Your challenge is to have Arianism supplant Nicene Christianity. Nicene Christianity doesn't necessarily have to become extinct, it just has to not be the majority within the religion of Christianity.
AHC: Arianism Ascendant
- Thread starter Mort the Reaper
- Start date
JSchafer
Banned
Have the various migrating tribes ravage the Eastern Roman empire, perhaps even taking or destroying Constantinople or settling in Asia Minor, weaker Byzantines will be unable to launch various invasions against Arian kingdoms in North Africa, Iberia and Italy, leading to stronger Arianism.
This is one option.
Another option is with an earlier point of departure have Constatintine or his near term successors up through the time of Theodosius heavily weigh in on the Arian side. Several eastern Emperor were more sympathetic to the Arian side, but the institutional church and Roman patriarchate I think always remained more trinitarian. If imperial favor tips these all to the Arians, that may become the standard imperial doctrine. Ironically, some of the barbarian conquerors in the west might be trinitarian, partially to set themselves apart, and they could be ground down to local popular/elite pressures, the pressures of an Arian ERE, Pope and Franks. A reversal of OTL's alignments.
Maybe just have different personalities involved. Arius was such a jerk that Santa Claus punched him in the face.
Yep.
Some accounts say a punch, others a slap.
https://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/bishop-nicholas-loses-his-cool/
Not that difficult actually. Arianism can be described as an early version of Protestantism, and was very popular amongst the various Germanic tribes, such as Goths, Vandals or those along the Danube. Have for some reason the Franks either lose to Burgundians and Alamans, To Visigoths or just become Arian Christians, and then you have it: all of the Western Empire becomes Arianist. Perhaps they install a Pope in Rome, and we have Western Christianity (under a rather different theology) split early from the Orthodox.