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The Rise of Church-State Alliances: Imperial Edicts & Church Councils: 306-565
"...an imperial victory which would establish the form of absolutism by which Byzantine history is generally characterized". -- JB Bury, The History of the Later Roman Empire, Vol 1, page 345, regarding the 30,000 slaughtered in the Hippodrome racetrack stadium by Justinian's order.
Justinian was born in 482 as Petrus Sabbatius in the region we now call the Balkans, which is just north of Greece and Alexander the Great's home, Macedonia. Because he was the Emperor Justin's nephew, when his accession to the throne came, he was called Flavian Petrus Sabbatius Justinianus. Justinian had a great deal of power in his uncle's government from 518, but he reigned as the sole emperor of the east from 527 to 565.
Like every Christian emperor since the rise of Constantine, Justinian incorporated religious intolerance into the legal framework of his regime. Most had been ruthless and The age of Justinian was a very important junction in late antiquity and the early Medieval Period. Justinian achieved far reaching victories in the Nicene religious war against classical thought, Christian heterodoxy, and paganism. This was achieved by ruthless imperial decrees, the state support of forced conversions, the continuation of temple destruction, and the use of imperial troops to these ends. This state enforced agenda of religious intolerance started by Constantine in the early fourth century made huge gains under Justinian that held its ground until the tide was reversed in the Renaissance, the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment.
Justinian continued the work of Constantine and Theodosius in persecuting Christian heresy. Like all the Christian Emperors and all of the Nicene clergy, he was convinced that the empire's stability required a rigid, totalistic, empire wide conformity to the Nicene Creed. (Just the opposite had worked for a thousand Roman years). Justinian's Codex and Novella parts of the Corpus Juris Civilis were specificly designed to wipe out religious diversity. They were written to secure and protect the Nicene Chuch with the might and law of the empire. Christianity may have never have grown to its proportions without imperial might because of the popularity of paganism. Pagans had always said that Christianity offered them nothing new; they had their virgin births, their miracles, their Godmen and their resurrections. In this man's view, it was for the good of the empire to wipe out individual choice. Ironicly, heresy means "choice". To Justinian, choice meant disorder. To the Christian emperor, individuality meant chaos. Justinian was a despot's despot and the dictator of the sixth century.
This Nicene Roman empire required every person to conform. That is totalitarianism by definition. In 523 his adopting uncle, Emperor Justin had outlawed Arianism. Since it is believed that Justinian was the real power, this could be considered Justinian's first move against Arian Christianity. Arianism had been under attack since Constantin and the Council of Nicea. Campaigns and persecutions against Arians became widespread. Justinian was no different with regard to heresies but with one exception; the Monophysite heresy to which his wife Theodora was an adherent. Monophysitism was never wiped out and became major churches in Syria and North Africa. Egyptian Coptic and Ethiopian churches are Monophysite. The doctinal difference was that with Monophysitism, Christ had only one nature and it was divine. With Nicenes he had two, human and diviine. With Arians, Jesus was an annointed human messenger from God.
In this period there was an historian named Procopius. Procopius is the most important historian of the early Byzantine era. During Justinian's reign, he wrote on the wars, the building programs, the Hagia Sophia, and the problems with the racing factions that led to the Niki rebellion. But there was one book he wrote in secet which was not released until after his death. It was called "The Secret History" and it was all about Justinian and his wife Theodora. At the beginning of this work, Procopius puts it this way:
"You see, it was not possible, during the life of certain persons, to write the truth of what they did, as a historian should. If I had, their hordes of spies would have found out about it, and they would have put me to a most horrible death. I could not even trust my nearest relatives. That is why I was compelled to hide the real explanation of many matters glossed over in my previous books."
(Procopius quotes from the Internet Medieval Sourcebook; Procopius translation by Richard Atwater, in Procopius, Secret History, Chicago: P. Covicii; New York: Covicii Friedal, 1927)
Justinian threatened severe penalties for all other heresies but Monophysites from the start. Justinian savagely persecuted the Manicheans, the Montanists, and the Sabbatians. His inquision brought about penalties such as the loss of citizen rights, exile and death for paganism and heresy. The execution of many by burning or drowning was performed in his presence. Heads rolled.
Procopius wrote in chapter 11 of his "Secret History".
"Now among the Christians in the entire Roman Empire, there are many with dissenting doctrines, which are called heresies by the established church: such as those of the Montanists and Sabbatians, and whatever others cause the minds of men to wander from the true path. All of these beliefs he ordered to be abolished, and their place taken by the orthodox dogma: threatening, among the punishments for disobedience, loss of the heretic's right to will property to his children or other relatives."
