The same Augustus to John, Praetorian Prefect. Since many judges, in deciding lawsuits, have appealed to us, needing our oracle, that it might be opened to them what is to be determined concerning heretical witnesses—whether their testimonies are to be accepted or rejected—we ordain that against orthodox litigants no heretic, nor even those who practice the Jewish superstition, shall have any share in giving testimony, whether both parties be orthodox or only one. But among themselves, where heretics or Jews think a suit ought to be brought, we grant a mixed bond, and that they may introduce witnesses also worthy of such litigants;
excepted, of course, are those whom either the Manichaean madness (of which the Borborites also are manifestly a part) or the pagan superstition holds; the Samaritans likewise, and those who are not unlike them, the Montanists, and the Tascodrogites, and the Ophites: to whom, on account of the likeness of their guilt, every lawful act is forbidden. But to these indeed—that is, to the Manichaeans, Borborites, and pagans, and likewise the Samaritans, and Montanists, and Tascodrogites, and Ophites—we ordain that all testimony, like the other lawful dealings, be forbidden. But to the other heretics we will that only judicial testimonies against the orthodox, according to what has been established, be prohibited.
For the rest, their testamentary testimonies, and those which consist in last bequests or in contracts, we permit to them without any distinction, on account of the utility of necessary usage, lest the means of proof be straitened. Given on the fifth day before the Kalends of August at Constantinople, after the consulship of Lampadius and Orestes, most distinguished men, 532.