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

The law “condemn[ed] the false doctrine of those persons who trample under
foot the precepts of the Apostles and who do not purify, but defile by a second
baptism.” Such “pollutes” those who receive it. Flavianus is therefore ordered to
make them “desist from their miserable false doctrines” and to return the churches that
they have occupied to the Catholics. Only the teachings of those clerics who “have
approved the Apostolic faith” and did not repeat baptism were to be followed. 260 The
law then prescribed what should be taught and as such is highly reminiscent of
Theodosius’ later and more famous Cun ctos Populos law (CTh. 16.1.2) of 380. Gratian
stated: “For it is our will that nothing shall be taught except what the uncorrupted
faith and tradition of the Evangelists and Apostles have preserved, just as the imperial
law of our fathers Constantine, Constantius and Valentinian have decreed.” 261
Noticeably, “our fathers” was a selective list and in particular did not include the still
living, but Arian inclined Valens. Whichever member of Gratian’s government who
included this clause evidently knew his religious history and was committed to the
Nicene version of Christianity. Presumably, the western government was also not
averse to implying that Valens’ religious position was not necessarily correct.
It is not clear which “imperial law” or laws this particular law is invoking. It is
probably not referring to any particular law, but rather to the general and perceived
attitude that the emperors listed were all Nicenes. The uncertain religious position of
Constantius had evidently been forgotten and replaced with one more accommodating
to that of the present regime. Such a ‘reinterpretation,’ (or at least that is how it
appears to us, based on a possibly incomplete record,) would have been aided by the
259 Virius Nicomachus Flavianus 15 PLRE 1.347-349
260 eorum condem nam us errorem , qui apostolorum praecepta calcantes Christiani nim inis sacram en ta sortitos
alio rursus baptism ate n on purificant, sed incestant, lav acri nom ine polluentes. Eos igitur auctoritas tua
erroribus m iseris iubebit absistere ecclesiis, quas contra fidem retinent, restitutis catholicae.
261 nihil enim aliud praecipi v olum us, quam quod ev angeliorum et apostolorum fides et traditio incorrupta
serv av it, sicut lege div ali parentum nostrorum Constantin i Constanti Valentiniani decreta sunt.
159