Open AccessThe Constitution of Christian Europe: The Milan Edict 1700 years ago laid the foundations of modern civilization
Author(s) -
Arkadiy Meler
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
relìgìjna svoboda
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2663-0818
pISSN - 2617-9296
DOI - 10.32420/rs.2013.17-18.987
Subject(s) - christianization , emperor , civilization , constitution , roman empire , humanity , early christianity , event (particle physics) , history , ancient history , classics , law , christianity , political science , archaeology , physics , quantum mechanics
This year, the Christian world celebrates the 1700th anniversary of the edict of Milan by Emperor Constantine the Great (272-337), proclaiming the freedom of the Christian faith and laying the foundations for a unified European civilization, united by a common religious world outlook. By its direct influence on the development of "European humanity," the edict of Milan can not be compared to any historical event, either before or after. In ancient Europe there was not a single world outlook, and therefore there could not be an event that marks the beginning of antiquity precisely as a world outlook. At the first glance, modernist Europe possessed a general secular world outlook, but it was, in one way or another, associated with the former Christian foundation and had no axial event, extending its generations for several centuries of new peace treaties and revolutions. In Christian Europe, such an event is exactly the Milan Edict of 313, whose name is forgotten the last of all the events associated with the Christianization of the Roman Empire.