Systematic Theology – The State

The Edict of Milan

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Lesson: Government

Genre: Speech

Track: 17

Dictation Name: 17 The Edict of Milan

Year: 1970’s

O Lord our God, we gather together again in joyful celebration of thy victory in Jesus Christ. We rejoice, our Father, that the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Make us joyful, confident unto victory, and ever mindful, our Father, that thou art with us and thou wilt never leave us nor forsake us, so that as we face the hostility of this world, a humanistic state and humanistic schools around us, we may in all things be more than conquerors through Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen.

We have been, for some months, dealing with the theology of the state. We’ve gone into the biblical doctrine of the state, of civil government, into what the modern state believes itself to be and what humanism is doing in our world.

Tonight, we shall, in part, look at history in order to understand something of the significance of our past history in this respect. A key point in the entire history of the problem of church and state is the reign of the Emperor Constantine. The sad fact is that Constantine is one of the most abused men in history. He was once known as Constantine the Great, but historians who are humanistic have unleashed their wrath against him and he is never referred to now as Constantine the Great. On top of that, the myth has arisen which originates in part from anti-Christian historians that somehow, Constantine took the church captive, and as a result, to this day we are suffering because of what Constantine did. The fact is, the so-called corruption of the church by Constantine is a myth. A great deal associated with Constantine is a myth. If you go to most history books, he is presented as something of a monster, because he did execute a number of his family members and close associates, but what we have to realize that what Constantine did was to inaugurate one of the great revolutions of history. The Roman Empire which believes essentially in its own divinity, was made to surrender that fact and recognize the kingdom of Christ.

Now, this was a dramatic and a radical step, even though Constantine went slowly, and what he did was a gradual accomplishment. All the same, the wrath of everyone in the Roman Empire who was pagan, everyone and his family who was unconverted was tremendous, so that Constantine had a life-long battle against even the members of his household. We’re not told this. We’re simply told that he was a monster because he killed so many people without any reason given, without anything said about the fact that the man was surrounded by conspiracies and treasons.

Now, to understand something of the situation into which Constantine came, we need to realize that religion in the Roman Empire, and in all Antiquity was an inseparable function of the state. The state was, in effect, a church. The state controlled and determined what the religion of the people should be, and the religion was always some form of worship of the state, or of the ruler, or emperor, of king, or of his office. The very word “liturgy” which we have is revealing, because a liturgy in the Greek original comes from two words meaning public work. The liturgy was a public work of the state, because religion was an aspect of public work. It was a means whereby the people were kept in line, whereby the people were made happy, contented, and so on. Rome was very eager to encourage religions, provided the religions involved became licensed and submitted to Rome, were licensed by Rome, controlled by Rome, and always acknowledged the supremacy of Caesar over their gods.

Hence, the basic confession as we have seen in previous weeks of Rome was, Caesar is lord, and this is why the early church made the baptismal confession requires of all converts, Jesus Christ is Lord. The function of religion in Rome was to buttress the state, and Rome was anxious to make every new religion serve that purpose, to make them all a part of the cult of emperor worship, and therefore, it was very ready, in fact, it worked hard to bring the Christians into line, trying to court them, and say to them, “Now look, wouldn’t you much rather have these benefits and privileges from us? Only say Caesar is lord, and get a license, and put it on the wall of your church,” and the answer of the early Christians was, “Jesus Christ is Lord over Caesar, not Caesar over Christ.”

For Rome, the central area of life was the here-and-now, and the state. This is why, in Greco-Roman thinking, the departed were shaves{?}. They were barely alive. In fact, when in Homer a visit was made to the land of the dead, it was necessary to sacrifice animals galore, and let their blood run so the ghosts of the dead could come, their shaves{?}, as Homer called it, and feast on that blood so they’d get enough vitality to talk, because life beyond the grave was, at best, a half life. The life here and now, and the life of the state, was the life of God, and the state was God walking on earth.

