Page "Dušan's Code" Paragraph 8

Many articles regarded the Church's status, thus supplementing the existing canon law texts.

The Church received a very privileged position, on the whole, though it was given the duty of charity in no uncertain terms: " And in all churches the poor shall be fed ... and should any one fail to feed them, be he Metropolitan, bishop, or abbot, he shall be deprived of his office " ( article 28 ).

The code also banned simony.

A clear-cut separation of Church and state was established in most matters, allowing Church courts to judge the Church's people and prohibiting the nobility from interfering with Church property and Church matters.

Dušan's Code did not look favorably upon the Catholic Church, though he, as his predecessors, was friendly and respectable to his Catholic subjects ( Saxons and coastal merchants ).

He referred to the Catholic Church as the " Latin heresy " and to its adherents as " half believers.

" He prohibited proselytism by Catholics among the Orthodox, Orthodox conversions to Catholicism, and mixed marriages between Catholics and Orthodox unless the Catholic converted to Orthodoxy.

He also had articles strongly penalizing " heretics " ( Bogomils ).

Only the Orthodox were called Christians.