The same Augustus to Hermogenes, Master of the Offices. We decree that the ravishers of virgins, or of widows, or of deaconesses, who have been dedicated to God, sinning with the worst of crimes, are to be smitten with capital punishment, since it is committed not only to the injury of men, but also to the irreverence of Almighty God Himself. Those therefore who shall have committed a crime of this kind, and those who shall have furnished them aid at the time of the assault, when they are found in the very rapine, and caught while the crime is still flagrant, by the parents of the consecrated virgins, or of the widows, or of the deaconesses, or by their kinsmen, or guardians, or curators, being convicted, let them be put to death.
But if, after so detestable a crime has been committed, the ravisher shall have been able either to defend himself by power, or to escape by flight, then in this royal city both the most excellent praetorian prefects, and the most glorious prefect of the city, but in the provinces both the most eminent praetorian prefects throughout Illyricum and Africa, and the masters of the soldiery throughout the diverse regions of our world, as well as the most distinguished prefect of Egypt, and the vicars, and proconsuls, and likewise the most distinguished dukes, and the most illustrious rectors of the provinces, and also the judges of any rank whatsoever who shall be found in those places, let them apply like zeal with great solicitude, that they may be able to apprehend them;
and those apprehended in such a crime, after lawful and judicially recognized proofs, without any strong prescription, let them afflict with the harshest penalties, and condemn them to the punishment of death. But their goods, if this has been committed against a consecrated virgin who dwells either in a community of ascetics or in a monastery, whether the same virgin be constituted a deaconess or not, let them be adjudged to the same monastery or community of ascetics where she was consecrated, so that out of these goods she herself may have a sufficient solace while she lives, and the most sacrosanct community of ascetics or monastery may hold all the property in full ownership;
But if the deaconess, of whatever church she may be, is yet established in no monastery or ascetery, but lives by herself, let her substance be assigned to those who plunder it... rather, let it be assigned to the church of which she is deaconess, so that from these resources she herself may obtain the usufruct from that same church while she lives; but let the church, by our grant, hold full ownership and complete possession of these same goods, no one — whether judge or any other person whatsoever — daring to despise this. As for the penalties which we have foretold (that is, of death and the loss of goods), we appoint them not only against the ravishers, but also against those who, accompanying them, have taken part in the very invasion and rapine.
But all the rest who are found and convicted to have been accomplices and agents of a crime of this kind, or who have harboured such persons, or have rendered them any assistance whatsoever — whether they be male or female, of whatever condition, rank, or dignity — we subject solely to capital punishment. So that all may be liable to this penalty, whether such a deed was perpetrated against consecrated virgins willing or unwilling, or against the other aforesaid women. Given on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of December, at Constantinople, in the third consulship of our lord Justinian, Perpetual Augustus, in the year 533.