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[Selected and adapted from Amon Linder, The Jews in Roman Imperial Legislation (Wayne State Univ. Pr., 1987).]
...It shall not be permitted that Jews harass or attack in any kind of injury him who became Christian from Jew. The insult should be punished according to the nature of the crime committed.
6. Exemption of Synagogues from Hospitality Duty (for the imperial court and army)
Emperors Valentinian I and Valens, May 6, 368 (or 370 or 373)
You shall order those who invade a synagogue of the Jewish law as though on right of hospitality to evacuate it, for they ought to come to houses of private persons, not places of religion, on right of habitation.
away and such owners should suffer a punishment commensurate and appropriate to the crime. Furthermore, if slaves who are still Christian, or Christian slaves who have become Jews, shall be discovered in possession of Jews, they shall be redeemed from a shameful slavery through the payment by Christians of the right price. COMMENTARY It behooves to take care, above all, that no Jew shall be permitted to have a Christian slave, and certainly he shall on no account dare to presume to convert a Christian slave, if he shall have one, to his own law. If he shall do this, he should know that he shall suffer a punishment commensurate with such a crime and his salves shall be taken away; for it had been decreed before this law was given, that he shall be paid by Christians the price he had given for a Christian slave, if that slave was contaminated by the Jewish pollution, in order that the slave shall abide in the Christian law.
shall, upon reception of this order, repress with due severity the excess of those who presume to commit illegal acts under the name of the Christian religion and attempt to destroy and despoil synagogues.
16. Confirmation of the Exemption of Jewish Religious Leaders from Community Service
Emperors Arcadius and Honorius, July 1, 397
The Jews shall be bound by their rites, while we shall imitate the ancients in conserving their privileges, for it was established in their laws and confirmed by our divinity, that those who are subject to the rule of the Illustrious Patriarchs, that is the Archsynagogues, the patriarchs, the elders, and others who are occupied in the rite of that religion, shall persevere in keeping the same privileges that are reverently bestowed on the first clerics of the venerable Christian Law. For this was decreed in divine order also by the divine Emperors Constantine and Constantius, Valentinian and Valens. Let them therefore be exempt even from the curial liturgies, and obey their laws.
19. The Privileges Granted to the Jewish Patriarchs and Their Appointees
Emperors Arcadius and Honorius, February 3, 404
We order that all the privileges granted by our father, of divine memory, and by the emperors before him, to the excellent Patriarchs, and to those set by them over others, shall retain their force.
the holy cross in contempt of the Christian faith, lest they mingle the sign of our faith with their jests, and they shall restrain their rites from ridiculing the Christian Law, for they are bound to lose what had been permitted them till now unless they abstain from those matters which are forbidden.
arise between them and the Jews it shall be settled by the governors of the province. If he himself, or one of the Jews, shall attempt to defile a Christian or a member of any sect whatsoever, slave and freeman alike, with the Jewish mark of infamy, he shall be subjected to the laws' severity. If he holds slaves who partake of the Christian sanctity, they shall be handed over to the Church according to the law of Constantine. [Note: In 425 Theodosius II order the execution of Patriarch Gamaliel VI after he ignored the above edict and approved the building of new synagogues. By forbidding the appointment of a successor, Theodosius effectively abolished the office of the Jewish Patriarchate.]
community service duties], which they possess by right of their birth's prerogative and their family's splendor. Since they ought to be satisfied with these, they should not consider the interdiction concerning the State Service as a mark of infamy.
30. Expulsion of Jews and Pagans from the Imperial Administration and the Legal Profession
Emperors Theodosius II and Valentinian III, July 9, 425 [addressed to the Praefectus Praetorio of Gaul]
... [S]ince it behooves that the religious populace shall not be depraved by any superstition, we order that the Manichaeans, all the heretics or schismatics and astrologers, and every sect hostile to the Catholics must be expelled from the very sight of the various cities, so that they shall not be defiled even by the contagious presence of the criminal. We also deny to the Jews, and to the pagans, the right to practice law and to serve in the State service; we do not wish people of the Christian law to serve them, lest they substitute, because of this superior position, the venerable religion by a sect. We command, therefore, that all persons holding an unpropitious error be excluded, unless they are succored by a timely reform [of their erroneous views].
32. Transfer of the Crown Tax Previously Paid to the Jewish Patriarch to the Imperial Treasury
Theodosius II and Valentinian III, May 30, 429
The Primates of the Jews, who are nominated in the Synhedriis [provincial authorities] of either of the provinces of Palestine or stay in other provinces, shall be forced to pay all that they had received as tax since the cessation of the patriarchs. In the future, however, an annual payment shall be demanded fom all synagogues, on the Primates' responsibility and under the supervision of the Palatins [treasury officials], in the same way that the patriarchs used in the past to demand under the name of Crown Gold; examine in a skillful investigation its amount; and what was used to be transmitted from the Western regions to the patriarchs should be entered into our Largesses [treasuries].
34. Against the Public Debate of Christian Dogma after the Council of Chalcedon
Emperors Marcian and Valentinian III, February 7, 452
At long last was accomplished what we have commenced with the utmost prayer and zeal, and the contention concerning the law of orthodox Christians was removed away. At long last were found the remedies for the blameworthy error, and the discordant thought of the populace brought into one consent and unity. For devout bishops assembled together from different provinces in the city of the Chalcedonians by our command and they taught clearly in a decision what must be carefully observed in religion. The unholy quarrel shall henceforth cease, therefore, For he who leaves anything to his private judgment after the decision of so many bishops is truly a profanator and a desecrator, for it is clearly utter madness to look for a false light in midday. He who continues to search after the truth had been discovered searches for falsehood. No one, therefore, be he cleric, public official or of whatever other rank, shall dare in the future to assemble attentive crowds to lecture them in public on the faith of the Christians, looking thus for pretexts for tumult and heresy. He who strives to reopen and publicly debate in a lecture what have been judged once for all and rightly settled is committing injury against the verdict of the holy council, as the decisions reached now about the faith of the Christians are known to accord with the expositions of the Apostles, with the teaching of the Three Hundred and Eighteen holy fathers [the Council of Nicea in 325], and with the decisions of the Hundred and Fifty [the Council of Constantinople in 381). Punishment against those violating this law shall not be lacking, because they not only go against the well established faith, but also uncover the august mysteries in from of Jews and pagans through such a controversy. If he who dares to debate about religion in public shall be a cleric, he shall be removed from the list of clerics. If adorned by an office, he shall be deprived of his belt [of office]. All the others, however, who are guilty of this charge shall be driven out of this Imperial city [Constantinople] by the verdict of the courts and suffer the appropriate penalties. For it is evident that the beginnings of the heretics' madness and its firewood are furnished by such men, who lecture and debate in public. All must therefore scrupulously observe from now on all that the holy council determined in Chalcedon, casting doubt on nothing. For this reason, and keeping in mind our Serenity's command, avoid sacrilegious words and further inquiry of the divine matters as you avoid prohibited things, particularly because this sin shall be punished not only in God's judgment, as we believe, but it shall also be chastised by the authority of the laws and the judges.
36. Exemption from the Performance of Personal Liturgies [Community Service] on Holidays
Emperor Justinian? Date uncertain
The Mightiest governor of the province shall see to it that you [Jews shall not be harassed by personal liturgies [civic work duties] on a day of worship, in which you are accustomed to do no work.