10 Dates in Church History

1. 10 Dates in Church History 313 AD: The Edict of Milan

2. Historical Background • The persecution of Christians began around the First Century but were sporadic, localized, and regional • Around 303 AD, Diocletian unleashes an empire-wide persecution of Christians. • All citizens must worship Roman gods. • Roman Empire had become so huge that Diocletian divided the empire into an Eastern Empire and a Western Empire, each with its own co-emperor answerable to Diocletian.

3. Emperor Constantine • Son of a co-emperor father (most likely pagan) and a mother who was a Christian convert (later, St. Helen) which can explain his tolerance for Christians • Ambitious and capable of both kindness and cruelty. • Adopted Christian practices but did not publicly declare himself Christian • 306 AD—proclaimed by Diocletian as the Western Emperor

4. Emperor Constantine (cont’d) • Once Diocletian died, Constantine and his brother-in-law Maxentius battle for the throne of the emperor. • At the Battle for Milvian Bridge, on the Tiber River, Constantine sees a vision of a cross on the sky with the words “By this sign, conquer.” Constantine was victorious (312 AD)

5. The Edict of Milan • In 313 AD, Constantine and another brother-in-law Licinius (Eastern emperor) announced that all Christians may freely practice their without fear of persecution. • Edict was met with expectation and skepticism. • Edict became a charter of liberation for Christians.

6. Results of the Edict of Milan • Constantine ordered the building of churches • Sunday declared a day of rest • Crucifixion was abolished • Constantine also encouraged Christian customs and festivals • The edict did not stop Licinius from persecuting Christians in the Eastern Empire. • Constantine, while practicing some Christian virtues, was still ruthless, killing and torturing political opponents including Licinius among many others.

7. Results of the Edict of Milan (Cont’d) • In 325 AD, Constantine encourage the bishops to convene the Council of Nicaea to combat the Arian heresy and proclaim the Nicene Creed with Christ as the only begotten Son of God • Constantine decides to move the capital of the empire to Byzantium, a Greek trading town, for a number of reasons… • Byzantium was later named Constantinople

8. Consequences of the Move to Constantinople • The Eastern Church became more hellenized. Meanwhile, the Western Church remained Roman (Latin) in practice. The rift contributed to the East-West Schism (about 1092 AD) • Eastern emperors started to meddle into Church affairs and began to dominate over them (caesaropapism) • As a consequence of imperial meddling, many heresies came about from the Eastern Church (iconoclasts)

9. Consequences of the Move to Constantinople (Cont’d) • Moving the capital to Byzantium isolated Rome which eventually fell to the barbarians in the 5th century (the Dark Ages). After Rome fell, the Eastern Church continued to thrive for another thousand years. • In the course of the Dark Ages, kingdoms allied to the papacy in and around the peninsula of Italy became known as the Papal States which served as a ‘buffer zone’ against invasion from other ‘barbarian’ kingdoms.