65 Interdiction on Alienation of Churches to Jews and on the Construction of New Synagogues
A Paragraph in a Law of Justinian
18 March 545
This law, given by Justinian at Constantinople on 18 March 545, was addressed to Petrus Barsymes, Praefectus Praetorio of the East.
It belonged to a group of laws passed in the 40s, which were designed to strengthen Orthodox Christianity. Justinian’s severe illness at the age of sixty and his recuperation made him resolved to propitiate God by legislation of this type (see Honore, p. 21). Paragraph 14, which dealt with the Jews, has been preserved in its Greek version in the Collection of 168 Novels, in the Basilica and in the epitomes of Theodorus and Athanasius. Its Latin translation has been preserved in the Authenticum and in the epitome of Julian.The complete law dealt with a great variety of problems relating to the possession of ecclesiastical properties. Paragraph 14 contains a prohibition on the transfer of properties which included churches to Jews, Samaritans, pagans, and heretics, and reiterates the prohibition on the construction of new synagogues. This paragraph was quoted in the Nomocanon in 14 Chapters, according to the Basilicas version. The Latin translation of the Authenticum is on the whole an accurate rendering of the Greek original.
Novellae, No. 131, ed. Scholl & Kroll, pp. 654-664
ΠΕΡΙ ΕΚΚΛΗΣΙΑΣΤΙΚΩΝ ΚΑΝΟΝΩΝ KAI ΠΡΟΝΟΜΙΩΝ
Ό αύτός βασιλεύς Πέτρω* τω ένδοξοτάτω έπάρχω πραιτωρίων
Περί των έκκλησιαστικών κανόνων καί προνομίων καί άλλων 5 κεφαλαίων εις τάς άγιωτάτας έκκλησίας καί τούς λοιπούς σεβασμίους οίκους όρώντων τον παρόντα νόμον προφέρομεν.
Caput XIV
Κελεύομεν δέ μηδένα αιρετικόν μήτε κατά μίσθωσιν μήτε κατ’ ίο έμφύτευσιν* μήτε κατά άγορασίαν ή άλλο) οίωδήποτε τρόπω πράγματα άκίνητα λαμβάνει ν άφ’ οίασδήποτε άγιωτάτης έκκλησίας ή άλλου σεβασμίου τόπου.
Εί δέ τι τοιοΰτον άμαρτηθείη, ό μέν αιρετικός εί τι ύπέρ ταύτης της αίτιας παράσχοι τούτο άπολέσει, τά δέ τοιαΰτα πράγματα τφ σεβασμίω τόπω άφ’ ού καί έδόθησαν έκδικείσθωσαν, ό δέ 15 διοικητής τού οίκου ό τά αύτά πράγματα τω αίρετικω δεδωκώς πάσης άποκινείσθω διοικήσεως καί εις μοναστήριον έμβαλλέσθω, καί έπί ένα ένιαυτόν της άγιας κοινωνίας χωριζέσθω,* δστις αίρετικοϊς Χριστιανούς προδέδωκεν. Εί δέ όρθόδοξος κτησιν έχων, έν ή έστιν άγια έκκλησία, έκποιήσει ή καταλείψει ή κατ’ έμφύτευσιν ή μίσθωσιν ή 20 κατά οίανδήποτε διοίκησιν ταύτην δέδωκεν Ίουδαίω ή Σαμαρείτη ή "Έλληνι ή Μοντανιστη ή Άρειανφ ή άλλω αίρετικω, ή άγιωτάτη έκκλησία της αύτης κώμης τήν τούτων δεσποτείαν έκδικείτω. Εί δέ τις των αιρετικών, οίς συναριθμούμεν καί τούς Νεστοριανούς καί τούς Άκεφάλους* καί τούς Εύτυχιανιστάς,* τολμήσει σπήλαιον* της ιδίας 25 Απιστίας οίκοδομήσαι ή ’Ιουδαίοι νέαν συναγωγήν κατασκευάσαι, ή των τόπων Αγία έκκλησία τάς οικοδομάς τη ιδία δεσποτείςι έκδικείτω. Εί δέ τις κατ’ έμφύτευσιν ή μίσθωσιν ή έτέραν οίανδήποτε διοίκησιν τήν Ιδίαν δέδωκε κτήσιν τω τοιούτω προσώπω, εί μέν έγίνωσκεν ό δεσπότης της κτήσεως, ότι αίρετικω ταύτην κατεπίστευσεν, πάσας τάς 30 προσόδους έκείνου του χρόνου τού περιεχομένου τω συναλλάγματι τήν έκκλλησίαν τής πόλεως ύφ’ ήν ή κτησις διάκειται έκδικείν εί δέ ήγνόει ό δεσπότης της κτήσεως, ότι αιρετικός ήν ό ταύτην έμπιστευθείς, αύτόν μέν τόν δεσπότην διά τήν άγνοιαν Αζήμιον φυλαχθήναι, τόν δέ αιρετικόν έν έκατέρω θέματι καί έκβληθήναι των 35 κτήσεων καί τήν ούσίαν αύτού τω δημοσίω προσκυρωθηναι."Ατινα τοίνυν δια τού παρόντος νόμου είς τό διηνεκές ίσχύσοντος ή ήμετέρα έθέσπισε γαληνότης, ή σή ύπεροχή ίδίκτων κατά τό σύνηθες κατά τήν βασιλίδα ταύτην πόλιν προτιθεμένων είς τήν Απάντων γνώσιν 40 έλθεϊν σπευσάτω. Ημείς γάρ προνοήσομεν, όπως άνευ πάσης της των ύποτελών ζημίας καί έν ταΐς έπαρχίαις φανερωθείη.
