Cunctos populos

Imperial · Edict · 27 February 380 · Latin

Cunctos populos: the emperors command all their subjects to hold the faith of Peter as professed by Damasus of Rome and Peter of Alexandria, and call everyone else heretics who may expect punishment. This is the moment Nicene Christianity becomes the religion of the state rather than one of its permitted religions — and it names two living bishops as the standard of orthodoxy, which was a novelty. It survives as a law, in the Theodosian Code. Preserved as Codex Theodosianus XVI.1.2.

To: all the peoples of the empire