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

CTh. 15.7.8 of 8 May 381 was issued to Valerianus Prefect of Rome on the
same subject. 245 Just as Valentinian's CTh. 15.7.1 of 11 February 367 had prevented
any actors from returning to the stage after they had received sacraments, so this law
sought to prevent women returning to the stage not through any practical
punishments or just by ordering that they were not to return, but rather by denying
them absolution. It began by indicating that actresses should be allowed to leave the
theatre “in the name of religion,” (religionis n om in e) but if thereafter an actress was
involved “in indecent embraces” and “carries on the profession that she had officially
abandoned and remains a woman of the stage in spirit” then she would have to be
returned to the stage “without hope of absolution.” The law continued, in a spiteful
manner, that she would have to remain on the stage even as “a ridiculous old woman,
unsightly through old age, she cannot, indeed, even then receive absolution, although
she could not then be anything else than chaste.” 246 Like Valentinian's earlier law this
injunction appears to have been an attempt to guard the sanctity of Church offices. As
such it enhanced the position of the Church, but at the same time it also enhanced the
Imperial office religiously in that the emperor was thought to be of such a position
that he could order clerics to withhold one of their primary religious duties (i.e.
absolution absolution e) from sinners, at least in these cases.
CTh. 9.38.6 of 21 July 381 issued to Antidius the Vicar of Rome, continued this
religious language of absolution. 247 This law granted another Easter amnesty similar to
Valentinian's CTh. 9.38.3 and 4. Like the earlier amnesties, committers of certain
offences remained exempt, but they were described in more grandiose terms than
before and some in more religious terms. Committers of incest were described as
244 necdum tam en consideratio sacratissim ae religion is et christianae legis rev erentia suae fidei m ancipav it; eas
enim , quas m elior v iv endi usus v inculo naturalis condicionis ev olv it, retrahi v etam us.
245 Valerianus 8 PLRE.1.938
246 v erum si post turpibus v olutata com plexibus et religionem quam expetierit prodidisse et gerere quod officio
desierat anim o tam en scaenica detegetur, retracta in pulpitum sine spe absolutionis ullius ibi eo usque
perm aneat, don ec anus ridicula senectute deform is nec tunc quidem absolutione potiatur, cum aliud quam
casta esse n on possit
247 Valerius Anthidius PLRE 1.70
155