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The Edict of Milan was the February 313 AD agreement to treat Christians benevolently within the Roman Empire.〔Frend, W.H.C. ''The Early Church'' SPCK 1965, p. 137〕 Western Roman Emperor Constantine I, and Licinius, who controlled the Balkans, met in Milan and among other things, agreed to change policies towards Christians〔 following the Edict of Toleration by Galerius issued 2 years earlier in Serdica. The Edict of Milan gave Christianity a legal status, but did not make Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire. The document known as the ''Edict of Milan'' (''Edictum Mediolanense'') is found in Lactantius' ''De Mortibus Persecutorum'' and in Eusebius of Caesarea's ''History of the Church'' with marked divergences between the two.〔Cross and Livingstone. ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church'' 1974 art. Milan, Edict of.〕 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 Maximinus〔Stevenson, J. ''A New Eusebius'' SPCK 1965, p. 302〕 later in the same year and issued in Nicomedia.〔 == History == Ever since the fall of the Severan dynasty in 235, rivals for the imperial throne had bid for support by either favoring or persecuting Christians.〔Frend, W.H.C. ''The Early Church'' SPCK 1965, p. 135〕 The previous Edict of Toleration by Galerius had been recently issued by the emperor Galerius from Serdica and posted at Nicomedia on 30 April 311. By its provisions, the Christians, who had "followed such a caprice and had fallen into such a folly that they would not obey the institutes of antiquity", were granted an indulgence.〔Stevenson, J. ''A New Eusebius'' SPCK 1965, p. 296〕 Their confiscated property, however, was not restored until 313 when instructions were given for the Christians' meeting places and other properties to be returned and compensation paid by the state to the current owners:〔Eusebius, ''Ecclesiastical History'' 5.15-17〕 It directed the provincial magistrates to execute this order at once with all energy, so that public order may be restored and the continuance of the Divine favor may "preserve and prosper our successes together with the good of the state." The actual letters have never been retrieved. However, they are quoted at length in Lactantius' ''On the Deaths of the Persecutors'' (''De mortibus persecutorum''), which gives the Latin text of both Galerius's Edict of Toleration as posted at Nicomedia on 30 April 311, and of Licinius's letter of toleration and restitution addressed to the governor of Bithynia and posted at Nicomedia on 13 June 313.〔Lactantius, ''De mortibus persecutorum'' 34.1-35.1, 48.1-12〕 Eusebius of Caesarea translated both documents into Greek in his ''History of the Church'' (''Historia Ecclesiastica''). His version of the letter of Licinius must derive from a copy posted in the province of Palaestina Prima (probably at its capital, Caesarea) in the late summer or early autumn of 313, but the origin of his copy of Galerius's Edict of 311 is unknown, since that does not seem to have been promulgated in Caesarea. In his description of the events in Milan in his ''Life of Constantine'', Eusebius eliminated the role of Licinius, whom he portrayed as the evil foil to his hero Constantine. The Edict was in effect directed against Maximinus Daia, the Caesar in the East who was at that time styling himself as Augustus. Having received the emperor Galerius' instruction to repeal the persecution in 311, Maximinus had instructed his subordinates to desist, but had not released Christians from prisons or virtual death-sentences in the mines, as Constantine and Licinius had both done in the West.〔Inscription printed in Stevenson, J. ''A New Eusebius'' SPCK 1965, p. 297〕 Following Galerius' death, Maximin was no longer constrained; he enthusiastically took up renewed persecutions in the eastern territories under his control, encouraging petitions against Christians. One of those petitions, addressed not only to Maximin 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."〔 The Edict is popularly thought to concern only Christianity, and even to make Christianity the official religion of the Empire (which recognition did not actually occur until the Edict of Thessalonica in 380). Indeed the Edict expressly grants religious liberty not only to Christians, who had been the object of special persecution, but goes even further and grants liberty to all religions: Since Licinius composed the Edict with the intent of publishing it in the east upon his hoped-for victory over Maximinus, it expresses the religious policy accepted by Licinius, a pagan, rather than that of Constantine, who was already a Christian. Constantine's own policy went beyond merely tolerating Christianity: he tolerated paganism and other religions, but he actively promoted Christianity. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Edict of Milan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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