punishment. To insure the execution of this law, the emperor orders the prefect of the prætorium to appoint inquisitors, charged to discover heretics, and to inform against them. This is the first time that the name of an inquisitor against heretics occurs; but the inquisition itself was of older standing; for we have already seen Constantine institute one precisely similar against the Arians and the other heretics of his time.2 These severe measures were provoked by the abominable doctrines of the Manicheans, which had drawn down on them, from the very origin of their sect, the severity of even the pagan emperors.3 It is, in truth, well known that the errors of this sect attacked not only the dogmas of Christianity, but the foundations of morality itself, and tended to increase every day in society the greatest excesses of corruption and of depravity.

Many other laws of Theodosius prohibit heretics to hold assemblies either in town or country, or to consecrate bishops.5 The houses in which they assembled he ordered to be confiscated;

"Quos Encratitas prodigali appellatione cognominant, cum Saccophoris sive Hydroparastatis, summo supplicio, et inexpiabili pœnâ jubemus affligi... Sublimitas itaque tua det Inquisitores, aperiat forum, indices denuntiatoresque, sine invidiâ delationis (i. e. absque metu delationis), accipiat; nemo præscriptione communi exordium accusationis hujus infringat." Cod. Theod. lib. xvi. tit. v. n. 9. Fleury, ubi supra.

2 See notes 2 and 5, p. 78.

--

See on this subject, Fleury, Hist. Eccl. vol. ii. book viii. n. 25. Thomassin, Traité des Edits, &c. vol. i. ch. iii. n. 12.

St. Augustin, De Moribus Manichæorum, passim. (Operum, tom. i.) Tillemont, Mémoires pour l'Hist. Ecclés. vol. xiii. art. 15, &c. Bossuet, Hist. des Variations, book xi. n. 7, &c.

5 "Vitiorum institutio (seu schola), Deo atque hominibus exosa, Eunomiana scilicet, Ariana, Macedoniana, Apollinariana, cæterarumque sectarum quas veræ religionis fides sincera condemnat, neque publicis, neque privatis aditionibus (i. e. conventibus), intra urbium atque agrorum ac villarum loca, aut colligendarum congregationum, aut constituendarum ecclesiarum copiam præsumat; . . . neque ullas creandorum sacerdotum usurpet atque habeat ordinationes. Eædem quoque domus, seu in urbibus, seu in agris, in quibus passim turbæ professorum (i. e. hæresim profitentium) ac ministrorum talium colligentur, fisci nostri dominio jurique subdantur; ita ut hi qui vel doctrinam vel mysteria conventionum talium exercere consueverunt,. expellantur à cœtibus, et ad proprias unde oriundi sunt terras redire jubeantur. Quod si negligentiùs ea quæ serenitas nostra constituit impleantur, officia (i. e. officiales) provincialium judicum, et principales urbium, in quibus coitio vetita congregationis reperta monstrabitur, sententiæ damnationique subdantur."- Cod. Theod. lib. xvi. tit. v. n. 12. Fleury, ibid. vol. iv. book xviii. n. 27; book xix. n. 34.

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their doctors, or public ministers, to be banished, or sent off to the place of their birth; and he threatened to punish all magistrates who should neglect to enforce the observance of this law. In fine, an edict, published in June, 392, subjects to a fine of ten pounds of gold (£460) each, all heretics receiving or conferring ordination, and orders the place in which the ceremony took place to be confiscated; but if the proprietor was not privy to this sacrilegious ceremony, the tenant alone was punished, by scourging or banishment if he were a slave, and by a fine of ten pounds of gold if he were a freeman.1

63. Laws of Honorius and Theodosius the Younger. Heretics disqualified for all Civil Offices.

Several edicts of the emperors Honorius and Theodosius the Younger declare heretics in general, and especially the Donatists and Manicheans, disqualified for all civil offices and rights, and subject to all the penalties enacted by preceding laws. One of the most remarkable was published by Theodosius the Younger, "We punish," he declares, "the Maniabout the year 407. cheans and Donatists of either sex as their impiety deserves. Hence it is our will that they shall not enjoy the rights which custom and the laws confer on other men. We will that they be treated as public criminals, and that all their property be confiscated; because whoever violates the religion established by God, sins against public order. Moreover, all persons convicted of those heresies are hereby deprived of the power of giving, of We will also, buying, of selling, and of making any contract. that their last will shall be null and void, in whatever form they

