Between the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of the first heresies at the beginning of the 11th century, a widely held thesis suggests that the persecution of religious offenses played no significant role. The regulations from this period against pagan and magical practices have been interpreted in research either as empty tradition or as sources for the study of folk culture. The author examines to what extent the late antique legal norms and the underlying principles were incorporated into early medieval ecclesiastical and secular law, as well as into letter literature, hagiography, narrative sources, and penitential books. The analysis of the texts reveals that the eradication of paganism and the prevention of sacrilege were not viewed as a matter of pastoral care, but were primarily defined as a task for rulers. The theorists of the transition between late antiquity and the Middle Ages conveyed this fundamental conviction of Roman imperial law to the new powers on the territory of the fallen Roman Empire.