5. Had these things not been abolished I
could prove that they ought to be done away by your authority; but
since they have been forbidden and prohibited by many princes
throughout nearly the whole world, and were abolished at Rome by
Gratian Constantius,
in a law de Paganis, closed the temples and abolished
sacrifices, but his work was undone by Julian, and again carried
farther by Valentinian, Valens, and Gratian. of august
memory, the brother of your Clemency, in consideration of the true
faith, and rendered void by a rescript; do not, I pray you, either
pluck up what has been established in accordance with the faith, nor
rescind your brother’s precepts. In civil matters if he
established anything, no one thinks that it ought to be treated
lightly, while a precept about religion is trodden under
foot.