Edict of Milan

The Edict of Milan, issued in 313 CE by co-emperors Constantine and Licinius, was a turning point in both Roman and world history. The agreement proclaimed religious tolerance throughout the Roman Empire, ended the persecution of Christians, and ordered the return of confiscated church property. While it did not make Christianity the state religion — that came later under Theodosius in 380 CE — it fundamentally altered Christianity's relationship with political power.

The edict's context matters. Christianity had endured nearly three centuries of intermittent persecution, culminating in the Great Persecution under Diocletian (303–311 CE), the most systematic attempt to eradicate the faith. Constantine's personal reasons for supporting Christianity remain debated — he was not baptized until his deathbed — but his political calculations were sound. Christians constituted a significant and growing minority, and their organizational networks paralleled the empire's own administrative structure.

The consequences were profound. With imperial support, Christianity grew rapidly from perhaps 10% of the empire's population in 313 to a dominant majority by the end of the 4th century. Church and state became intertwined in ways that would define European politics for the next millennium and a half. The Edict of Milan didn't just grant Christians freedom — it inaugurated a new era in the relationship between religion and political authority.