   |
|
Handout #34 |
|
Letter to the Governor of Bithynia, traditionally called the Edict of Milan, (313 A.D.) |
| When we, Constantine and Licinius, emperors, had an interview at Milan and conferred together with respect to the good and security of the commonwealth, it seemed to us that, among those things that are profitable to mankind in general, the reverence paid to the divinity merited our first and chief attention, and that it was proper that the Christians and all others should have liberty to follow that mode of religion which to each of them appeared best; so that God, who is seated in heaven, might be benign and propitious to us and to every one under our government. And therefore we judged it a salutary measure, and one highly consonant to right reason, that no man should be denied leave of attaching himself to the rites of the Christians, or to whatever other religion his mind directed him, that thus the supreme divinity, to whose worship we freely devote ourselves, might continue to vouchsafe his favor and beneficence to us. And accordingly we wish you to know that, without regard to any provisos in our former orders to you concerning the Christians, all who choose that religion are to be permitted, freely and absolutely, to remain in it, and not to be disturbed or molested in any way. Handed down by Lactantius, How the Persccutors Died, 48. |