For pagan Antiquity, and especially for the Romans, a stateless man was a man with nothing, no religion, no life really. The life of man was defined by the state, but for us as Christians, God defines our life, and so we know ourselves and our calling, the whole of our life through God’s law-word. We live and move and have our being in him. For us as Christians, God is the creator. We are made in his image. Our law comes from God, not from the state, and therefore, our salvation comes from God and not from the state. In paganism, there was no freedom from the state. For us, there is no freedom from God, because God is our Lord. No man can escape the living God, but the thesis of statism is that no man can escape the state, and so increasingly, we see one kind of legislation after another to rivet you to the state. The new tax bill, by the way, just passed by both Republicans and Democrats with so much enthusiasm, says and it puts you more under the power of the IRS than you can begin to imagine, that if you are asked for your tax ID number, your number as a taxpayer, and you do not provide it, you can be fined. It also declares that if you underestimate your income, and your taxes, you can be fined, $1000. It puts you, in a number of ways, more into the hands of the IRS. No freedom from the state, but we, as Christians, believe we should be free from the state, but not free from the Lord.

Because of their faith in Christ, the early church could not make Christ subservient to the emperor state, and hence, Christians were seen as the enemies of the state, and today increasingly, we see this attack launched against our Lord and against all who believe in him. We see it in television, in the pornographic publications, in legislation and in the courts increasingly. It is interesting that, of late, the courts have said that a variety of books of pornographic, or anti-Christian character cannot be barred from the public schools, but the Bible can be. This gives us an ironic situation, does it not?

Well, Rome had been persecuting the early church savagely and unflinchingly, brutally, murdering Christians wholesale. When Constantine triumphed over his rivals, with the edict of Milan, he ended the persecution, and in March of 313, a major step towards freedom was taken. Other religions were to continue as before, to be tolerated, but the church now was clearly to be free. Let me read the text of that edict because so much mythology has arisen concerning it.

“When we, Constantine and Licinius, emperors, had an interview at Milan, and conferred together with respect to the good and security of the commonweal, it seemed to us that, amongst those things that are profitable to mankind in general, the reverence paid to the Divinity merited our first and chief attention, and that it was proper that the Christians and all others should have liberty to follow that mode of religion which to each of them appeared best; so that that God, who is seated in heaven, might be benign and propitious to us, and to every one under our government. And therefore we judged it a salutary measure, and one highly consonant to right reason, that no man should be denied leave of attaching himself to the rites of the Christians, or to whatever other religion his mind directed him, that thus the supreme Divinity, to whose worship we freely devote ourselves, might continue to vouchsafe His favour and beneficence to us. And accordingly we give you to know that, without regard to any provisos in our former orders to you concerning the Christians, all who choose that religion are to be permitted, freely and absolutely, to remain in it, and not to be disturbed any ways, or molested. And we thought fit to be thus special in the things committed to your charge, that you might understand that the indulgence which we have granted in matters of religion to the Christians is ample and unconditional; and perceive at the same time that the open and free exercise of their respective religions is granted to all others, as well as to the Christians. For it befits the well-ordered state and the tranquillity of our times that each individual be allowed, according to his own choice, to worship the Divinity; and we mean not to derogate aught from the honour due to any religion or its votaries. Moreover, with respect to the Christians, we formerly gave certain orders concerning the places appropriated for their religious assemblies; but now we will that all persons who have purchased such places, either from our exchequer or from any one else, do restore them to the Christians, without money demanded or price claimed, and that this be performed peremptorily and unambiguously; and we will also, that they who have obtained any right to such places by form of gift do forthwith restore them to the Christians: reserving always to such persons, who have either purchased for a price, or gratuitously acquired them, to make application to the judge of the district, if they look on themselves as entitled to any equivalent from our beneficence.

“All those places are, by your intervention, to be immediately restored to the Christians. And because it appears that, besides the places appropriated to religious worship, the Christians did possess other places, which belonged not to individuals, but to their society in general, that is, to their churches, we comprehend all such within the regulation aforesaid, and we will that you cause them all to be restored to the society or churches, and that without hesitation or controversy: Provided always, that the persons making restitution without a price paid shall be at liberty to seek indemnification from our bounty. In furthering all which things for the behoof of the Christians, you are to use your utmost diligence, to the end that our orders be speedily obeyed, and our gracious purpose in securing the public tranquillity promoted. So shall that divine favour which, in affairs of the mightiest importance, we have already experienced, continue to give success to us, and in our successes make the commonweal happy. And that the tenor of this our gracious ordinance may be made known unto all, we will that you cause it by your authority to be published everywhere.”

