# A 381 constitution commands that churches be delivered to bishops in communion with Nectarius and the Nicene confession

Date: 381

## The fact

Early Church Texts prints CTh 16.1.3 as a command that churches be delivered to bishops who confess one majesty of Father, Son, and Spirit and are in communion with Nectarius of [Constantinople](/people/bartholomew-i-of-constantinople) and Timothy of Alexandria. Fordham independently extracts Book XVI heresy-and-church law.

It is one event.

## Context

Stripping non-Nicene congregations of buildings is a minority-rights harm heading. Shared prefects remain. Pagan temples are a different title of the code.

[Theodosius I](/people/theodosius-i)’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below. Sharing a field with them is not a reason to drop a documented act, and it is not a reason to assign later consequences done in the name after death.

CTh 16.1.3 (often 30 July 381) surrenders churches to named Nicene communions. This is anti-heretical legislation distinct from the council sitting and from 380’s city edict. The 438 compilers are not the 381 court.

Named person as heading of the dated public instrument. Later editors, museums, printers, or offices share publication. Complex where later carriers are the surviving public file.

## Evidence and sources

Early Church Texts — Codex Theodosianus extracts and Fordham — Codex Theodosianus, selections from Book XVI independently describe this instrument.

Official or archival record: Early Church Texts — Codex Theodosianus extracts (https://earlychurchtexts.com/public/codex_theodosianus.htm; earlychurchtexts.com).

## Significance

Church-surrender law is a rights-harm path of high confidence on the later-coded text.

## What is established and what is not

Established as a sourced public record of this instrument at the date assigned here.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Established here: a sourced, dated public instrument with a named contribution by Theodosius I.

They are not a public rating.

The driver `protection-of-minority-rights` is attached because the mechanism named in Significance follows from this instrument, not because a standing list of welfare headings needed another tick. Theodosius I did not file a later UNESCO form, a later Loeb colophon, or a later museum label as a personal act. A portrait or conventional bust is not this mechanism. Allegation, reconstruction, and established occurrence stay distinct. Do not merge with 16.10 temple laws. Do not invent a 381 inventory of basilicas. Keep the carrier date of later English distinct from the received historical year stored in the date field. Do not read a later English edition as a recovered autograph of Theodosius I.

## People

- Theodosius I: https://factrail.ai/people/theodosius-i

## Drivers

- Protection of Minority Rights: https://factrail.ai/drivers/protection-of-minority-rights

## Sources

- https://earlychurchtexts.com/public/codex_theodosianus.htm
- https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/theodcodeXVI.asp

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/theo-churches-to-nicene-381