LEGAL CODES IN TRANSITION: From Paganism to Christianity
In the second century CE, many pagans considered that Christians:
- Met secretly at night, often in caves.
- Worshipped the head of an ass or the genitals of the priest
- Required initiates to kill a baby, whose blood was consumed along with bread.
- Held wild orgies of feasting, drinking, and sex. Supposedly a dog was tied to the candelabra that provided light for these meetings. When the Christians were thoroughly drunk, they called the dog, who pulled over the candelabra. In the darkness that resulted they engaged inindiscriminate sex with whoever came to hand, even family members.
NB: although this was popular rumor, it was not taken seriously by the governmental authorities. Christians were executed for failing to sacrifice to the emperor, NOT for murder, cannibalism or incest.
In the year 312, in gratitude for a victory which he attributed to the Christian God, the Emperor Constantine declared that the Christians could legally practice their religion in the Roman Empire.
In the year 392, the Christian Emperor Theodosius prohibited the practice of the traditional pagan religion of Rome:
The Theodosian Code, XVI, 10, 12 (392) transl. Pharr (pp. 473-4) from: J. N. Hillgarth. Christianity and Paganism, (pp. 47-49).
No person at all... shall sacrifice an innocent victim to senseless images in any place or at all or in any city...
1. If any man should dare to immolate a victim for the purpose of sacrifice, or to consult the quivering entrails, according to the example of a person guilty of high treason, he shall be reported by an accusation which is permitted to all persons, and he shall receive the appropriate sentence, even though he has inquired nothing contrary to, or with reference to, the welfare of the Emperors. For it is sufficient to constitute an enormous crime that any person should wish to break down the very laws of nature, to investigate forbidden matters, to disclose hidden secrets, to attempt interdicted practices, to seek to know the end of another’s life, to promise the hope of another person’s death.
2. If any person should venerate, by placing incense before them, images made by the work of mortals and destined to suffer the ravages of time, and if, in a ridiculous manner, he should sud denly fear the effigies which he himself has formed, or should bind a tree with fillets, or should erect an altar of turf that he has dug up, or should attempt to honor vain images with the offering of a gift, which even though it is humble, still is complete outrage against religion, such a person, as one guilty of the violation of religion, shall be punished by the forfeiture of that house or landholding in which it is proved that he served a pagan superstition. For we decree that all places shall be annexed to Our fisc, if it is proved that they have reeked with the vapor of incense, provided, however, that such places are proved to have belonged to such incense burners.
3. But if any person should attempt to perform any such kind of sacrifice in public temples or shrines, or in the buildings or fields of others, and if it is proved that such places were usurped without the knowledge of the owner, the offender shal compelled to pay twenty-five pounds of gold as a fine. If any person should connive at such a crime, he shall be held subje to the same penalty as that of the person who performed the sacrifice.
Theodosian Code XVI, 10, 25, (435) transl. Pharr, p. 476
Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian Augustes to Isidorus, Praetorian Prefect
We interdict all persons of criminal pagan mind from the accursed immolation of victims, from damnable sacrifices, and from all such practices that are prohibited by the authorit~ I the more ancient sanctions. We command that all their fanes [temples], temples, and shrines, if even now any remain entire, shall be destroyed by the command of the magistrates, and shall be purified by the erection of the sign of the venerable Christian religion. All men shall know that if it should appear, by suitable proof before a competent judge, that any person has mocked this law, he shall be punished with death.
The Burgundian Code: Book of Constitutions or Law of Gundobad, transl. Katherine Fisher Drew, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972
The Burgundians were a germanic tribe that settled in the Rome Empire and gave their name to Burgundy in France. The Book of Constitutions was probably composed around 500.
XXXXIV Of Divorces
2. If anyone wishes to put away his wife without cause, let hin give her another payment such as he gave for her marriage price, and let the amount of the fine be twelve solidi.
3. If by chance a man wishes to put away his wife, and is able prove one of these three crimes against her, that is, adulter, witchcraft, or violation of graves, let him have full right to put her away: and let the judge pronounce the sentence of the against her, just as should be done against criminals.
4. But if she admits none of these three crimes, let no man be permitted to put away his wife for any other crime.
Council of Auxerre, 561-605, Hillgarth, Christianity and Paganism, p. 103
1. It is not permitted to dress up as a calf or as a stag on the Kalends [1st] of January or to present diabolical gifts; on that day all favors shall be granted as on other days. […]
3. It is forbidden to make offerings or keep vigils of the Saints’ festival in private houses, or to discharge vows among woods or at sacred trees or springs, but, whoever has a vow, let him keep vigil in the church and fulfill his vow [by giving] to the servants of the church or to the poor. Nor let anyone dare to make feet or images of men out of wood. [i.e. images of the afflicted part of the body, for which a cure was desired.]
4. It is forbidden to turn to soothsayers or to augurs, or to those who pretend to know the future, or to look at what they call “the lots of the Saints,” or those they make of wood or bread. But, whatever a man wishes to do, let him do it in the Name of God.
5. Forbid especially, in every way, these observances on the vigils which are kept in honor of St. Martin.
Prohibition of magic in Spain, 642-52
Lex Visigothorum, VI, 2, 4, Hillgarth, Christianity and Paganism, p 109.
