§ 1. The emperors Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius: “We desire all the peoples whom the government of our clemency rules to conduct themselves in that religion which the religion introduced by the divine Apostle Peter and continued from him until now declares that he delivered to the Romans, and which it is evident that Damasus the pontiff and Peter, bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic holiness, follow: that is, that according to apostolic discipline and evangelical doctrine we believe in one Godhead of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, under equal majesty and under a pious Trinity.”
§ 2. Nor do the same men merely think thus, but they willingly and of their own accord abrogate their own laws if any have crept in against religion. To Eutropius, praetorian prefect: “Let there be no place for the ministries of heretics; let no occasion lie open for exercising the madness of a more obstinate mind. Let all know that even if anything has been obtained by this kind of people through some special rescript elicited by fraud, it is not valid. Let the crowds of all heretics be restrained from unlawful congregations, but let the name of the one highest God be celebrated everywhere. Let the observance of the Nicene faith, long ago delivered by our ancestors and confirmed by the testimony and assertion of divine religion, possess enduring permanence.”
Marcian, in the best faith, to Palladius, praetorian prefect: “Let no cleric, soldier, or person of any other condition hereafter attempt to treat publicly of the Christian faith before crowds gathered and listening, seeking from this an occasion for tumult and perfidy. For he also does injury to the judgment of the most reverend synod if anyone should strive to reconsider and dispute publicly what has once been rooted and rightly settled, since the things now established concerning the Christian faith by our commands by the priests who assembled at Chalcedon are recognized as defined according to the apostolic expositions, like the institutions of the 318 holy Fathers at Nicaea and of the 150 in this royal city.”
Justinian indeed says: “Applying every providence concerning the most holy churches, to the honor and glory of the holy and incorrupt consubstantial Trinity, through which we have believed that both we and the commonwealth will be kept safe, and adhering also to the doctrine of the holy Apostles concerning the creation of irreproachable priests—who are ordained chiefly for this purpose, that by their prayers they may obtain the kindness of the most humane God for common affairs—we enact by the present law.”
And to Epiphanius: “Always applying every providence concerning the most holy churches,
“through which we have believed that both our empire is sustained and common affairs are fortified by the grace of the most merciful God; and striving for both our own souls and those of all others to be saved; and for that reason being continually solicitous lest the resources of the most holy churches, in whatever city they have been established, be diminished by any means; lest the divine liturgies performed in them be hindered by the absence of the priests most beloved of God or be tended unsuitably; and lest the property of the most holy churches be consumed by the expenses both of journeys and of priests traveling here and the clerics accompanying them.”
And to John, praetorian prefect: “With God furnishing us aid, we desire to establish by laws and fulfill by works all things which, for the honor of the holy Catholic Church, we hasten to accomplish according to God’s pleasure. And indeed we have already established with his aid many things which accord with ecclesiastical doctrine and condition.”
Justinian, the distinguished lawgiver, excellently expounded this in Novel Constitution 137: “If we strive for the civil laws, whose authority God in his kindness toward human beings entrusted to us, to be kept firmly by all unto obedience and security, how much more zeal ought we to employ concerning the keeping of the sacred canons and divine laws, which were defined concerning the salvation of our souls? For those who keep the sacred canons are worthy of the aid of the Lord God; but those who transgress them render themselves liable to judgment. Therefore the most holy bishops, to whom it has been entrusted and committed both to examine and preserve the canons, are subject to greater condemnation if they leave uncondemned and unpunished anything that has been neglected from them.
“Assuredly, since the canons have hitherto not been observed rightly, we have consequently suffered various complaints against clerics, monks, and certain bishops, on the ground that they did not live according to the divine canons, and that some among them were found who neither retained nor knew even the prayer of the holy oblation or of holy baptism. Understanding, therefore, and fixing in our mind the judgment of God, we have commanded both the investigation and correction of the individual things reported to us to proceed canonically. For if the general laws do not permit the things sinned by laypersons to remain without investigation and punishment, how shall we suffer the things canonically established by the holy Apostles and Fathers concerning the salvation of all human beings to be despised?
