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

eferences to clerics who did not come under Caecilian’s rule and the letter still reads
like that of an outsider looking in to the Church; if not actually ignorant of all internal
affairs of a provincial Church, then at least not willing to become any more involved
than he had to be. Involvement with the church at this stage appears to go no further
than Constantine's strategic policy of favouring all clerics throughout the empire by
exempting them from liturgies. As with the distribution of funds in the letter to
Caecilian above, it may have been the case that in order to grant this similar favour to
the Church, Constantine had little option than to grant the exemptions to a named
individual in order that Anullinus would be clear as to whom the measure should
benefit. Furthermore, at this early stage in the controversy it would probably have
been impossible, logistically, for Anullinus or Constantine to attempt to classify the
clergy of North Africa according to their allegiances, for or against Caecilian, and
probably inappropriate for an emperor keen to indicate his munificence to a newly
won province and the Christian section of the population. 30 Indeed for Constantine,
he had possibly made his point merely by issuing the edict; thereby he had
demonstrated his generosity.
However, the benefits which came to the Church do not appear to have
reached anti-Caecilianist clerics. In the Passio Don ati written on the events of the “first
period of repression” of the Donatists by the government (i.e. c317-320) 31 the Donatist
author uses the benefits of Imperial patronage against the Catholics. The devil,
working through the Imperial officials, had ensured the flow of funds and thus
delighted “these miserable men with vainglory [and] he also ensnares the greedy by
royal friendship and earthly gifts.” 32 Since the letter to Caecilian indicates that the
30 See Corcoran (2000) 155 for the possibility that a single edict granting relief from liturgies may have
been issued and then sent out in a number of surviving letters. In which case the personal involvement
of Constantine and with that the possibility of a pro-Caecilianist policy existing at this stage would be
even less likely.
31 Tilley (1996) 52; the phrase is Frend’s (1952) 159-162; Frend however believes that this reference
relates to the first period of persecution and that initially, the authorities attempted to bribe the
Donatists into converting to Catholicism rather than using force.
32 Passio Donati 2 non solum oblectans inan i gloria m iseros, sed et regali am icitia num eribusque terrenis
circum scribens auaros
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