"In hæreticis erroribus, quoscumque constiterit vel ordinasse clericos, vel suscepisse officium clericorum, denis libris auri viritim mulctandos esse censemus; locum sanè in quo vetita tentantur, si conniventia domini patuerit, fisci nostri viribus aggregari. Quòd si id possessorem ignorasse constiterit, conductorem ejus fundi, si ingenuus est decem auri libras fisco nostro inferre præcipimus; si servili fæce descendens, cæsus fustibus, deportatione damnabitur." -Cod. Theod. lib. xvi. tit. v. n. 21. These ten pounds are worth about 460. of our money, supposing Paucton's principles for calculating the value of ancient coins to be correct: see n. 2, p. 48.

2 Cod. Theod. lib. xvi. tit. v. n. 42, &c. Fleury, Hist. Eccl. vol. v. book xxii. n. 8, 15, 18, 26, 27; book xxiv. n. 54.

may have been drawn up, either as testamentary or by codicil, by letter or otherwise; and that their children shall not succeed as their heirs, unless they have renounced the errors of their parents." Another law, by the same emperor, orders the Manicheans to be banished from the cities and punished with death, as being guilty of the worst excesses of depravity.2

64. Laws of Marcian confirming and renewing the preceding.

The Emperor Marcian, successor of Theodosius the Younger, was equally severe against the Eutychians, after their condemnation by the Council of Chalcedon. His first edict against them, published in February, 452, forbids them to hold public disputa-. tions on religion, under penalty of deposition, if they were clerics; of the forfeiture of all their offices, if magistrates; and of banishment from Constantinople, and punishment according to their deserts, if they were private citizens. This first edict not being sufficient to quell some restless and turbulent spirits, the same prince published, some months later, another far more severe, ordering the Eutychians not to ordain bishops, priests, or other clerics, under penalty of banishment and confiscation against those who had received and conferred ordination. The

"Manichæos, seu Manichæas, vel Donatistas, meritâ severitate persequimur. Huic ergo hominum generi nihil ex moribus, nihil ex legibus sit commune cum cæteris. Ac primum quidem volumus esse publicum crimen ; quia quod in religionem divinam committitur, in omnium fertur injuriam; quos bonorum etiam omnium publicatione persequimur. ... Præterea, non donandi, non emendi, non vendendi, non postremò contrahendi, cuiquam convicto relinquimus facultatem. . Ergo et suprema illius scriptura irrita sit, sive testamento, sive codicillo, sive epistola, sive quolibet alio genere reliquerit voluntatem, qui Manichæus fuisse convincitur; sed nec filios hæredes eis existere aut adire permittimus, nisi à paternâ pravitate discesserint."-Cod. Justin. lib. i. tit. v. n. 4.

...

2 "Ariani, Macedoniani, . . . et qui ad imam usque scelerum nequitiam pervenerunt Manichæi, nusquàm in Romanum locum conveniendi morandique habeant facultateni; Manichæis etiam de civitatibus pellendis, et ultimo supplicio tradendis; quoniam his nihil relinquendum loci est, in quo ipsis etiam elementis fiat injuria."-Cod. Justin. lib. i. tit. v. n. 5. Fleury, Hist. Eccl. vol. v. book xxiv. n. 54.

3 Fleury, Hist. Eccl. vol. vi. book xxviii. n. 34.

"Nulli Eutychiani vel Apollinarista publicè vel privatim convocandi cœtus, vel circulos contrahendi, et de errore hæretico disputandi, ac perversitatem facinorosi dogmatis asserendi tribuatur facultas. Nulli etiam contra venerabilem Chalcedonensem synodum liceat aliquid vel dictare, vel scribere,

same edict prohibited their assemblies, and the building of monasteries, under penalty of confiscation of the places, and of various punishments for the proprietors or tenants. The Eutychians were, moreover, incapacitated by this edict from receiving anything by will, from filling any public office, or remaining at Constantinople, or in any metropolitan city; the clergy and monks of the monastery of Eutyches were to be banished from the territory of the empire; their heretical books should be burned; the preachers of their doctrine punished capitally as disturbers of the state; and their disciples condemned to a fine of ten pounds of gold (£460).

