Lecture 21: Expansion beyond the Boundaries of Empire
century. But Christianity in Yemen was overrun by Islam, and the
remaining Christians were Nestorian in their outlook.• As we have already seen, the kingdom of Armenia became the first
official Christian state in the beginning of the 4th century, when
Gregory the Illuminator converted King Tiridates III.
o In the 5th century, Saint Mesrob established a school of
Christian literature; in 433, an Armenian translation of the
Bible based on the Greek was produced. A substantial Christian
Armenian literature followed.o The Armenian church became monophysite in its doctrine,
emphasizing the divinity of Christ and downplaying his
humanity.o From the 6th century on, the Armenian church developed
separately from the church of the empire.• Christianity appeared in Ethiopia (Abyssinia) in the middle of the 4th
century, where it quickly became deeply entrenched, independent,
and idiosyncratic. Mixed with Jewish and Islamic elements,
Ethiopian Christianity survives, and thrives, to the present.
o Two men, Frumentius and Edesius, were sold as slaves from
India to the court at Axum and converted King Ezana. The
Ethiopians refused Constantius’s offer to convert to Arianism.
Instead, under the influence of the church in Alexandria,
Ethiopian Christianity became decidedly monophysite.o In the 5th or 6th century, a translation of the Bible into Ethiopic
was carried out. And in the 6th century, evangelization took
place among the Nubians (north Ethiopia) and the Nabataeans;
a Nubian translation of the Bible dates from the 8th century.Expansion in the West
• In the West, Christianity found adherents among the Germanic
peoples as they were sweeping around and through the western part
of the empire.