The Ecclesiastical Edicts of the Theodosian Code

P. 23, 1. 13, read "restored" for "destroyed."P. 49. 1. 10, read " Arianism " for " paganism."P. 52, 1. 9, omit the words " cast out and banished " and the re- mainder of the paragraph.The correct reading is : " We would order them to be cast out and banished if it were not a greater penalty for them to remain among men, deprived of the privileges of men.However, they can never regain their former condition ; the shame of their evil actions cannot be obliterated by penance nor by show of reparation, however elaborate, since insincere and invented excuses are not able to protect those who pollute the faith which they have vowed to God and, betraying the divine mystery, follow after profane things.While there may be aid for the lapsed and erring ones, for the lost, namely, those who profane sacred baptism, no remedy of penance which is beneficial to other criminals, may suffice."P. 76, between lines 3 and 4, insert " who had become clerks, to re- sume their obligations to the state unless they had entered."P. 7y, n.I, read " vocantur " for " vacantur." EDICTS OF THE THEODOSIAN CODE[122Papinian should be followed, and, in cases in which these writers made no comment, the judge might form an in- dependent decision.The second reform was the codifica- tion of imperial constitutions since Constantino, " so that men may no longer have to await formidable responsae from expert lawyers as from an inner shrine."This work was entrusted to two commissions.The first, of the year 429, was composed of eight noblemen and one jurist; the second, which completed the work, was composed of sixteen members and was appointed in 435.Three years later the result of their labors was published in the east byTheodosius and in the west by Valentinian III.The code is an historical one, its model being the Gregorian and Hermogenian codesprivate collections of the third cen- tury.This explains the excessive number of edicts, the confusion and conflict in this " short compendium."It was the hope of Theodosius to issue another code for more practical use, a summary of the law " which would not ad- mit of any error or ambiguity and which would show to all what should be followed and what could be avoided " ; but this purpose he did not realize.1De Theodosiani Codicis Auctoritate.2 Codex Theodosianus, bk.i, tit.i, art. 5. (In the following pages this code will be referred to as C. Th.)3 A word regarding the literary history of the code.An incomplete embodiment of its legislation was preserved in the Lex Romana Visigothorum or Breviary of Alaric, a Visigothic compilation of the sixth century, which was the principal source of Roman law in southernEurope prior to the twelfth century.The earliest modern editions of the Theodosian code were based upon the lex romana.Gradually other fragmentary manuscripts of the code were discovered and these, with the lex romana, formed material for textual criticism.Cujacius, the French jurist of the sixteenth century, did more than any other of the earlier editors for the formation of a comparative, critical text.The greatest deficiencies were in the first five books.In the early nine- teenth century Peyron and Clossius discovered new manuscripts which EDICTS OF THE THEODOSIAN CODE[124 lation, especially from the reign of Gratian.The ordination of bishops, the age of deaconesses, the tonsure, celibacy, as well as the weightier problems of episcopal jurisdiction, heresy and apostasy, the immunity of the clergy from taxa- tion, are among the subjects treated.In the language we find such ancient words as saeculi, antisHs, sacrosancta con- verted to an ecclesiastical usage and the expressions lumen de lumine, Deus de Deo, nefariae praevaricationis altaria, and sanctissimo catholicae venerahili concilio, used in an ecclesiastical sense-ample evidence that here the clergy be- gan that participation in civil legislation which characterized European life for so many centuries

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