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would remain known in history under the name of the Edict of
Milan.
For the first time in the history of mankind, religions –
irrespective of their religious creed – were considered by the State
authority as equal before law, hence a recognition of their equal
entitlement to enjoy the religious liberty. Therefore, through this
Edict, the Roman State could no longer allow itself to forbid the
existence of a religion or the free exercise of its cult by its
servants.
Another aspect, actually unemphasized by the specialised
literature (juridical, ecclesiological, socio-political etc.) up to the
present is that this religious liberty has not had a restrictive
character, that is it wasn`t limited only to that „civis romanus”
(Roman citizen), or simply to „the citizen”, as provided – after
almost fifteen centuries – in the text of the Declaration of the
French Revolution (1789), but it was provided and assured for
every human being, for every man, hence the assertion of that
„dignitas humana” (of the human dignity) and of its juridical
protection.
Through its revolutionary message that it conveyed to the
Roman world of those times, regarding religious liberty and the
equality of religious Cults before the law, and through the impact it
had had on the European legislation along those seventeen
centuries, the Edict of Milan still remains a reference document for
the specification of the juridical regime of the religious cults of our
days.
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