The Emperor Justinian Augustus to Peter, most glorious prefect of the sacred praetoria. We set forth the present law concerning the ecclesiastical canons and privileges, and likewise other chapters that concern the most holy churches and the remaining venerable houses. We decree therefore that the holy ecclesiastical canons, which were set forth and confirmed by the four holy councils (that is, the Nicene of the three hundred and eighteen, the Constantinopolitan of the one hundred and fifty holy Fathers, the first of Ephesus, in which Nestorius was condemned, and that of Chalcedon, in which Eutyches together with Nestorius was struck with anathema), shall hold the place of laws.
For the decrees of the aforesaid holy councils we receive just as the sacred Scriptures, and we keep the canons as laws. And therefore we decree that, according to their definitions, the most holy pope of Old Rome shall be the first of all priests, but the most blessed archbishop of Constantinople, the New Rome, shall hold the second place after the holy apostolic see of Old Rome, and be preferred before all the rest.
But the most blessed archbishop for the time being of Justiniana Prima, our native land, shall always have under his jurisdiction the bishops of the provinces of Mediterranean Dacia and Ripensian Dacia, likewise of Triballia, and Dardania, and Upper Moesia, and Pannonia, and they shall be ordained by him, while he himself shall be ordained by his own synod, and in the provinces subject to him he shall hold the place of the apostolic see of Rome, according to the things which the holy pope Vigilius established. In like manner we command that the archiepiscopal office also, which we have given to the bishop of Justiniana Carthage of the African diocese, from the time that God restored it to us, be preserved.
But other cities also, and the bishops of these, to whom in various places the metropolitan right has here and there been granted, shall enjoy this privilege in perpetuity. And all the privileges and supports that have been granted to the holy churches or to other venerable places out of imperial liberality, or even in any other way whatsoever, shall be firmly preserved to them in all things. Moreover we decree that the possessions of any of the most holy churches and of other venerable houses shall not bear sordid burdens and extraordinary levies.
If, however, there should arise a necessity of paving a road, or of building or renewing bridges, the most holy churches and other venerable houses shall fulfill such a work after the manner of other proprietors, when they possess something in that city in which such a work is being completed. But if any property from curial patrimonies has come, or shall hereafter come, by the laws, to any most holy church or other venerable house, we decree that these be free from the levy on gratuitous acquisitions.
Likewise, in place of the temporal prescriptions of ten, and twenty, and thirty years, we direct that against the holy churches and all other venerable houses a prescription of forty years only be raised, the same being observed also in the petitioning of legacies and inheritances left for pious causes. Furthermore, if anyone should wish to build a venerable oratory or monastery, let him not begin the construction otherwise than after the most religious bishop of the place has poured out prayers there and fixed a precious cross.
Assuredly, whoever has once begun either to build a new oratory or to renew an old one, shall by all means be compelled by the most blessed bishop of the place and his stewards and the civil magistrate, either himself, if he survive, or, after his death, his heirs, to complete the work begun. If anyone should presume in his own house, or in a suburb, or on an estate, to celebrate the ecclesiastical ministry, or to permit others to celebrate it without clergy subject to the most religious bishop of the place, we command that that house, or suburb, or estate, where any such thing has been admitted, be claimed for the most holy church of that place, through the bishop most beloved of God and his steward, and the civil magistrate.
But if, without the knowledge of the lord of those places, his procurators, or tenant-farmers, or lodgers, or emphyteutic lessees have done anything contrary to this or permitted it to be done, the lord of the place indeed shall sustain no prejudice or loss. But those who either did it, or permitted it to be done, shall be cast out of the province where this was admitted, their property being claimed for the most holy church of that place. If anyone in the name of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ has left an inheritance or a legacy, we command that the church of that place, in which the testator had his domicile, receive what is left.
If anyone has written some one of the saints as heir, or has left a legacy to him, and has not specially named the place in which the venerable house may be, but there are found in the same place or city several oratories of the same saint, the bequest is rather to be given to that little chapel which is poorer. But if in that city there is no church of the named saint, but there is found some one in its territory, it is to be given to that one. If neither in the territory is a church of this kind found, then the bequest is to be given to the church of the city in which the testator had his domicile.
