the _Digest_ or _Pandects_, and the
_Institutes_. The _Code_ was a collection of all imperial constitutions of
general validity; it was first published in 529, but a revised edition was
issued in 534. The _Digest_, which was issued in 533, consisted of
abstracts from the writings of the most famous Roman jurists
systematically arranged so as to present the whole civil law in so far as
it was not contained in the _Code_. The _Institutes_ was a brief manual
designed as a text-book for the use of students of the law. From the time
of their promulgation these compilations constituted the sole law of the
empire and alone carried validity in the courts and formed the only
material for instruction in the law schools of recognized status--those at
Rome, Constantinople and Berytus. Provision was made for the publication
of future legislation in a fourth compilation--the _Novels_ or _New
Constitutions_.

*St. Sophia.* Justinian's administration was characterized by great
building activity. He was zealous in the construction of frontier
defences, the rebuilding of ruined cities, the founding of new ones, and
the erection of religious edifices. Among the latter the most famous was
the great church of the Holy Wisdom (St. Sophia), which took the place of
an older building destroyed in the Nika riot. Transformed into a
Mohammedan mosque, it remains to the present day as the greatest
architectural monument of the eastern Roman empire. The execution of
grandiose works of this sort augmented the heavy expenditures necessitated
by Justinian's foreign policy, and required the continual wringing of
fresh contributions from the already overburdened taxpayers. In raising
the revenues needed to meet the demands upon the fiscus, the emperor found
the prefect John an invaluable agent.

*Justinian's religious policy.* Throughout the whole of his reign
Justinian strove with unflagging zeal to secure a united Christian church
within the empire. To this end he did not hesitate to make use of the
autocratic power which he claimed in religious as well as secular affairs
and which was formally admitted by the synod of 536, which declared that
"Nothing whatsoever may occur in the church contrary to the wishes and
orders of the emperor." His own views Justinian set forth in extensive
writings on dogmatic questions. The reconciliation with Rome in 519, so
necessary for the recovery of the West, had alienated the Monophysites,
who were predominant in Egy