Laws Ending Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire

Context

The Roman Empire was not in general hostile toward unfamiliar religious practices, as long they did not offend by their savagery (for example, human sacrifices). A distinction was made between private approaches to fundamental questions, such as the origin of the universe and the immortality of the soul, and the civic rituals that forged a practical relationship between a community and the forces of nature on which it depended for its survival. The effectiveness of these rituals hinged on the support of the community as a whole; failure to perform them properly made the gods angry, and divine anger led to natural disasters, which affected entire communities.

From at least the early second century CE, the impulse to persecute Christians came from the cities of the empire rather than from the central imperial government. Stories circulated concerning Christians of the sort that are concocted about people already unpopular for other reasons—stories about orgies, bestiality, and baby eating. However, Christians were persecuted not for what they did but for what they failed to do. Because they believed that worship ought to be offered only to the Summus Deus (Most High God), who created the universe out of nothing, Christians opposed the performance of the sacrifices, festivals, and other rites that, by honoring the public gods, assured the security and prosperity of communities.

Persecution was generally intermittent and local, such as at Lyons, Gaul, in 177 CE or at Alexandria, Egypt, in 202–203, as recorded in Eusebius's Church History. At three times in Roman history, the emperors initiated action against Christians right across the empire: under the emperor Decius in 249–251, under Valerian in 257–258, and during the Great Persecution, which started under the emperor Diocletian and his three imperial colleagues, the tetrarchs, on February 23, 303, and continued in most of the western half of the empire until 306 and in most of the eastern half until 313.

Information about the Great Persecution survives in the writings of Lactantius, a Christian professor of Latin rhetoric at the imperial court at Nicomedia (modern-day Izmit) in the province of Bithynia (northwestern Asia Minor), and Eusebius, a Christian scholar. Eusebius felt the effects of the persecution on the church at Caesarea on the coast of Palestine and rewrote his Church History several times to keep it up to date with current events. His Martyrs of Palestine provides eyewitness accounts of the executions of his Christian comrades.

The mid-third century was marked by instability in the central government of the Roman Empire, caused by foreign threats on both the Rhine and the Danube frontiers and on the frontier with the Persian Empire to the east and also by frequent usurpations of imperial power. Diocletian, who became emperor on November 20, 284, restored equilibrium to the imperial administration. In 293 he divided the imperial authority among a tetrarchy of four emperors, two senior emperors with the title “augustus” (himself in the East and his colleague Maximian in the West) and two junior emperors with the title “caesar” (Constantius I in the West and Galerius in the East). The two caesars were seen as dependent on the two augusti. This power structure ensured that there was always a legitimate emperor responsible for each of the empire's important frontiers.

In 298 Galerius won a stunning victory against the Persians, making him a military hero and putting him in a position to exert pressure on Diocletian. Galerius (and his mother) had a particular antipathy to Christianity, so he persuaded Diocletian that the time was right for a solution to the Christian problem. Early in 303 the emperors acted. It seems that they anticipated that the resolution would be relatively simple. A pamphlet was issued “to the Christians,” attempting to convince them that they should return to the worship inaugurated by their ancestors. Then, on February 23, 303, during the feast of the Roman god Terminus, the patron and protector of boundaries, orders were given that Christian property and books should be confiscated. In addition, Christian buildings were destroyed, and Christians were forbidden to gather for worship. Anyone appearing in a court of law in any capacity was required to offer incense upon an altar, and those employed in the imperial service were obliged to offer sacrifice or be dismissed. In Britain, Gaul, and Spain, the areas with the fewest Christians, persecution was relatively mild, but in the eastern half of the empire, the so-called Fourth Edict of the persecution, issued in the spring of 304, required people to sacrifice, and many who refused were martyred or imprisoned.

By spring 305 Galerius was able to persuade Diocletian as well as Maximian, the two augusti, to abdicate, leaving the caesars—Galerius in the East and Constantius I in the West—to succeed them as the new augusti. In the eastern half of the empire, Galerius continued the persecution with redoubled ferocity, but the death of the newly elevated Constantius I at York on July 25, 306, was followed by the acclamation as an emperor of his son Constantine I. Constantine promptly stopped all anti-Christian activity in his realms (Britain, Gaul, and Spain). On October 28, Maxentius, son of the former augustus Maximian, set himself up as an emperor in the city of Rome and put a stop to persecution in Italy and Latin-speaking North Africa (present-day Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and western Libya). In the eastern Mediterranean basin, however, persecution continued.

