IX.45.5 = cf. CJ 1.12.4
The same Augustuses to Hierius, Praetorian Prefect.
We believe that a sanction should be promulgated, which shall be valid forever, concerning those persons who take refuge at the altars of holy religion, to the effect that if the slave of any person, relying only on гeverence for the place, should seek refuge in the church or at the altars without any weapon, he shall be sent away after not more than one day in such place; furthermore, notice shall be given by the clerics whom it concerns to his master or to the person for fear of whom the slave appears to have avoided imminent punishment. The master shall grant pardon for his wrongs, and, with no remnants of anger remaining in his heart, in honor of the place and in respect for Him to whose aid the slave has fled, he shall take the slave away.
But if, armed and suspected of this by no one, the slave should rush in suddenly, then he shall be dragged out immediately, or at least notice shall be given at once to his master or to the person from whom such frantic fear has driven the slave, and the opportunity to drag him out at once shall not be denied. But if, relying upon arms and driven by madness, he should conceive the intention of resisting, his master shall be granted the right to drag him out and take him away by whatever means he can effect it.
If it should happen that the slave should be killed in the struggle and battle, the master shall incur no blame, nor shall there be an occasion for anyone to originate a criminal action, if a person is killed who has changed from a servile status to the legal condition of a public enemy and a homicide.
If these regulations, so usefully constituted, should be perverted either by negligence or connivance, or in any other manner by those persons who are placed in charge of such matters in accordance with the duties of their office, just punishment will not be lacking, and, under the decision of an episcopal trial, they shall be removed from that place which they could not protect, they shalL be cast back into the rank of plebeians, and they shall receive the force of judicial severity.
Given on the fifth day before the kalends of April at Constantinople in the year of the consulship of Valerius and of the one who is to be announced. March 28, 432.
(trans. Pharr 1952: 266)
