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- Title
WILL THE REAL INNOVATOR PLEASE STAND UP?: HERETICS, PAGANS, MAGICIANS, AND THEODOSIUS I.
- Authors
WOOD, NOVA
- Abstract
The development of the field of Late Antiquity since the 1970s has yielded a number of important changes in the way we think of the development from the Classical period to the Middle Ages. Perhaps the greatest of these is the way we think about religion and law. Theodosius I's edict in 380 in Codex Theodosianus (CTh) 16.1.2 declared Catholic Christianity to be the legal religion of the Roman Empire, giving it unparalleled privileges and dominance over non-Christian groups and other Christian sects. The rapidity of Christianity's ascension to dominance is striking. This change in power becomes what many considered to be the defining feature of the Middle Ages, and it greatly influenced how power was exercised and the legislative capacity of civil authorities. This article will demonstrate that Theodosius I's declaration is not, however, as unexpected as previously thought and has less to do with exclusivist Christianity than with the legal preoccupation with enforcing uniformity. Theodosius' innovation, rather, is in the tactic he uses to achieve this end.
- Subjects
PRIMITIVE &; early church, ca. 30-600; PROCLAMATIONS; THEODOSIAN code; THEODOSIUS I, Emperor of Rome, 347-395; HISTORY of religion
- Publication
Canterbury Law Review, 2019, Vol 25, p145
- ISSN
0112-0581
- Publication type
Article