Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Justinus I
Justinus (12) I., proclaimed emperor (July 9,
518) on the death of the emperor Anastasius
by the troops under his command and by the
people (Chron. Pasch. 331, in Patr. Gk. xcii.
858), the choice being approved by the
senate (Marcell. Chron.). He was a man of
no education, and the affairs of the state were
managed chiefly by his prudent minister
Proclus the quaestor and afterwards by his
nephew and eventual successor Justinian.
For the most memorable event of his reign, the
end of the schism between the Eastern and Western churches, see
HORMISDAS.
For his relations with Persia see CHOSROES I.
in D. C. B. (4-vol. ed.).
In 523 Justin issued a constitution against the Manicheans and other heretics (Codex, i. tit. v. 12). The former were punished with exile or death; other heretics, pagans, Jews, and Samaritans, were declared incapable of holding a magistracy or entering military service. The allied Goths were exempted from these provisions. Because of the persecution of his Arian co-religionists, Theodoric sent pope John I. in 525 to Constantinople to remonstrate with the emperor. [EPIPHANIUS (17)]
In Apr. 527 Justin caused Justinian, who had long taken the chief part in government, to be proclaimed emperor and crowned, and on Aug. 1 died, in his 75th year.
[F.D.]