“The Edict of Milan & the Christianization
of the Roman Empire”
Good or bad?
by Stef Schagen
Early Church History, HC510
Professor: Dr. Thomas J. Marinello
Tyndale Theological Seminary
15 September 2009
S. Schagen, 1
The famous Dutch soccer player, “Johan Cruijff”, often makes a statement that
contains truth on both ends. He says: ‘Every advantage has it’s disadvantage. And every
disadvantage has it’s advantage’. This is particularly true of the “Edict of Milan” and the
Christianization of the Roman Empire resulting from it, later in the fourth century.
The “Edict of Milan” issued by, in their Latin names, “Flavius Valerius Constantinus”
(Constantine) and “Valerius Licinianus Licinius” (Licinius)1, in respectively February 313
A.D. to the West and to the Eastern part of the Empire governed from Rome in June2,
followed the “Edict of Toleration” issued by “Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus”
(Galerius) ‘at Nicomedia on the day before the Kalends of May’3 in 311 A.D.
The “Edict of Toleration” had ended severe persecution of Christians at the hands of
the Romans, which had started under Emperor Diocletian in 303 A.D. in the combined effort
to subdue all ‘to make for the prosperity and the welfare of the republic’ by bringing all ‘into
harmony with the ancient laws and public order of the Romans’4, the “Edict of Milan”
legalized Christianity. Though the “Edict of Toleration” of 311 A.D. had tolerated Christians
to worship their Divinity, as ‘most of them persevered in their determination’ and refused ‘to
pay reverence and awe to the gods’ anyway, the “Edict of Milan” of two years later not only
granted complete freedom of worship, provided that it did not disturb ‘good order’, but
permitted Christians to worship ‘the Supreme Deity’ ‘freely and openly, without
molestation’.5 The “Edict of Milan” led to the entire Christianization of the Roman Empire,
1
Encyclopedia Britannica, Constantine I, Lucinius
2
Enc.Brit., Edict of Milan
3
Paul Halsall, Medieval Sourcebook: Galerius and Constantine: Edicts of Toleration 311/313 Online:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/edict-milan.html. Adapted from Lactantius, De Mort. Pers., ch.48. opera,
ed. 0.F. Fritzsche, II, p.288 sq. (Bibl Patr. Ecc. Lat.XI)
4
Halsall, ‘The Edict of Milan’.
5
Halsall, ‘The Edict of Milan’.
S. Schagen, 2
when under Emperor “Theodosius I” Christianity was declared the official religion of the
State.
The agreement ‘came out of a two-man summit meeting in the northern Italian city of
Milan in January 313’. It brought the Church back on it’s feet. The “Edict of Milan” ‘shifted
Christianity from being an illicit, persecuted sect to being a welcome - and soon dominant religion of the Roman Empire.’6 It ended the age of the martyrs and announced the transition
to a new era: the era of the “Christian Empire” at hand.
As a result of the “Edict of Milan” a Christian was allowed to do as he pleased. He
was not to be disturbed. Buildings where Christians used to assemble were to be returned ‘at
once’ and ‘without delay’ and without payment for it; even, if necessary, upon recompensation from State funds. Furthermore, it not only appears that Christians were given
preference, at the least, also that the Emperor and the Romans not only winked an eye in
toleration, but themselves began to pay tribute to God, whom they now called ‘the Supreme
Being’. In the published Edict Emperor Constantine wrote: ‘In all these circumstances you
ought to tender your most efficacious intervention to the community of the Christians … this
regulation is made that we may not seem to detract from any dignity or any religion.’7
One might bow in gratefulness for emperors confessing the Faith! But their purposes
were doubtful... The same Edict wrote it’s purpose: it was to gain ‘Divine favor’ for ‘the good
of the state.’8
Though the Edict released freedom for all religions and freedom of worship of all
deities9, ‘before the end of the fourth century orthodox Christianity had become the sole
6
David F.Wright, Christianity Today International/Christian History magazine, 1 October 1 1990.
