Works & Councils of Toledo 50

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ our God. The Emperor Caesar, Flavius, Justinianus, Alemannicus, Gothicus, Francicus, Germanicus, Lazicus, Alanicus, Vandalicus, Africanus, pious, fortunate, glorious, victor, triumpher, ever to be venerated Augustus, to Longinus prefect of the city. Since our subjects, whether they live or die, are a care to our power, lest their burials be either grievous to themselves or ruinous to the kinsmen of the deceased, on that account we have disposed in fitting manner also these things which concern their burial.

And since both Constantine of divine memory, the founder of this our ample city, and likewise the most pious prince Anastasius, reduced the number of the litter-bearers, or deacons (as they call them), to a fixed measure—only one thousand and one hundred deacons and as many workshops being defined, so that these should at no time ever receive increase—therefore, indeed, desiring that the number of those who ought to be litter-bearers from each guild should be subject to the rule of Anastasius of divine memory, we have willed it to remain firm and fixed. But since the guild-members of this gracious and royal city of ours—for whom we exercise care eminently and above the rest—coming to us, have informed our power that they sustain a great and intolerable necessity.

For the most holy greater church holds one hundred and one thousand workshops in usufruct, free from every tax, which they very gladly concede to it, because they serve toward the performing in common of the funeral rites of all men; but the other burdens they say they cannot bear.

For although there exist in this gracious city very many workshops and shops of diverse merchandise and trades, not these alone (namely the one thousand and one hundred) workshops are exempted from undertaking the aforesaid public services, but also many most holy churches, many sacred hospices, monasteries, and other sacred buildings—most of which were formerly bound over to heretics, and then returned to the orthodox faith—and many royal houses besides, and moreover those of magistrates, and senators, and illustrious men, and chamberlains

are exempted from the rendering of taxes, and their owners thereby procure for themselves a peculiar revenue, and harm the commonwealth, the multitude of exemptions confining the matter itself within exceedingly narrow bounds, so that very few remain who acknowledge and sustain the public services, and the former contributions, sometimes increased threefold and fourfold, have at this time even become tenfold greater: although the divine prince Anastasius, in the rule established by him, granted immunity to no other at all, except the one thousand and one hundred workshops, which on account of the funeral rites were attributed to the most holy greater church.

For this reason we too have judged that the business should be entrusted both to our nobles and, in addition, to the most blessed archbishop of this fostering city, so that they might assemble at a fixed place, examine the matter itself, and report their decisions to us; and that meanwhile your Excellency should employ the present law, confirming those things which were approved by the most pious prince Anastasius in this matter. And we ordain that the eleven hundred workshops belonging to the most sacred Great Church, on account of the deans or bier-bearers and those appointed to perform the funeral rites of the dead, be in every way preserved free, with their full number and every exemption; and that no other body whatsoever, whether received from among the heretics or any most sacred church, be permitted to appoint a dean besides it.

But let what we have lately decreed hold good: that eighty workshops supply the personnel, while three hundred remain liable to the exaction of moneys. For our sacred pragmatic sanction has already laid down to what use the proceeds gathered thence ought to be applied; and that whatever falls into ruin be ever restored. By what method the restoration ought to be carried out has been sufficiently expressed through the ordinances of Anastasius of pious memory. These therefore we ordain to remain immune and exempt from every tax, so that neither these very workshops, nor the corporations which provide them and which are charged with the taxes, suffer any loss or be subject to any imposts.

But all the other workshops of the fourteen regions of this fostering city, whether they belong to some most sacred church, or to hospitals, or to monasteries, or to orphanages, or to poorhouses, or to any other lordship whatsoever, or to imperial households, or to certain magistrates administering offices great, middling, or small, or to most glorious senators, or to most magnificent illustrious men, or to honourable chamberlains, or to certain men enrolled in the military services;

these, I say, shall all pay the public taxes imposed upon them, and shall both perform and discharge everything else, just as it is fitting for each to do in his own corporation, no one being able on that account to be aided by privileges, or to make use of any such excuse. For we will not endure that the burden of some be transferred to others, or to propose so harsh a formula that the taxes be daily increased and (as we have been informed) imposed fourfold, or fivefold, or even tenfold greater, since we strive after nothing with such great zeal and such earnestness as that no one be burdened with a new tax. And a tax will be 'new' not only when it is now first imposed, but also when it first exceeds the established measure.

But let all be of the same condition and lot, and let this our sacred pragmatic sanction (which it may also be permitted to call a law) be common against all, so that it may bestow upon all freedom from molestation. For no one will easily take it ill, if he sees no other besides exempted, except that in the eleven hundred workshops account is taken of the funeral rites of the dead, which is most common to all, and shared equally among all men alike.

But if anyone attempts to use some excuse, and to relieve himself from making his contribution, and either to fail to ensure that it be the more exacted from his tenants, or even to afford patronage, whether military, civil, or ecclesiastical, or of whatever kind at all—let him forfeit the entire lordship of the workshop, and let it become public property, wholly assigned to the corporation. For by this arrangement men will be both more cautious and will not attempt forbidden things. Moreover, if the taxes be distributed bit by bit and equally upon all, not only will that which is rendered be little, but also that which is contributed will prove the more moderate, lighter, more tolerable, and easier, in proportion as it is collected from a greater number.

Would it not indeed be utterly absurd that men who labour with their own hands, and who feed wives and children, and who in short strive to acquire from that source the things needful for life, should even now be burdened with greater taxes? And that the more they are counted among those relieved, so much the greater injuries should arise to them therefrom? And that this should be boundless, and able to have no end? Forbidding all these things, we set forth this sacred pragmatic sanction, threatening alike with the penalty of forfeiture all subjects of the rank, if from any corporation those in authority should prohibit the customary taxes established from the beginning from being received, or should attempt to convert the taxes into private rents;

but let each enjoy for himself the bringing in of the rents, while permitting the workshops or taverns to acknowledge the contributions according to the customary and accepted manner. For just as each provides for his own affairs on his own behalf, so neither is it unnecessary for him to lend a hand to that which is expedient and profitable for this ample and royal city, when it is, as it were, tottering and now about to fall. For not otherwise will the things that are publicly expedient have their advance. Let no one therefore of those who have hitherto been freed from such a burden, and who have hitherto been compelled to bear it.

Those things therefore which have pleased us and are expressed in this sacred law, your Excellency—nay, not only you yourself shall guard, but also whoever after you shall undertake the same office, and the staff obedient to you, shall from now and for all the remaining time guard them. Given on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of June at Constantinople, in the first year after the consulship of Belisarius, most distinguished man.