Another of Justinian's early decrees was to order the total destruction of Hellenism, the post-Alexandrian spread of Hellenic thought. Hellenism was the later offspring of the golden age of Hellenic classical tradition that began centuries before Alexander. During the Hellenic age there arose Olympic games and great athleticism. There arose humanism with great emphasis on arts, literature and lyrical poetry. There arose philosophical schools and traditions that founded the core of what we now require for a liberal education. There arose epics, tragedies and symbolicly stunning Greek mythologies. So stunning in symbolism that the entire architecture of Washington, DC is based on the offsprings of the Hellenic age found in Greco-Roman classicism. There arose Socrates, Plato and Aristotle who was to be one of Alexander's teachers. There was Pythagoras, the father of mathematics. Hellenic tradition, six centuries before Christianity existed, gave us Thales, the father of western naturalistic philosophy (science!). Thales was the first person in recorded history to posit that the universe could be explained in purely natural ways. This tradition gave the world it's first democratic constitutional reforms under Solon, Cleisthones and Pericles in Athens. The Hellenic tradition gave us the Greek tragedies that were the first in the west speak to individual human dignity and western civilization's earliest notions of 'natural rights'. The Greeks became the first people on record to question the morality of slavery. The Judeo-Christian traditions did not question its judicial ethics or its moral value. Constantine never considered the morality of slavery and it continued for more than fifteen centuries as part of God's natural order.
Procopius wrote in chapter 7 of The Secret History:
"Without hesitation he wrote decrees for the plundering of countries, sacking of cities, and slavery of whole nations, for no cause whatever. So that if one wished to take all the calamities which had befallen the Romans before this time and weigh them against his crimes, I think it would be found that more men had been murdered by this single man than in all previous history."
Alexander the Great had founded Antioch and it became one of the jewels of the Mediterranean. Antioch, being situated 15 miles from the Mediterranean in the northern part of what we now call the middle east. It was at the crossroads of many trade routes. Because it was a center of commerce and trade, it was also a melting pot of ideas and expressions. Antioch became a bustling multicultural center of philosopy, religion, arts, humanities, theater and literature. Antioch was so busy that it's streets were lighted at night while traders, peddlers, theatre, circus and restaurant goers filled the busy streets into the late hours of the nights. Antioch became the Athens of the middle east, opening schools of philosophy, music and poetry. In the Hellenist tradition, alongside athletic competitions, there were those of music, poetry and the two as one: the great traition of lyrical poetry. The Hellenic tradition was the first humanist culture in world history, dedicated to knowledge and excellence. As long ago as the Sixth century BCE, it embraced democratic reforms. That is why Solon stands next to Moses on the US Supreme Court's east entrance's pediment, has a medallion in the US House of Representatives and stands alone as the representative of Law in the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. See The Classical Archtecture of Washington, DC.
The multicultural crossroads of Antioch was a special place. Antioch even had its own Olympics every four years but in 528, Justinian outlawed these popular eight centuries old games of the Hellenist tradition. Theodosius had done the same to the Olympic games and other pan-Hellenic games.
In his decrees, recorded as Codex Justinianus. 1.11.9-10, he ordered the execution of those who practice sorcery, divination, magic or idolatry. In one translation, Justinian refers to them as "the ones suffering from the blasphemous insanity of the Hellenes". Execution was by fire, crucifixion, wild beasts in an arena, or being shredded to pieces by sharp iron nails.
"...one finds persons possessed by the error of the unclean and abominable Hellenes, and performing their practices, and this arouses in God, in his love for mankind, a righteous anger."
"All those who have not yet been baptized must come forward, whether they reside in the capital or in the provinces, and go to the very holy churches with their wives, their children, and their households, to be instructed in the true faith of Christians. And once thus instructed and sincerely renounced their former error, let them be judged worthy of redemptive baptism. Should they disobey, let them know that they will be
excluded from the State and will no longer have any rights of possession, neither goods nor property; stripped of everything, they will be reduced to penury, without prejudice to the appropriate punishments that will be imposed on them"
"We forbid anyone stricken with the madness of the impure Hellenes to teach, so as to prevent them, under the guise of teaching those who by misfortune happen to attend their classes, from in fact corrupting the souls of those they pretend to educate. They will not receive state pensions, aving no license either by Sacred Scripture or earthly law, to claim for themsleves any immunity whatsoever"
We have seen this kind of suppression over and over in the religious history of the west. Remember Emperor Julian's point of view regarding Christians teaching classical philosophy? They were banned from teaching the classics because they would mock them.
Procopius wrote in Chapter 11 of The Secret History:
"The Emperor's malice was also directed against the astrologer. Accordingly, magistrates appointed to punish thieves also abused the astrologers, for no other reason than that they belonged to this profession: whipping them on the back and parading them on camels throughout the City, though they were old men, and in every way respectable, with no reproach against them except that they studied the science of the stars while living in such a city."
