Editing Arianism (section)

==From the 5th to the 7th century==
[[File:Christian states 495 AD (en).svg|thumb|upright=1.4|Arian and [[Chalcedonian Christianity|Chalcedonian]] kingdoms in 495]]

Much of south-eastern Europe and central Europe, including many of the [[Goths]] and [[Vandals]] respectively, had embraced Arianism (the [[Visigoths]] converted to Arian Christianity in 376 through their bishop [[Wulfila]]), which led to Arianism being a religious factor in various wars in the Roman Empire.{{efn|The inhibiting and paralyzing force of superstitious beliefs penetrated to every department of life, and the most primary and elementary activities of society were influenced. War, for example, was not a simple matter of a test of strength and courage, but supernatural matters had to be taken carefully into consideration. When [[Clovis I|Clovis]] said of the Goths in southern Gaul, 'I take it hard that these Arians should hold a part of the Gauls; let us go with God's aid and conquer them and bring the land under our dominion', [note: see p. 45 (Book II:37)] he was not speaking in a hypocritical or arrogant manner but in real accordance with the religious sentiment of the time. What he meant was that the Goths, being heretics, were at once enemies of the true God and inferior to the orthodox Franks in their supernatural backing. Considerations of duty, strategy, and self-interest all reinforced one another in Clovis's mind. However, it was not always the orthodox side that won. We hear of a battle fought a few years before Gregory became Bishop of Tours between King [[Sigebert I|Sigebert]] and the [[Huns]], [note: Book IV:29] in which the Huns 'by the use of magic arts caused various false appearances to arise before their enemies and overcame them decisively.<ref>{{cite book |title=History of the Franks |author1=Gregory of Tours|author1-link=Gregory of Tours |last2=Brehaut |first2=Earnest |year=1916 |pages=ix–xxv |chapter=Introduction| chapter-url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/gregory-hist.html}}</ref>}}

In the west, organized Arianism survived in North Africa, in Hispania, and parts of Italy until it was suppressed in the 6th and 7th centuries. [[Visigothic Spain]] converted to [[Nicene Christianity]] through their king [[Reccared I]] at the [[Third Council of Toledo]] in 589.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Thompson |first=E. A. |year=1960 |title=The Conversion of the Visigoths to Catholicism |journal=Nottingham Medieval Studies |volume=4 |page=4 |doi=10.1484/J.NMS.3.5}}</ref> [[Grimoald, King of the Lombards]] (662–671), and his young son and successor [[Garibald]] (671), were the last Arian kings in Europe.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2011-05-23|title=German Tribes org Lombard Kings|url=http://www.germantribes.org/tribes/Lombards/Lombard%20Rulers/kingsline.htm|access-date=2021-01-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523123243/http://www.germantribes.org/tribes/Lombards/Lombard%20Rulers/kingsline.htm|archive-date=23 May 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=GARIBALDO, re dei Longobardi in "Dizionario Biografico"|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/re-dei-longobardi-garibaldo_(Dizionario-Biografico)|access-date=2021-01-16|website=www.treccani.it|language=it-IT}}</ref>