History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A. D. 100-325

forever united in heaven with the Saviour, whom on earth I loved with all my heart." Hence the

lamb in the paintings of this saint; and hence the consecration of lambs in her church at Rome at

her festival (Jan. 21), from whose wool the pallium of the archbishop is made. Agricola and Vitalis

at Bologna, Gervasius and Protasius at Milan, whose bones were discovered in the time of Ambrose

Janurius, bishop of Benevent, who became the patron saint of Naples, and astonishes the faithful

by the annual miracle of the liquefaction of his blood, and the British St. Alban, who delivered

himself to the authorities in the place of the priest he had concealed in his house, and converted his

executioner, are said to have attained martyrdom under Diocletian.

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§ 25. The Edicts of Toleration. a.d. 311–313.

See Lit. in § 24, especially Keim, and Mason (Persecution of Diocletian, pp. 299

and 326 sqq.)

This persecution was the last desperate struggle of Roman heathenism for its life. It was the

crisis of utter extinction or absolute supremacy for each of the two religions. At the close of the

contest the old Roman state religion was exhausted. Diocletian retired into private life in 305, under

the curse of the Christians; he found greater pleasure in planting cabbages at Salona in his native

Dalmatia, than in governing a vast empire, but his peace was disturbed by the tragical misfortunes

of his wife and daughter, and in 313, when all the achievements of his reign were destroyed, he

destroyed himself.

Galerius, the real author of the persecution, brought to reflection by a terrible disease, put

an end to the slaughter shortly before his death, by a remarkable edict of toleration, which he issued

from Nicomedia in 311, in connexion with Constantine and Licinius. In that document he declared,

that the purpose of reclaiming the Christians from their wilful innovation and the multitude of their

sects to the laws and discipline of the, Roman state, was not accomplished; and that he would now

grant them permission to hold their religious assemblies provided they disturbed not the order of

the state. To this he added in conclusion the significant instruction that the Christians, "after this

manifestation of grace, should pray to their God for the welfare of the emperors, of the state, and

of themselves, that the state might prosper in every respect, and that they might live quietly in their

homes."

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This edict virtually closes the period of persecution in the Roman empire.

For a short time Maximin, whom Eusebius calls "the chief of tyrants," continued in every

way to oppress and vex the church in the East, and the cruel pagan Maxentius (a son of Maximian

and son-in-law of Galerius) did the same in Italy.

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For details see the Martyrologies, the "Lives of Saints, " also Baronius Annal. This historian is so fully convinced of the

"insigne et perpetuum miraculum sanguinis S. Januarii," that he thinks; it unnecessary to produce; my witness, since "tota Italia,

et totus Christianus orbis testis est locupletissimus!"Ad ann. 305 no. 6.

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M. de Broglie (L’Église et l’Empire, I. 182) well characterizes this manifesto: "Singulier document, moitié insolent, moitié

suppliant, qui commence par insulter chrétiens et finit par leur demander de prier leur maΠtre pour lui." Mason (1. c. p. 299):

"The dying emperor shows no penitence, makes no confession, except his impotence. He wishes to dupe and outwit the angry

Christ, by pretending to be not a persecutor but a reformer. With a curse, he dashes his edict of toleration in the church’s face,

and hopes superstitiously that it will win him indemnity."

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Philip Schaff

History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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But the young Constantine, who hailed from the far West, had already, in 306, become

emperor of Gaul, Spain, and Britain. He had been brought up at the court of Diocletian at Nicomedia

(like Moses at the court of Pharaoh) and destined for his successor, but fled from the intrigues of

Galerius to Britain, and was appointed by his father and proclaimed by the army as his successor.

He crossed the Alps, and under the banner of the cross, he conquered Maxentius at the Milvian

bridge near Rome, and the heathen tyrant perished with his army of veterans in the waters of the

Tiber, Oct. 27, 312. A few months afterwards Constantine met at Milan with his co-regent and

brother-in-law, Licinius, and issued a new edict of toleration (313), to which Maximin also, shortly

before his suicide (313), was compelled to give his consent at Nicomedia.

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 The second edict went

beyond the first of 311; it was a decisive step from hostile neutrality to friendly neutrality and

protection, and prepared the way for the legal recognition of Christianity, as the religion of the

empire. It ordered the full restoration of all confiscated church property to the Corpus Christianorum,

at the expense of the imperial treasury, and directed the provincial magistrates to execute this order

at once with all energy, so that peace may be fully established and the continuance of the Divine

favor secured to the emperors and their subjects.

This was the first proclamation of the great principle that every man had a right to choose

his religion according to the dictates of his own conscience and honest conviction, without

compulsion and interference from the government.

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 Religion is worth nothing except as an act

of freedom. A forced religion is no religion at all. Unfortunately, the successors of Constantine

from the time of Theodosius the Great (383–395) enforced the Christian religion to the exclusion

of every other; and not only so, but they enforced orthodoxy to the exclusion of every form of

dissent, which was punished as a crime against the state.

Paganism made another spasmodic effort. Licinius fell out with Constantine and renewed

the persecution for a short time in the East, but he was defeated in 323, and Constantine became

sole ruler of the empire. He openly protected and favored the church, without forbidding idolatry,

and upon the whole remained true to his policy of protective toleration till his death (337). This

was enough for the success of the church, which had all the vitality and energy of a victorious

power; while heathenism was fast decaying at its root.

With Constantine, therefore, the last of the heathen, the first of the Christian, emperors, a

new period begins. The church ascends the throne of the Caesars under the banner of the once

despised, now honored and triumphant cross, and gives new vigor and lustre to the hoary empire

of Rome. This sudden political and social revolution seems marvellous; and yet it was only the

legitimate result of the intellectual and moral revolution which Christianity, since the second century,

had silently and imperceptibly wrought in public opinion. The very violence of the Diocletian

persecution betrayed the inner weakness of heathenism. The Christian minority with its ideas already

controlled the deeper current of history. Constantine, as a sagacious statesman, saw the signs of

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It is usually stated (also by Keim, l.c., Gieseler, Baur, vol. I.. 454 sqq.), that Constantine and Licinius issued two edicts of

toleration, one in the year 312, and one from Milan in 313, since the last refers to a previous edict, but the reference seems to

be to directions now lost for officials which accompanied the edict of Galerius (311), of which Constantine was a co-signatory.

There is no edict of 312. See Zahn and especially Mason (p. 328 sq.), also Uhlhorn (Conflict, etc., p. 497, Engl. translation).

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"Ut daremus et Christianis et omnibus liberam potestatem sequendi religionem, quam quiscunque voluisset." See Euseb.

H. X. 5; Lactant. De Mort. Pers. c. 48. Mason (p. 327) says of the Edict of Milan: "It is the very first announcement of that

doctrine which is now regarded as the mark and principle of civilization, the foundation of solid liberty, the characteristic of

modern politics. In vigorous and trenchant sentences it sets forth perfect freedom of conscience, the unfettered choice of religion."

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Philip Schaff

History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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