“Assuredly, we have discovered that many fell into sins especially because synods of the most holy priests were not held according to the things defined by the holy Apostles and Fathers. For if this had been observed, each person, fearing a grave accusation in the synod, would assuredly have striven both to learn the sacred liturgies thoroughly and to live temperately, lest he be subject to the condemnation of the divine canons. This also afforded certain persons an occasion of sinning: that bishops, presbyters, deacons, and other clerics are ordained without examination and testimony of right faith and an honorable life. For if those destined to pray for the people are found unworthy of the divine ministry, how will they be able to make God propitious for the transgressions and offenses of the people?
“That the ordinations of priests ought to be conducted with all diligence and rigor is taught to us also by Gregory the Theologian, who is numbered among the saints and followed the holy Apostles and divine canons. For thus he says in his great Apologeticum: ‘But who, directing himself according to Paul’s canons and definitions which he established concerning bishops and presbyters—that they should be dry, or sober, modest, not given to wine, not strikers, fit to teach, irreproachable in all things, and not associating with the wicked—will not discover that he wanders greatly from that rectitude of the canons?’ And the same man again speaks in these words: ‘One ought first to be greatly cleansed, and then to cleanse; to become wise, and then to teach wisdom; to become light, and afterward to illuminate; to approach God, and then to lead others to him; to be sanctified, and then to sanctify; to lead by the hand with hands, to counsel with counsel.’
“And again the same Gregory, numbered among the saints, writes this concerning the same persons in the same oration: ‘Who, like a potter turning his earthenware in a single day, would thus suddenly fashion a guardian of true worship, standing with the angels, singing praises with the archangels, and sacrificing together with Christ?’ By these words the Theologian indicates what sort of persons ought to be promoted to the priesthood. But concerning those who are ordained unworthily, the same man says these things in the same oration: ‘Although they have brought nothing to the sacred altar of God and to the priesthood, nor first sweated and labored in virtue and what is beautiful, they are shown simultaneously as disciples and teachers of piety; and before they have been purified, they purify; yesterday sacrilegious, today priests; yesterday outside the sacred rites, today prelates of the mysteries; veterans in wickedness, novices in piety; persons who are the work and fabrication of human favor, not of the Holy Spirit.’
“Moreover, Basil, numbered among the saints, also teaches that the divine canons prohibit those who have married a second wife from being clerics, saying thus: ‘The canon has excluded twice-married men from the ministry, and those begotten from them.’ Thus far St. Basil. But the Fathers possessed so great a care for priests that those who assembled at Nicaea issued a canon having the following content: ‘The great synod has wholly forbidden a bishop, presbyter, deacon, or anyone at all who is in the clergy to possess a woman brought in under pretext, unless perhaps a mother, sister, aunt, or only those persons who escape suspicions.’”
§ 3. The constitution of Tiberius Constantine displays no less piety in words: “Since works that befit God and have, together with him, the same origin as the human race are to be beneficent toward suppliants, to extirpate evil deeds, and both to consider and to perform whatever things are useful to subjects; and since we have judged those very things to be the principal distinguishing mark of imperial majesty, from the time when God gave us the command and rudders of the commonwealth, on no day or night, so to speak, have we held anything more ancient or dear than zeal for those things.”
§ 4. What King Reccared admonishes in the Third Synod of Toledo ought also to obtain the force of law: “Although the omnipotent Lord God granted us to ascend the summit of the kingdom for the advantages of the peoples and committed the government of not a few nations to our royal care, we nevertheless remember that we are constrained by the condition of mortals and cannot merit the happiness of future blessedness otherwise than by devoting ourselves to the worship of the true faith and pleasing our creator at least by the confession of which he is worthy. For this reason, by as much as we are raised above our subjects by royal glory, by so much ought we to be provident in the things that pertain to God, either to increase our hope or to take counsel for the nations entrusted to us by God.”
Justinian, Code, title 4: “We believe most certainly that the purity and honor of priests, their fervor toward the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, and the perpetual prayers sent forth by them furnish much favor and increase to our commonwealth; through these it is given to us both to subjugate barbarians and reduce under our dominion those whom we did not possess before. And by as much as honor and dignity are added to their affairs, by so much the more do we believe our commonwealth also to be increased. For if they display an honorable and wholly irreproachable life, and instruct the rest of the people so that they, looking toward their honor, abstain from many sins, it is plain that from this the souls of all will also become better, and suitable clemency will readily be bestowed upon us by the most high God and our Savior Jesus Christ.”
