# Constantine and Licinius issue the 313 Milan agreement restoring confiscated cult property and ending licensed persecution

Date: 313

## The fact

In 313 Constantine and Licinius agreed, and instructed governors, that Christians and others should have legal cult and that confiscated property be restored.

It is one event.

## Context

Do not simplify Christianization to one man or one paper. 311 Galerius, 306 western halt, 313 joint letters, and later privileging are different instruments.

[Constantine the Great](/people/constantine-the-great)’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below. Sharing a field with them is not a reason to drop a documented act, and it is not a reason to assign later consequences done in the name after death.

February 313 meeting at Milan; letters to governors. Not a single ‘Edict of Milan’ autograph. Shared with Licinius. Galerius’s 311 tolerance is prior and separate.
Named person as heading of the dated public instrument. Later editors, museums, printers, or offices share publication. Complex where later carriers date the row.

## Evidence and sources

Fordham’s Milan extracts (Lactantius and Eusebius) and Britannica independently present a 313 joint measure, not a solo baptismal statute.

Official or archival record: Fordham Sourcebook — Edict of Milan (Lactantius/Eusebius extracts) (https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/edict-milan.asp; Fordham University).

## Significance

Restoring legal cult and property is a minority-rights instrument of high confidence as policy, shared with Licinius.

313 is not Nicaea and not the labarum legend.

Restoring legal cult and property is a minority-rights instrument of high confidence as policy, shared with Licinius.

## What is established and what is not

Established: 313 joint instructions ended licensed persecution and ordered restorations. Not established: a single original plaque titled Edict of Milan, or that pagan cult was thereby abolished.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Established here: a sourced, dated public instrument with a named contribution by Constantine the Great.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date, signatory, or non-occurrence; a demonstrated forgery; or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of other causes.

## People

- Constantine the Great: https://factrail.ai/people/constantine-the-great

## Drivers

- Protection of Minority Rights: https://factrail.ai/drivers/protection-of-minority-rights

## Sources

- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Edict-of-Milan
- https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/edict-milan.asp

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/co-milan-313-with-licinius