THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
and loss of property. The Jews at Borium, not far from Syrtis Major, who resisted Belisarius in his Vandal campaign, had to embrace Christianity; and their synagogue was changed into a church (Procopius, De Aedifieiis, vi. 2). The emperor had much trouble with the Samaritans; refractory to Christianity, as they were, and repeatedly in insurrection. He opposed them with rigorous edicts, but yet could not prevent a fresh outbreak against the Christians from taking place in Samaria toward the close of his reign. It was no less consistent with his policy, that the Manicheans, too, were per- ' secuted severely, both with exile and threat of capital punishment {Cod., I., v. 12). At Constantinople, on one occasion, not a few Manicheans, after strict inquisition, were executed in the emperor's very presence : some by burning, others by drowning (F. Nau, in Revue de Vorient, ii., 1897, p. 481). The like despotism was also shown in the emperor's ecclesiastical policy. He regulated everything, both in religion and in law. At the very beginning of his reign, he deemed it proper to promulgate by law his belief in the Trinity and the incarnation; and to threaten all heretics 3. Ecclesi- with the becoming penalties {Cod., I., astical i. 5); whereas he subsequently de- Policy, clared that he designed to deprive all disturbers of orthodoxy of the opportunity for such offense by due process of law {MPG, lxxxvi. 1, p. 993). He made the Nicseno-Constantinopolitan creed the sole symbol of the Church {Cod., I., i. 7), and accorded legal force to the canons of the four ecumenical councils {Novellae, cxxxi.). The bishops in attendance at the Synod of Constantinople in 536 recognized that nothing could be done in the Church contrary to the emperor's will and command (Mansi, Concilia, viii. 970B); while, on his side, the emperor, in the case of the Patriarch Anthimus, reinforced the ban of the Church with temporal proscription {Novellae, xlii.). Bishops without number had to feel the tyrant's wrath. On the other hand, it is true, he neglected no opportunity for securing the rights of the Church and clergy, for protecting and extending monasticism. Indeed, were not the despotic character of his measures so glaring, one might be tempted to call him a father of the Church. Both the Codex and the Novellae contain many enactments regarding donations, foundations, and administration of ecclesiastical property; election and rights of bishops, priests and abbots; monastic life, residential obligations of the clergy, conduct of divine service, episcopal jurisdiction, etc.
From the middle of the fifth century onward increasingly arduous tasks confronted the emperors of the East in the province of ecclesiastical polity. For one thing, the radicals on all sides 4. Rela- felt themselves constantly repelled by tions with the creed which had been adopted by Rome. the Council of Chalcedon with the design of mediating between the dogmatic parties. The letter of Leo I. to Flavian of Constantinople passed far and wide, in the East, for a document of Satan; so that, where such was the case, nobody cared to hear aught of the Church of Rome. The emperors, however, had to wrestle
with a twofold problem. In the first place, the unity between East and West, between Byzantium and Rome, was to be preserved; and this was possible only if they swerved not from the line defined at Chalcedon. In the next place, the factions in the East which had been stirred up and disaffected on account of Chalcedon must be restrained and pacified. This problem was the more difficult because the dissenting groups in the East excelled the party for Chalcedon in the East both in numerical strength and in intellectual ability; and so the course of events showed the two aims to be incompatible: whoever chose Rome and the West must renounce the East, and vice versa. For the progress of affairs under Zeno and Anastasius see Monophysites. Justinian entered the arena of ecclesiastical statecraft shortly after his uncle's accession in 518, and put an end to the schism that had prevailed between Rome and Byzantium since 483. The recognition of the Roman see as the highest ecclesiastical authority (cf. Novellae, cxxxi.) remained the cornerstone of his policy in relation to the West, although he thus grievously offended those of the East, and though he felt himself entirely free to show a despotic front toward the pope (witness his behavior toward Silverius and Vigilius). But the controversies in the East were alone sufficient to keep the emperor busy all through his reign; and he plainly paid much more attention to them than to the external affairs of the realm. Yet his policy bore marks of greatness, and strove with large understanding to satisfy the religious instincts of the devout in the East, a signal proof of which was his attitude in the Theopaschite controversy (see Theopaschites). At the outset he was of the opinion that the question turned on a quibble of words. By degrees, however, he came to understand that the formula at issue was not only orthodox, but might also be used as a conciliatory measure toward the Monophysites, and made a vain attempt to do this in the religious conference with the Severians, in 533. Again, he reviewed the same approvingly in the religious edict of Mar. 15, 533 {Cod., I., i. 6), and congratulated himself that Pope John II. admitted the orthodoxy of the imperial confession {Cod., I., i. 8). The serious blunder that he had made at the beginning by abetting after Justin's accession a severe persecution of the Monophysite bishops and monks and thereby embittering the population of vast regions and provinces, he remedied eventually. His constant aim now was to win the Monophysites, yet not to surrender the Chalcedonian faith. For many at court, he did not go far enough: the Empress Theodora especially would have been glad to see the Monophysites favored unreservedly. Justinian, however, was restrained in that policy by the complications that would have ensued with the West. Neither, for that matter, could he escape these issues; for instance, the Three Chapter Controversy (q.v.; see also \ igilius). In the condemnation of the Three Chapters Justinian tried to satisfy both the East and the West, but succeeded in satisfying neither. Although the pope assented to the condemnation, the West believed that the emperor was acting contrary to the decrees of Chalcedon; and though many dele-