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

laws prescribe” i.e. with torture. 72 Because this gives priests a “higher position,” 73 if
they were “involved in a secret crime, [then] all the more are they worthy of
punishment.” 74
CTh. 9.17.7 of 26 February 386 attempted to regulate burial places and also the
trade in martyrs’ relics. It was addressed to Maternus Cynegius, Praetorian Prefect of
the East, who was later (in 388) to tour the east suppressing paganism and destroying
temples. 75 This law ordered that bodies should not be transferred between sites, and
the sale and trafficking of relics was now forbidden. But at the same time it allowed
people to “add whatever building they wish in veneration” to a place where martyrs
had been buried. 76 Evidently the authorities felt they should exercise some control
over the cult of martyrs; why is unknown, either, presumably, such cults were causing
some problems at a local level, or the government simply wished to intervene in
Church affairs in order to extend its control over the cult. The lack of any
justification in the law coupled with the blanket permission for people to erect any
building on martyr sites may suggest the latter.
Sirm. Const. 8 of 22 April issued to Antiochinus ordered an Easter amnesty. 77
However, Theodosius did not restrict the amnesty to those awaiting trial in prison as
earlier amnesties had apparently done, but rather extended it to include all those
convicted and moreover to all such since the last amnesty: we “free almost all persons
whom the severity of the laws has held bound. Furthermore, throughout all the
intervening time which flows between such venerable and celebrated days, We relieve
such persons from their chains, We free them from exile, We remove them from the
72 prout leges praecipiunt
73 superioris loci
74 m ulto m agis etenim poena sunt digni
75 Maternus Cynegius 3 PLRE 1.235-236; also attributed by Honoré to E6
76 habeant v ero in potestate, si quolibet in loco san ctorum est aliquis conditus, pro eius v eneratione quod
m artyrium v ocandum sit addant quod v oluerint fabricarum
77 Antiochinus PLRE 1.70; Again, attributed by Honoré to his E6
184