What was the Edict of Milan and when did it occur?
The Edict of Milan occurred in February 313. It legalized Christianity within the Roman Empire through a meeting between Western Roman Emperor Constantine I and Emperor Licinius in Mediolanum.
The Edict of Milan occurred in February 313. It legalized Christianity within the Roman Empire through a meeting between Western Roman Emperor Constantine I and Emperor Licinius in Mediolanum.
Emperor Licinius composed the letter that functions as the edict in Nicomedia later in 313 after defeating Maximinus Daza. Lactantius records this letter while Eusebius of Caesarea translated both documents into Greek for his History of the Church.
Judeo-Christian insistence on one God could not fit into the Roman theological hierarchy requiring collective piety to many deities. Christians refused to swear loyalty oaths at emperor's divinity and stopped paying the Jewish tax after 96 AD which threatened state cult and state itself.
State ordered restoration expense of state without payment or any claim recompense from individual Romans. Instructions directed provincial magistrates execute order at once with all energy so public order may restored.
Scholars generally reject the story as it has come down in church history because David Potter states there was never such thing attributed to Constantine. The version found in Lactantius is not in form of an edict but a letter from Licinius to governors of provinces in Eastern Empire.