65. Similar Laws of Justinian in his Codex and Novella.

Not satisfied with inserting these different contributions in his code, Justinian promulgated others to interpret and confirm the former. We have already noticed that of March, 541, which registers the four first general councils amongst the laws of the empire. As a natural consequence of this principle, several other constitutions enact severe penalties on all heretics, without exception, as transgressors of the laws of the state. We shall notice particularly a law of Justinian, expressed in the following terms: "We declare for ever infamous, and deprived of their rights, and condemned to exile, all heretics of either sex, whatever be their name; their property shall be confiscated without hope of restoration, or of being transmitted to their children by hereditary succession, because crimes which attack the majesty of God are infinitely more grievous than those which attack the majesty of earthly princes. With regard to those who are strongly suspected of heresy, if, after having

vel edere atque emittere, aut aliorum dicta vel scripta super eâdem re proferre. Nemo hujusmodi habere libros, et sacrilega scriptorum audeat monumenta servare. Quòd si qui in his criminibus fuerint deprehensi, perpetuâ deportatione damnentur. Eos verò qui, discendi studio, adierint de infaustâ hæresi disputantes, decem librorum auri, quæ fisco nostro inferendæ sunt, jubemus subire dispendium. Ultimo etiam supplicio coerceantur, qui illicita docere tentaverint."---Cod. Justin. lib. i. tit. v. n. 8. Concil. Chalcedon. part. iii. n. 12 (Labbe, Concil. tom. iv. p. 868).

See above, n. 3, p. 60.

1

been ordered by the Church, they do not demonstrate their innocence by suitable testimony, they also shall be declared infamous, and condemned to exile." In consequence of those different laws, Justinian enacts, in one of his Novellæ, "that henceforward all governors of provinces, before they enter office, shall take an oath of fidelity to the emperor, in which they must formally declare that they are in communion with the Catholic Church, that they will never do anything against her, and that they will, with all their might, repress all the assaults of her enemies." In consequence of those different laws, he gave the patriarch of Alexandria, about the year 540, full authority over the dukes and tribunes of Egypt, to deprive all heretics of such offices, and to substitute Catholics in their place.3

66. Special Enactments against Sacrilege and Apostasy.

The provisions of the Roman law were equally severe against sacrilege and apostasy. A detailed account of the various laws on this point is unnecessary, as they are merely the application of the penalties enacted against heresy. We shall only remark, that the laws were much more severe against those who used

"Omnes hæreticos utriusque sexûs, quocumque nomine censeantur, perpetuâ damnamus infamiâ, diffidamus atque bannimus: censentes ut omnia bona talium confiscentur, nec ad eos ulteriùs revertantur: ita quod filii eorum ad successionem eorum pervenire non possint; cùm longè gravius sit æternam quàm temporalem offendere majestatem. Qui autem inventi fuerint solâ suspicione notabiles, nisi, ad mandatum Ecclesiæ, juxta considerationem suspicionis, qualitatemque personæ, propriam innocentiam congruâ purgatione monstraverint, tanquam infames et banniti ab omnibus habeantur."-Codex Justin. lib. i. tit. v. n. 19. For the meaning of the words "diffidamus" and "bannimus," see Ducange's Glossary.

2 "Juro ego, per Deum omnipotentem, et Filium ejus unigenitum Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, et Spiritum Sanctum, et per sanctam gloriosam Dei genitricem, et semper virginem Mariam, etc. ... Communicator sum sanctissimæ Dei Catholicae et Apostolicæ Ecclesiæ; et nullo modo vel tempore adversabor ei; nec alium quemcumque permitto [ei adversari], quantùm possibilitatem habeo; etc."-Justiniani Nov. viii. (ad calcem Cod. Justin.).

3 "Accepit [patriarcha Alexandrinus] ab imperatore potestatem super ordinationem ducum et tribunorum, ut removeret hæreticos, et pro eis orthodoxos ordinaret."- Liberati Breviarium, cap. xxiii. (Labbe, Conciliorum, tom. v. p. 777). Fleury, Hist. Eccl. vol. vii. book xxxiii. n. 1.

4 Cod. Justin. lib. i. tit. vii. Digest. lib. xlviii. tit. xiii. Eccl. vol. iv. book xviii. n. 27; book xix. n. 32.

Fleury, Hist.