During the next six years, extremely complex rivalries between competing emperors developed; at one point there were seven claimants to imperial power, each backed by an army. On November 11, 308, at a conference convened by Galerius, Licinius was made an emperor, with the idea that he should eliminate the usurper Maxentius in Italy, a feat that Licinius never achieved.

It is alleged that Galerius planned to follow the example of Diocletian and abdicate after twenty years as an emperor, in 313. However, Galerius fell ill with a lingering disease. On his deathbed he issued a law that granted clemency to the Christians (and incidentally explained why he had promoted persecution in the first place). This law was published on April 30, 311 at Nicomedia in Asia Minor, the principal residence of emperors since Diocletian.

Nevertheless, the death of Galerius did not resolve the political tension. Maximinus Daia, made caesar in 305, continued to rule the East and added Asia Minor to his territories, and Licinius took over the Balkans. Persecution of Christians resumed. In the autumn of 311 Maximinus began a fresh and severe initiative against the Christians. Many Christians were tried, and church leaders were particularly singled out. Peter, patriarch of Alexandria, was killed in prison. Methodius, a learned bishop in Lycia, was martyred. Lucian of Antioch, a noted biblical scholar, was condemned by Maximinus in person. Petitions from cities in his dominions inspired Maximinus in his determination, and his responses to them echo the cities' concern for their civic rites and the practical benefits that they protected: “For who could be found so senseless or bereft of all intelligence as not to perceive that it is by the benevolent care of the gods that the earth does not refuse the seeds committed to it” (Eusebius, 1928, p. 284). Two such petitions, requesting permission to make Christians conform or harry them out of the land, survive engraved on stone.

In the meantime, Constantine launched an attack on Maxentius, the effective ruler of Italy and western North Africa. On October 28, 312, at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, Constantine captured the city of Rome and killed Maxentius. Over the winter Constantine wrote to Maximinus “on behalf of the Christians,” attributing his success to the favor of the Christian god. Maximinus brought his army westward to Asia Minor, in case of an attack from Licinius's territories in the Balkans. Also, perhaps in the interest of keeping the peace with Licinius and Constantine, Maximinus issued a law, in the form of a rescript to Sabinus, his praetorian prefect (chief minister), grudgingly permitting Christians to practice their religion while expressing the hope that they would see the error of their ways and conform to proper public worship. This may be the rescript referred to in the preamble to the Letter of Licinius.

Licinius, ruling the Balkans, found himself sandwiched between Maximinus in the East and Constantine in the West. He chose alliance with Constantine and rode in the depths of winter across the Julian Alps to Milan in northern Italy to negotiate with Constantine and, in February 313, to marry Constantine's sister. Constantine and Licinius agreed that when Licinius had defeated Maximinus, he would bring an absolute halt to Maximinus's persecution of Christians and restore their property. Licinius appears to have had no personal commitment to Christianity, though he was prepared to agree to the use of blandly monotheistic prayers in his army, no doubt as an element of his alliance with Constantine. The agreement about Christianity that Licinius and Constantine reached at Milan would be carried into effect by the Letter of Licinius, to be issued by Licinius at Nicomedia that June.

In spring 313, with his rear secure, Licinius marched eastward against Maximinus. Confronted by Licinius's army, Maximinus offered further concessions to the Christians, reiterating that they had permission to follow their religion and restoring their property to them. It was too late. Driven across Asia Minor, Maximinus took refuge at Tarsus, where he took poison. Licinius was left in possession of the entire eastern half of the Roman Empire. On June 13, 313, at Nicomedia in northwestern Asia Minor, Licinius issued the Letter of Licinius (formerly and erroneously called the Edict of Milan). It granted complete freedom of worship to Christians and restored their churches and other property, granting compensation from imperial funds to those from whom the property had been confiscated.