For this reason good emperors possessed so great a care for protecting true religion, abolishing the heresy of the Jews and
the superstitions of the gentiles, that they endeavored, insofar as lay within them, to restrain the negligence and ambition of bishops.
§ 5. Emperors strike heretics with many laws to show that the commonwealth cannot be preserved amid so great a variety of religions and license of the impious.
Constantine, Constans, and Constantius: “The privileges bestowed in consideration of religion ought to benefit only the observers of the Catholic law. We desire heretics not only to be excluded from these privileges, but also to be constrained and subjected to various public duties.”
Gratian, Valentinian, and Valens, Augustuses: “Let all heresies forbidden by divine laws and imperial constitutions remain perpetually at rest. Let no one hereafter attempt either to teach or learn any profane precepts which he has discovered. Nor let their prelates dare to instill a faith which they do not possess, or create ministers who are not such. Nor, through the connivance of judges and of all to whom care concerning this matter has been committed through paternal constitutions, let audacity of this kind be neglected and increase. Moreover, under the designation of heretics are contained, and ought to succumb to the sanctions enacted against them, those who are found to have deviated even by a slight argument from the judgment of the Catholic religion and from the straight path.”
And afterward: “Arians, Macedonians, Pneumatomachi, Apollinarians, Novatians or Sebatians, Eunomians, Tetradites or Tessarescaedecadites, Valentinians, Paulians, Papianists, Montanists or Priscillianists, Phrygians or Pepuzites, Marcionists, Barborites, Messalians, Euchites or Enthusiasts, Donatists, Audians, Hydroparastatae, Tascodrogites, Batrachites, Hermogenians, Photinians, Paulinians, Marcellians, Ophites, Encratites, Carpocratians, Saccophori, and the Manichaeans, who have arrived at wickedness reaching even to the lowest depth of crimes, are nowhere to possess the ability to assemble or remain in a Roman place.” There are also laws concerning the Manichaeans’ expulsion from cities and their delivery to capital punishment, “since no place is to be left here in which injury is done even to the elements themselves.”
Thus, in title 7, the same Augustuses Theodosius and Valentinian condemn decurions who are Nestorians. Marcian likewise condemns the Eutychians in the law Quicumque.
§ 6. But so that it may also appear how much that matter was at heart for later emperors, it is worthwhile to hear the constitution of Emperor Frederick: “Moreover, we condemn believers in, receivers, defenders, and supporters of heretics, firmly establishing that if, after any such person has been marked by excommunication, he has disdained to make satisfaction within a year, from that time he shall by the law itself be infamous; he shall neither be admitted to public offices or councils, nor to choosing others, nor be admitted to testimony. He shall also be incapable of making a testament, so that he has neither a free power of making a will nor access to hereditary succession. Moreover, no one shall answer to him concerning any matter, but he himself shall be compelled to answer others. But if perhaps he has been a judge, his judgment shall obtain no validity, nor shall any causes be brought to his hearing. If he has been an advocate, his patronage shall in no wise be admitted. If a notary, instruments prepared by him shall be judged utterly without effect.”
§ 7. The imperial code, title 7, demonstrates how great a severity they employed against apostates. Thus the emperors Theodosius and Valentinian, in the law Apostatarum: “Let the sacrilegious name of individual apostates be assailed by the continual voice of accusation, and let investigation of a crime of this kind be restrained by no limitations of time. Although previous prohibitions suffice for them, nevertheless we also repeat this: that after they have departed from the faith they shall possess no ability to make a testament or donate anything, nor shall they be permitted to defraud the law under the appearance of a sale; but the whole shall descend by intestacy preferably to relatives who follow Christianity.
“Moreover, we desire an action against sacrileges of this kind to be perpetuated to such a degree that we do not deny to all coming by intestacy, even after the offender’s death, an unrestricted voice of suitable accusation. Nor shall we permit this to stand as an obstacle: if nothing concerning the profane person was brought into contestation while he lived. But lest the interpretation of this crime wander more widely in uncertain error, we pursue by the present oracles those who, clothed with the name of Christianity, have performed sacrilegious sacrifices or commanded them to be performed. Their perfidy, proved even after death, is to be punished in this manner: with donations and testaments rescinded, those to whom legitimate succession would convey it shall possess the inheritance of persons of this kind.”
