Church, Christendom, Orthodoxy: Late Antique Juridical Terminology on the Christian Religion
Church, Christendom, Orthodoxy: Late Antique Juridical Terminology on the Christian Religion

Summary/Abstract: The article is a terminological analysis of the legal literature produced in the Roman Empire from the fourth to the sixth centuries related to Christianity as the new religion of the Empire. From a legal point of view, conceptual theology (i.e., philosophically formulated doctrine) is reduced to an extremely simple outline, which merely points to the Trinity or refers to the Nicene creed. The terminology of the Theodosian and Justinianic codes are conservative, the Empire thinks of Christianity as a public cult. Thus we encounter terms like religio divina, as the religious organization of the Empire; fides as a reference to the Nicene Creed; the believer, christianus catholicus, as member of a religio catholica, where an imperial universality is also implied. In the first section of Justinian’s code, two terms deserve special attention: “catholic”, which appears 32 times, and “orthodox”, 45 times. The first term is used more frequently before the council of Chalcedon, the second term predominates after. Meanwhile, “christianitas” appears only twice. There is just one occurrence where “ecclesia” means the Church as institution of Christianity. It is not an institution which stands up in front of the Empire, but merely the Empire’s official cult. Only by the time of Justinian—after the long Acacian schism with Rome—does sacerdotium appear as object of special care of the emperor, his partner in the fulfilment of God’s will. This emerging distinction between a community whose preoccupation is its survival in time and another community concerned with the necessary conditions of individual salvation finds its fulfilment in medieval Christianity.

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