Edict of Thessalonica
Translated by Joseph Cullen Ayer. From A Source Book for Ancient Church History, §72(e), Codex Theodosianus XVI.1.2, pp. 367–368. Originally published 1913. Public domain in the United States.
Gratian, Valentinian II, and Theodosius I, 27 February AD 380. This decree prescribes the Trinitarian faith professed by Damasus of Rome and Peter of Alexandria and condemns dissenting gatherings as heretical. It survives in the Theodosian Code XVI.1.2. Ayer’s 1913 translation includes the substantive provision but omits the imperial address and dating formula.
It is our will that all the peoples whom the government of our clemency rules shall follow that religion which a pious belief from Peter to the present declares the holy Peter delivered to the Romans, and which it is evident the pontiff Damasus and Peter, bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic sanctity, follow; that is, that according to the apostolic discipline and evangelical doctrine we believe in the deity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost of equal majesty, in a holy trinity. Those who follow this law we command shall be comprised under the name of Catholic Christians; but others, indeed, we require, as insane and raving, to bear the infamy of heretical teaching; their gatherings shall not receive the name of churches; they are to be smitten first with the divine punishment and after that by the vengeance of our indignation, which has the divine approval.