Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/63

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Wei r estern Europe before the Barbarian Invasions 27 beaten into the orthodox faith. One edict (407) deprives convicted Manichaeans of the right of buying, selling, or entering into any contract, on the ground that " this kind of man has nothing in common with other men, either in customs or laws." Even the dead, if they be proved to have been tainted with Manichaean heresy, are to have their wills invalidated. In 409 the following edict was issued : Lest the Donatists and other deluded heretics and those Laws against who, like the Jews and the Gentiles (commonly called heretics to be " pagans "), cannot be brought into the communion of the enforced. Catholic religion, should conclude that the force of the laws formerly directed against them had declined, let all the magistrates take note that those provisions of the law are to be faithfully observed, and that they should not hesitate to enforce all that we have decreed against the heretics. A later title of the Theodosian Code is devoted to Provisions "pagans, sacrifices, and temples." The temples were ^reg^ 6 first ordered to be destroyed in the towns, later in the to pagans, country. Heavy fines were to be inflicted upon those who dared to offer sacrifices to the old heathen gods. Pagans were excluded by law from judicial and adminis- trative offices, although it seems impossible that this measure could have been strictly carried out. In 423 we find a law declaring that, although pagans deserved to suffer capital punishment, they were required only to surrender their property to the government and go into exile. It is noteworthy, however, that far less attention is given to the pagans than to the Manichaeans and the various Christian sects, like the Arians, Montanists, Donatists, and others, who ventured to differ from the theological opinions sanctioned by the government.