Christianity among his people, a persecution arose against them from the pagan Goths; and in 355, in consequence of this persecution, he sought and obtained leave to settle his converts in Maesia.  He preached with fervor, studied the Scripture in Greek and Latin, and made the first translation of the Bible into any German language.  Fragments of his Gothic version are preserved at Upsal.  This copy, called the “Codex Argenteus,” was captured by the Swedes at Prague during the Thirty Years’ War.  This manuscript is of the sixth century, and, together with some palimpsests, is the only source of our knowledge of this ancient version[333].

Ulphilas was an Arian, and died confessing his faith in that form of Unitarianism.  Neander says it is to the credit of the orthodox historians that they do not on that account abate anything of their praise of Ulphilas for his great labors as a missionary, confessor, and doctor.  His translation was, for a long time, used all over Europe by the various tribes of German descent.

Ulphilas, therefore, led the way in that work which resulted in one of the greatest events of modern history; namely, the conversion of the German race to Christianity.  It was by various families of this Teutonic stem—­Goths, Vandals, Saxons, Lombards, Burgundians, Franks—­that the Roman Empire was overthrown.  If they had not been converted to Christianity before and during these conquests, what would have been the fate of European civilization?  The only bond uniting the modern and ancient world was the Christian faith, and this faith was so adapted to the German character that it was everywhere accepted by them[334].  The conversion of the Anglo-Saxons by Augustin (A.D. 597), of the Germans by Boniface (A.D. 718-755), of the Saxons (A.D. 803), and the universal downfall of German heathenism, was a condition sine qua non of that union of Latin and Greek culture with the German vitality, which was at the root of modern European civilization.  Previous to this the Visigoths were converted, as we have seen; then the Ostrogoths; then the Vandals and Gepidae,—­all in the fourth century.  The Franks became Christians in the fifth century, the Alemanni and Lombards in the sixth.  All of these tribes were converted by Arian missionaries, except the Franks.  But the records of these missions have perished, for the historians were Catholics, “who,” says Milman[335], “perhaps destroyed, or disdained to preserve, the fame of Arian conquests to a common Christianity.”  “It was a surprising spectacle,” says he, “to behold the Teutonic nations melting gradually into the general mass of Christian worshippers.  In every other respect they were still distinct races.  The conquering Ostrogoth or Visigoth, the Vandal, the Burgundian, the Frank, stood apart from the subjugated Roman population, as an armed or territorial aristocracy.  They maintain, in great part at least, their laws, their language, their habits, their character; in religion alone they are blended into one society, constitute one church, worship at the same altar, and render allegiance to the same hierarchy.  This is the single bond of their common humanity.”