Church and Empire

Maria E. Doerfler, George Kalantzis, Maria E. Doerfler, George Kalantzis

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781451496352
• eBook ISBN: 9781506416939
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

The history of the church's relationship with governing authorities unfolds from its beginnings at the intersection of apprehension and acceptance, collaboration and separation. This volume is dedicated to helping students chart this complex narrative through early Christian writings from the first six centuries of the Common Era.

Church and Empire is part of Ad Fontes: Early Christian Sources, a series designed to present ancient Christian texts essential to an understanding of Christian theology, ecclesiology, and practice. The books in the series will make the wealth of early Christian thought available to new generations of students of theology and provide a valuable resource for the church.

The volumes will provide a representative sampling of theological contributions from both East and West.

The series provides volumes that are relevant for a variety of courses: from introduction to theology to classes on doctrine and the development of Christian thought. The goal of each volume is to be representative enough to denote for a nonspecialist audience the multivalent character of early Christian thought, allowing readers to see how and why early Christian doctrine and practice developed the way it did.

3

Christians at the Heart of the Empire

IX. The Theodosian Code (438 CE)

Commissioned by the Emperor Theodosius II in 429 ce and published nine years later, the Theodosian Code reflects an effort, unprecedented in Roman legal history, to gather the numerous laws that had been handed down by Christian emperors since 312 ce into one comprehensive collection. The sixteen books of the Theodosian Code contain more than 2,500 such laws, with each book dedicated to a particular topic. The selections reproduced here come from Book 16, dedicated to matters of religion; they are merely a small excerpt of the material contained therein, but are designed to give readers a glimpse into Roman law-making as it pertains to Christians and other religious groups.

16.2.4: Emperors Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius Augustuses: An Edict to the People of the City of Constantinople

The famous “Cunctos Populos” edict, ordering all citizens of the Roman Empire to share the faith of the bishops of Rome and Alexandria, and making pro-Nicene Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.

It is Our will that all the peoples who are ruled by the administration of Our Clemency shall practice that religion which the divine Peter the Apostle transmitted to the Romans, as the religion which he introduced makes clear even unto this day. It is evident that this is the religion that is followed by the Pontiff Damasus and by Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic sanctity; that is, according to the apostolic discipline and the evangelic doctrine, we shall believe in the single Deity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, under the concept of equal majesty and of the Holy Trinity.

We command that those persons who follow this rule shall embrace the name of Catholic Christians. The rest, however, whom We adjudge demented and insane, shall sustain the infamy of heretical dogmas, their meeting places shall not receive the name of churches, and they shall be smitten first by divine vengeance and secondly by the retribution of Our own initiative, which We shall assume in accordance with the divine judgment.

Given on the third day before the kalends of March at Thessaloniki in the year of the fifth consulship of Gratian Augustus and the first consulship of Theodosius Augustus (February 28, 380).

16.2.41. The Same Augustuses^[1] to
Melitius, Praetorian Prefect

An edict requiring Christian clergy to face legal charges only before a bishop, who would function as an arbiter, rather than before a magistrate or another civic authority.

Clerics must not be accused except before bishops. Therefore, if a bishop, a priest, a deacon, or any person of inferior rank who is a minister of the Christian faith should be accused by any person whatever before the bishops, since he must not be accused elsewhere, that man, whether of lofty honor or of any other dignity, who may undertake such a laudable type of suit, shall know that he must allege only what may be demonstrated by proofs and supported by documents. If any man, therefore, should lodge unprovable complaints about such persons, he shall understand that by the authority of this sanction he will be subject to the loss of his own reputation, and thus by the loss of his honor and the forfeiture of his status he shall learn that he will not be permitted, for the future at least, to assail with impunity the respect due to another. For, just as it is equitable that bishops, priests, deacons, and all other clerics should be removed from the venerable church as persons attainted if the allegations against them can be proved, so that they shall be despised thereafter and bowed under the contempt of wretched humiliation and shall not have an action for slander, so it must appear to be an act of similar justice that We have ordered an appropriate punishment for assailed innocence. Bishops, therefore, must hear such cases only under the attestation of many persons and in formal proceedings.

Given on the third day before the ides of December at Ravenna in the year of the ninth consulship of Honorius Augustus and the fifth consulship of Theodosius Augustus (December 12, 412; 411).

16.5.38. The Same Augustuses^[2] and Theodosius Augustus: An Edict

An edict outlawing Manicheism and Donatism.

No one shall recall to memory a Manichean, no one a Donatist, who especially, as We have learned, do not cease their madness. There shall be one Catholic worship, one salvation; equal sanctity within the Trinity, harmonious within itself, shall be sought. But if any person should dare to participate in practices that are interdicted and unlawful, he shall not escape the toils of innumerable previous constitutions and of the law that was recently issued by Our Clemency. If perchance seditious mobs should assemble, he shall not doubt that the sharp goads of a more severe punishment will be applied to him.

Given on the day before the ides of February at Ravenna in the year of the second consulship of Stilicho and the consulship of Anthemius (February 12, 405).

16.5.41. The Same Augustuses^[3] to Porphyrius,
Proconsul of Africa

A law establishing repentance and conversion to the Nicene faith as a full defense against charges of Donatism, Manicheism, or other forms of heresy.

