Religious Intolerance in the Later Roman Empire - Bad request ...

measure did not, of course, ‘cost’ the government anything, but doubtless it was
appreciated by the Christian authorities as a privilege which set their criminal element
apart from the Jewish and pagan criminal element of Rome. Presumably however,
Christians were still liable to the sort of punishments which they would hitherto have
faced in the arena. This law effectively said that Christians could not be punished in
the arena, i.e. in public, but in private, they could, presumably, suffer the same
punishments that they would hitherto have faced in the arena, i.e. death.
CTh. 14.3.11 of 27 September 365, also addressed to Symmachus, sought to
dissuade bakers from taking “refuge in the Church” and thereby “evading service” as
bakers. If any baker “should enter the Church” then he would not receive the benefits
that clerics normally received. If a baker decided that he still wanted to become a
cleric then there was apparently nothing in this law to prevent him, but he would
remain liable for recall to his trade for the rest of his life.
CTh. 15.7.1 of 11 February 367 was addressed to Viventius, 33 Prefect of Rome,
which dealt with the issue of “men and women of the stage” receiving “sacraments of
the Most High God.” The law said that if such actors took sacraments because of the
“compelling necessity of imminent death” but survived, they could not then “be
recalled, by any summons, to the performance of theatrical spectacles.” 34 The law
made clear the great reluctance of the authorities to allow actors to receive sacraments.
Valentinian ordered: “with diligent sanction… the exercise of due circumspection and
oversight” so that only those who genuinely appeared likely to die would be given the
sacraments; bishops would also have to give their approval in such cases. Also, the law
laid down a bureaucratic procedure that would have to be followed whenever a actor
was dying. Requests by them for the sacraments had to be “immediately reported to
the judges…so that inspectors may be sent and careful inquiry may be made” to
33 Viventius PLRE 1.972
34 scaenici et scaenicae, qui in ultim o v itae ac n ecessitate cogente interitus inm in entis ad dei sum m i
sacram enta properarunt, si fortassis ev aserint, nulla posthac in theatralis spectaculi conv ention e rev ocentur
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