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

as such. The injunction against teaching doctrines which were harmful to others was
repeated with reference to the Donatist practice of repeat baptism. 289 The law went on
to pass special injunctions against the Donatists: “All teacher and ministers of this
perverse superstition shall abstain from the gathering places of a doctrine already
condemned.” 290 . Despite the condemnations however, there are no punishments
prescribed, even in vague terms; the purpose and effect of the law is thus rhetorical
rather than practical.
But although the law lacked some practicality, it does indicate an increase in
intolerance towards the Donatists; albeit of a rhetorical rather than practical nature.
In his long running dispute with the Donatists, Constantine had initially been
concerned with their disobedience and consistently stated his desire to secure “right
worship.” Only in his last document on the issue in his Letter to the Num idian Bishops
of 5 February 330 did he infer that the Donatists were heretics which in that letter he
equated with schismatics and with evil. But even in that letter he held out the hope
that they would return to the correct path of God. This law however, was not
concerned with issues of “right worship” nor of obedience, but with doctrinal matters:
the law focused around the practice of repeat baptism and indeed this practice is the
only one mentioned in the law.
Arguably, disobedience to the authorities, (Church or state) although a crime,
was known to be easily rectifiable through obedience; that is to say, there was nothing
intrinsically permanent about the Donatists’ state of disobedience. Constantine
realised this and held out the prospect of resolution to the bitter end, albeit a
resolution, which by that end would have been based on his terms and those of the
Catholic Church. But a theological error, once identified in the Donatists and now
288 Om nes v etitae legibus et div inis et im perialibus haereses perpetuo conquiescant. Quisquis opin ionem
plectibili ausu dei profanus inm inuit, sibi tantum m odo nocitura sentiat, aliis obfutura non pandat.
289 Sibi solus talia nov erit, alios nefaria institution e non perdat
290 om nesque perv ersae istius superstitionis m agistri pariter et m inistri…hi con ciliabulis dam natae dudum
opinion is abstineant
166