Back in 306, the Synod of Elvira had attacked theaters, circuses and other public entertainments loved by the culture. These attacks on entertainment continued for centuries. In fact, today's religious right is always attacking theater, film and arts. Saint John Chrysostom, in the early 5th century, begrudged the fact that more people went to circuses and threaters on the Lord's Day than went to church. To the radicals that militantly forged the alliances of church and state, which were no different than the alliances of mosque and state of Islam, that made a good reason to outlaw them both. Fundamentalists of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity attack the notions of secularism and seek governments to incorporate their views as law. The fathers did it then and the radicals of every religion still do it. It is the nature of the beast, , past and present. The Christian fanatic Randall Terry reveals the minds of the religious right in America. They are much more like the Medieval church, Calvin's theocracy in Geneva, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, Iran and the Taliban than Jefferson, Madison and Washington. In fact, they have seem to have no idea what our founders created. Or maybe they hate it just as the Islamists do. The righgt wing Christian rants against secularism are identical in many respects to those of radical Islam. Terry's bazarre statement below is from The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana, August 16, 1993:
"I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good.... Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a Biblical duty, we are called by God, to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism."
Not only did Justinian wish to destroy their religious and intellectual lives, he sought to extend this policy to their civil service, prohibiting any public service if they were not religiously correct. This kind of religious testing lasted right into the 18th century American colonies where most of them had discriminating constitutions establishing Protestantism. In order to hold office one had to be a Protestant. Catholics, Jews and Muslims had no rights in this regard because a Protestant version of the Nicene Creed was required in a religious test for oaths of office. No other person person but a Protestant had full religious liberty and no other person could perform civil duties. The pre-ratification charters and constitutions were extensions and expressions of the principles found in the old legal order of Imperial Christianity and the subsequent church-state alliances of history. They were archaic and neither ethicly or legally close to the breakthrough in liberties found in the United States Constitution. See The Evolution of American Constitutional Framing for a detailed look at Colonial Charters and State Constitutions prior to the ratification of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights..
Returning to Justinian now, Procopius also wrote in Chapter 11 of the Secret History
"Next he turned his attention to those called Gentiles, torturing their persons and plundering their lands. Of this group, those who decided to become nominal Christians saved themselves for the time being; but it was not long before these, too, were caught performing libations and sacrifices and other unholy rites. And how he treated the Christians shall be told hereafter."
Following in the footsteps of Constantine and Theodosius, Justinian decreed pagans could not participate in political or administrative service and they could no longer own property. Justinian also intruded right into the authority of the family, removing the authority of a father over a son should the son convert to Christianity and decapitating the son who didn't convert when the father did.
As soon as he became sole emperor of the Christian empire, Justinian decreed in 527, recorded as Codex Justinianus 1.5.12:
"Pagans Barred from Office and their Real Property Confiscated. ... It is our intention to restore the existing laws which affect the rest of the heretics of whatever name they are, (and we label as heretic whoever is not a member of the Catholic Church and of our orthodox and holy faith); likewise the pagans who attempt to
introduce the worship of many gods, and the Jews and the Samaritans, we have resolved not only to reinforce them with this present law, but also to enforce other measures which will provide those who share our shining faith with greater security, order and honor... We forbid any of the above mentioned persons to aspire to any dignity or to acquire civil or military office or to attain to any rank."
Forbidden to aspire to human dignity? Barred from official positions? Don't try to attain rank or succeed in life? Loss of property rights? All because of religious beliefs? Justinian's decrees, like so many other emperors' decrees and church councils' canons, clearly represented and expressed the antithesis of both classical diversity and liberty's principles. The foundation on which the principles of liberty rest is universal respect and recognition of every individual's personal dignity and desire for autonomy. This means freedom of conscience and worldview. Belief comes from within but both radical islam and the Christian right wing wish to impose it from outside with the use of the state's authority.
In this same law, the emperor Justinian says of these politically incorrect believers:
"It is more than enough for them merely to be alive. Heretics are all such as do not belong to the Catholic faith including Jews. They are not to hold any office; or follow profession of law"
It is more than enough for them merely to be alive? And forbidden to aspire to dignity? This kind of thinking is what is behind the required religious tests of the old legal order before the American Enlightenment of the late 1780s. In this ancient legal order, in order to be serve the public trust, one had to be a certain kind (a Protestant trinitarian) of Nicene and a believer in a divinely inspired Bible. See The
Evolution of American Constitutional Framing for the texts of these required religious tests.
Hitler also banned Jews from being lawyers as did the 535 Church Council of Clermont in Gaul (Claremont, France). Hitler's idol Martin Luther wrote a book called The Jews and their Lies. Like the language of John Chrysostom, it was meant to incite hatred. In the Nuremburg laws, the Nazis, like Christian emperors and church councils, outlawed intermarriage, social and sexual intercourse, and even sharing a meal with a Jew. See The Council of Elvira of 306.