This article is in response to Fr. Ambrose M. an online hieromonk claiming Catholics saints we defended execution for heresy are in Hell.
Far from being spot free from harsh treatment of heretic, the Eastern Church and Eastern Emperor did support capital punishment for certain heresies and religious crimes. Here are examples from Emperor Justinian alone.
The Orthodox Saint Emperor Justinian, his code states that Manichaeans are to be executed:
We permitted the heretics to assemble and have their own name for this reason: that, ashamed by Our forbearance, they may come to their senses and turn to the better of their. own accord. 1. But an unbearable audacity has possessed them, and, disregarding the sanction of the law, they have insinuated themselves into clerical posts which, as the very words of the imperial decrees manifestly declare, they may no longer hold. 2. We call heretics others, such as the execrable Manichaeans and their ilk, who ought not to be named here nor indeed anywhere and defile whatever they touch. 3. The Manichaeans, then, as We have said, shall accordingly be driven out, nor shall anyone suffer even their name (to remain) or do nothing if someone infected with this godlessness should live in the same place as the others; but any Manichaean found anywhere in the world shall be subjected to extreme punishments. 4. As for the other heretics, whatever their error or name (for We call everyone who does not adhere to the Catholic Church and our Orthodox and Holy Faith a heretic), and also as regards the pagans (Hellenes), who attempt to introduce the worship of many gods, and the Jews and Samaritans: We strive not only to revive the statutes of existing laws and to strengthen them by this law, but also to enact more, whereby the security, honor, and prestige of the adherents of the Holy Faith may be increased. 5. All can observe, We have said, how those who do not rightly worship God shall also be deprived of their earthly goods.--The Codex of Justinian: A New Annotated Translation, with Parallel Latin and Greek Text Based on a Translation by Justice Fred H. Blume. First Book, 5.12, page 203. (2016). United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Public lectures which can undermine the faith are prohibited, with different punishments including execution:
Emperor Marcian Augustus to Palladius, Praetorian Prefect. pr. No clergyman or member of the imperial service, or any person of any status, shall hereafter attempt to lecture on the Christian faith before crowds assembled to listen, thereby seeking to foment disorder and treachery 1. For whoever strives to revisit and publicly discuss questions already decided and correctly settled, insults the judgment of the Most Holy Synod. For it is recognized that the decisions concerning the Christian faith, made at Our behest by the bishops who convened at Chalcedon, are in accord with the teachings of the Apostles and the decrees of the 318 and 150 holy fathers. 2. Punishment shall not be lacking for those who disregard this law, for they not only act contrary to the rightly expounded faith, but also, by such strife, profane the venerable mysteries before the eyes of Jews and Pagans. 3. If a clergyman, therefore, dares to discuss religion in public, he shall be expelled from the community of the clergy; if he holds a position in the imperial service, he shall be stripped of his rank (cingulum), All others guilty of this crime shall, if they are free men, be banished from this Most Sacred City and shall be subjected to appropriate punishments in accordance with judicial vigor; if they are slaves, however, they shall be stricken with the severest punishments (death)--The Codex of Justinian: A New Annotated Translation, with Parallel Latin and Greek Text Based on a Translation by Justice Fred H. Blume.First Book, 1.4. page 19. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
A general condemnation of all heretics that they cannot pray on Roman soil with a remained Manichaeans are not to be allowed to live.
Emperor Theoposius Augustus and VALENTINIAN Caesar to Florentius, Praetorian Prefect. pr. The Arians and Macedonians, Pneumatomachians and Apollinarians and Novatians or Sabbatians, Eunomians, Tetradites or Tessarescaedecatites, Valentinians, Papianists, Montanists or Priscillianists or Phrygians or Pepuzites, Marcianists, Borborians, Messallians, Eutychites or Enthusiasts, Donatists, Audians, Hydroparastates, Tascodrogites, Batrachites, Hermeiecians, Photinians, Paulians, Marcellians, Ophites, Encratites, Apotactites, Saccorphors, and those who have descended to the basest criminal iniquity, the Manichaeans, shall have no right to gather and pray anywhere on Roman soil.
1. The Manichaeans shall be expelled from the cities and delivered up to capital punishment"? for there must be no place left them in which they might do insult to the very elements....property...any way whatsoever...where they meet by the permission or connivance of the owner, which shall be confiscated for the venerable Catholic Church; or concerning a procurator who does this without the knowledge of the owner, which procurator shall suffer a fine....
2. So that they neither meet in public nor build themselves pseudo-churches...they must be checked by all... means, with the aid of the curias, defenders, and governors, under threat of a fine of 20 pounds of gold.
3. The laws, too, which have been promulgated concerning the imperial service, various punishments, and sundry heretics, shall remain in full force...--The Codex of Justinian: A New Annotated Translation, with Parallel Latin and Greek Text Based on a Translation by Justice Fred H. Blume. First book, 5.5. Page 193 United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Execution is decreed for false converts or backsliders:
(Emperor JUSTINIAN Augustus ...). pr. Since some have been found who, possessed by the error of the unholy and vile pagans...knowing that they abandoned the worship of the true and only God and, in their insane error, offered sacrifices to idols and celebrated feasts replete with every iniquity, We subjected those who had committed these sins after being deemed worthy of holy baptism - rather mercifully - to appropriate punishment according to the crimes proved against them; but henceforth...We declare before all that those who have become Christians and deemed worthy of holy and saving baptism, for whatever length of time, if they are found still to adhere to the error of the pagans, shall be subjected to the ultimate punishments....
For if such a person should be found here or in the provinces, and he does not hasten to Our most holy churches with his wives (sic) and children, as has been said, he shall undergo the penalties indicated above; the Treasury shall claim their property and they themselves shall be sent into exile. 4. If anyone hiding in Our Empire should be caught performing sinful sacrifices or idolatry, he shall be subjected to the ultimate punishments to which the Manichaeans - which is as much as to say the Borborites — are deservedly subject; for We judge the latter to be like the former.--The Codex of Justinian: A New Annotated Translation, with Parallel Latin and Greek Text Based on a Translation by Justice Fred H. Blume. First Book, 11.10. Page 245. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
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