Abstract:

Gildas and Bede are the only preserved insular writers to make an explicit reference to the impact of Arianism in the Roman provinces of Britannia. Both references suffer from serious problems of interpretation, as a result of the time when they were written and the peculiarities of the works they appear in. But, analyzing a series of textual sources, written in Continental Europe in the course of the fourth century, gives strong evidence proving that the acceptance and diffusion of the model of orthodoxy designed in the I Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325) was a long-lasting and tumultuous process, which settled only after many tensions and difficulties were overcome. The atmosphere of unrest and division, caused by the aftermath of the Arian controversy, is still visible in the sources of Gallia and Hispania during the last third of the century. This time, the problems that derived from the necessity to find a permanent solution to the consequences of the theoretical disputes coexisted with other ecclesiastical conflicts characteristic of the end of the century, such as the reconciliation of repentant schismatics within the church, the definition of an orthodox asceticism and the organization of the cult of martyrs and relics. The main purpose of this chapter is to draw attention to the impact of the Arian controversy in the Romano-British church of the fourth century through the evidence provided by its Continental counterparts during the same years. To accomplish this, it is necessary to put the insular experience into the broader ecclesiastical context which followed the Council of Rimini (359) in the West. Continental literary sources provide us with an outstanding witness to incorporate Britain in the frame of the continuation of the tensions ushered by the christological polemics of the century. This task allows us to confront with the inherent dysfunctions of a Western church in an unfinished process of institutionalization, and, at the same time, it provides the keys to reinterpret Romano-British church history in a more precise and comprehensive context.