Theodosius was raised in a Catholic (to be understood not in the modern sense, but in the non-Arian, "universal" sense) family. He was baptized in 380 during a severe illness, as was common in the early Christian world. In February of 380 he and Gratian published an edict that all their subjects should profess the faith of the Bishops of Rome and Alexandria (Theodosian Code, XVI, I, 2). The law recognized both the primacy of those two sees and the problematic theology of many of the patriarchs of Constantinople, who, because they were under the direct eye of the emperors, were sometimes deposed and replaced by more theologically pliable successors. The bishop of Constantinople in 380 was an Arian.
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