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

would even have bothered with this law condemning patently illegal practices by
clerics, still less to have included references to the “clever trickery” of the clerics
performing such actions. It is interesting that Tatianus’ last law affecting the Church
(CTh. 2.8.21 of 27 May 392), like his first, advanced the Christianisation of the empire,
and was issued when he may have regarded his position as being under threat from
Rufinus and therefore sought to find favour with the Christian emperor with this cost-
free measure with only one precedent (CTh. 2.18.19 of 7 August 389), which may well
have been suggested for the same reasons. If this is correct, it is further evidence of the
multifarious ways in which the legislative process could be harnessed to serve the
immediate aims of an individual.
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