International/Christian History magazine Online: www.ctlibrary.com/ch/1990/issue28/2809.html
7
Halsall, ‘The Edict of Milan’.
8
Halsall, ‘The Edict of Milan’.
9
Halsall, ‘The Edict of Milan’, 1st par., line 3
S. Schagen, 3
official religion of the Roman Empire’,10 when Emperor “Flavius Theodosius” (Theodosius I,
347-395), “Theodosius the Great”, declared Christianity the religion of the State and ‘imposed
strict regulations on religious practices’, and ‘persecuted’ those having differing ideas as he
‘made it increasingly difficult to practice traditional Roman religions’.11 Now others were to
suffer. Heretics were to be persecuted. ‘Arians and Macedonianists’ were severely punished
by Church and State. The religious freedom initially granted, was in the end restricted.12 And
where the Emperor had once persecuted the Christians in trying to subdue them, he had now
managed to find his way into the fellowship of worshipers to establish ‘public order’ and
gained great influence and power because of his clemency.13
Church and State became allies in controlling people and governing the world. Europe
was birthed out of it. Was it the beginning of the demise of Christianity or did it good? We
should not think it led to the ‘degeneracy of the church’,14 but some in independent, free
churches today regard it a similar event as that of the Fall of Adam and Eve.15 Was, then, the
Edict of Milan and the Christianization of the Roman Empire due to an alliance between
Church and State a good or bad thing after all? ‘It became a source of both profit and loss,
blessing and curse, on either side.’16
10
Wright, ‘Significance of the Edict’
11
Toren Kjeilen/Lexicorient (Norway: Looklex Ltd) Online: http://lexicorient.com/e.o/theodosius1.htm
12
Schaff, par.27
13
Halsall, ‘The Edict of Milan’, par.2
14
Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol.III, Third Period, The Church in Union with the
Roman Empire Online: http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/history/3_ch03.htm, Ch.3, par.13
15
Wright, Significance of the Edict’, last par.
16
Schaff, Ch.3, par. 13
S. Schagen, 4
Since the Edict Church and State have united. The Church became a ‘legal
corporation’ with ‘usual rights’ and ‘peculiar privileges’.17 It ended the persecution.
Christianity was legalized. Buildings were returned to the Church to meet in. There was
relative safety and both clergy and people quickly accommodated the ‘new order’. Christians
were once again, in some sense, revered like in Acts. Clergymen were exempted from public
duties such as partaking in the army, taxpaying, low manual labor and such. The Church was
greatly ‘enriched’ to be able to support herself and invest in the poor.18 Clergymen were able
to commit to fulltime ministry, no longer occupied by other duties, being well paid by the
Church’s own cash.19 The Church was able to speak on behalf of the mistreated and legally
convicted and intervene in a court of law, a privilege once only preserved for heathen priests
when pagan religions were the day’s practice but the low-class was often neglected. Slaves
could find refuge in the Church’s buildings on consecrated ground.20 Among other
advantages, it led to the ‘abolition of bloody gladiatorial shows … killing thousands’ for the
fun of the spectators, a victory for the earlier apologists who had spoken against it.21
But infiltrated by the State, the Church became a secular instrument in the hands of
political powers and was secularized by ‘mammon worship and luxury’.22 ‘The church could
now act upon the state; but so could the state act upon the church’.23 From now on there was
17
Schaff, Ch.3, par.13
18
Schaff, Ch.3, par. 15
19
Schaff, Ch.3, par.15
20
Schaff, Ch.3, par.16
21
Schaff, Ch.3, par.21
22
Schaff, Ch.3, par.23
23
Schaff, Ch.3, par.13.
