Edict of Milan

Constantine and the Edict of Milan Constantine was the first Roman emperor to accept Christianity, and eventually became Christian himself. Since Constantine converted to Christianity, many other emperors and officials followed him. This ultimately caused the Roman people adopting Christianity as their official religion. His nephew Julian later tried to reestablish the old religion of the Romans. The old religion was Paganism which had many gods as opposed to the monotheistic religion of Christianity. The fourth century emperor Theodosius I finally ended the paganism in Rome once and for all. Aside from making Christianity the official Roman religion, Constantine had other great accomplishments. Constantine converted to Christianity in a peculiar way. He was about to fight Emperor Maxentius when he saw a vision. In his vision, he claimed to have seen a cross that showed the words, “ in hoc signo vinces” which translates to “in this sign you will conquer.” Constantine promised that if he defeated Emperor Maxentius as the Milvian Bridge he would convert to Christianity. He beat Maxentius and soon after converted to Christianity. Although he became a Christian after the battle in 312, he was not baptized until a century later. The Edict of Milan was created in 313 by two men. The meeting was held in Milan, Italy. These two men were Constantine the Roman emperor who ruled the West, and the Roman emperor Licinius who ruled the East. The main outcome of the Edict was that Christians were granted religious freedom which was unheard of at the time. The Edict of Milan undoubtedly granted religious freedom to all religions not just Christianity. Before the Edict was announced, Christians suffered ridicule and hatred by other people. Now, the Edict granted the Christians the right to worship freely without ridicule. Even though the Edict addressed all religions the right to worship freely, it singled out the Christians and had a pro Christian feel to the document.

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