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

with clubs and condemned to deportation.” 236 The law also gave particular provisions
if the ordination had occurred on an Imperial villa, or on a “villa subject to any public
right” and as such it may have been issued in response to a particular problem or
occurrence of heretical ordinations. On Imperial properties therefore “the chief tenant
and the procurator,” if they had given permission for the ordination, were to be fined
ten pounds of gold each. 237 The final sentence of the law repeated the provisions of the
beginning, that is, that heretical clerics and ordinands “who have been found to
perform such mysteries” were to be fined ten pounds of gold each. 238
The punishment of a fine of gold was only the fourth instance of such since
Theodosius began his reign. It was also the first that fined the actual offenders of the
law that is, those who had actively participated in the illegal activity; admittedly, CTh.
9.17.6 of 30 July 381 had fined those who broke burial regulations by burying the dead
within the city and next to martyrs’ and saints’ relics one third of their wealth, but had
not specified that the amount should be paid in gold. That law had also levied a
collective fine on bureaucrats if they failed to enforce the law. The practice of levying
collective fines (again in gold) was repeated in the two further laws (CTh. 9.40.15 of 13
March 392 and CTh. 11.36.31 of 9 April 392), but only for the office staffs concerned,
who had not prevented from taking place the actual offence specified in the law.
Interestingly, these two previous laws, and the present law, CTh. 16.5.21 were all
issued to Tatianus and were all issued within three months of each other. It has been
noted that the fines imposed in the previous laws (50 pounds, 30 pounds and again 30
pounds respectively) would probably not have been an unduly severe amount on the
collective resources of the bureaucrats concerned.
236 quod si id possessorem , quipped clanculum gestum ignorasse constiterit, conductorem eius fundi, si ingenuus
est, decem libras fisco n ostro inferred praecipim us, is derv ili faece descenden s paupertate sui poenam dam ni ac
v ilitate contem nit, caesus fustibus deportation e dam nabitur.
237 Tum illud specialiter praecav em us, ut, si v illa dom inica fuerit seu cuiuslibet publici iuris et conductor et
procurator licentiam dederint colligendi, denis libris auri proposita condem nation e m ultentur.
238 Verum si quos talibus repertos obsecundare m ysteriis ac sibi usurpare nom ina clericorum .
244