CHAPTER 4

• The persecution of the Christian ended at the time of who?

  Emperor Galerius
• Who gave the Edict of Toleration?

  Emperor Galerius
• What year is the Edict of Toleration?

  311 AD
• What was Galerius dying wish?

  Edict of Toleration
• "formally ended the persecution, freed imprisoned Christians and restored Christianity."

  Galerius dying wish (Edict of Toleration)
• But there were AUTHORITIES who still insisted that Christians must pay homage to the Roman gods.

  ROMAN OPPOSITIONS
• Aetheists means


  Christians
• Inscription from Arycandia in Lycia preserves the petition of the provincial councils of Lycia and Caria demanding the 'atheists' (Christians) should be made to sacrifice or be expelled from their midst.

  ANTI CHRISTIANS
• The same tone was adopted by the councils of ______, ______,

  and ____. At Damascus, the military commander rounded up prostitutes and coerced them to confess to having witnessed disgraceful scene in Christian churches.

  • Nicomedia
  • Antioch
  • Tyre
• When was the savage outbreak of killing started and ended?

  November 311 - January 312
• Christians re-experienced the horror of persecution and at the same time, the gift of martyrdom.


  PERSECUTION RESUMED
• But through an edict, Constantine who with Licinus, gave the persecution its final and definitive halt in 313 A.D., right after defeating Maxentius in October 312.

  Edict of Toleration
• "..it is our pleasure that all restrictions which were previously put forward in official pronouncements concerning the sect of the Christians should be removed and that each one of them... may endeavor to practice its precepts without any fear or danger..."

  CONSTANTINE
• "We, Constantine and Licinus the Emperors... are of the opinion that among the various things which could profit men... was to be found the cultivation of religion; we should therefore give both the Christians and to all others the free facility to follow their religion..."

  THE EDICT OF MILAN
• Constantine was criticized by some as a ____________ who used Christianity for his self-serving intentions.

  SHREWD POLITICAL STRATEGIST
• Accordingly, he used such religion to expand the ____ and ____ of the Roman Empire, ____________ and exploited the Christian teachings to _________ the behaviors of his subjects.

  • TERRITORY AND POWER
  • multiplied the number of his army
  • CONTROL AND REGULATE
• Constantine's victory over the Emperor Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge on

  October 312

  1. TIME OF WAR AND THE VISION
• Decree of unrestricted freedom to the Christians

  2. EDICT OF MILAN
• He speaks of the "Christian God" as our God (famulum Dei). His obedience to "the will of God" was absolute.

  3. DEVOTION AND CONVERSION
• Constantine started his journey to Christianity when he received the vision with a

  cross of light
• described by Eusebius as?

  “in hoc (signo) vinces”
• What did the soldiers marked on their shields?

  Chi-rho monogram
• Who proclaimed the Edict of Milan?

  Constantine and Licinius
• The Edict of Milan granted what?

  full independence of pagan religions to practice their worship