Now, that is the document that tells us of Constantine’s policy. What does it say? Well, he says his primary concern is the good and the security of the commonweal. The welfare of Rome now meant peace with the church, practically, and this was his argument apparently with Licinius who was not a convert, but was co-emperor. The Christians are too important a group to persecute. They are the best citizens in the empire, and he says this step is consonant with right reason. It is sound administration.

Now, this edict does not have a specifically Christian tone, but remember, Licinius was not a Christian. Constantine, having a slight edge on his in power, got him to sign this, but Licinius would not have signed such a document if it committed him to a Christian position, so that, in a sense, it takes a neutral, or supposedly neutral, tone, but it is not too neutral by any means. The pagan religions are given equal freedom, but we’ll come to that in a minute.

Second, the freedom granted is ample and unconditional. That’s the language of the edict. There are no qualifying clauses. What people have done when they’ve talked about Constantine is to go into the future and read things back into the Edict of Milan. This is not justifiable. Freedom was granted and it was granted to all, but the pagan cults did not see themselves as wanting freedom. They were devoted to the cult of the state, and so for them to be cut off from the state was death. The pagan cults had never wanted freedom. They were an aspect of the cult of state worship, so that by being severed from what was their life, it was a deadly blow to them, but to the church, to be severed from any requirement to bow down to the state and confess that the emperor was lord was freedom. So, there was a tremendous difference in what the freedom meant. It meant one thing to the pagan cults, a withering away, because they were separated from their god, the state. For the Christians, it means freedom now, to develop their faith and apply it to every area of life and thought.

Then third, and very important, restitution was ordered, immediately, without any qualification. This was, for all properties and possessions of funds, any and every thing. So that if the treasuries of the churches had been seized, if their buildings had been seized. If, let us say, a Christian welfare society, a Christian school, anything that had been seized and confiscated, its properties and its assets, it had to be restored immediately upon the issuance of this. Then, if the parties from whom it had been taken wanted regress, they could apply to the emperor, or one of his officials, and say, “Well, we didn’t get that as a gift,” or “We didn’t just march in and seize it when there was a confiscation. We bought it legitimately from somebody, so we’re out so much.” If they could prove that, then in due time, with legal processes satisfied, they could get repaid.

You see the difference. Since so many of these pagan groups had been the expropriating agencies, the Edict of Milan had a deadly effect on them. It cut them off from the state and it cut them off from properties they had wrongfully gained. So, with restitution, the church not only had freedom now, but it had all its properties back. So that this was a thoroughly just edict. It was for the church and for all Christian agencies.

But this is not all. Constantine got into this edict a statement concerning the blessing of God. The reference is not specifically Christian. The experience may have had, his conversion experience, a syncretistic character and it is quite likely, but the point is that however faulty Constantine’s experience was, he knew it was Christ and the God of scripture, because his attitude towards them was so humble, and so respectful. When the Council of Nicaea was called, he wept when he saw the persecuted churchmen and bishops coming, some of them blinded, some of them with their limbs torn off. All of them bearing scars and marks of the persecution. He wept, and during the deliberations, instead of sitting on a throne, he sat on a stool, as someone who was listening, an outsider, to the deliberations. He did see himself as a bishop, but over the state, as one who had a calling to be a shepherd over the civil government, and he does speak of himself therefore, as a bishop. I wish our governors and presidents could see themselves as presbyters or bishops over the civil government. Things would be very different.

The fact is, you see, the Edict of Milan gave a thorough-going freedom to the church, more freedom than we have now. It gave restitution, and so Constantine’s work was good. Now, it is true Constantine gave subsidies to the church, but they were personal grants. They were not out of the public treasury. Granted that, at times, the distinction was difficult to maintain, but he always made them as personal gifts.

As a result, whatever may have developed later, Constantine cannot be abused for things that were not his doing. His work was essentially a very remarkable one, coming from someone who obviously had not much teaching, someone who was a rough soldier with no real knowledge of theology, with a very simple approach to religion, a man who was superstitious about some things so that he hesitated to be baptized until he was on his death bed, because he was afraid if you were baptized earlier, his sins would make his baptism worthless. There are a great many faults in the man, without a question, but with respect to the relationship of church and state, the work that Constantine did was a very remarkable one, and he needs to be honored.

End of tape