Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/769

 PERSECUTION

703

PERSECUTION

Emperor Valens. This fact, along with the national character given to Arianism by Ulfilas (q. v.), made it the form of Christianity adopted also by the Ostro- goths, from whom it spread to the Burgundians, Suevi, Vandals, and Lombards.

The first persecution we hear of was that directed by the jiasan \ isigoth King Athanaric, begun about 370 and lastiufj; for two, or perhaps six, years after his war with \'alens. St. Sabas was drowned in 372, others were burnt, sometimes in a body in the tents which were used as churches. When, in the fifth and sixth centuries, the Visigoths invaded Italy, Gaul, and Spain, the churches were plundered, and the Catholic bishops and clergy were often murdered; but their normal attitude was one of toleration. Euric (483), the Visigoth King of Toulouse, is especially men- tioned by Sidonius Apollinaris (Ep. vii, 6) as a hater of Catholicism and a persecutor of the Catholics, though it is not clear that he persecuted to death. In Spain there was persecution at least from time to time during the period 476-5S6, beginning with the afore- said Euric, who occupied Catalonia in 476. We hear of persecution by Agila (549-554) also, and finally by Leovigild (573-86). Bishops were exiled and churcli goods seized. His son Hermenigild, a convert to the Catholic Faith, is described in the seventh century (e. g. by St. Gregory the Great) as a martyr. A con- temporary chronicler, John of Biclaro, who had him- self suffered for the Faith, says that the prince was murdered in prison by an Arian, Sisibert; but he does not say that Leovigild approved of the murder (see Hermingild; and Hodgkin, "Italy and her In- vaders", V, 255). With the accession of Reccared, who had become a Catholic, Arianism ceased to be the creed of the Spanish Visigoths.

As for the Ostrogoths, they seem to have been fairly tolerant, after the first violences of the invasion. A notable exception was the persecution of Theodoric (524-26). It was prompted by the repressive meas- ures which Justin I had issued against the Arians of the Eastern Empire, among whom Goths would of course be included. One of the victims of the persecu- tion was Pope John I, who died in prison.

KArFFMAN, Aus deT Sckule des Wulfila: Auxentii Dorostorensis Epistola defide, vita el obitu Wulfda (Strasburg, 1S99). AirxEN- Tius'a account is also found in Waitz, Veber das leben itnd die lehredes Ulfila (Hanover, 1840); Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, I (Oxford, 1892), 80-93; Duchesne, op. cit., II (Paris, 1908); Scott, Ulfilas, Apostle of the Goths (Cambridge, 1885).

For Visigoths: Socbates, op. cit., IV, 33; Contemporary letter on iS(. Sabas, Acta SS., 12 April; see also later document on St. Nicetas, ibid., 15 Sept., and Hodokin, op. cit., I, 1. 175; Dahn, Urgeschichte der germanischen und romanischen Volker, I (Berlin, 1881), 426 sq., for Athanaric'a persecution; Sidonius Apollinaris, ep. vii, 6 in Man. Germ. Hist.: Auct. Antiq., VIII, Hodgkin, op. cit., II, 484, for Euric; John op Biclako in Mon. Germ. Hist.: Auct. Antiq., XI, 211; Gorreb, Kirche und Stuat im Westgotenreich von Eurich bis Leovigild in Theol. Stud. u. Krit. (Gotha, 1893). 708-34; Gams, Kirchengeschichte Spaniens, I, II (Augsburg, 1862), 4; Leclehcq, L'Espagne chretienne (Paris, 1906); AscHBACH, Gesch. der Westgoten (Frankfort, 1827).

For Ostrogoths: Vita S. Severini in Mon. Germ. Hist.: .Auct. Antiq., 1; Papencordt, Gesch. der stadt Rom. (Paderborn, 1857), 62 sq.; Pfeilschhifter, Z)cr Os(ro(o(enA«ni(r Theodoric der Grosse und die Katholische Kirche in Kirchengeschichtliche Studien, III (Munster, 1896), 1, 2; Grisar, Geschichte Roms und der Papste im Miltelalter, I (Freiburg im Br., 1901), 86, 481.

For general account of Goths and Catholicism, see Uhlhorn, Kampfe und Siege des Christentums in der germanischen Well (Stuttgart, 1898).

Among the Lombards. — St. Gregory the Great, in parts of his "Dialogues", describes the sufferings which Catholics had to endure at the time of the Lom- bard invasion under Alboin (568) and afterwards. But on the whole, after Autharis's death (590) the Lombards were not troublesome, except perhaps in the Duchies of Benevento and Spoleto. Autharis's queen, Theudelinda, a Catholic princess of Bavaria, was able to use her influence with her second husband, Agilulf, Autharis's successor, so that he, although probably re- maining an Arian, was friendly to the Church and allowed his son to bo baptized a Catholic (see Lom- bard y).

