The Edict of Milan： How Christianity Became Legal in Rome

Hey there and welcome back to my channel. In this video, we are going to look at the Edict of Milan which legalized Christianity within the Roman Empire. So if you are ready to get them brain cows milked, then let's get to it. So the legalization of Christianity within the Roman Empire is usually dated to the year 313 CE, which marks the 8th year of the rule of the Roman Emperor Constantine I in that year. He issued an edict, the Edict of Milan, which granted Christians throughout the Empire permission to worship without persecution. People were allowed to convert and meet in secret, but they were not allowed to openly practice their religion. Now, despite his personal sympathy for Christianity, he ruled initially as a supporter of traditional Roman religion. For example, he consulted with soothsayers before battles and hosted games in honor of the pagan gods. But instead seems to be part of a long process where In fact, many scholars argue that Constantine was uneven particularly religious at all, and that his main motivation was political. However, he also began to pursue policies favorable to Christians. He was even credited with ending a civil war by divine providence, and he was said to have received a vision just before a battle that reassured him of victory. The Christian population had grown steadily throughout the previous century, and they were successful in converting the upper classes in both the East and the West. However, some historians argue that the legalization of Christianity was actually a decision that Constantine regretted later in life. In addition, the persecutions had failed to stop the spread of the religion. So, by 313, the decision to decriminalize Christianity made sense. For example, he never reinstitutionized the death penalty for Christians, and he did attempt to destroy the church. This may indicate that Constantine felt that he had given too much power to the Christians with the Edict of Milan. After all, he had gone from persecuting them to protecting them in a single year. The Creed is a statement of belief that defines the core doctrines of Christianity. The Council rejected the view that Jesus was created by God, and instead affirmed that he was eternally begotten and therefore truly divine. And the debate over the nature of Jesus Christ is a good example of this. Some historians suggest that this episode made Constantine regret granting religious freedom to the Christians. Was he simply a good teacher who could help people achieve enlightenment? Or was he God himself? Now, the theological debates that led up to this decision are complicated, but they do give us some insight into the kinds of problems that the early Christians were facing. And more people converted until it became the dominant religion of the empire. So despite the toleration granted by Constantine, the Christians in the eastern part of the empire did not find peace until the reign of Theodosius I in the late 4th century. Despite the fact that Constantine's policy towards Christianity changed over time, his initial support for religious tolerance is seen as a key moment in the history of Christianity. Of course, this growth can be attributed to many factors, such as the appeal of Christianity to the poor and the lack of appeal of traditional Roman religion. And without the Edict of Milan, it's unlikely that Christianity would have become the dominant religion of the Roman world. But it is clear that the legalization of the religion gave it space to grow and flourish. It was not written by any particular person, but instead was the product of the council as a whole. However, he did not live long enough to see this trend reverse. He died in 337 after a long reign of 31 years. In just a few decades after the legalization of Christianity, it became the most popular religion in the empire, especially in the west. By 361, only 11 years after the Edict of Milan, the historian Eusebius wrote that the churches were full and that paganism was near its end, and it has been recited by Christians at worship services ever since. So he may have felt that he needed to prove that he was still the boss. Instead, he persecuted Christians only for crimes like murder, theft, and rape, which were still punishable by death under Roman law, regardless of one's religion. After that, he ruled the eastern provinces as well as the western ones. And during the latter half of his reign, he began persecuting Christians once again. That was the first official meeting of Christian bishops within the Roman empire. It drew around 300 of them from all over the empire. They met to discuss various issues related to Christian theology and practice, such as the nature of the Trinity and the divinity of Christ. A huge proportion of soldiers in the Roman army were actually Christians, which again goes to show how widespread the religion was getting. So by persecuting Christians, Constantine would basically be starting a civil war within his own military. It would bring the empire some money, and it would really affect the pagans. Since those two things were unmutually exclusive, by the time of Constantine, they were numerous and influential enough that outlawing them was no longer politically viable. So while we might want to see Constantine as this great example of someone having a religious experience and suddenly changing their life, the historical reality was probably more complex than that. So Constantine's mother, Queen Helena, who was the emperor's wife, so she was a sort of stepmother to Constantine, was able to convert to Christianity in secret before becoming the most powerful woman in the empire. She became influential in the Christianization of the imperial court, though she herself never formally joined the clergy. And that ended almost 300 years of the legal discrimination against them. But why did he do it? Well, a lot of people think that there was some kind of dramatic conversion experience that caused him to change his mind about Christianity and suddenly go all in. But that's not really what happened. Instead, his mother had converted to Christianity, and the evidence suggests that he at least had some sympathy with the religion. Remember that although Christianity was illegal, it was not prohibited. It was actually a joint edict with the co-emperor Licinius, who controlled the eastern half of the empire. Licinius was not a Christian like Constantine, but he had also come to respect the Christians enough to grant them religious freedom. So when Constantine came to power, he inherited a diverse empire with a large number of Christians in it. One of these policies was the introduction of the Edict of Milan in 313. See, so the edict itself doesn't seem to have been motivated by any kind of sudden conversion experience or revelation. After all, much of the Christian literature written during this period emphasizes Constantine's divine favor. Instead, he probably slowly came to see Christianity as the wave of the future. There were also some practical concerns. The Roman state was in the middle of a fiscal crisis, and the persecution of Christians was proving to be too expensive. Now, another reason that it makes sense that Constantine decided to legalize Christianity is because Christianity was actually pretty popular in the army, and I know from personal experience that it's very hard to win wars if your generals hate you. After issuing the edict of Milan, Constantine went to war with Licinius over control of the entire empire and defeated him. He did not, however, persecute them as severely as previous emperors. So it seems that Constantine was willing to allow Christians to live out their strange little lifestyles, as long as they didn't break Roman law. Some historians argue that the turning point in Constantine's attitude towards Christianity was the first. Council of Nicaea in 325. It was during this council that the Nicene Creed was drafted, which is one of the foundational texts of Christian theology. However, it did have a major theological implication, namely, the affirmation of the divinity of Jesus Christ. As Christianity spread beyond its Jewish roots and became a more universal religion, it faced the challenge of reconciling its beliefs with Greek philosophy. Whatever the reason, Constantine broke up the council and then had several bishops arrested, including the Bishop of Alexandria, who had taken a contrary position on the divinity of Christ. In addition, the rapid success of Christianity may have threatened him. So it seems that the legalization of Christianity and the edict of Milan caused a sort of snowball effect where more so it might have seemed to Constantine that. The Christians were taking over too quickly, which contributed to his later anti-Christian feelings. And after his death, his sons, who were not particularly Christian themselves, persecuted Christians in the East. Meanwhile in the West, Christianity continued to grow steadily and became the official state religion in 380 under Theodosius. The legalization of the religion allowed it to grow and develop. Alright, click here to keep reviewing for Unit 4, and I will see you next time.