A Source Book of Mediæval History: Documents Illustrative of European Life and Institutions from the German Invasions to the Renaissance
History
A Source Book of Mediæval History: Documents Illustrative of European Life and Institutions from the German Invasions to the Renaissance
Middle Ages -- Sources
[293] The principal difference between Arian and orthodox Christians
arose out of the much discussed problem as to whether Jesus was of the
same substance as God and co-eternal with Him. The Arians maintained
that while Jesus was truly the Son of God, He must necessarily have
been inferior to the Father, else there would be two gods. Arianism
was formally condemned by the Council of Nicaea in 325, but it
continued to be the prevalent belief in many parts of the Roman
Empire; and when the Germans became Christians, it was Christianity of
the Arian type (except in the case of the Franks) that they
adopted--because it happened to be this creed that the missionaries
carried to them. The Franks became orthodox Christians, which in part
explains their close relations with the papacy in the earlier Middle
Ages [see p. 50]. Of course Gregory of Tours, who relates the story of
the Arian presbyter, as a Frank, was a hater of Arianism, and
therefore we need not be surprised at the expressions of contempt
which he employs in referring to "the heretic."
[294] The story as told by Raimond of Agiles was that Peter
Bartholomew had been visited by Andrew the Apostle, who had revealed
to him the spot where the lance lay buried beneath the Church of St.
Peter in Antioch.
[295] Albar, or Albara, was a town southeast of Antioch, beyond the
Orontes.
[296] Owing to Peter's early death after undergoing the ordeal, a
serious controversy arose as to whether he had really passed through
it without injury from the fire. His friends ascribed his death to the
wounds he had received from the enthusiastic crowd, but his enemies
declared that he died from burns.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM
34. Older Institutions Involving Elements of Feudalism
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