Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 2114
The Emperors Theodosius II and Valentinian III issue the law which sets the rules of granting asylum in the church by clerics. The law issued on 23 March 431 in Constantinople, included in the Theodosian Code published in 438, included in the Breviary of Alaric published in Gaul in 506, and repeated in the Justinian Code promulgated in 529 and then again 534.
IX.45.4 = Brev. Alar. IX.34.1 =  cf. CJ 1.12.3
 
IMPP. THEOD(OSIVS) ET VAL(ENTINI)ANVS AA. ANTIOCHO P(PRAEFECTO) P(RAETORI)O. Pateant summi dei templa timentibus; nec sola altaria et oratorium templi circumiectum, quod ecclesias quadripertito intrinsecus parietum septo concludit, ad tuitionem confugientium sancimus esse proposita, sed usque ad extremas fores ecclesiae, quas oratum gestiens populus primas ingreditur, confugientibus aram salutis esse praecipimus, ut inter templum, quod parietum descripsimus cinctu, et post loca publica ianuas primas ecclesiae quicquid fuerit interiacens, sive in cellulis sive in domibus, hortulis, balneis, areis atque porticibus, confugas interioris templi vice tueatur. Nec in extrahendos eos conetur quisquam sacrilegas manus immittere, ne qui hoc ausus sit, quum discrimen suum videat, ad expetendam opem ipse quoque confugiat. Hanc autem spatii latitudinem ideo indulgemus, ne in ipso dei templo et sacrosanctis altaribus confugientium quemquam manere vel vescere, cubare vel pernoctare liceat: ipsis hoc clericis religionis causa vetantibus, ipsis, qui confugiunt, pietatis ratione servantibus. 2. Arma quoque in quovis telo, ferro vel specie eos, qui confugiunt, minime intra ecclesias habere praecipimus, quae non modo a summi dei templis ac divinis altaribus prohibentur, sed etiam cellulis, domibus, hortulis, balneis, areis atque porticibus. 3. Proinde hi, qui sine armis ad sanctissimum dei templum aut ad sacrosanctum altare sive usquam gentium sive in hac alma urbe confugiunt, somnum intra templum sive ipsum altare vel omnino cibum capere absque aliqua eorum iniuria ab ipsis clericis arceantur, designantibus spatia, quae in ecclesiasticis septis eorum tuitioni sufficiant, ac docentibus, capitalem poenam esse propositam, si qui eos conentur invadere. Quibus si perfuga non annuit, neque consentit, praeferenda humanitati religio est et a divinis ad loca, quae diximus, turbanda temeritas. 4. Hos vero, qui templa cum armis ingredi audent, ne hoc faciant, praemonemus; dein si telis cincti quovis ecclesiae loco vel ad templi septa vel circa vel extra sint, statim eos, ut arma deponant, auctoritate episcopi a solis clericis severius conveniri praecipimus, data eis fiducia, quod religionis nomine melius quam armorum praesidio muniantur. Sed si ecclesiae voce moniti, post tot tantorumque denuntiationes, noluerint arma relinquere, iam, clementiae nostrae apud deum et episcoporum causa purgata, armatis, si ita res exegerit, intromissis, trahendos se abstrahendosque esse cognoscant et omnibus casibus esse subdendos. Sed neque episcopo inconsulto, nec sine nostra sive iudicum in hac alma urbe vel ubicumque* iussione armatum quemquam ab ecclesiis abstrahi oportebit, ne, si multis passim hoc liceat, confusio generetur. DAT. X. KAL. APRIL. CONSTANTINOPOLI, ANTIOCHO V. C. COS. ET QUI FUERIT NUNTIATUS.
 
INTERPRETATIO. Ecclesiae ac loca deo dicata reos, qui ibidem compulsi timore confugerint, ita tueantur, ut nulli locis sanctis ad direptionem reorum vim ac manus afferre praesumant: sed quicquid spatii vel in porticibus vel in atriis vel in domibus vel in areis ad ecclesiam adiacentibus pertinet, velut interiora templi praecipimus custodiri, ut reos timoris necessitas non constringat circa altaria manere et loca veneratione digna polluere. Sane si qui ad loca sancta confugerint, arma si qua secum portaverint, mox deponant, nec se existiment magis armorum praesidio quam sanctorum locorum veneratione defendi. Quod si deponere arma noluerint et sacerdoti vel clericis non crediderint, sciant se armatorum viribus extrahendos. Si vero extrahere de locis sanctis quemlibet reum quacumque ratione quis tentaverit, noverit se capitali supplicio esse damnandum.
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 520-24)
IX.45.4 = Brev. Alar. IX.34.1 =  cf. CJ 1.12.3
 
Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian Augustuses to Antiochus, Praetorian Prefect.
The temples of the Most High God shall be open to those persons who are afraid. Not only do We sanction that the altars and the surrounding oratory of the temple, which encloses the church with a barrier of four walls on the inside, shall be set aside for the protection of those persons who take refuge, but also the space up to the outside doors of the church, which people desiring to pray enter first, We order to be an altar of safety for those who seek sanctuary. Thus if there should be any intervening space within the circumference of the walls of the temple which We have marked off and within the outer doors of the church behind the public grounds, whether it be in the cells or in the houses, gardens, baths, courtyards, or colonnades, such space shall protect the fugitives just as the interior of the temple does. No one shall attempt to lay sacrilegious hands on them to drag them out, lest a person who dares to do this, when he sees his own peril, may himself also take refuge and seek aid. Moreover, We grant this extent of space for this purpose, namely, that it may not be permitted that any fugitive remain or eat or sleep or spend the night in the very temple of God or on the sacrosanct altars. The clerics themselves shall forbid this for the sake of reverence for religion, and those who seek sanctuary shall observe it for the sake of piety. 1. We also command that those persons who seek sanctuary shall not have within the churches any arms at all, in the form of any weapon, either of iron or of any other kind. For weapons are barred not only from the temples and divine altars of the Most High God, but also from the cells, houses, gardens, baths, courtyards, and colonnades. 2. Hereafter if any persons should flee without arms to the most holy temple of God or to its sacrosanct altar, either anywhere else in the world or in this fair City, they shall be prevented by the clerics themselves, without any injury to such persons, from sleeping or from taking any food at all within.the temple or at the altar. The clerics shall designate spaces within the ecclesiastical enclosures which shall be sufficient for their protection and shall explain that capital punishment has been decreed if anyone should attempt to enter forcibly and seize them. If the fugitive should not agree to these restrictions and should not obey them, reverence for religion must be preferred to humanity, and reckless lawlessness must be driven from these holy places to those that We have mentioned. 3. We warn beforehand those persons who dare to enter the temples with arms that they shall not do this. Then if they should be equipped with weapons in any place in the church, either near the enclosure of the temple or around it or outside it, We command that they be notified immediately and very severely by the clerics alone, under the authority of the bishop, to lay aside their arms, and they shall be given the assurance that they are defended by the name of religion better than by the protection of arms. But if, warned by the voice of the Church and by the declarations of so many and so important persons, the refugees shoulchbe unwilling to relinquish their weapons, then the case of Our Clemency and of the bishops is cleared in the sight of God; armed men shall be sent in, if the case so demands, and the refugees shall know that they will be dragged forth, dragged away, and subjected to all kinds of misfortunes. But no armed persons shall be dragged out from the churches without consulting the bishop or without Our order or the order of the judges either in this fair City or anywhere else, lest, if many persons should be generally permitted to do this, confusion may arise.
Given on the tenth day before the kalends of April at Constantinople in the year of the consulship of the Most Noble Antiochus and of the one who is to be announced. March 23, 431.
 
INTERPRETATION: Churches and places dedicated to God shall so protect accused persons who flee to them, driven by fear, that no one shall presume to bring force and violence to holy places in order to seize accused persons. But We command that whatever space belongs to the church, either in the colonnades, or in the halls, in the houses, or in the courtyards adjacent to the church shall be guarded just as the inner parts of the temple, so that the compulsion of fear may not constrain accused persons to remain around the altars or to defile places to which reverence is due. Certainly, if they should take refuge in holy places, they shall lay aside at once whatever arms they have brought with them, and they shall not suppose that they are defended by the protection of arms more than by reverence for holy places. But if they should be unwilling to lay aside their arms, and if they should not have confidence in the priest or the clerics, they shall know that they will be dragged out by the force of armed men. But if anyone should attempt for any reason to drag out from a holy place any accused person at all, the offender shall know that he will be condemned to capital punishment.
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 265-66)

Place of event:

Region
  • East
  • Gaul
City
  • Mnizos

About the source:

Title: Codex Theodosianus, Code of Theodosius, Theodosian Code, Breviary of Alaric, Lex Romana Visigothorum, Codex Iustinianus, Code of Justinian, Justinianic Code
Origin: Constantinople (East)Mnizos (East),
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
The Theodosian Code is a compilation of the Roman legislation from the times of the Emperor Constantine to the times of Theodosius II. The work was begun in 427 and finished in autumn 437 when it was accepted for publication. It was promulgated in February 438 and came into effect from the beginning of the year 439.
 
The compilation consist of sixteen books in which all imperial constitutions are gathered beginning with the year 312. Books 1-5 did not survive and are reconstructed from the manuscripts of the Lex Romana Visigothorum, i.e. the Breviary of Alaric, the legal corpus published in 506 by the Visigothic king, Alaric, containing excerpts from the Theodosian Code equipped with explanatory notes (interpretationes), post-Theodosian novels and several other juristic texts.
 
A new compilation was undertaken during the reign of the emperor Justinian. A committee of ten persons prepared and promulgated the Codex in 529. It was quickly outdated because of the legislative activities of the emperor and therefore its revised version had to be published in 534. The Codex together with the novels, the Pandecta, a digest of juristic writings, and the Institutes, an introductory handbook are known under the medieval name "Corpus Iuris Civilis".
Edition:
Theodor Mommsen and Paul Martin Meyer (eds.), Theodosiani libri XVI cum constitutionibus Sirmondianis et leges novellae ad Theodosianum pertinentes, 2 vols., Berlin 1905
Paul Krüger (ed.), Codex Iustinianus, Berlin 1877
Gustav Hänel (ed.), Lex Romana Visigothorum, Leipzig 1849
 
Translation:
The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions, a translation with commentary, glossary, and bibliography by C. Pharr, Princeton 1952

Categories:

Described by a title - Sacerdos/ἱερεύς
    Described by a title - Clericus
      Public law - Secular
        Pastoral activity - Granting asylum
          Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2114, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2114