XL— 45

St. Gheqort the Great, Dialogues, III, 27, 28, 37, 39; IV, 21-23. see Hodgkin, op. cit.. VI. 97, 104; Paul the Deacon, Historia Langobardorunl, I-IV in Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script. Lart- gob. et Ital. (Hanover, 1878), 45 sq., see Hodgkin, op. cit., V, 68-80; Dahn, op. cit.; Grisar, op. cit.

Among the Vandals. — The Vandals, Arians like the Visigoths and the others, were the most hostile of all towards the Church. During the period of their domi- nation in Spain (422-29) the Church suffered persecu- tion, the details of which are unknown. In 429, under the lead of Genseric, the Goths crossed over to Africa, and by 455 had made themselves masters of Roman Africa. In the North, the bishops were driven from their sees into exile. When Carthage was taken in 439 the churches were given over to the Arian clergy, and the bishop Quodvultdeus (a friend of St. Augustine) andthegreaterpartof theCatholic clergy were stripped of what they had, put on board unseaworthy shijis, and carried to Naples. Confiscation of church property and exile of the clergy was the rule throughout the provinces of the North, where all public worship was forbidden to Catholics. In the provinces of t he South, however, the persecution was not severe. Some Cath- olic court officials, who had accompanied Genseric from Spain, were tortured, exiled, and finally put to death because they refused to apostatize. No Cath- olic, in fact, was allowed to hold any office.

Genseric's son, Huneric, who succeeded in 477, though at first somewhat tolerant, arrested and ban- ished under circumstances of great cruelty nearly five thousand Cauhohcs, including bishops and clergy, and finally by an edict of 25 Feb., 484, abolished the Cath- olic wor.ship, transferred all churches and church prop- erty to the Arians, exiled the bishops and clergy, and deprived of civil rights all those who would not receive Arian baptism. Great numbers suffered savage treat- ment, many died, others were mutilated or crippled for life. His successor, Guntamund (484-96), did not relax the persecution until 487. But in 494 the bishops were recalled, though they had afterwards to endure some persecution from Trasamund (496-523). And complete peace came to the Church at the accession of Genseric's son Hilderic, with whom the Vandal domi- nation ended (see Africa).

Idatius in Mon. Germ. Hist.: Auct. Antiq., XI. 13-36; Mione. P. L., LI; Victor Vitensis, Historia persecutionis .ifrican(B provincice, ed. Halm in Mon. Germ. Hist., loc. cit., Ill; Pet- 8CHENIG, Corpus Script, eccles. lat., VII (Vienna. 1881); Migne, P. L.,LVII; Prosper, Chroniconin Mon. Germ. Hist., loc. cit.. IX; MiONE, P. L., LI; RuiNART, Hist, persec. Vand. in P. L., LVIII; P\pencordt, Gesch. der Vandalischen Herrschaft in Afrika (Ber- lin 1837); Dahn, op. dt.; Hodgkin, op. cit., II, 229-30, 269-82; Leclercq. L'A/rique chretienne, II (Paris, 1904); Idem. Lea Martyrs, III (Paris, 1904); Duchesne, op. cit., HI, 625-45.

In Arabia. — Christianity penetrated into South Arabia (Yemen) in the fourth century. In the sixth century the Christians were brutally persecuted by the Jewish King Dunaan, no less than five thousand, including the prince, Arethas, being said to have suf- fered execution in 523 after the capture of Nagra. The Faith was only saved from utter extinction at this period by the armed intervention of the King of Abyssinia. And it did in fact disappear before the invading forces of Islam.

Fell, Die Christenver/olgung in Siidarabien in Zeitsch. der deutschen morgent. Geseltschaft (1881), XXV. (See Arabia.)

Under the Mohammedans. — With the spread of Mohammedanism in Syria, Egypt, Persia, and North Africa, there went a gradual subjugation of Chris- tianity. At the first onset of invasion, in the eighth century, many Christians were butchered for refusing to apostatize; afterwards they were treated as helots, subject to a special tax, and liable to suffer loss of goods or life itself at the caprice of the caliph or the populace. In Spain the first Mohammedan ruler to institute a violent persecution of the Christians was the viceroy Abderrahman II (821-52)^ The persecution was be- gun in 850, was continued by Mohammed (852-87)