§ 8. They also oppose the wickedness of the Jews, title 9: “Jews will be condemned both to confiscation of goods and perpetual exile if it is established that they circumcised, or caused to be circumcised, a person of our faith.”
And in the Code, title 10, law Iudaeus: “A Jew shall neither be permitted to purchase a Christian slave nor obtain one as a gift or by any other title. But if any Jew has possessed a slave who is either a Christian or one whom he believed could be possessed from any cause although of another sect or nation, and has circumcised him, he shall not only be fined by the loss of the slave but also punished by a capital sentence, with liberty being given to the slave himself as a reward.”
§ 9. They also attacked and crushed with laws and immense penalties the impiety of the pagans, which was powerful in practice and strength.
Thus Emperor Constantius: “It has been resolved that temples in all places and all cities shall immediately be closed, and, access being forbidden, the license of sinning shall be denied to all the abandoned. We also desire all to abstain from sacrifices. But if they should perhaps perpetrate anything of this kind, let them be laid low by the avenging sword. We also decree that the property of the slain be claimed for the fisc, and that governors of provinces be punished similarly if they neglect to avenge the crimes.”
And the emperors Valentinian and Marcian: “Let no one, with the intention of venerating and adoring, reopen shrines which were long ago closed. Far be it from our age that the former honor be restored to unspeakable and execrable images, the impious doorposts of temples be wreathed with garlands, profane fires be kindled upon altars, incense be burned upon them, victims be slain, wine be poured from bowls, and sacrilege be regarded as religion. But whoever attempts, contrary to this sanction of our serenity and contrary to the prohibitions of the most holy ancient constitutions, to perform sacrifices shall lawfully be accused before a public judge as guilty of so great a crime and, when convicted, shall undergo confiscation of all his goods and capital punishment. Those conscious of the crime and the ministers of sacrifices shall sustain the same penalty which was inflicted upon him, so that, terrified by this severity of our law, through fear of punishment they may cease to celebrate forbidden sacrifices. But if a most illustrious man who is governor of a province, after lawful accusation and after the crime has been proved at the inquiry, should dissemble in avenging so great a crime, the judge himself shall be compelled immediately to pay fifty pounds of gold to our fisc, and his office fifty also.
“Let no one dare to attempt the things that have rather often been forbidden to persons of pagan superstition, knowing that he commits a public crime who has dared perpetrate these things. Moreover, we desire deeds of this kind to be cut away to such a degree that, even if something such should be perpetrated on another’s estate or in another’s house, with the owners of course knowing, the estate or house shall be adjudged to the most sacred rights of the treasury. But the owners, for the sole reason that they knowingly consented that their own places be contaminated by such crimes, if indeed they are adorned with some dignity or military rank,
“shall be punished by loss of military rank or dignity, and also by confiscation of their property; but those established in private or plebeian condition, after corporal tortures, shall be assigned either to labor in the mines or to perpetual exile.
“If anything has been given or bequeathed to places or persons, or for the construction of pagan error, the city in which the persons dwell or under which the places are subject shall receive it; but it shall be expended in the likeness of imperial revenues. Governors shall punish the impieties of pagans and report to the emperor those things which exceed their own power.
“Those who after holy baptism remain in the error of the pagans are punished by capital punishment. But those who have not yet been baptized shall bring themselves, together with their children, spouses, and all their people, to the holy churches, so that they may cause their little children to be baptized without delay, while the older are first taught the Scriptures according to the canons. But if, in order to possess military rank, dignity, or property, they pretend to be baptized and leave their children or spouses, or their domestics, in error, and those who belong to them and are joined by kinship, they shall be deprived of their property and suitably punished, and shall not engage in public affairs. But if they have not been baptized, they shall have no share in any part of public administration, nor shall they be owners of movable or immovable property; rather, the fisc shall claim these things, and they shall be suitably punished and go into exile. But if they appear to sacrifice or worship idols, they shall be punished like Manichaeans. Moreover, a pagan shall not teach any kind of doctrine, nor shall they enjoy the public grain allowance, not even according to the sacred register.”
All these things are directed to this: that since all make a display of piety, the true may be introduced and the false abolished.