[64] Gibbon, iv. 212, 516 (with Prof. Bury’s additions); C. E. Mallet in _E. H. Review_, ii. 1; A. Debidour, _L’Impératrice Théodora_, 59. Neither Prof. Bury nor the editor of the _C. I. C._ accepts M. Debidour’s dating of _C. Iust._ v. 4. 23 under Justinian in 534. [65] Mansi, xi. 943. Canon 3 excludes one who has married a σκηνική from orders. C. 24 forbids priests and monks θυμελικῶν παιγνίων ἀνέχεσθαι, and confirms a decree of the council of Laodicea (cf. p. 24, n. 4) obliging them, if present at a wedding, to leave the room before τὰ παίγνια are introduced. C. 51 condemns, both for clergy and laity, τοὺς λεγομένους μίμους καὶ τὰ τούτων θέατρα and τὰς ἐπὶ σκηνῶν ὀρχήσεις. For clergy the penalty is degradation, for laity excommunication. C. 61 provides a six-years’ excommunication for bear-leaders and such. C. 62 deals with pagan religious festivals of a semi-theatrical character; cf. ch. xiv. C. 66 forbids the circus or any δημώδης θέα in Easter week. [66] Sathas, _passim_; Krumbacher, 644. [67] Jerome, _in Ezechiel_ (410-15) ‘a. spectaculis removeamus oculos arenae circi theatri’ (_P. L._ xxv. 189); Augustine, _de Fide et Symbolo_ (393) ‘in theatris labes morum, discere turpia, audire inhonesta, videre perniciosa’ (_P. L._ xl. 639); cf. the sermon quoted in Appendix N, N^o. x. [68] Ausonius, _Idyl._ iv. 46; Sidonius, _Ep._ iv. 12 ‘legebamus, pariter laudabamus, iocabamurque.’ [69] Augustine, _Conf._ iii. 2, 3 (_P. L._ xxxii. 683). The whim took him once ‘theatrici carminis certamen inire.’ [70] Aug. _de Civ. Dei_, ii. 8 (_P. L._ xli. 53) ‘et haec sunt scenicorum tolerabiliora ludorum, comoediae scilicet et tragoediae; hoc est, tabulae poetarum agendae in spectaculis, multa rerum turpitudine sed nulla saltem sicut alia multa verborum obscoenitate compositae; quas etiam inter studia quae honesta ac liberalia vocantur pueri legere et discere coguntur a senibus.’ [71] Jerome, _Ep._ 21 (_alii_ 146) _ad Damasum_, written 383 (_P. L._ xxii. 386) ‘at nunc etiam sacerdotes Dei, omissis evangeliis et prophetis, videmus comoedias legere, amatoria bucolicorum versuum verba canere, tenere Vergilium, et id quod in pueris necessitatis est, crimen in se facere voluptatis’ (_C. I. Can._ i. 37. 2). [72] Orosius, _Hist. adv. Paganos_ (417), iv. 21. 5 ‘theatra incusanda, non tempora.’ On the character of the treatise of Orosius cf. Dill, 312; Gibbon, iii. 490. Mr. Dill shows in the third book of his admirable work that bad government and bad finance had much more to do with the breakdown of the Empire than the bad morals of the stage. [73] Dill, 58, 137; Hodgkin, i. 930. Salvian was a priest of Marseilles, and wrote between 439 and 451.