DAT. XV. KAL. APRIL. CP. IMP. DN. IUSTINIANI PP. AUG. ANNO XVIII. POST CONS. BASILII VC. ANNO IV. IND. VIII.·
ON THE ECCLESIASTICAL CANONS AND PRIVILEGES.
THE SAME AUGUSTUS TO PETRUS,1 THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS PRAEFECTUS PRAETORIO.
(Prologue)
We promulgate the present law about the ecclesiastical canons and privileges and other matters concerning the holiest churches and the other venerable houses.
Chapter XIV.
We order that no heretic shall receive real estate from any holiest church or another venerable place in rent, emphyteusis2 or purchase or in any other way. And if such a sin shall be committed, the heretic shall lose what he shall pay for this, and such properties shall be vindicated to the venerable place out of which they were originally given, while the property manager of that house who gave this property to the heretic shall be removed from all property management, thrown into a monastery and excluded from the holy communion3 for one year, as one who had surrendered Christians to heretics.
If an Orthodox who possesses a property with a church in it shall alienate it forever, or give it in an emphyteusis, or in a lease, or in any other way of management to a Jew, Samaritan, pagan, Montanist, Arian, or another heretic, the holiest church of that village shall vindicate the ownership of this property. If anyone of the heretics, among whom we include also the Nestorians, Acephalians,4 and Eutychianists,5 shall dare to build a cave6 of his impiety, or if the Jews shall dare build a new synagogue, the holy church of the place shall vindicate the buildings to its ownership.
If a man gave his property in emphyteusis or in lease or in any other way of administration to such a person, and if he knew that he transfers it to a heretic, the church of the town which has jurisdiction over the property shall vindicate all the revenues accrued during the duration of the agreement. If the owner did not know that the person receiving this property was heretic, the owner shall be exempt from punishment by reason of his ignorance, while the heretic shall be excluded from the property, and his own property shall be confiscated to the treasury, in both cases.(Epilogue)7
What Our Serenity declared in the present law, which will be valid in eternity, Your Eminence shall hasten to bring to the knowledge of all in edicts published in the usual way in this royal city. We shall take care that it shall be published also in the provinces, without imposing any burden on the subjects.
GIVEN ON THE FIFTEENTH DAY BEFORE THE CALENDS OF APRIL AT CONSTANTINOPLE, IN THE EIGHTEENTH YEAR OF OUR MASTER JUSTINIAN, AUGUSTUS FOREVER, IN THE FOURTH YEAR AFTER THE CONSULATE OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS BASILIUS, IN THE EIGHTH INDICTION.8
NOTES
1. Petrus Barsymes served as Praefectus Praetorio of the East from the beginning of 543 until the middle of 546. See Stein, II, p. 784. In the sixth century the title £v6o§6T(XTog was equivalent to the Latin title ‘clarissimus’. See AE, 1973, No. 542.
2. The legal form of emphyteutic agreements was defined in detail by Justinian in CJ 4:66:2-4, given between 529 and 531 or 534. See Y. Sorek, “Hellenistic- Roman Land Tenancy System as Reflected in Talmudic Literature,” Zion, XXXIX (1974), pp. 217-223 (in Hebrew).
3. Communion: excommunication from sacraments.
4. The Acephalians were those Euthychianists, mostly monks, who seceded in 482 from Petrus Mongus, the Monophysite Patriarch of Alexandria, following his attempt to reach a compromise on the Creed with Acacius of Constantinople.
5. Eutychianists: A Monophysite heresy, called after Eutyches, one of the leading figures in Byzantine monasticism and clergy in the middle of the fifth century. He and his teaching were officially condemned for heresy in the Council of Constantinople of 448 and in the Council of Chalcedon of 451. After the Council of Chalcedon his name was linked, unjustly, with various Monophysite ideas and tendencies.
6. Cave: see above, No. 62, n. 11.
7. This epilogue is characteristic of a group of laws legislated in the years 542-545, whose addressees, mainly praefecti praetorio, were ordered to promulgate them at Constantinople only, and sometimes even ordered not to promulgate them at all. The emperor took upon himself to promulgate the laws in the provinces, shouldering the expenses involved. This policy was changed in 548, when that duty was reimposed on the addressees. HonorS suggests that the change in policy was due to the appointment of a new quaestor after the disappearance of Tribonian in December 542, perhaps Junilius, who held this office till August 548. See Honord, pp. 129, 237-240.
8. Given... Indiction: 18 March 545.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Juster, I, pp. 66, 238; II, p. 472; Browe, p. 128; Seyberlich, p. 73; Kaser, RPR, II, p. 268; Avi-Yonah, p. 249; HonorS, pp. 21, 129.
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