Leges In Donatistas

In the Year of the Lord 402. 34. A Law of the Emperor Honorius, by Which Pecuniary Fines Are Imposed on the Donatists. (From the Theodosian Code, Title on Heretics, Law 52). The Emperors Honorius and Theodosius Augusti to Seleucus, Praetorian Prefect. All things which may have been obtained by rescript or by a note of our hand are annulled, and those things which have long since been defined on this matter and preserved by the sanction of former emperors remain in force, unless, from the day of the publication of this law, all Donatists, both priests and clerics, and laity, shall have returned to the Catholic Church, from which they have sacrilegiously seceded. Then, the Illustrious, each individually, shall be compelled to pay to our treasury fifty pounds of gold; the Spectabiles, forty pounds of gold; the Senators, thirty pounds of gold; the Clarissimi, twenty pounds of gold; the Sacerdotales, thirty pounds of gold; the Principales, twenty pounds of gold; the Decurions, five pounds of gold; the Merchants, five pounds of gold; the Plebeians, five pounds of gold; the Circumcellions, ten pounds of silver. And unless they are presented by the conductors under whom they live, or by the procurators, or by the executors, to be exacted, these same persons shall be liable to the penalty; so that not even the men of our household shall be considered immune from this kind of censure. Their wives also, separately, a marital fine shall constrain. For those whom the losses inflicted have in no way corrected, the confiscation of all their property shall follow.

Servants also, by the admonition of their masters, or tenants, a more frequent application of blows will recall from their depraved religion: unless the masters themselves prefer to be held to the aforesaid penalties (even if they are Catholics). But their clerics and ministers, and their most pernicious sacerdotals, having been removed from African soil, which they have polluted with sacrilegious rite, shall be sent into exile individually to each and every region under suitable escort. Their churches, or conventicles, and estates, if any depraved liberality of heretics has conferred upon their churches, are claimed for the property and authority of the Catholic Church (as we have already long since decreed). Given on the third day before the Kalends of February, at Ravenna, in the consulship of Honorius for the ninth time and Theodosius for the fifth time, Augusti. In the Year of the Lord 414. 35. Another Law of the Same Emperor against the Donatists. (From the Same Code, ibid., Law 54.) The Same Augusti to Julianus, Proconsul of Africa. We have determined that the Donatists and heretics, whom the patience of our Clemency has preserved until now, are to be struck by competent authority: 1. Insofar as by evident precept they shall recognize themselves to be both intestable and to have no power of entering into any [legal act], but, branded with perpetual infamy, are to be separated from honorable assemblies and from public gathering. 2. But those places in which the dire superstition has been preserved until now shall be joined to the venerable Catholic Church: 3. So that their bishops, presbyters, and all their overseers and ministers, stripped of all their faculties, shall be dispatched to each and every island and province for the sake of exile.

4. Whoever, however, for the purpose of concealment, receives these persons fleeing the proposed penalty, shall know that both his patrimony is to be added to the revenues of Our Treasury, and that he himself will undergo the penalty which has been twice proposed. 5. We also clearly impose damages to patrimony and pecuniary penalties upon men, women, individual persons, and dignities according to their status, which ought to be inflicted. Therefore, whoever is invested with the honor of proconsul, or vicarius, or of the comitiva of the first order, unless he converts his mind and purpose to Catholic observance, shall be compelled to pay two hundred pounds of silver to be added to the revenues of Our Treasury. And let it not be thought that this alone can suffice to cut off his intention; as often as he is proven to have approached such communion, so often shall the fine be exacted: and if it is established that the same person is not recalled from error even by five such losses, then the matter shall be referred to Our Clemency, so that we may judge more harshly concerning his entire substance and his status. We also bind the remaining Honorati by conditions of this sort: namely, that a senator, found in the company of the Donatists and not protected by any external privilege of rank, shall pay one hundred pounds of silver; sacerdotales shall be compelled to pay the same sum; the first ten curiales shall be condemned to pay fifty pounds of silver; the remaining decurions shall pay ten pounds of silver, if they have preferred to persist in heresy.

6. Moreover, the stewards of Our house, if they have permitted these things on the estates of the venerable substance, shall be compelled to pay as a penalty a sum equal to the rent they are accustomed to pay under their lease. The same authority of the sacred decree shall bind the emphyteuticarii as well. 7. The stewards of private persons, however, if they have permitted conventicles to be held on those same estates, or if through their tolerance the sacred mystery has been defiled, shall be reported through the judges to the knowledge of the owners, whose concern it will be, if they wish to avoid the penalty of the sacred command, either to correct those who persist or to replace them with others who persevere: and to provide such overseers for their estates who observe the divine precepts. But if they have neglected to see to this, they also shall be mulcted, by the authority of the issued precept, in the rents which they are accustomed to receive, so that what could have come to their profit shall be joined to the sacred treasury. 8. Moreover, officials of the various judges, if they have been caught in this error, shall be liable to a penalty of thirty pounds of silver; so that if, after being condemned five times, they have refused to desist, they shall, after being coerced by beatings, be consigned to exile. 9. Slaves and coloni, however, the most severe punishment shall avenge from such audacities. And if the coloni, coerced by beatings, have persisted in their purpose, then they shall be mulcted in a third part of their peculium. 10. And all things which could be collected from such kinds of men and places shall be directed immediately to the sacred largesses. Given on the tenth day before the Kalends of July, at Ravenna.

