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

Sozomen does give a summary of the law (7.9.5-7) and states that Theodosius issued the
law to indicate his agreement with the clerics’ decisions and also to validate the faith of
the clerics assembled there, as they had asked him to do in a letter. Sozomen can only
be correct in this regard in the most tangential manner i.e. that the law was issued
because Theodosius and his government felt that ‘something should be done’ simply
because the council had taken place. 52 Errington points out that the three provinces
which came under Auxonius’ responsibility had sent no bishops to the council; 53
therefore there were presumably no orthodox bishops, or not any of sufficient
importance, to send to the council. Therefore the law listed the bishops known to be
orthodox and acceptable in order, Errington argues, that Auxonius would know those
who would be acceptable incumbents for the vacated churches; i.e. whether the new
incumbents were in communion with those listed in the law and whose orthodoxy had
just been confirmed by the council. 54
However, Errington overemphasises the administrative nature of this law; its
provisions still demanded the expulsion of religious dissidents from their property,
presumably by force if necessary, and denied them the “right and power to obtain
churches.” Therefore, and insofar as it goes, this law does appear to be particularly
intolerant; although it may essentially an administrative and technical ruling rather
than a law by which Theodosius “finally and decisively rendered the pro-Nicene
version of the Christian faith the official religion of the Roman Empire.” 55 Its
administrative thoroughness indicates the depth of intolerance that lay behind such a
ruling; by listing eleven bishops as benchmarks of orthodoxy, the law had gone to
great lengths to ensure that only priests of the “true Nicene faith” would be able to
operate in the Asian proconsulate and as such he had left little room for mistake or
uncertainty. This list of eleven bishops also indicates that a cleric almost certainly
52 For Sozomen’s treatment of this law see Errington (1997a) 419-421
53 The provinces being Insulae, Hellespontus and Asia, i.e. the south west third of Asia Minor.
54 Errington (1997b) 64-66
55 As claimed by Hanson (1988) 821
179