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Exhibition534the great6all religions throughout the empireand specified that Christianity washenceforth to be considered a lawfulreligion, thus ushering in aperiod of religious tolerance andgreat political and cultural renewal.Whether Constantine himselfhad already sincerely embracedChristianity is a moot point. Theemperor’s policy went beyond toleratingthis new faith, for he alsoallowed paganism and other religions;but he actively promotedChristianity as part of his overallimperial policy. The edict was aMinerva November/December 20124. Votive plaque. 6th/7thcentury AD. H. 3.6cm.W. 6.1cm. Fabbrica di SanPietro, Vatican City.5. Gilded silver HolyCross reliquary withConstantine and Helenain prayer. Late 12thcentury. H. 16cm. W. 9.2cm.Musée du Louvre, Paris.6. Gold cross pendant.Late 5th century AD.H. 3.7cm. W. 2cm. MuseoCivico d’Arte Antica,Palazzo Madama, Turin.watershed: Christianity soon becamethe one and only state religion forByzantium and the whole of Europeuntil the modern age.Versions of the text of the edictwere recorded by the Bishop ofCaesarea, the historian Eusebius(AD 263-339), in his HistoriaEcclesiastica (History of theChurch) and, more accurately,in Lactantius’ De MortibusPersecutorum (On the Deathof the Persecutors), written beforeAD 315. Lactantius (circa AD 240-circa AD 320), known as theChristian Cicero, had himself survivedDiocletian’s persecutions andbecome Constantine’s adviser onreligious matters and tutor to theemperor’s son Crispus.A previous and similar Edict ofToleration had been issued by theco-emperor Galerius (r. AD 305-311) from Serdica (Sophia) andposted up at Nicomedia on 30 April311. By its provisions, the Christians‘… who had followed such a capriceand had fallen into such a folly thatthey would not obey the institutesof antiquity’, were granted an39