IMPPP. GR(ATI)IANUS, VAL(ENTINI)ANUS ET THE(O)D(OSIUS)
AAA. EDICTUM AD POPULUM VRB(IS) CONSTANTINOP(OLITANAE).
Cunctos populos, quos clementiae nostrae regit
temperamentum, in tali volumus religione versari, quam divinum
Petrum apostolum tradidisse Romanis religio usque ad nunc ab
ipso insinuata declarat quamque pontificem Damasum sequi claret
et Petrum Aleksandriae episcopum virum apostolicae sanctitatis,
hoc est, ut secundum apostolicam disciplinam evangelicamque
doctrinam patris et filii et spiritus sancti unam deitatem sub
pari maiestate et sub pia trinitate credamus. Hanc legem
sequentes Christianorum catholicorum nomen iubemus amplecti,
reliquos vero dementes vesanosque iudicantes haeretici dogmatis
infamiam sustinere ‘nec conciliabula eorum ecclesiarum nomen
accipere’, divina primum vindicta, post etiam motus nostri, quem
ex caelesti arbitro sumpserimus, ultione plectendos.
DAT. III Kal. Mar. THESSAL(ONICAE) GR(ATI)ANO A. V ET THEOD(OSIO)
A. I CONSS.
EMPERORS GRATIAN, VALENTINIAN AND THEODOSIUS
AUGUSTI.
EDICT TO THE PEOPLE OF CONSTANTINOPLE.
It
is our desire that all the various nations which are subject to
our Clemency and Moderation, should continue to profess that
religion which was delivered to the
Romans
by the divine Apostle Peter, as it has been preserved by
faithful tradition, and which is now professed by the Pontiff
Damasus and by Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic
holiness. According to the apostolic teaching and the doctrine
of the Gospel,
let us believe in the one deity of the Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit, in equal majesty and in a holy Trinity.
We authorize the followers of this
law to assume the
name of Catholic Christians;
but as for the
others, since, in our judgment they are foolish madmen, we
decree that they shall be branded with the ignominious name of
heretics, and shall not presume to give to their conventicles
the name of churches. They will suffer in the first place the
chastisement of the divine condemnation and in the second the
punishment of our authority which in accordance with the will of
Heaven we shall decide to inflict.
GIVEN IN THESSALONICA ON THE THIRD DAY FROM THE CALENDS OF
MARCH, DURING THE FIFTH CONSULATE OF GRATIAN AUGUSTUS AND FIRST
OF THEODOSIUS AUGUSTUS
—Codex Theodosianus, xvi.1.2
