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

problems. However, and more definitely, since Optatus was necessarily involved in
the law (as prefect) then the lack of vitriol in it may reflect his own innate lack of
interest in, and concern for, clerical matters.
CTh. 16.1.4 of 23 January 386, issued to Eusignius Praetorian Prefect of Italy
and Illyricum. 67 This is the famous law of Valentinian II giving Arians the right to
worship. Curiously, it equated the decisions of the 359 Council of Ariminum with
those of Constantinople of 381, although Ariminum had been regarded as a defeat for
the Nicenes. 68 This crude attempt at a compromise was probably due to Valentinian's
government attempting to satisfy its own Arian supporters, notably Valentinian's
mother Justina, whilst attempting to placate Theodosius in the East who alone had the
ability to remove the usurper Maximus who had occupied Gaul, Spain and Britain.
For this reason it also ordered that those who had been granted the right to assemble
should not suppose that only they had the right to assemble and should not “provoke
any agitation against the regulation.” 69 This could be a reference to Nicenes or Arians.
It was later repealed by Theodosius' 16.5.15 of 14 June 388. 70
CTh. 11.39.10 of 25 July 386 to was issued by Theodosius to Paulinus, Augustal
Prefect and was concerned with the torture of priests. 71 It granted the privilege of
giving witness in court without having to undergo torture to clerics with the rank of
presbyter or above; all those lower down in the hierarchy “shall be heard just as the
67
Flavius Eusignius PLRE 1.309-310; The laws latter provisions are repeated as CTh. 16.4.1 of the same
date and addressee.
68
Jerome, Dialogue Against the Luciferians 19 in Frend (1965) 157
69
dam us copiam colligendi his, qui secundum ea sentiunt, quae tem poribus div ae m em oriae constanti
sacerdotibus conv ocatis ex om ni orbe rom ano expositaque fide ab his ipsis, qui dissentire noscuntur,
arim inensi con cilio, constantinopolitano etiam confirm ata in aeternum m ansura decreta sunt. conv eniendi
etiam quibus iussim us patescat arbitrium , scituris his, qui sibi tantum existim ant colligendi copiam
contributam , quod, si turbulentum quippiam contra nostrae tranquillitatis praeceptum faciendum esse
tem ptav erint, ut seditionis auctores pacisque turbatae ecclesiae, etiam maiestatis capite ac sanguine sint
supplicia luituri, manente nihilo m inus eos supplicio, qui con tra hanc dispositionem nostram obreptiv e aut
clanculo supplicare tem ptav erint.
70
Honoré (1998) 145
71
Paulinus 8 PLRE 1.677; Honoré (1998) 54-55 attributes this law to his quaestor E6 who held the office
from 19 January 386 to 27 October 386
183