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

In order for the “greatest harmony” 76 to be secured for the Church,
“moderation and reverence” 77 were demanded. Valentinian also admitted that he had
“compassion, both because of our nature’s leniency and on account of consideration
for religion itself and for the law.” 78 Therefore Praetextatus was ordered to allow “all
who are of that condition and guilt” to return home. Valentinian's concern for
“religion” and for church harmony may indicate that Damasus’ influence over the
emperor’s policy was still a factor, at least in rhetoric, but by now apparently a
diminishing factor. The only condition Valentinian imposed was that if the Ursinians
reverted to their former ways and created trouble, then they should receive the
“severest sentence” 79 since “they who cease not to sin after pardon can deserve no
pardon.” 80
Correspondence between the emperor and his officials at Rome on the
Ursinians continued under Praetextatus’ successor Olybrius. 81 The next three letters
on the Ursinian affair are, again, not dated and their exact sequence is difficult to
determine, but the first seems likely to have been a reply from Valentinian (CSEL
35.10) to a letter, now lost, which Olybrius had probably written at the beginning of
his tenure. It seems reasonable to ascribe the letter to the beginning of Olybrius’ term
because Valentinian spent more than half of the letter assuring Olybrius of the faith
that he had in the new prefect. More importantly for the purposes of dating,
Valentinian laid out some ‘ground rules’ that should apply to their correspondence.
Valentinian told Olybrius that it was not necessary for him to refer every case to
Valentinian for judgement, but rather that Olybrius should apply some of his own
judgement to cases and to take some responsibility for himself.
76
m axim a…concordia
77
m odestiam …et cultum
78
et propriae lenitate naturae et ipsius religionis ac legis contem platione m iserem ur
79
sev erissim a…sententia
80
nullam enim possunt v eniam prom ereri, qui non desinunt peccare post v eniam
81 st
Olybrius PLRE 1.640-642: his prefecture lasted from 1 January 369 to Autumn 370
113