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

The law then went on to detail the punishments. Properties “where crowds of
such teachers and ministers are collected at the time of Easter” were to be forfeited to
the treasury, whether they were “in cities or in any places whatsoever” where such
heretics gathered. Moreover, the law was to be actively enforced: heretics “who are
accustomed to practice either the doctrines or the mysteries of such assemblages shall
be diligently sought out from all cities and places.” Once found, they were to be
“constrained by the vigour of the published law,” expelled from the assemblies and
ordered to “return to the countries of their origin in order that none of them may have
the power to go to any other place whatsoever, or to wander away to any cities.” The
law also obliged “the office staffs of the provincial judges and the chief decurions of the
cities” to suffer a “sentence of condemnation” if it was “proved” that an assembly had
taken place in an area under their jurisdiction. 201
This law was intolerant because it sought to ‘strangle’ heresies by denying them
the ability to perpetuate themselves through ordaining their own clergy. Thus, unlike
earlier laws which were more concerned with the actual practice of heresy, this law
implies, though does not specifically state, that there something objectionable simply
in being a heretic; or at least a heretic cleric. As such there is a degree of permanence
in this law, as there had been in CTh. 16.5.6. Furthermore, it appears that
Postumianus was required to actively seek out heretical activities: heretics and their
“assemblages shall be diligently sought out” as Florus had been required to do in his
CTh. 16.5.9, although admittedly the order to Postumianus was not as definite as that
to Florus had been. However, against all this is the fact that the order to confiscate
houses, in which heretics assembled, ends with the words “at the time of Easter.” This
sentence gives the impression that buildings in which heretics met would only be
201 eaedem quoque dom us, seu in urbibus seu in quibuscum que locis paschae turbae professorum ac
m inistrorum talium colligentur, fisci nostri dom in io iurique subdantur, ita ut ii, qui v el doctrinam v el
m ysteria conv entionum talium exercere consuerunt, perquisiti ab om nibus urbibus ac locis propositae legis
v igore constricti expellantur a coetibus et ad proprias, unde oriundi sunt, terras redire iubeantur, ne quis
eorum aut com m eandi ad quaelibet alia loca aut ev agandi ad urbes habeat potestatem . quod si neglegentius ea,
quae serenitas nostra constituit, im plean tur, officia prov incialium iudicum et principales urbium , in quibus
coitio v etitae congregation is reperta m on strabitur, sententiae dam nationique subdantur
228