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[Illustration: _THE GOTHIC BIBLE OF ULFILAS._
Codex Argenteus. Library of Upsala.
Socrates, a Greek ecclesiastic of the fifth century, and
several other Byzantine writers, inform us, that Ulfilas,
belonging to a family of Cappadocia, having been carried away
captive by the Goths, when they invaded that country in A.D.
366, was subsequently elevated to the episcopal dignity in
his new country, which had been converted to Christianity;
that he was sent as a legate to the Emperor Valens, at
Constantinople, in the year 377, to ask for a province of the
empire, as a refuge for the Goths from the Huns, by whom they
had been conquered; that Ulfilas obtained permission for them
to settle in Moesia, on the right bank of the Danube; and
that, in order to confirm them in the Christian faith, he
translated the Old and New Testaments into the Gothic
language, and invented for that purpose an especial alphabet;
which, from this circumstance, has been named the alphabet of
Ulfilas, or the alphabet of the Goths of Moesia. This
translation of the Bible is the oldest existing literary
monument in the Germanic languages. The principal manuscript
is the Codex Argenteus, written in silver characters on a
purple ground. The accompanying facsimile is from the Gospel
according to St. Mark, chapter VII., beginning in the 3d
verse at the words "Jews eat not," and ending in the 7th
verse at "In vain do they worship me, teaching...."]
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