ABSTRACT
Religious legislation since Gratian and Theodosius I, which was repeatedly confirmed by Roman Emperors until the rule of Justinian, defined Arianism as a heresy that departed from the imperial church, and as strictly illegal, and called for the persecution of its followers. After 381 the imperial Catholic Church considered Arianism as synonymous with the Christianity of barbarians. Since the nineteenth century modern historiography has increasingly deployed the notion of a so-called Germanic Arianism. The qualifier Germanic was meant to distinguish a special creed from the general notion of Arianism, which refers to the theology that was inspired by the teachings of the Alexandrian priest Arius. Christians were sporadically persecuted in the Gothic kingdom. Their situation depended on the relationship with the Roman Empire since Goths regarded Christians as being allied with the Romans. Because of persecution Wulfila fled, presumably in the 340s, with a group of Goths into the Roman Empire.
