The Heretic Kings

Abstract This chapter explores the immediate post-imperial successor states in Italy, Gaul, and North Africa, whose kings were predominantly Homoians who could have been condemned as Arian heretics by their majority Nicene subjects. Instead, for the most part the Vandal, Ostrogothic, and Burgundian kingdoms carried on the religious policies of the Christian Roman Empire without much difficulty. Generalized appeals to the ruler’s Christianity were often made in these kingdoms, but that Christianity was more frequently defined in terms of mercy, justice, and considerate rule than with regard to support for any specific confessional identity or doctrinal position. Successful Homoian kings, like Theodoric the Great, managed to appeal both to late-Roman secularity and late-Roman Christianity to maintain good relations with their subjects. The tenser politics of Vandal North Africa reflects regional differences, also inherited from the Roman Empire.