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

monasteries had been established in Constantinople during the reign of Constantius
II. 137 At the same time, and in his defence, and with his customary cunning, Tatianus
could quite plausibly have claimed that this law was merely regulating the behaviour
of monks to ensure that they remained attached to their ascetic ideal. 138 A view even
expressed by John Chrysostom who was concerned at monks being mistaken for
vagrants through their common practice of begging. 139 Sozomen also records that John
Chrysostom tried to keep his monks in the monastery in Constantinople, rather than
wandering through the city. 140
However the law was viewed as controversial, and was repealed nineteen
months later by CTh. 16.3.2. of 17 April 392. 141 However, the demand for repeal
probably did not come from the orthodox Church establishment as may be evidenced
by the concerns of Chrysostom noted above. Rather the repeal was more likely to
have come from the Christian secular elite and from their new fashion to cultivate
their own ‘personal’ ascetics. Victor and Saturninus, officials in Valens’ government,
competed with each other by building hermitages in the grounds of their houses in
order to attract Isaac, the prominent Syrian monk of Constantinople; Saturninus won
the contest. 142 Admiration for ascetic ideals extended into the heart of the Imperial
court and even family; Arsenius, tutor to Theodosius' two sons left his prestigious
position in 394 to become a monk in Egypt, where, despite his comprehensive
137
Soz. 4.2.3
138
Caner suggests (199-200) that the banishment of monks from cities was in some way associated with
Theodosius' earlier legislation preventing clerics or the Church in general from inheriting anything
from widows (CTh. 16.2.27). Since that law was repealed (by 16.2.28) possibly Tatianus was having
another attack on legacy hunting clerics by simply attempting to prevent contact between one type of
cleric and elderly widows. If so, the law would appear to be particularly clumsy as monks could still
cultivate wealthy widows in the countryside, where there may well have been more of them (resident
on their estates) than in the towns. See Whittaker and Garnsey (1998) 301-304 for elites spending time
on their estates.
139
John Chrysostom In I Thess IV hom 6.1; in Caner (2002) 171
140
Soz 8.9.4
141
Honoré (1998) 73 attributes this law to his E11, the last quaestor of Theodosius' reign.
142 V. Isaacii 4.16 in Caner (2002) 192
200