Edict of Milan

The Edict of Milan is considered one of the top 100 most significant events in world history. It was supposed to have paved the way for "religious freedom" within the Roman Empire. The defacto end result was really that it set the stage for a Christian Europe in the centuries that followed.


Edict of Milan (Wikipedia)

The document known as the Edict of Milan (Edictum Mediolanense) is found in Lactantius' De Mortibus Persecutorum and Eusebius of Caesarea's History of the Church with marked divergences between the two. In February 313, Emperor Constantine I, who controlled the western part of the Roman Empire, and Licinius, who controlled the Balkans, met in Milan and, among other things, agreed to treat the Christians benevolently. Whether or not there was a formal 'Edict of Milan'  is debatable. The version found in Lactantius is not in the form of an edict; it is a letter from Licinius to the governors of the provinces in the Eastern Empire he had just conquered by defeating Maximin later in the same year and issued in Nicomedia.

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