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[[File:Constantine Chiaramonti Inv1749.jpg|thumb|Bust of Emperor [[Constantine the Great|Constantine I]], Roman, 4th century]]
The '''Edict of Milan''' ({{lang-la|Edictum Mediolanense}}; {{lang-el|Διάταγμα τῶν Μεδιολάνων}}, ''Diatagma tōn Mediolanōn'') was the February 313 AD agreement to treat Christians benevolently within the Roman Empire.<ref name=Frend>[[W. H. C. Frend|Frend, W. H. C.]] (1965). ''The Early Church''. [[SPCK]], p. 137.</ref> Western Roman Emperor [[Constantine the Great|Constantine I]] and Emperor [[Licinius]], who controlled the [[Balkans]], met in [[Mediolanum]] (modern-day [[Milan]]) and, among other things, agreed to change policies towards Christians<ref name=Frend/> following [[Edict of Serdica|the edict of toleration]] issued by Emperor [[Galerius]] two years earlier in [[Serdica]]. The Edict of Milan gave Christianity legal status and a reprieve from persecution but did not make it the [[state church of the Roman Empire]], which occurred in AD 380 with the [[Edict of Thessalonica]].{{cn|date=October 2023}}
The document is found in [[Lactantius]]'s ''[[De mortibus persecutorum]]'' and in [[Eusebius of Caesarea]]'s [[Church History (Eusebius)|''History of the Church'']] with marked divergences between the two.<ref name=Lenski2017>{{cite book |last1=Lenski |first1=Noel |editor1-last=Siecienski |editor1-first=Edward |title=Constantine: Religious Faith and Imperial Policy |date=2017 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=London |pages=27–56 |url=https://www.academia.edu/31384654 |access-date=21 May 2021 |chapter=The Significance of the Edict of Milan |quote=Differences tabulated on pp. 39–40}}</ref><ref name=ODCC_EoM>Cross and Livingstone. ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church'' 1974 art. "Milan, Edict of."</ref> Whether or not there was a formal 'Edict of Milan'  is no longer really debated among scholars, who generally reject the story as it has come down in church history.<ref>Potter, D. ''Constantine the Emperor'' 2013 p. 148. He refers to the "Edict of Milan" as the so-called Edict of Milan in note 10 at the top of p. 329.</ref><ref name=Frend/>
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After Galerius's death, Maximinus was no longer constrained and enthusiastically took up renewed persecutions in the eastern territories under his control, encouraging petitions against Christians. One of those petitions, addressed not only to Maximinus but also to Constantine and Licinius, is preserved in a stone inscription at Arycanda in Lycia, and is a "request that the Christians, who have long been disloyal and still persist in the same mischievous intent, should at last be put down and not be suffered by any absurd novelty to offend against the honour due to the gods."<ref name=Stevenson297/>
The edict is popularly thought to concern only Christianity and even to make it the official religion of the Empire (which did not occur until the [[Edict of Thessalonica]] in 380){{cn|date=October 2023}}. Indeed, the edict expressly grants religious liberty to Christians, who had been the object of special persecution, but also goes even further and grants liberty to all other religions:
{{blockquote|text=When you see that this has been granted to [Christians] by us, your Worship will know that we have also conceded to other religions the right of open and free observance of their worship for the sake of the peace of our times, that each one may have the free opportunity to worship as he pleases; this regulation is made that we may not seem to detract from any dignity of any religion.|sign="Edict of Milan"|source=Lactantius, ''On the Deaths of the Persecutors (De Mortibus Persecutorum)'', ch. 48. opera, ed. 0. F. Fritzsche, II, p 288 sq. (''Bibl Patr. Ecc. Lat.'' XI).<ref>And similarly in [http://wadsworth.com/history_d/special_features/ilrn_legacy/wawc1c01c/content/wciv1/readings/eusebius.html Eusebius].</ref>}}
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This period of Church history is also known as the '''"Peace of the Church"'''. Eusebius says that it stated that "it has pleased us to remove all conditions whatsoever."<ref name=fordham>"Paul Halsall, "Galerius and Constantine: Edicts of Toleration 311/313", Fordham University; [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/edict-milan.asp Fordham.edu]; Internet, accessed 13 October 2014.</ref> The edict further demanded that individual Romans right any wrongs towards Christians: "...the same shall be restored to the Christians without payment or any claim of recompense and without any kind of fraud or deception."<ref name=fordham/> The exhortation to right historic wrongs may also reflect the leaders' desires to avoid unfavourable consequences such as social unrest and further conquests. Koszarycz says that Constantine was superstitious and believed in the existence of the non-Christian gods enough that they did not want to offset the balance of good and evil.<ref>{{cite web |author=Yuri Koszarycz |title=Constantinian Christianity |publisher=The Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies |url=http://www.the-orb.net/textbooks/eccles/constantine.html |website=The-orb.net |access-date=14 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150215120014/http://www.the-orb.net/textbooks/eccles/constantine.html |archive-date=15 February 2015}}</ref> It was believed that the sooner that balance was restored by the Romans establishing a state of justice with the Christians, the sooner the state would become stable.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}
The term "Peace of the Church" has sometimes been applied in [[Great Britain]] and [[Ireland]] to the ending of persecution that followed [[Catholic emancipation]] between 1778 and 1926.{{cn|date=October 2023}} In [[Germany]], it can refer to life after the [[Kulturkampf]].{{cn|date=October 2023}}
==See also==
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