Constantius and Constans, consuls. In the Year of the Lord 415. XXXVI. ANOTHER LAW OF THE SAME EMPEROR, BY WHICH THE ACTS AGAINST THE DONATISTS, CONDUCTED IN THE YEAR 411 UNDER MARCELLINUS AS JUDGE, EVEN THOUGH HE DIED AND WAS MALICIOUSLY SLAIN, ARE DECLARED TO OBTAIN FULL CREDENCE AND VALIDITY. (Ibid., L. 55.) The same Augusti, to Julianus, Proconsul of Africa. By the knowledge and diligence of Marcellinus, a man of honorable memory, those things were done against the Donatists which, once transferred to the public records, we wish to have perpetual validity. For the public trust ought not to perish by the death of the judge. Given on the third day before the Kalends of September, at Ravenna, under the consulship of Constantius and Constans. XXXVII. ANOTHER LAW OF THE SAME EMPEROR AGAINST THE DONATISTS. (Ibid., L. 56.) The same Augusti, to Heraclianus, Count of Africa. Let all know who, by the superstitions of their heresy, have crept into their rites as enemies of the sacrosanct law, that they are to be punished with the penalty both of proscription and of blood, if they should dare, by the temerity of their crime, to assemble beyond the public exercise; lest any true and divine reverence be defiled by contagion. Given on the eighth day before the Kalends of September, under the consulship of Honorius for the tenth time and Theodosius for the sixth time, Augusti.

In the Year of the Lord 418. XXXVIII. A LAW OF THE EMPEROR THEODOSIUS THE YOUNGER. IN WHICH, AMONG THE HERETICS TO WHOM NO PLACE FOR ASSEMBLING AND PRAYING IS LEFT ANYWHERE ON ROMAN SOIL, THE DONATISTS ARE ENUMERATED. (Ibid., L. 65.) 1. The madness of heretics is to be repressed in such a way that, before all else, they should not doubt that whatever churches they hold, seized from the Orthodox everywhere, are to be handed over immediately to the Catholic Church: because it cannot be tolerated that those who ought not to have had churches of their own should further detain those possessed or founded by the Orthodox, and invaded by their own temerity. 2. Next, that if they should join to themselves other clerics, or, as they themselves consider, priests, a fine of ten pounds of gold, for each individual, shall be exacted from the one who has done it and from the one who has suffered it to be done: or if they plead poverty, it shall be exacted from the common body of clerics of the same superstition, or even from their offerings themselves, and brought into our treasury. 3. After this, since not all are to be punished with the same severity, the Arians, indeed, the Macedonians, and the Apollinarians, whose crime is this, that deceived by harmful meditation they believe falsehoods from the fountain of truth, are not to be permitted to have a church within any city. But from the Novatians and the Sabbatians, all license for any innovation is to be taken away, if they should have attempted any.

The Eunomians, Valentinians, Montanists, or Priscillianists, Phrygians, Marcianists, Borborians, Messalians, Euchites, or Enthusiasts, Donatists, Audians, Hydroparastatae, Ascodrogitae, Photinians, Paulians, Marcellians, and those who have descended to the very depth of criminal wickedness, the Manichaeans, shall have no capacity anywhere on Roman soil for assembling and praying, the Manichaeans being also expelled from the cities: because no place is to be left for all these, in which even the elements might be offended. No military service is to be granted to them at all, except for the cohortal service in the provinces and the camp service. No right of making a donation to one another, no right of testament or last will whatsoever is conceded to them.

And all laws which were formerly enacted against these and others who oppose our faith, and promulgated at various times, shall always remain in force with fresh observance, whether concerning donations made to heretics' churches, or things left in any way by last will; or concerning private buildings in which, with the Lord permitting or forbidding, they have assembled, to be claimed for the venerable Catholic Church; or concerning a procurator who, without the owner's knowledge, has done this, he shall undergo a fine of ten pounds of gold, or exile if he is freeborn, but after flogging, penal servitude if he is of servile condition; so that they may neither assemble in a public place, nor build churches for themselves, nor contrive anything to circumvent the laws, with the prohibition enforced by the assistance of all civil and military officials, and also of the curiae, defenders, and judges, under threat of twenty pounds of gold. And all those laws remain in full force concerning military service and the right of donation and the making of wills, either entirely denied or granted only to certain persons with difficulty, and various penalties promulgated against various heretics; so that not even a special favor obtained against the laws shall be valid.

No heretic shall be permitted to lead either freeborn persons or their own slaves, who have been initiated into the mysteries of the Orthodox, back to their own baptism; nor shall they be permitted to forbid those whom they have purchased, or whom they hold in any manner whatsoever, and who are not yet joined to their own superstition, from following the catholic religion of the Church. Whoever does this, or, being freeborn, suffers it to be done to himself, or fails to report the deed, shall be condemned to exile and a fine of ten pounds of gold, and the right of making a will or a donation shall be denied to both. We decree that all these things be so observed that no judge may be permitted to refer a crime brought before him to a lesser penalty or to no coercion at all, unless he himself wishes to suffer what he has allowed to others by dissembling. Given on the third day before the Kalends of June, at Constantinople, in the consulship of Felix and Taurus.