Magicians and invokers of tempests, who, by their incantations, bring hail-storms upon vineyards and fields of grain; or those who disturb the minds of men by the invocation of demons, or celebrate nocturnal sacrifices to devils, summoning them to their presence by infamous rites; all such persons detected, or found guilty of such offences by any judge, agent, or superintendent of the locality where these acts were committed, shall be publicly scourged with two hundred lashes; shall be scalped; and shall be dragged by force through ten villages of the neighborhood, as a warning to others. And the judge, lest, hereafter, the aforesaid persons may again indulge in such practices, shall place them in confinement, and see that they are provided with clothing and food, to deprive them of an opportunity of inflicting further injury; or he may send them to the king, to be disposed of at his royal pleasure. Those who are convicted of having consulted such persons, shall each receive two hundred lashes in the assembly of the people, in order that all who are guilty of such a crime may not go unpunished.
from The Lombard Laws, transl. Katherine Fisher Drew, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1973.
Rothair’s Edict: Italy, 643
368. Concerning duellers. When a man participates in a duel, he may not have upon himself witch’s herbs or other like things. He may have nothing except those arms which are agreed upon. If it is suspected that a man carries such prohibited things secretly, they shall be searched for by the judge and if they are found on him, they shall be torn out and cast aside. After this search, the one engaging in the combat shall place his hand in the hand of his relatives or fellow freemen and say before the judge to whom he is making satisfaction that he does not have on himself anything that belongs to witches. Then he may proceed to the contest. p. 125
376. No one may presume to kill another man’s aldia [a status between free and slave] or woman slave as if she were a vampire (striga), which the people call witch (masca), because it is in no wise to be believed by Christian minds that it is possible that a woman can eat a living man from within. If anyone presumes to perpetrate such an illegal and impious act, that is, if he kills an aldia for such a reason, he shall pay sixty solidi as composition according to her status, and, in addition, he shall add 100 solidi for the guilt, half to the king and half to him whose aldia she was. . . pp. 126-2
Liutprand’s edict: Italy, 727 CE
... First of all in defense of our Christian and Catholic law we make provision that no one may presume to wander from the faith of Christ, that we may have God as a defender and helper firmly and permanently in all things.
84. I He who, unmindful of the wrath of God, goes to sorcerers or witches for the purpose of receiving divinations or answers of any kind whatsoever from them, shall pay to the royal fisc as composition half the price at which he would have been valued if someone had killed him [his wergeld], and in addition, shall do penance according to the established canon. In like manner, he who, like a rustic, prays to a tree as sacred, or adores springs, or who makes any sacrilegious incantation, whall also pay as composition a half of his price to the royal fisc. And he who knows of sorcerers or witches and does not reveal them, or conceals those who go to them and does not reveal it, shall be subjected to the above punishment. Moreover, he who sends his man or woman slave to such sorcerers or witches for the purpose of seeking responses from them, and it is proved, shall pay composition as abovementioned. If indeed the man or woman slave goes to the soothsayer or witch without the consent of his or her lord and so without his authority, likewise for the purpose of seeking responses, then his or her lord ought to sell him or her outside the province. And if his or her lord neglects to do this, he [the lord] shall be subjected to the punishment noted above.
85.II If any judge or schultheis [an official] or forester or deganus [an official] of the place where there are sorcerers or witches neglects to seek them out and find them within three months and they are found by other men, then each of the named officials from that place shall pay half of his worth as composition, just as is read above. And if it becomes clear that the judge or the schultheis or the forester or the deganus of the place where those sorcerers or witches are found has not condemned them or has taken a bribe or has absolved them as if for piety or any other reason, then he shall pay his entire wergeld as composition to the sacred palace [i.e., to the king]. [The punishment for practicing sorcery or witchcraft was being sold as a slave outside the province] We decree that each judge and schultheis shall undertake to send a warning to those who, whether male or female, have in the past done such unspeakable deeds, that they shall not do them in the future. If they do not do them in the future, they shall not be offered for sale. But if after this warning any are found in such evil works, they shall be subjected to the above-stated penalty. (pp.180-81)
The Laws of The Salian Franks, transl. Xatherine Fisher Drew, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991.
XIX. Concerning Magic Philtres or Poisoned Potions (pp. 83-84) [France, 500-600]
1. He who casts a magic spell over another man or gives him an herbal potion to drink so that he dies, and it is proved against him... shall be liable to pay eight thousand denarii.
2. If a man gives an herbal potion to another man or casts a magic spell over him but that one does not die, the author of the crime who is proved to have committed this or has been convicted... shall be liable to pay twenty-five hundred denarii.
3. He who casts a magic spell over another wherever he is ... shall be liable to pay twenty-five hundred denarii.
4. The woman who casts a magic spell over another woman so that she cannot have children shall be liable to pay twenty-five hundred denarii.
XXXVII. Concerning him who calls another a sorcerer (p. 199) [France, c. 800]
1. If anyone calls another a sorcerer (herinburgium) or a strioportium, i.e., one who is said to carry a bronze cauldron where witches (striae) brew, and he cannot prove it, he shall be judged liable to pay twenty-five hundred denarii.
2. If anyone calls a free woman a witch (striam) or a harlot (meretricem) and cannot prove it, he shall be liable to pay seven thousand denarii.
3. If a witch eats a man and is convicted, he or she shall be liable to pay eight thousand denarii.