The Edict Of Milan Analysis

The Roman Empire was a period of new administrative decisions, many of which included different rules defining how religions would be treated in the society. Namely, as Christianity came onto the scene, toleration was not in the cards. Because of this, emperors, such as Constantine, wanted to express toleration throughout the state, and one such example is The Edict of Milan, which had an incredible impact on Christianity in the Roman world and further on. However, alongside the positives of the edict, there were also predominant issues, such as a preference for Christians over other religious groups, which could have led to the downfall of Judaism as a whole in the Roman world. Whenever a new religion emerges and tries to take root, the

Since the edict was written after the civil war, many buildings, specifically churches, had been damaged or destroyed. Due to this, one specific of the edict was that the churches were to be restored (Hollister 9). This exemplifies just how great the toleration was in the empire that they even had to restore what had been destroyed prior to the initiation of this edict. This presents just how serious Constantine was about expanding his rule across the entire state. However, a confusing portion of the edict states that the protection is accessible to “Christians and all others full authority to follow whatever worship each man has desired” (Hollister 8). It states that the insurance applies to everyone, but no where else in the edict are religions other than Christianity specifically mentioned. In fact, by 500, Judaism was no longer viewed as viable and was in fact said to be “evil” and that “acceptance of pagan Rome had been replaced by Christianity’s more anxious toleration” (Bennet 13). Did the interest in other religions lessen because the edict emphasized the protection specifically to Christianity? Could there potentially have been a longer lived reign of Judaism in Rome had the edict specifically named multiple religions and not only included Christianity by name? The edict leaves us with these questions, indicating that the document may be too vague. Another instance where Christianity is seen as “higher” than Judaism is in the image from Rashin al-Din where Jesus and Muhammad are on a camel, justifying that any prophets or figures in Judaism are not as prevalent any longer (Bennet 68). It would be interesting to study whether the edict had the sole effect on the loss of position of Judaism in