The Theodosian Code (Book XVI), 326
From The Theodosian Code, translated by Clyde Pharr
(Princeton, New Jersey: The Princeton University Press, 1952), XVI, 440476.)
I, 2. 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 (28 February 380).
I, 3. We command that all churches shall immediately be surrendered to those
bishops who confess that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are of one
majesty and virtue, of the same glory, and of one splendor; to those bishops
who produce no dissonance by unholy distinction, but who affirm the concept
of the Trinity by the assertion of three Persons and the unity of the Divinity. . . .
All, however, who dissent from the communion of the faith of those who have
been expressly mentioned in this special enumeration shall be expelled from
their churches as manifest heretics and hereafter shall be altogether denied the
right and power to obtain churches, in order that the priesthood of the true
Nicene faith may remain pure, and after the clear regulations of Our law, there shall
be no opportunity for malicious subtlety (30 July 381).
I, 4. We bestow the right of assembly upon those persons who believe according
to the doctrines which in the times of Constantius of sainted memory were decreed as
those that would endure forever, when the priests had been called together from all
the Roman world and the faith was set forth at the Council of Ariminum . . . a
faith which was also confirmed by the Council of Constantinople. The right of voluntary
assembly shall also be open to those persons for whom We have so ordered. If
those persons who suppose that the right of assembly has been granted to them
alone should attempt to provoke any agitation against the regulation of Our
Tranquility, they shall know that, as authors of sedition and as disturbers of the
peace of the Church, they shall also pay the penalty of high treason with their
life and blood. Punishment shall no less await those persons who may attempt to
supplicate Us surreptitiously and secretly, contrary to this Our regulation (23 January 386).
II, 10. In order that organizations in the service of the churches may be filled with
a great multitude of people, tax exemption shall be granted to clerics and their
acolytes, and they shall be protected from the exaction of compulsory public
services of a menial nature. They shall by no means be subject to the tax payments of
tradesmen, since it is manifest that the profits which they collect from stalls and workshops
will benefit the poor. We decree also that their men who engage in trade shall be
exempt from all tax payments . . . This indulgence We grant to their wives,
children, and servants, to males and females equally, for We command that
they also shall continue exempt from tax assessments (26 May 353).
II, 12. By a law of Our Clemency We prohibit bishops to be accused in the courts, .
. . such complaint must unquestionably be examined before other bishops, in
order that an opportune and suitable hearing may be arranged for the investigation of all
concerned (7 October 355).
IV, 2. There shall be no opportunity for any man to go out to the public and to
argue about religion or to discuss it or to give any counsel. If any person
hereafter, with flagrant and damnable audacity, should suppose that he may
contravene any law of this kind or if he should dare to persist in his action of
ruinous obstinacy, he shall be restrained with a due penalty and proper
punishment (16 June 388).
V, I. The privileges that have been granted in consideration of religion must
benefit only the adherents of the Catholic faith. It is Our will, moreover, that
heretics and schismatics shall not only be alien from these privileges but shall
also be bound and subjected to various compulsory public services ( 1 September
326).
V, 5. All heresies are forbidden by both divine and imperial laws and shall
forever cease. If any profane man by his punishable teachings should weaken the concept
of God, he shall have the right to know such noxious doctrines only for himself but shall not
reveal them to others to their hurt (20 August 379).
V, 11. All persons whatsoever who are tossed about by the false doctrine of
diverse heresies, namely, the Eunomians, the Arians, the Macedonians, the Encratites, the
Pneumatomachi, the Manichaeans, the Apotactites, the Saccophori, the Hydroparastatae,
shall not assemble in any groups, shall not collect any multitude, shall not
attract any people to themselves, shall not show any walls of private houses
after the likeness of churches, and shall practice nothing publicly or privately
which may be detrimental to the Catholic sanctity. Furthermore, if there should exist
any person who transgresses what has been so evidently forbidden, he shall be expelled by
the common agreement of all good men, and the opportunity to expel him shall be granted to
all who delight in the cult and the beauty of the correct observance of religion (25 July 383).
V, 41. 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 Manichaeans 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 (15
November 407).
VII, 4. If any persons should betray the holy faith and should profane holy
baptism, they shall be segregated from the community of all men, shall be
disqualified from giving testimony, and, as We have previously ordained, they
shall not have testamentary capacity; they shall inherit from no person, and by
no person shall they be designated as heir's. We should also have ordered them
to be expelled and removed to a distance if it had not appeared to be a greater
punishment to dwell among men and to lack the approval of men. 1. But never
shall they return to their former status; the disgracefulness of their conduct
shall not be expiated by penitence nor concealed . . . Help is extended to those
persons who have slipped and to those who go astray, but those who are lost, that is,
those who profane holy baptism, shall not be aided by any expiation through
penitence, which customarily avails in other crimes (11 May 391).
VIII, 1. It is Our will that Jews and their elders and patriarchs shall be informed
that if, after the issuance of this law, any of them should dare to attempt to assail
with stones or with any other kind of madness—a thing which We have learned is
now being done—any person who has fled their feral sect and has resorted to the
worship of God, such assailant shall be immediately delivered to the flames and
burned, with all his accomplices. 1. Moreover, if any person from the people
should betake himself to their nefarious sect and should join their assemblies,
he shall sustain with them the deserved punishments (18 October 315).
VIII, 18. The governors of the provinces shall prohibit the Jews, in a certain ceremony
of their festival Haman in commemoration of some former punishment, from setting fire
to and burning a simulated appearance of the holy cross, in contempt of the
Christian faith and with sacrilegious mind, lest they associate the sign of Our faith with
their places. They shall maintain their own rites without contempt of the Christian law, and
they shall unquestionably lose all privileges that have been permitted them
heretofore unless they refrain from unlawful acts (29 May 408).
X, 2. Superstition shall cease; the madness of sacrifices shall be abolished. For if any man in
violation of the law of the sainted Emperor, Our father, and in violation of this command of
Our Clemency, should dare to perform sacrifices, he shall suffer the infliction of a suitable
punishment and the effect of an immediate sentence (341).