page_title: Justinian I
section_title: Religious policy
hierarchical_section_title: Justinian I / Reign / Religious activities / Religious policy
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Mosaïque de l'entrée sud-ouest de l'ancienne basilique Sainte-Sophie de Constantinople (Istanbul, Turquie). Au milieu, Marie tenant l'Enfant Jésus sur ses genoux. À sa droite, l'empereur Justinien, offrant un modèle de Sainte-Sophie. Sur sa gauche, l'empereur Constantin 1er, présentant un modèle de la ville. English: Southwestern entrance mosaic of the former basilica Hagia Sophia of Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey) The Virgin Mary is standing in the middle, holding the Child Christ on her lap. On her right side stands emperor Justinian I, offering a model of the Hagia Sophia. On her left, emperor Constantine I, presenting a model of the city
context_page_description: Justinian I, also known as Justinian the Great, was the Eastern Roman emperor from 527 to 565.
  His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized renovatio imperii, or "restoration of the Empire". Because of his restoration activities, Justinian has sometimes been known as the "Last Roman" in mid-20th century historiography. This ambition was expressed by the partial recovery of the territories of the defunct Western Roman Empire. His general, Belisarius, swiftly conquered the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa. Subsequently, Belisarius, Narses, and other generals conquered the Ostrogothic kingdom, restoring Dalmatia, Sicily, Italy, and Rome to the empire after more than half a century of rule by the Ostrogoths. The prefect Liberius reclaimed the south of the Iberian peninsula, establishing the province of Spania. These campaigns re-established Roman control over the western Mediterranean, increasing the Empire's annual revenue by over a million solidi. During his reign, Justinian also subdued the Tzani, a people on the east coast of the Black Sea that had never been under Roman rule before.
context_section_description: As in his secular administration, despotism appeared also in the Emperor's ecclesiastical policy. He regulated everything, both in religion and in law.
  At the very beginning of his reign, he deemed it proper to promulgate by law the Church's belief in the Trinity and the Incarnation, and to threaten all heretics with the appropriate penalties, whereas he subsequently declared that he intended to deprive all disturbers of orthodoxy of the opportunity for such offense by due process of law. He made the Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan creed the sole symbol of the Church and accorded legal force to the canons of the four ecumenical councils. The bishops in attendance at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 recognized that nothing could be done in the Church contrary to the emperor's will and command, while, on his side, the emperor, in the case of the Patriarch Anthimus, reinforced the ban of the Church with temporal proscription. Justinian protected the purity of the church by suppressing heretics. He neglected no opportunity to secure the rights of the Church and clergy, and to protect and extend monasticism. He granted the monks the right to inherit property from private citizens and the right to receive solemnia, or annual gifts, from the Imperial treasury or from the taxes of certain provinces and he prohibited lay confiscation of monastic estates.
  Although the despotic character of his measures is contrary to modern sensibilities, he was indeed a "nursing father" of the Church. Both the Codex and the Novellae contain many enactments regarding donations, foundations, and the administration of ecclesiastical property; election and rights of bishops, priests and abbots; monastic life, residential obligations of the clergy, conduct of divine service, episcopal jurisdiction, etc. Justinian also rebuilt the Church of Hagia Sophia (which cost 20,000 pounds of gold), the original site having been destroyed during the Nika riots. The new Hagia Sophia, with its numerous chapels and shrines, gilded octagonal dome, and mosaics, became the centre and most visible monument of Eastern Orthodoxy in Constantinople.
caption: Hagia Sophia mosaic depicting the Virgin Mary holding the Child Christ on her lap. On her right side stands Justinian, offering a model of the Hagia Sophia. On her left, Constantine I presents a model of Constantinople.
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