THEODOSIAN CODE. In the year A.D. 420 Theodosius I I. appointed a commission of eight persons, at the head of whom was Antiochus, to form a code out of all the constitutions and other laws which had been promulgated since the time of Constantine the Great. The code was to be formed on the model of the private compilations respectively called the Codex Gregorianus and the Codex Hermogenianus. Either nothing was done by this commission, or, for some reason, a renewal of it was thought necessary, and this renewed commission received its instructions in the year 435. This second commission consisted of sixteen members, with the same Antiochus at its head. In remodelling their materials the commission was empowered to omit the superfluous, insert the necessary, change the ambiguous, and reconcile the incon gruous.
The code was completed and promulgated as law in the Eastern empire in the year 433; and it was declared that the laws enacted since the time of Constantino should only be in force so far as they were incorporated into this code. The code was forwarded in the year 438 by Theodosius to his son-in-law Valentinian III., who confirmed it and laid it before the Roman senate, by whom it was received. In the year 448 Theodosius forwarded to Valentinian other constitutions which he had made since the completion of the code, as circumstances had arisen ; and these new constitutions were promulgated in the Western empire in the same year. The new constitutions were called Novella., and all such new constitutions which were interchanged between the East and West, and had reference to the code of Theo dosius, were called by the name Novellas. This interchange subsisted as long as the empire of the West continued : the last constitution of the kind that we know is one of Anthemius, who was contemporary with Leo I. in the Eastern empire : it belongs to the year 468, and relates to Bona Vacantia.
This code consists of sixteen books, which are divided into titles, and the titles are subdivided into sections. The arrangement of the matter
differs from that in the subsequent compilation of Justinian, also called the Code. The code of Theodosius treats of Jus Privatum in the first part, and especially in the second and fourth books, both included, and in the beginning of the fifth : the following books treat chiefly of Jus I'ublicum. The first book treats of offices, and the sixteenth book treats of matters pertaining to the Christian church. The code of Theodosius was the first great compilation of the kind, and it was much used in the compilation of the code of Justinian. It also forms the basis of the code of the Ostrogotles, called the Edictum Thcoderici ; it was incorporated into the code of Marie II., commonly called the Breviarium, In an abridged form, accompanied by a continual interpre tation or explanation ; and it was used in the compilation of the Lex Ilomana of the Burgundians, which is often incorrectly called l'apiani Liber Responsortun.
The greater part of the Theodoaian code and of the Novenae Con stitutionce exist in their genuine state : the first five books of tho code and the beginning of the sixth are chiefly found only In the Breviarium. The excellent edition of J. Gothofredus (0 vole foL, Lyon, 1C05, re edited by J. D. Ritter, fol., Leipzig, 1736.1745), and also the edition of the Jun Civile Antejustinianeurn, Berlin, 1815, have followed the text of the Breviarium for the first five books and the beginning of the sixth. But Clossius and Peyron have subsequently made additions to the first five books, and particularly to the first ; the former from a Milan MS. of the Brovianum and the latter from a Turin palimpsest of the Theodoslan Code, (' hcodos. Cod. Genuine Fragmenta,' &c., W. P. Clossius, Tub., 1824, Svo. ; ' Cod. Theodor'. Fragment. instill,' the., Anna Peyron, 1823, 4to.) Hiinel has also added to the later books. THEOLOGY (geoNtryia), the science which relates to God.