The Relationship between Roman State and Christianity and Theclassical Roman Jurisprudence

U radu se analizira odnos između rimske države i kršćanstva iz perspektive klasične rimske jurisprudencije. Ona je nastajala otprilike u prva dva i pol stoljeća kršćanstva, a nakon toga bila je preuzeta u zakonodavnom pothvatu cara Justinijana u 6. stoljeću, što joj daje dodatnu relevantnost u kontekstu odnosa između rimske države i kršćanstva. Najprije se daje opći pregled razvoja tog odnosa s isticanjem prevrjednovanja općeg pogleda na razloge njihova sukoba. Nakon toga analizira se klasična rimska jurisprudencija u trima područjima za koja je utvrđeno da svjedoče o općenitom odnosu države s religijom te, makar i posredno, s kršćanstvom. Riječ je o eksplikaciji koncepata javnog i sakralnog prava (ius publicum i ius sacrum) i njihovu međusobnom odnosu, stvarnopravnoj kategoriji res divini iuris s potpodjelom na ressacrae, religiosae i sanctae po kojoj su navedene stvari bile izvan pravnog prometa, te problematikom deliktnog prava u kontekstu kršćana i kršćanstva. Uz zaključne napomene ukratko se problematizira pitanje prihvaćanja klasične jurisprudencije u kontekstu kršćanskog carstva usprkos njezinoj vezanosti za poganske koncepte odnosa između sakralne i javne, odnosno državne sfere te njezinoj ulozi u progonu kršćanstva.Author analyses the relationship between Roman state and Christianity taking into account treatment of the religion (and Christianity, at least indirectly) in the classical Roman jurisprudence. First part of the article deals with the conceptual conflict between pagan and Christian views on the relationship between sacral and public. This dissent existed from the beginnings of Christianity and can be recognised both in the initially sporadic but cruel persecution of Christians and in the philosophic and apologetic discussions and polemics between pagans and Christians. Persecution culminated after Christianity significantly grew in numbers and strenght, and when the pagan paradigm was definitively formulated in the neoplatonist philosophy and political theory at the end of the 3rd and beginning of the 4th century A.D. Central part of the article aims to determine whether mentioned conceptual clash was reflected in the classical Roman jurisprudence. Firstly, the matter of the definition ius publicum is dealt with, which in the classical Roman jurisprudence was closely connected with ius sacrum. With this association public interests and interests of the state were explicitly interconnected with the religious sphere. Besides that, in private Roman law also the link between sacral and profane can be detected. Specific category of things exempt from legal transactions on the basis of divine law existed, which was in essence determined by the religious authorities and was closely associated with the upkeep of the public interests. Finally, in the law of delicts there can be found both implied and explicit, albeit indirect references on the punishability of Christian world view which threatened Roman public legal order, which also affirms the mentioned conceptual clash. Final part of the article puts the analysis in the context of the subsequent reception of the classical Roman jurisprudence by the Christian emperor Justinian in the 6th century, which happened even though classical Roman jurisprudence clearly and unequivocally espoused pagan views on the relationship between state and religion and treated Christianity more or less as a crime, and was generally anti-Christian. However, after the affairs of state and religious affairs were strictly and clearly divided in the work of Saint Augustine, the matter of ius publicum was philosophically fundamentally separated from the religious matters. For that reason, it is our opinion, classical jurisprudence was not problematic for Justinian in any relevant manner. Accordingly, the same goes for the subsequent treatment and analysis of the Roman legal sources in the medieval period of Christian Europe