Constantine, having conquered all and thus becoming sole emperor, legalized Christianity and ranked it as state religion, as can be attested in The Edict of Milan and The Codex Theodosianus (Book of Theodosius). The Edict of Milan provided Christian with their first real experience of religious freedom and offered them the right to exercise the “full authority to observe that religion which each preferred” (Augustus 73). Codex Theodosianus is even more explicit as concerns the Constantinian dictated assimilation of Christianity into a now fading pagan culture. Theodosianus, for example, declares the end of bloody spectacles (gladiator death fights), subjugation of heretics (heretics being Christians), closing of pagan temples, civil punishment for pagan converts, and civil laws concerning the Christian Sabbath. (Augustus, Constantine. The Edict of Milan. Lts Ch111 History of Christianity Course Pack. Ed. Ann Thayer. Lancaster, PA: Grade A Notes, 313.)

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