If anyone in his last will has provided that a venerable oratory, or a hospice, or a poorhouse, or an orphanage, or a hospital, or another venerable house be built, we command that the oratory be completed within five years, by the providence of the bishop of the place and the civil magistrate. But the hospice, or poorhouse, or other venerable house, shall be built within one year. If within a year the heirs have not made the hospice, or whatever venerable house the testator provided to be built, we command that they either buy or hire a house where the commands can be carried out, until such time as the venerable house of this kind is completed.
And if the testator himself has determined who ought to be made the keepers of the hospice, or the keepers of the poorhouse, or other administrators of this kind, or has given to his heirs the choice of this matter, we command that by all means his heirs satisfy those things which were arranged by him, the most blessed bishops of those places inspecting whether the administration proceeds well. And if they should discover that those who hold the administration are worthless men and of no good, they shall have license, without loss, to substitute in their place others more suitable.
But also, if anyone for the redemption of captives or the sustenance of the poor has left an inheritance or a legacy in movable or immovable goods, whether once or yearly, this too is to be furnished in all respects according to the testator's will, by those who were ordered to carry it out. If he has not specially said for the poor of what place he left these things, we command that the most religious bishop of the city in which the testator had his domicile receive these goods to himself, and distribute them among the poor of his city.
Likewise, if something has been left for the redemption of captives, and the testator has not named by whom the redemption ought to be made, we command in the same way that the bishop of those places and his steward receive the property left for this, and fulfill a pious work of this kind. For in all these pious wills we wish that the most religious bishops of those places too lend their providence, so that all things may proceed according to the testator's will, even if it has been most expressly forbidden them by the testators or donors that they have any dealing in these matters.
Assuredly, if those who were ordered to carry these things out, having been admonished once and again by the most blessed bishop of those places and his stewards through public persons, have deferred to fulfill the things that were arranged, we command that they lose all gain that was left to them by him who ordered these things; but the most religious bishops of those places shall claim all the property which (as was said) has been assigned to any pious causes whatsoever, together with the fruits and the accessions of the intervening time, and likewise the aforesaid gain, and shall fulfill what the testator arranged: knowing that, if they too should act more negligently, they will render an account to God for all these things.
Indeed, if the most religious bishop of those places should overlook any of the things that have been said by us, let it be permitted to his most religious metropolitan to raise up and fulfill these things. But to any other also there shall be liberty to raise a question concerning this matter, and to give effort that by all means pious causes of this kind be carried out. But if the heir should not fulfill the things left for pious causes, saying that the patrimony left to him does not suffice for these, we command that, all the gain that comes from the Falcidian portion being void, whatever shall be found in his resources be applied entire, by the providence of the most holy bishop of those places, to the causes for which it was left.
But if a legacy has been left by someone for pious causes, we command that within six months, to be counted from the opening of the testament, it be furnished in all respects to those to whom it was left. But if those who have been burdened with this have deferred to furnish a legacy of this kind, both the fruits, and the interest, and every lawful accession shall be exacted from them from the very time of the death of him who left it. If a yearly legacy has been left to any venerable house, then, if those who were ordered to give these things, or the place from which it was ordered to be furnished, is in the same or a neighboring province, we command that in no way such a legacy be alienated.
But if the places or persons from which or by which this was ordered to be given are in more remote parts, then let it be entire to those to whom it was left, that—if the burdened party too consents—they may exchange the legacy, and take in its stead some neighboring revenue that is abundant, and with an accession that contains no less than a fourth part of the quantity left, and is not burdened with many public exactions. But also, if they should wish to sell such a legacy, let them take in the name of the price no less than what would be gathered from such a legacy over thirty-five years: yet so that a price of this kind go to the benefit of the aforesaid venerable house to which it was left.
Likewise we forbid the most religious bishops to transfer in any way to their kinsmen or to any other persons whatsoever the property, movable or immovable or self-moving, which after attaining the episcopate has come to them in any manner. Yet for the redemption of captives, and the sustenance of the poor, likewise for other pious causes, and also for the benefit of their church, they shall have license to spend from these. And if anything of such property after their death remains in their patrimony, we command that this pertain to the ownership of the most holy churches in which they exercised the priesthood.
