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Originally written as a supplement to the Bible Study The Pentagon Said The LDS Aren't Christian. (The Answer to Why Goes Back 1,700 Years)

I. THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA — 325 AD

The controversy that eventually led to military persecution began with a theological debate: Was Jesus co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, or was he a distinct and subordinate being?

II. THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE — 381 AD

Arianism did not die at Nicaea. It continued to spread, including among many of the peoples on Rome's borders. A follow-up council was convened to settle the matter — again, by imperial demand.

III. THEODOSIUS I — NICENE CHRISTIANITY BECOMES MANDATORY STATE RELIGION

Before Justinian, it was Theodosius I who transformed a theological formula into a legally enforced requirement — with teeth.

IV. EMPEROR JUSTINIAN I — ENFORCER OF ORTHODOXY BY FIRE AND SWORD (527–565 AD)

Justinian I is remembered as Rome's great legal codifier. Less remembered is that his explicit theological goal was an empire populated only by Nicene Trinitarian Christians — and that he pursued this goal with his armies.

A. What Justinian Said B. What That Law Meant in Practice

Non-trinitarian Christians under Justinian's rule were:

C. The Three Arian Kingdoms Destroyed

The three kingdoms singled out for destruction all held an Arian view of God:

  1. The Heruli — eliminated 476–493 AD

    • Defeated by the Ostrogoths, with the blessing and backing of both the Pope and the Emperor.

  2. The Vandals — crushed 533–534 AD

    • Vandalic North Africa conquered by Justinian's brilliant general Belisarius in a campaign of less than a year.
    • Justinian explicitly framed this war as the liberation of Nicene Christians from Arian oppressors.

  3. The Ostrogoths — ground down 535–538 AD

    • The Ostrogothic kingdom, which had preserved much of Roman civilization in Italy, was utterly annihilated.
    • Again, Belisarius (and later the general Narses) served as Justinian's instrument.
D. The Alliance Between Imperial Power and the Papacy

V. Clarity On The Arian Nations That Were Destroyed

These peoples — the Heruli, Vandals, and Ostrogoths — were eliminated due to 3 factors in common to the 3 nations:

  1. They held an Arian view of God and His Son — consistent with the plain text of scripture — and refused to exchange it for the doctrine of the trinity.
    • They believed the Father is greater than the Son — consistent with Jesus's own words ("My Father is greater than I" — John 14:28 ).
    • They believed the Son had a beginning — consistent with "the firstborn of all creation" ( Colossians 1:15 ).
    • They rejected the homoousios formula as an unscriptural, philosophically Greek imposition — which, historically speaking, it was.
  2. They were geographically positioned within the papacy's direct sphere of influence — specifically in Italy and the western Mediterranean, the Bishop of Rome's own backyard.
  3. They directly challenged, resisted, or defied the political authority of the Bishop of Rome.
    • Odoacer (Heruli) intervened in a papal election in 483 AD
    • The Vandals sacked Rome in 455 AD and persecuted Nicene clergy in North Africa
    • The Ostrogoths imprisoned and executed Pope John I in 526 AD

These three factors together made these kingdoms the specific obstacles standing between the Bishop of Rome and unchallenged supremacy in the Western Empire of Rome. As each fell, that path cleared.

Justinian understood this perfectly — and stated it plainly. On March 15, 533 AD, he wrote directly to Pope John II:

"We have exerted Ourselves to unite all the priests of the East and subject them to the See of Your Holiness... you are the head of all Holy Churches, for We shall exert Ourselves in every way to increase the honor and authority of your see." — The Civil Law of Justinian, translated by S.P. Scott, Book 12, pp. 11–13

Writing separately to the Patriarch of Constantinople, Justinian repeated his decision "that all affairs touching the Church shall be referred to the Pope, 'Head of all bishops, and the true and effective corrector of heretics.'"

This decree was issued in 533 AD — the same year Belisarius crushed the Vandals. It was a declaration of intent. Its full practical effect, however, had to wait until the last of the three obstacles was removed.

That happened in 538 AD, when Belisarius drove the Ostrogoths from Rome, ending their stranglehold on Italy. In that same year, Justinian published edicts:

The historian J.B. Bury states plainly that "the recognition of the Roman see as the highest ecclesiastical authority remained the cornerstone of Justinian's policy in relation to the West." — J.B. Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire, Vol. 2

Sources: Procopius, De Aedificiis I.1; Codex Justinianus I.3.44, I.5.12; Novella 131; J.B. Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire, Vol. 2; Edict of Thessalonica (Codex Theodosianus XVI.1.2)

VI. The Plain Summary

These three kingdoms — and not the others — were destroyed because all three of the following were simultaneously true of each:

  1. They rejected the trinity doctrine in favor of a biblical understanding of the Father and Son
  2. They sat directly on top of the papacy's territorial and political base
  3. They had each directly defied the authority of the Bishop of Rome

Their elimination was not incidental. It was the precondition for what followed in 538 AD. The Lombards and Burgundians, also Arian, did not share all three factors — and their fate was absorption and eventual conversion rather than annihilation.

These peoples were not destroyed for departing from the Bible. They were destroyed for refusing to depart from it — and for occupying ground that the Bishop of Rome needed in order to rule.

Research for this article was conducted with the assistance of Claude (Anthropic), an AI language model.