Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 2282
The Emperors Gratian, Valentinian and Theodosius issue a law forbidding heretics to gather and celebrate sacred mysteries. The law issued on 14 June 388, included in the Theodosian Code (16.5.15) published in 438.
16.5.15
 
IDEM AAA. TIRFOLIO P(RAEFECTO) P(RAETORI)O.
Omnes diversarum perfidarumque sectarum, quos in deum miserae vesania conspirationis exercet, nullum usquam sinantur habere conventum, non inire tractatus, non coetus agere secretos, non nefariae praevaricationis altaria manus impiae officiis impudenter adtollere et mysteriorum simulationem ad iniuriam verae religionis aptare. Quod ut congruum sortiatur effectum, in specula sublimitas tua fidissimos quosque constituat, qui et cohibere hos possint et deprehensos offerre iudiciis, severissimum secundum praeteritas sanctiones et deo supplicium daturos et legibus.
DAT. XVIII KAL. IVL. STOBIS D.N. THEOD(OSIO) A. II ET CYNEG(IO) V.C. CONSS. (= 14 June 388)
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 860)
16.5.15
 
THE SAME AUGUSTI TO TRIFOLIUS, PRAETORIAN PREFECT.
All members of diverse and perfidious sects, who are driven by the insanity of a miserable conspiracy against God, shall not be allowed to have an assembly anywhere, to participate in discussions, to hold secret meetings, to erect impudently the altars of a neferious treachery by the offices of an impious hand, and to present the false appearance of mysterious, to the outrage of true religion. In order that this regulation may obtain its appropriate effectiveness, Your Sublimity shall appoint as watchmen certain very faithful persons who shall be able both to restrain the aforesaid persons and to arrest them and bring them before the courts. The offenders, according to the previous sanctions, shall pay the severest penalty both to God and to the laws.
GIVEN ON THE EIGHTEENTH DAY BEFORE THE KALENDS OF JULY AT STOBI IN THE YEAR OF THE SECOND CONSULSHIP OF OUR THEODOSIUS AUGUSTUS AND THE CONSULSHIP OF THE MOST NOBLE CYNEGIUS (= 14 June 388)
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 453)

Place of event:

Region
  • East
City
  • Constantinople
  • Stobi

About the source:

Title: Codex Theodosianus, Code of Theodosius, Theodosian Code
Origin: Constantinople (East)Stobi (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), posttheodosian novels and several other juristic texts.
 
A new compilation was undertaken during the reign of the emperor Justinian. The 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

Categories:

Ritual activity - Eucharist
    Public law - Secular
      Administration of justice - Imprisonment
        Religious grouping (other than Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian) - Unspecified 'heretic'
          Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2282, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2282