S. Schagen, 5
a struggle in balancing powers as the temporal power was either subject to ecclesiastical
power or, under‘caesaro-papal’ hierarchy, ‘the spiritual power merged in the temporal’.24
Christianity and the world were unnaturally confused.25 Heathens came into the
Church, not being believers themselves. The faith was compromised. The masses never
repented and brought pagan customs into the sanctuary. The Emperor gained a position as a
secular ruler from outside. And not all benefited from this union. The Donatists were severely
persecuted for their ideas by both the State and it’s new religion. And not all agreed: some
viewed it as ‘a reproduction of the theocratic constitution of the people of God under the
ancient covenant’, while Early Father Tertullian had not ever even believed the two could
ever be reconciled. And St. Augustine (354-430) with his widely spread and much read book
‘City of God’, according to some having ‘a tendency to absorb the natural law of the State
into the supernatural justice’ of the law of the Church, possibly indicating his perspective of
political Augustinianism, ‘greatly influenced medieval rulers’ with cultural values that lasted
long into the Middle Ages, but was rather driven by a desire to introduce moral values into a
government that kept ‘a separation between God and Caesar’.26 Church and State have had a
history of collisions and struggles over mastering one another. It has done more damage than
good and limited natural growth.27
The Edict of Milan was good, but the eventual Christianization might not have been?
‘It involved great risk of degeneracy to the church … secularizing of the church. The world
overcame the church, as much as the church overcame the world, and the temporal gain of
Christianity was in many respects cancelled by spiritual loss. The mass of the Roman empire
was baptized only with water, not with the Spirit and fire of the gospel’. It led to ‘an unhappy
24
Schaff, Ch.3, par.14.
25
Schaff, Ch.3, par.24
26
Jacques le Goff, The Birth of Europe, 2005 (Malden: Blackwell Publishing), Google Books, Ch.1, 15.
27
Schaff, Ch.3, par.25 and 26.
S. Schagen, 6
mixture of the temporal and the spiritual powers, the kingdom which is of the earth, and that
which is from heaven. That unity became ‘a prolific source of errors and vehement strifes
about jurisdiction, which stretch through all the middle age, and still repeat themselves in
these latest times,…’.28
Whether it was good or bad thing much depends on one’s view of the Kingdom of
God and it’s manifestation on earth? It is not of this world, but is designed to influence the
world (John 18:36, Matt.28:18-20). Just as Christians are no longer of the world, but still are
in the world as salt and light (John 17:11, 14, Matt.5:13-16). We await a heavenly Kingdom,
with a Savior from this other Dimension (Phil.3:20). We look for a new heaven and new earth
(Rev.21:8). The State, therefore, ‘must surrender herself to its influence’ until ‘the kingdoms
of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign
forever and ever." (Rev.11:15).
Can the power of God ever be overcome by forces of secular influence? ‘We must not
forget that the deeper spirit of the gospel has ever reacted against the evils and abuses of it,
whether under an imperial pope or a papal emperor, and has preserved its divine power for
the salvation of men under every form of constitution. Though standing and working in the
world, and in many ways linked with it, yet is Christianity not of the world, but stands above
it.’29
28
Schaff, Ch.3, par.13
29
Schaff, Ch.3, par.13
S. Schagen, 7
Bibliography
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., Encyclopedia Britannica, Chicago, IL, 1994-2008,
www.britannica.com
Fordham, Online Reference Book, Internet Medieval Sourcebook: Galerius and Constantine:
Edicts of Toleration 311/313 Online: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/edictmilan.html, 1996.
Goff, Jacques le, the Birth of Europe (Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.), 2005. Online:
Google Books
Kjeilen, Toren/ Lexicorient, Theodosius1, Norway: LookLex Ltd, 1996-2009.
Schaff, Philip, History of the Christian Church, The Electronic Bible Society, Dallas, TX,
1998.
Wright, David F., 313 The Edict of Milan, Christianity Today International/Christian History
magazine, Online: www.ctlibrary.com/ch/1990/issue28/2809.html, October 1 1990.