he became at an early age a leader among his countrymen, was much connected with Constantinople, where he was held in honour, was, after having been a lector or reader, consecrated bishop at the age of thirty by Eusebius of Nicomedia, and, after having held office for forty years, he died at Constantinople about 381. Wulfila was in the first great schism of the Church—he was an Arian—and had come, along with other bishops, to Constantinople on the last occasion, to procure from the Emperor the promise of a new Council to settle the faith. The rival party of Athanasius ultimately triumphed, and the name and work of the good missionary suffered in consequence, and speedily sank into obscurity. But in his own age his reputation was of the highest; he wrote in Greek, Latin and Gothic; and was spoken of as the Moses of his devoted people, having led his persecuted tribesmen through the Balkan passes and planted his colony of Goths in Mœsia, the modern kingdom of Bulgaria. Byzantium was then the centre equally of the culture and philosophy of ancient Athens as of the Christian faith, and in the midst of it all had this intellectual Goth been reared. His pupil and successor,[1] Auxentius, has left a brief but touching account of his beloved master, reminding us of that more complete picture that has come down to us, under similar circumstances, of the last moments of his old English parallel, the Venerable Bede.[2]
Wulfila is said to have translate the entire Scriptures, with the exception of the Book of Kings. The reason given for this omission is that, knowing too well the warlike tastes of his coutnrymen, he hesitated to lay before them a part of the sacred narrative that spoke so much of battles and bloodshed. One might easily in these days fail to realise the full import of his great achievement. Here is a rude tribe, but little removed from barbarism—to the Greek and Roman undoubted barbarians. Open though they might be to the ennobling influences of Christianity, what is to be said of the courage, originality, and
- ↑ For a very full account of Wulfila, and especially of what Auxentius has recorded of him, see Max Müller's Lectures, Vol. I. ch. 5.
- ↑ To complete the parallel, it was Ælfric who sketched for us how he wrote down the closing verses of St. John's Gospel to the dictation of his master as the light of his life was sinking into eternal night.
