Ulfilas (–383), also known as
Ulphilas and
Orphila, all
Latinized forms of
Wulfila (,
</abbr> "Little Wolf"), was a Goth of Cappadocian Greek descent who served as a bishop and missionary, translated the Bible, and participated in the Arian controversy.Biography
Ulfilas' parents were of non-Gothic
Cappadocian Greek origin but had been enslaved by Goths and Ulfilas may have been born into captivity or made captive when young. Philostorgius, to whom we are indebted for much important information about Ulfilas, was a Cappadocian. He knew that the ancestors of Ulfilas had also come from Cappadocia, a region with which the Gothic community had always maintained close ties. Ulfilas's parents were captured by plundering Goths in the village of Sadagolthina in the city district of Parnassus and were carried off to Transdanubia. This supposedly took place in 264. Raised as a Goth, he later became proficient in both Greek and Latin. Ulfilas
converted many among the
Goths and preached an
Arian Christianity, which, when they reached the
western Mediterranean, set them apart from their Orthodox neighbours and subjects.
Ulfilas was ordained a bishop by
Eusebius of Nicomedia and returned to his people to work as a missionary. In 348, to escape religious persecution by a Gothic chief, probably
Athanaric he obtained permission from
Constantius II to migrate with his flock of converts to
Moesia and settle near
Nicopolis ad Istrum in modern northern
Bulgaria. There, Ulfilas translated the
Bible from
Greek into the
Gothic language and devised the
Gothic alphabet. Fragments of his translation have survived, notably the
Codex Argenteus held since 1648 in the University Library of
Uppsala in
Sweden. A parchment page of this Bible was found in 1971 in the
Speyer Cathedral.
According to 17th century scholar , Ulfilas created the Gothic alphabet based on the
Getae's alphabet, with minor alterations. Carolus is quoting
Bonaventura Vulcanius' book,
De literis et lingua Getarum sive Gothorum, (Lyon, 1597) and
Johannes Magnus, Gothus,
Historia de omnibus Gothorum Sueonumque regibus, Roma, 1554, a book in which it has been published, for the first time, both the Getic alphabet, and the laws of the
Getae legislator
Zamolxis.
Historical sources
There are five primary sources for the study of Ulfilas's life. Two are by Arian authors, three by
Catholics.
- Arian sources
- Catholic sources
There are significant differences between the stories presented by the two camps. The Arian sources depict Ulfilas as an Arian from childhood. He was then consecrated as a bishop around 340 and evangelized among the Goths for seven years during the 340s.He then moved to
Moesia (within the Roman Empire) under the protection of the Arian Emperor
Constantius II. He later attended several councils and engaged in continuing religious debate. His death is dated from 383.
The accounts by the Catholic historians differ in several details, but the general picture is similar. According to them, Ulfilas was an orthodox Christian for most of his early life and converted to Ariannism only around 360 because of political pressure from the pro-Arian ecclesiastical and governmental powers. The sources differ in how much they credit Ulfilas with the conversion of the Goths. Socrates Scholasticus gives Ulfilas a minor role and instead attributes the mass conversion to the Gothic chieftain
Fritigern, who adopted Arianism out of gratitude for the military support of the Arian emperor. Sozomen attributes the mass conversion primarily to Ullingswick but also acknowledges the role of Fritigern.
For several reasons, modern scholars depend more heavily on the Arian accounts than the Catholic accounts. Auxentius was clearly the closest to Ulfilas and so presumably had access to more reliable information. The Catholic accounts differ too widely among themselves to present a unified case. Debate continues as to the best reconstruction of Ulfilas's life.
Creed of Ulfilas
The Creed of Ulfilas concludes a letter praising him written by his foster son and pupil
Auxentius of Durostorum (modern
Silistra) on the Danube, who became
bishop of Milan. It distinguishes God the Father ("unbegotten") from God the Son ("only-begotten"), who was begotten before time and created the world, and the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the Son:
I, Ulfila, bishop and confessor, have always so believed, and in this, the one true faith, I make the journey to my Lord; I believe in one God the Father, the only unbegotten and invisible, and in his only-begotten son, our Lord and God, the designer and maker of all creation, having none other like him (so that one alone among all beings is God the Father, who is also the God of our God); and in one Holy Spirit, the illuminating and sanctifying power, as Christ said after his resurrection to his apostles: "And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:49) and again "But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Ghost is come upon you" (Acts 1:8); being neither God (the Father) nor our God (Christ), but the minister of Christ... subject and obedient in all things to the Son; and the Son, subject and obedient in all things to God who is his Father... (whom) he ordained in the Holy Spirit through his Christ.
Maximinus, a 5th-century Arian theologian, copied Auxentius's letter, among other works, into the margins of one copy of
Ambrose's
De Fide; there are some
gaps in the surviving text.
Honours
Wulfila Glacier on
Greenwich Island in the
South Shetland Islands,
Antarctica is named after Bishop Ulfilas.
See also
Notes and references
External links