Wulfila - historical sources

Wulfila (Ulfilas) is the Apostle of the Goths and the father of Gothic language and its alphabet.

He was ordained bishop by Eusebius of Nicomedia (died 341), an imperial city in Bithynia in the area of the Black Sea. Eusebius sent Wulfila to work amongst the Goths at the NE borders of Roman empire. After 348 the center of his activities was the city of Nicopolis ad Istrum in Moesia (modern northern Bulgaria).


Arian documents
We know about the life of Wulfila from two rare Arian historical documents

1. Letter of Auxentius of Durorstorum
This valuable document contains the Life of Ulphilas. Auxentius was the foster-son of Wulfila himself and is said to have been a deacon in Alexandria and a follower of bishop Auxentius of Milan (c. 355 – 374). He was actively involved in the Arian controversy and fought against the Nicaean Ambrose with the supoprt of Empress Justina (340-391), the second wife of Emperor Valentinian I.

The Letter of Auxentius (ca 400) was preserved in the margins of a manuscript of De fide of Ambrose. (wikipedia)

The letter includes the Creed of Ulphilas, a unique document about Arian Christianity.

Jim Marchand has put in the Web the Letter of Auxentius together with the Creed of Ulphilas in Latin and with his English translation.


2. Historia Ecclesiastica by Philostorgius
Church historian Philostorgius (368 –439) came from Cappadocia in Asia Minor and lived in the capital city of Constantinople. His book tells the history of Arian Christianity but this has disappeared. Only a summary has survived, the epitome, written by famed Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Photios I the Great (810–893).

All that is known with certainty of Philostorgius is that he was a native of Cappadocia, and was born of humble parentage about the year A. D. 364. It would seem came to Constantinople in his youth to complete his studies; but it is uncertain whether he was educated for the legal or for the ecclesiastical profession. In later life he composed a History of the Church, comprised in twelve books from the beginning of the Arian schism down to the year AD. 425.
(E.Walford)

The interesting text of the epitome is available online as English translation in the Tertullian Project.



Nicaean documents
In addition to these two historical documents also three Nicaean Church historians write about Wuflila in their Church histories

1. Sozomen
Sozomen (400 – 450) wrote his famous Historia Ecclesiastica in Constantinople around 440 - 443.

The work is structured into nine books, roughly arranged along the reigns of Roman Emperors:

• Book I: from the conversion of Constantine I until the Council of Nicea (312-325)
• Book II: from the Council of Nicea to Constantine's death (325-337)
• Book III: from the death of Constantine I to the death of Constans I (337-350)
• Book IV: from the death of Constans I to the death of Constantius II (350-361)
• Book V: from the death of Constantius I to the death of Julian the Apostate (361-363)
• Book VI: from the death of Julian to the death of Valens (363-375)
• Book VII: from the death of Valens to the death of Theodosius I (375-395)
• Book VIII: from the death of Theodosius I to the death of Arcadius (375-408).
• Book IX: from the death of Arcadius to the accession of Valentinian III (408-25).  

(wikipedia)




2. Socrates Scholasticus
Socrates of Constantinople (380-?) completed his Historia Ecclesiastica around 439.

The purpose of the history is to continue the work of Eusebius of Caesarea (1.1). It relates in simple Greek language what the Church experienced from the days of Constantine to the writer's time. Ecclesiastical dissensions occupy the foreground, for when the Church is at peace, there is nothing for the church historian to relate (7.48.7). In the preface to Book 5, Socrates defends dealing with Arianism and with political events in addition to writing about the church.

An English translation is available online in Early Christian Ethereal library and as an e-book from Munseys.com


3. Theodoret of Cyrus 
 Bishop Theodoret of Cyrus (393 – 457) wrote numerous books many of which have survived. He was from 423 to his death 457 an influential bishop in Cyrrhus, Syria (70 km from Aleppo).

The Church History of Theodoret, which begins with the rise of Arianism and closes with the death of Theodore in 429, falls far behind those of Socrates Scholasticus and Sozomen. It contains many sources otherwise lost, specially letters on the Arian controversy; but it is defective in historical sense and chronological accuracy, and on account of Theodoret's inclination to embellishment and miraculous narrative, and preference for the personal. Original material of Antiochian information appears chiefly in the latter books.
(wikipedia)

The works of Theodoret including his Church history are online in the Early Christian Ethereal library.