Untitled - Shattering Denial

THE INQUISITION 9
From the reign of Valentinian I, and especially from
the reign of Theodosius I, the laws against heretics con
tinued to increase with surprising regularity. We can
count as many as sixty-eight enacted in fifty-seven years. 1
They punished every form of heresy, whether it merely
differed from the orthodox faith in some minor detail, 2 or
whether it resulted in a social upheaval. The penalties
differed in severity; 3
i.e. exile, confiscation, the inability
to transmit property. 4 There were different degrees of
exile; from Rome, from the cities, from the Empire. 5
The legislators seemed to think that some sects would
die out completely, if they were limited solely to country
places.
But the severer penalties, like the death penalty,
were reserved for those heretics who were disturbers of
the public peace, v.g. the Manicheans and the Donatists.
der Verhaltnisses
1 On this legislation, cf. Riffel Geschichtliche Darstellung
ztuischen Kirchc und Staat, von der Grundung der Christenthum bis auf Jus
tinian I, Mainz, 1836, pp. 656-679; Loening, Geschichte des deutschen
Kirchenrechts, Strassburg, 1878, vol. i, pp. 95-102; Tanon, Histoire des tribu-
naux de P Inquisition en France, pp. 127-133.
2 "
Haereticorum vocabulo continentur et latis adversus eos sanctionibus de-
bent succumbere, qui velleviargumento a judicio catholicas religionis et tramite
detecti fuerint deviare." Law of Arcadius, 395; Cod. Theodos., xvi, v. 28.
v. 65.
3 "Non omnes eadem austeritate plectendi sunt." Law of 428, ibid., xvi,
4 For instance, the laws of 371, of 381, of 384, of 389, ibid., xvi, v. 3, 7,
13, 18, etc.
6 The Manicheans banished from Rome, ibid., 67; banished ab ipso aspectu
urbium diversarum, ibid., 64; banished ex omni quidem orbe terrarum, ibid.,
n. 18 (law of 389).
6 "Encratites . . . cum Saccoforis sive Hydroparastatis . . . summo supplicio
et inexpiabili pcena jubemus affligi." Law of 382, ibid., 9. These
were Manichean sects.