Medieval Sourcebook:
The Codex Theodosianus:
On Religion, 4th
Century CE
C. Th. XV.xii.1: Bloody spectacles are not suitable for civil ease
and domestic quiet. Wherefore since we have proscribed gladiators, those who
have been accustomed to be sentenced to such work as punishment for their
crimes, you should cause to serve in the mines, so that they may be punished
without shedding their blood. Constantine Augustus.
C. Th. XVI.v.1: It is necessary that the privileges which are
bestowed for the cultivation of religion should be given only to followers of
the Catholic faith. We desire that heretics and schismatics be not only kept
from these privileges, but be subjected to various fines. Constantine
Augustus.
C. Th. XVI.x.4: It is decreed that in all places and all cities
the temples should be closed at once, and after a general warning, the
opportunity of sinning be taken from the wicked. We decree also that we shall
cease from making sacrifices. And if anyone has committed such a crime, let
him be stricken with the avenging sword. And we decree that the property of
the one executed shall be claimed by the city, and that rulers of the
provinces be punished in the same way, if they neglect to punish such crimes.
Constantine and Constans Augusti.
C. Th. XVI.vii.1: The ability and right of making wills shall be
taken from those who turn from Christians to pagans, and the testament of such
an one, if he made any, shall be abrogated after his death. Gratian,
Valentinian, and Valens Augusti.
C.Th. XI.vii.13: Let the course of all law suits and all business
cease on Sunday, which our fathers have rightly called the Lord's day, and let
no one try to collect either a public or a private debt; and let there be no
hearing of disputes by any judges either those required to serve by law or
those voluntarily chosen by disputants. And he is to be held not only infamous
but sacrilegious who has turned away from the service and observance of holy
religion on that day. Gratian, Valentinian and Theodosius Augusti.
C.Th. XV.v.1: On the Lord's day, which is the first day of the
week, on Christmas, and on the days of Epiphany, Easter, and Pentecost,
inasmuch as then the [white] garments [of Christians] symbolizing the light of
heavenly cleansing bear witness to the new light of holy baptism, at the time
also of the suffering of the apostles, the example for all Christians, the
pleasures of the theaters and games are to be kept from the people in all
cities, and all the thoughts of Christians and believers are to be occupied
with the worship of God. And if any are kept from that worship through the
madness of Jewish impiety or the error and insanity of foolish paganism, let
them know that there is one time for prayer and another for pleasure. And lest
anyone should think he is compelled by the honor due to our person, as if by
the greater necessity of his imperial office, or that unless he attempted to
hold the games in contempt of the religious prohibition, he might offend our
serenity in showing less than the usual devotion toward us; let no one doubt
that our clemency is revered in the highest degree by humankind when the
worship of the whole world is paid to the might and goodness of God.
Theodosius Augustus and Caesar Valentinian.
C. Th.XVI.i.2: We desire that all the people under the rule of our
clemency should live by that religion which divine Peter the apostle is said
to have given to the Romans, and which it is evident that Pope Damasus and
Peter, bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic sanctity, followed; that is
that we should believe in the one deity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with
equal majesty and in the Holy Trinity according to the apostolic teaching and
the authority of the gospel. Gratian, Valentinian and Theodosius Augusti.
C. Th. XVI.v.iii: Whenever there is found a meeting of a mob of
Manichaeans, let the leaders be punished with a heavy fine and let those who
attended be known as infamous and dishonored, and be shut out from association
with men, and let the house and the dwellings where the profane doctrine was
taught be seized by the officers of the city. Valentinian and Valens Augusti.
Source:
Oliver J. Thatcher, ed., The Library of Original Sources
(Milwaukee: University Research Extension Co., 1907), Vol. IV: The Early
Medieval World, pp. 69-71.
Scanned by Jerome S. Arkenberg, Dept. of History, Cal. State
Fullerton
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© Paul Halsall May 998
mailto:halsall@murray.fordham.edu?subject=Medieval
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