Abstract EN:

The imperial constitutions of the IVth and Vth centuries relating to the Jews are for the most part regarded as theologically motivated. We propose to show that these laws were born out of a contentious judicial context which was not subjugated to a univocal ideological line. Petitioned in its judicial capacity, the chancellery had to motivate its decisions by objective legal standards. Other considerations weighted on the decision making process : financial and fiscal factors, the necessities of evergetism, as well as political and sometimes diplomatic calculations. The personalities of those who contributed to the creation of the law can not be discarded either. While the law of the Early Middle Ages was primarily the work of clerics, it did not obey to a strictly theological view, as these men of the Church were at the same time political actors. Their work was that of compromise under the nature of their relations with the secular power and with the Jews.