The Emperor Justinian Augustus to Mennas, Praetorian Prefect. We will that no one be cast into custody without the order of the most glorious, or illustrious, or most distinguished magistrates of this most fortunate city, or of the provinces, or of the defenders of the cities. §1. But concerning those who have been, or are to be, cast into prison, we command the bishops of the several places, beloved of God, on one day of each week — that is, on the fourth day, or the sixth, which is also called Parasceve (the Day of Preparation) — to visit those who are held in custody, and diligently to inquire into the cause for which they are detained;
and whether they be slaves or free, whether cast in for debts, or for other accusations, or for homicides, to admonish the most illustrious, and honourable, and most distinguished magistrates — both those who are in this most fortunate city and those in the provinces — to carry out concerning them what our imperial constitution, issued on that matter to the illustrious prefects, enjoins: licence being given to the bishops, dearest to God for the time being, if they should recognize any negligence admitted by the most illustrious and most magnificent and most distinguished magistrates for the time being, or by the offices subject to them, to report such negligence of theirs, so that a fitting movement of our spirit may arise against the negligent. Given on the fifteenth day before the Kalends.
92:3
Februar., CP., Deciocos. 529.
於二月朔日，於君士坦丁堡，當德修斯執政之年，公元529年。
On the Kalends of February, at Constantinople, in the consulship of Decius, in the year 529.