A.D. 381 heretics, pagans, and the dawn of the monotheistic state ( PDFDrive )

his own and that he put in place as dogma a formula containing intractable
philosophical problems of which he would have been unaware. In effect, the
emperor’s laws had silenced the debate when it was still unresolved. If
discussion had been allowed to continue within the Church, a broader consensus
might have been established over time, one that could have preserved freedom of
debate as well as a reasoned basis for any agreed formula (if, indeed, one was
possible).
So what impelled Theodosius to suppress all alternative Christians beliefs so
vigorously? It was here that he made an abrupt break with the policy of
toleration upheld as recently as the 370s by Valentinian. It is likely that he was
simply frustrated by the pressures he found himself under and genuinely
believed that an authoritarian solution would bring unity to the embattled
empire. At the same time control of dogma went hand in hand with greater
control of the administrative structure of the Church. In this sense Theodosius
could be seen as the heir of Diocletian and Constantine, bringing to fruition their
attempts to create a more tightly structured empire that religious institutions
were expected to serve. However, by defining and outlawing specific heresies,
he had crossed a watershed. It soon became clear that once the principle of
toleration was successfully challenged, as it had been by his new laws, the
temptation to extend the campaign against dissidents would be irrestistible.
The first non-Christian sect to be attacked was the Manicheans, followers of
the Persian prophet Mani, who believed in a universe in which good and evil
struggled perpetually against each other. The sect had always been unpopular
because of its Persian origins, and in 381 Theodosius ordered that no Manichean
of either sex should be able to bequeath or inherit any property. This excluded
Manicheans passing on family wealth from generation to generation, a basic
right for Roman citizens. Then in 382, the emperor decreed the death penalty for
membership of certain Manichean sects and put in place an informer system. It
was to be the first step to the sect’s elimination and to a wider campaign against
non-Christian beliefs. While the emperor himself proved comparatively
restrained in his own use of persecution, he had set up a framework that his more
fanatical officials were able to exploit.
However, Theodosius’ rule extended only to the east. The Latin-speaking west
had not been represented at Constantinople, and here the Nicene settlement was
to be imposed not by an emperor but by a bishop. We now turn to the career of
the formidable Ambrose of Milan.