The First Unitarian Kingdom

Here I am in Toledo, Spain, and I have news: The first Unitarian kingdom was here in Spain, the rule of the Visigoths in the fifth and sixth centuries. First thing: these folks were Christians, but not the Roman or Byzantine kind. They had been evangelized in their earlier home of Dacia by their kinsman Wulfila, a student of Arius, the famous first Unitarian heretic. They had rites and books, architecture, music and customs. All of these had gradually changed, no doubt, during their passage through Northern Italy on their way to take over the administration of the Iberian provinces of the collapsing western Roman Empire. Second thing: They managed to pacify and hold most of the Iberian peninsula for awhile, until things got complicated and the Muslims invaded from the South. (Prior to that, their king had converted to Roman Catholicism, so the Unitarian version of the kingdom must be said to have ended then).


After the Muslims took over, the Visigothic church evolved into an institution that was able to co-exist with the Muslims and the Jews. Their rites continued to be observed in Latin, but gradually everyone´s daily language shifted to Arabic. There is no reason to believe that the post-conquest church was any less Unitarian than its predecessor, though I don´t know very much about that part. I do know that the Visigothic kings had appointed the bishops. I think unitarian christianity is particularly well adapted to coexistence with Muslims and Jews, so I´m hoping this information will be encouraging to christians to move away from trinitarian absolutism.

Visigoths. Who would have thought? Originally from what is now Sweden, they say. Hardly barbarians by the time they were pushed out of Dacia by the Huns. Interesting folks.