Although it is customary for crimes to be expiated by punishment, it is Our will, nevertheless, to correct the depraved desires of men by an admonition to repentance. Therefore, if any heretics, whether they are Donatists or Manicheans or of any other depraved belief and sect who have congregated for profane rites, should embrace, by a simple confession, the Catholic faith and rites, which We wish to be observed by all men, even though such heretics have nourished a deep-rooted evil by long and continued meditation, to such an extent that they also seem to be subject to the laws formerly issued, nevertheless, as soon as they have confessed God by a simple expression of belief, We decree that they shall be absolved from all guilt. Thus for every criminal offense, whether it was committed before or should be committed afterward, a thing which We regret, although punishment seems to be especially urgent for the guilty, it shall suffice for annulment that they should condemn their false doctrine by their own judgment and should embrace the name of almighty God, which they may call upon even in the midst of their perils; for when the succor of religion has been invoked, it must nowhere be absent in afflictions. Therefore, just as We order that the previous laws which We have issued for the destruction of sacrilegious minds shall be forcefully pressed to the full effect of their execution, in like manner We decree that those persons who have preferred the faith of pure religion, even though by late confession, shall not be bound by the laws which have been issued. We sanction the foregoing regulations in order that all persons may know that the infliction of punishment on the profane desires of men shall not be lacking, and that it redounds to the advantage of true worship that the support of the laws should also be present.

Given on the seventeenth day before the kalends of December at Rome in the year of the seventh consulship of Honorius Augustus and the second consulship of Theodosius Augustus (November 15, 407).

16.6.2. Emperors Valens, Gratian, and
Valentinian Augustuses to Florianus, Vicar of Asia

A law regulating Christian practice by outlawing re-baptism, a practice common particularly among Donatist Christians but rejected by the church catholic.

We condemn the false doctrine of those persons who trample under foot the precepts of the Apostles and who do not purify, but defile by a second baptism, those persons who have received the sacraments of the Christian name, and thus pollute them in the name of the baptismal font. Your Authority shall therefore order them to desist from their miserable false doctrines, and the churches which they retain contrary to good faith shall be restored to the Catholic Church. The teachings, indeed, of those persons who have approved the Apostolic faith without any change of baptism shall be followed. For it is Our will that nothing shall be taught except what the uncorrupted faith and tradition of the Evangelists and Apostles have preserved, just as the imperial law of Our Fathers, Constantine, Constantius, and Valentinian, have decreed.

But very many persons who have been expelled from the churches go about, nevertheless, with secret madness, frequenting unlawfully the places of great houses or estates. Such estates shall be included in the fiscal confiscation if they should provide secret places for the sinful doctrine. Moreover, Our sanction shall not derogate any thing from the law which was previously established in a regulation that was given to Nitentius. But if they love their false doctrine, they shall cherish the poison of their impious doctrine to their own hurt, in domestic secrecy and alone.

Given on the sixteenth day before the kalends of November at Constantinople in the year of the fourth consulship of Gratian Augustus and the consulship of Merobaudes (October 17, 377).

16.7.1. Emperors Gratian, Valentinian, and
Theodosius Augustuses to Eutropius, Praetorian Prefect

A law preventing Christians who convert to paganism from making a will.

Those Christians who have become pagans shall be deprived of the power and right to make testaments, and every testament of such decedent, if there is a testament, shall be rescinded by the annulment of its foundation.

Given on the sixth day before the nones of May at Constantinople in the year of the consulship of Syagrius and Eucherius (May 2, 381).

16.8.7. The Same Augustus^[4] and Julian Caesar to Thalassius, Praetorian Prefect

A law stripping Christians who convert to Judaism of all their property.

In accordance with the venerable law which has been established, We command that if any person should be converted from Christianity to Judaism and should join their sacrilegious gatherings, when the accusation has been proved, his property shall be vindicated to the ownership of the fisc.

Given on the fifth day before the nones of July at Milan in the year of the ninth consulship of Constantius Augustus and the second consulship of Julian Caesar (July 3, 357; 352; 353).

16.10.4. The Same Augustuses^[5] to Taurus,
Praetorian Prefect

A law requiring the closing of all pagan temples.

It is Our pleasure that the temples shall be immediately closed in all places and in all cities, and access to them forbidden, so as to deny to all abandoned men the opportunity to commit sin. It is also Our will that all men shall abstain from sacrifices. But if perchance any man should perpetrate any such criminality, he shall be struck down with the avenging sword. We also decree that the property of a man thus executed shall be vindicated to the fisc. The governors of the provinces shall be similarly punished if they should neglect to avenge such crimes.

Given on the kalends of December in the year of the fourth consulship of Constantius Augustus and the third consulship of Constans Augustus (December 1, 346; 354; 356).

16.10.17. The Same Augustuses^[6] to Apollodorus,
Proconsul of Africa

A law nevertheless preserving pagan festivals as legal practice.

Just as We have already abolished profane rites by a salutary law, so We do not allow the festal assemblies of citizens and the common pleasure of all to be abolished. Hence We decree that, according to ancient custom, amusements shall be furnished to the people, but without any sacrifice or any accursed superstition, and they shall be allowed to attend festal banquets, whenever public desires so demand.

Given on the thirteenth day before the kalends of September at Padua in the year of the consulship of the Most Noble Theodorus (August 20, 399).

X. Libanius’s Oration 30: For the Temples (c. 384 CE)

Libanius was a sophist, a rhetor, and teacher of rhetoric in Antioch in the fourth century. The art of rhetoric, while today largely lost, was one of the essentials of higher education in the Roman Empire. It prepared students to embark on careers in the Roman courts, in law and civil service. Christians, too,...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table Of Contents
• Series Foreword
• Introduction
• Texts and Translations
• Voices from the Margins: The Early Centuries of Christian Development
• The Move toward the Center
• Christians at the Heart of the Empire
• Trajectories, East and West
• Bibliography
• Index