Aristotle and Aristotelianism in the Middle Ages 57law without having to be proved themselves by the sum-
moning of their original witnesses. The ecclesiastical
equivalents of the notarial archive were parish registers,
most dealing with baptisms and burials. Similar records
were maintained by the Jewish communities of Europe,
but almost all were destroyed in the violent persecutions
of the later Middle Ages. The exception is the great col-
lection or miscellaneous records from the Cairo Genica
for Jews and Muslims.
PRIVATE ARCHIVESIn the Middle Ages, family, corporate, or dynastic archives
were kept to prove the documentary evidence of family
or individuals’ property, rights, rank, and powers. These
contained original charters and grants of privilege, deeds
of purchase, testaments, and court sentences and similar
documents. There could also be copies of similar material
systematically kept in registers, often called cartularies.
Since they were mere stewards, not owners, of church
property, abbots and monastic communities, bishops, and
the incorporated clergy of cathedrals and other large
churches had to keep cartularies and original documents
to defend ownership and to justify financial accounts and
uses of property. Commercial companies maintained
international correspondence and financial records. One
14th-century businessman, Francesco DATINI, left a huge
collection of his correspondence and business records in
his house in Prato, near FLORENCE, only discovered in the
19th century.
See alsoNOTARIES AND THE NOTARIATE.
Further reading:Leonard E. Boyle, A Survey of the
Vatican Archives and Its Medieval Holdings(Toronto: Pon-
tifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1972); Vivian H.
Galbraith, An Introduction to the Use of the Public Records
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952); Adam J. Kosto
and Anders Winroth, eds., Charters, Cartularies and
Archives: The Preservation and Transmission of Documents
in the Medieval West (Proceedings of a Colloquium of the
Commission Internationale de Diplomatique, Princeton and
New York, 16–18 September 1999) (Toronto: Pontifical
Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2002).
Arena Chapel(Scrovegni Chapel) See GIOTTO DI
BONDONE.
Arianism Arianism was a heresy named after a priest
of ALEXANDRIA, Arius. In the years 318–323 he was in
conflict with his bishop on the subject of TRINITARIAN
doctrine. Arius proclaimed the supremacy of the Father
as the only true GOD; the Son was begotten from the
Father. Both the Son and the HOLYSPIRITwere subordi-
nate and not equal. This dispute spread over the whole
of the Eastern Empire. The emperor CONSTANTINEcalled
the first ecumenical council at NICAEAin May 325. It
overwhelmingly condemned Arius’s position and defined
as a profession of faith the Creed of Nicaea. This stated
that Christ was “the Son of God begotten of the Father,
begotten and not made, consubstantial [or of one sub-
stance] with the Father.” The unbending Arius and two
bishops were exiled. Arianism reappeared at the end of
the reign of Constantine and was even officially allowed
by the emperors Constantius (r. 337–361) and Valens
(r. 364–378). On January 1, 360, the Council of
CONSTANTINOPLEwrote what was to be the official article
of faith of the empire: “The son is like the Father.” This
vague formula was a compromise that did not contradict
Arius’s position. This “moderate” Arianism, was trans-
mitted to the GOTHSby the missionary preaching of
Bishop Ulphilas (d. 383). After Valens’s death, the
emperor Theodosios I the Great (r. 379–395), a con-
vinced Nicene, held a second ecumenical council at
Constantinople. It reaffirmed Nicaea in 381. At the end
of his reign in 395, the Orthodox Catholicism of Nicaea
was the official religion of the Roman world.
In the West apart from the still pagan FRANKS, the
recently settled Germanic peoples in the fifth century
were Arians. The coexistence of Arians and Catholic
clergy and people posed no great problems. Serious con-
flict and tension, however, did occur in the VANDAL
kingdom of North Africa, in the Visigothic kingdom in
Iberia, in ITA LYat the end of the reign of THEODORIC(d.
529), and at the time of the LOMBARDtakeover from 569.
In general, the Catholic episcopate in particular main-
tained good relations with Arian and barbarian kings.
Little is actually known about the Arian clergy, who
did little to convert Catholics or pagans, unlike the
expansionist Catholics. Arianism disappeared rapidly at
first from AFRICAand ITA LYin the wake of the BYZANTINE
reconquest, then in Gaul with the conversion and the
conquests of the MEROVINGIANS.
See alsoHERESY AND HERESIES.
Further reading: Robert C. Gregg and Dennis E.
Groh, Early Arianism: A View of Salvation(Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1981); Daniel H. Williams, Ambrose of
Milan and the End of the Arian-Nicene Conflicts(Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1995); Maurice F. Wiles, Archetypal
Heresy: Arianism through the Centuries(Oxford: Claren-
don Press, 1996).Aristotle and Aristotelianism in the Middle Ages
From the 12th century the history of medieval thought
can be seen as in many ways tied to the reception, inter-
pretation, and utilization of the works of the great
ancient Greek philosopher, scientist, scholar, and ethicist
Aristotle (384–322 B.C.E.). For Christian culture, philoso-
phy, and theology, there can be distinguished two eras:
the first from the third to the 11th century, when Aristo-
tle was known only as a logician; the second from the
12th to the 14th century, when the other parts of Aristo-
tle’s writing were rediscovered.