For in those things only do we grant them license of alienating, or of leaving to whomsoever they at last may wish, which they shall be proved either to have had before the episcopate, or to have come to them after the episcopate from those who touched them by nearness of kin—those to whom they could have succeeded on intestacy up to the fourth degree. And all these things which we have said concerning property coming to the most religious bishops after the episcopate, we decree to have force likewise in the most reverend keepers of orphanages, and keepers of poorhouses, and keepers of hospitals, and keepers of homes for the aged, and keepers of hospices, and all the other administrators of the venerable houses, and this as to the property which during the time of their administration has come to them in the aforesaid manner.
But if any bishop, or cleric, or minister of whatsoever ecclesiastical grade, or deaconess of a church, should die without testamentary tablets and lawful successors, let the succession of his goods be conferred upon the church into which he chanced to have been ordained. Furthermore we command that no heretic, whether by lease, or by emphyteusis, or by purchase, or in any other way whatsoever, receive immovable property from any church or venerable house. But if any offense of this kind shall have been committed, the heretic indeed shall lose whatever he has furnished by reason of this transaction. But property of this sort shall be claimed for the venerable house from which it was given.
But the administrator of the house who has given property of this kind to a heretic shall in general be removed from the administration, and be cast into a monastery, and for one year be separated from holy communion, as one who has handed over Christians to heretics. But if an orthodox person who holds a possession in which there is a holy church—it having been given out either by emphyteusis, or by lease, or by any kind of administration—should alienate it, or leave it to a Jew, or a heretic, or a Samaritan, or a pagan, or a Montanist, or an Arian, let the most holy church of that town claim the ownership of these.
Likewise, if any of the heretics—among whom we also number the Nestorians, and the Acephali, and the Eutychianists—should dare to build a den for his own faith, or a Jew to construct a new synagogue for himself, let the holy church of those places claim these structures for its own ownership. Moreover, if anyone by emphyteusis, or by lease, or by any other kind of administration has given his possession to a person of this sort, then, if the lord of the possession knew that he had committed it to a heretic, let the church of the city under which the possession is situated claim all the revenues of that time which accrued to the contract.
But if the lord of the possession did not know that he was a heretic to whose faith he had committed it, he himself indeed shall be kept harmless on account of his ignorance, but the heretic in either case shall both be cast out from his possessions, and his substance be adjudged to the treasury. Indeed let the keepers of orphanages hold the place of guardians and curators: yet so that, concerning the property which pertains to the orphanages, or by right of ownership to the orphans themselves, they may bring and take up actions even without giving security.
But the property which may chance to pertain to some one of the orphans, let the keepers of orphanages take it in the presence of the public registrars, and with the drawing up of public records—both in the royal city before the masters of the census, and in the provinces before their governors or the defenders of those places—and reserve it for the orphans, or procure other property in place of theirs. And let them be liable to tutelary and curatorial accountings. But we command that there be preserved to the venerable orphanage of the royal city, and to the hospice of holy memory Samson, and to the oratories and hospices subject to its administration, or to other venerable houses, all the privileges which indeed the most holy greater Church of Constantinople has.
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Quæigiturperpræsentemlegeminperpetuumvalituramnostrasanxittranquillitas, tuacelsitudoedictissolemniterinhacregiaurbepropositis, adomniumstudeatpervenirenotitiam. Nosenimprovidebimusquatenussinecollatorumdispendiofiatetiaminprovinciismanifesta. Dat. XVlal. April., Constantin., dn. Justinia. PP. Aug., Basiliov. c. cons.
Therefore those things which, by the present law that shall have force in perpetuity, our Tranquillity has decreed, let your Highness strive to bring to the knowledge of all by edicts solemnly posted in this royal city. For we ourselves will provide that it be made manifest in the provinces too, without expense to the contributors. Given on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of April, at Constantinople, in the consulship of our lord Justinian, perpetual Augustus, and of Basilius, most distinguished man.