Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
Search Presbyter Records
Search Evidence Records
Print:
ID
ER 2276
The Emperors Gratian, Valentinian and Theodosius issue a law forbidding Eunomians, Arians, Macedonians, Apollinarians to establish churches and have priests and ministers. The law issued on 3 December 383, included in the Theodosian Code (16.5.12) published in 438.
16.5.12
 
IDEM AAA. POSTVMIANO P(RAEFECTO) P(RAETORI)O.
Vitiorum institutio deo atque hominibus exosa, eunomiana scilicet, arriana, macedoniana, apollinariana ceterarumque sectarum, quas verae religionis venerabili cultu catholicae observantiae fides sincera condemnat, neque publicis neque privatis aditionibus intra urbium adque agrorum ac villarum loca aut colligendarum congregationum aut constituendarum ecclesiarum copiam praesumat, nec celebritatem perfidiae suae vel sollemnitatem dirae communionis exerceat, neque ullas creandorum sacerdotum usurpet adque habeat ordinationes. Eaedem quoque domus, seu in urbibus seu in quibuscumque locis paschae turbae professorum ac ministrorum talium colligentur, fisci nostri dominio iurique subdantur, ita ut ii, qui vel doctrinam vel mysteria conventionum talium exercere consuerunt, perquisiti ab omnibus urbibus ac locis propositae legis vigore constricti expellantur a coetibus et ad proprias, unde oriundi sunt, terras redire iubeantur, ne quis eorum aut commeandi ad quaelibet alia loca aut evagandi ad urbes habeat potestatem. Quod si neglegentius ea, quae serenitas nostra constituit, impleantur, officia provincialium iudicum et principales urbium, in quibus coitio vetitae congregationis reperta monstrabitur, sententiae damnationique subdantur.
DAT. III NON. DEC. CONSTANT(INO)P(OLI) MEROBAVDE II ET SATVRNINO CONSS. (= 3 December 383)
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 859-60)
16.5.12
 
THE SAME AUGUSTI TO POSTUMIANUS, PRAETORIAN PREFECT.
The vicious doctrines hateful to God and man, namely, the Eunomian, the Arian, the Macedonian, the Apollinarian, and all the other sects which are condemned by the sincere faith of the true religion, according to the venerable cult of the Catholic discipline, shall not arrogate to themselves the right to assemble congregations or to establish churches, either by public or private undertakings, within the localities of the cities and of the fields and of the villas. They shall not practice the ritual performance of their own perfidy or the ceremonies of their dire communion; they shall not usurp and have any ordinances for creating priests. The aforesaid houses, moreover, shall be made subject to the ownership and rights of our fisc, whether in cities or in any places whatsoever where crowds of such teachers and ministers are collected at the time of Easter. Thus those persons who are accustomed to practice either the doctrines or the mysteries of such assemblages shall be diligently sought out from all cities and places. They shall be constrained by the vigor of the published law, expelled from their assemblies, and ordered to return to the countries of their origin, in order that none of them may have the power to go to any other place whatsoever or to wander away to any cities. But if these regulations which have been established by Our Serenity should be very negligently executed, the office staffs of the provincial judges and the chief decurions of the cities in which an assembly of a forbidden congregation should be proved to have been discovered shall be subject to a sentence of condemnation.
GIVEN ON THE THIRD DAY BEFORE THE NONES OF DECEMBER AT CONSTANTINOPLE IN THE YEAR OF THE SECOND CONSULSHIP OF MEROBAUDES AND THE CONSULSHIP OF SATURNINUS (= 3 December 383)
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 452-53)

Discussion:

Eunomius, native of Cappadocia, together with his disciple Aetius, was the exponent of the version of Arianism called "anomoianism". They held and taught the doctrine that the Son is unlike ("anomoios") the Father. Eunomius was ordained in 360 bishop of Cyzicus in Mysia (north-western Asia Minor). He was condemned in 383; he died in 394. See Simonetti 2014: 1.867.
 
The law was directed to the diocese of Orient but because it was indcluded in the Theodosian Code, it also has some relevancy to the West.

Place of event:

Region
  • East
  • Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia
City
  • Constantinople
  • Milan

About the source:

Title: Codex Theodosianus, Code of Theodosius, Theodosian Code
Origin: Constantinople (East), Milan (Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia)
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
 
Translations:
The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions, a translation with commentary, glossary, and bibliography by C. Pharr, Princeton 1952
Les lois religieuses des empereurs romains de Constantin à Théodose (312-438), v. 1, Code Théodosien livre XVI, text latin Th. Mommsen, trad. J. Rougé, introduction et notes R. Delmaire avec collab. F. Richard, Paris 2005
Bibliography:
(all those entries with extenstive, recent bibliography)
 
M. Simonetti, "Eunomius of Cyzicus", Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity, ed A. Di Berardino, trans. J.T. Papa et al., Downers Grove 2014, p. 1:867.

Categories:

Travel and change of residence
    Religious grouping (other than Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian) - Arian
      Ecclesiastical transfer
        Described by a title - Sacerdos/ἱερεύς
          Public law - Secular
            Described by a title - Minister/λειτουργός/ὑπηρέτης
              Administration of justice - Secular
                Administration of justice - Financial punishment
                  Religious grouping (other than Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian) - Unspecified 'heretic'
                    Pastoral activity - Teaching
                      Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2276, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2276
                      Record by: Marta Szada
                      last edited: 2019-08-12 10:27:27
                      Contact
                      Privacy policy
                      FAQ
                      About the project
                      Team