ABSTRACT
This chapter focusses on barbarian Arianism, which was a very different matter. Barbarians espousing the creed of Ulfila, that is, the Creed of Rimini, came into the empire as groups under their own chieftains and also served in the Roman army in large numbers. Arian barbarian soldiers hardly could be relegated to some kind of untenable heretic category, so the Roman government looked for ways to exempt them from the condemnations of heretics. Indeed, an attempt to do so may lie behind a curious rider attached to the second canon of the Council of Constantinople of 381 that dealt with the jurisdictions of eastern bishops. The differences in nature of the episcopate in the barbarian Arian and Roman Nicene churches arose because of the special needs of barbarian gentes. Christian identity was established by affiliation with a creed. Thus, Arian Homoians subscribed to the Creed of Rimini of 359 whereas Nicenes subscribed to the Creed of Nicaea of 325.
