The Edict of Milan was an important step in securing the civil rights of Christians throughout the Roman Empire. For nearly three hundred years, Christianity was functionally illegal in the Roman Empire. Christians were subject to various levels of persecution, up to and including arrest or execution, depending on the whims of the ruling politicians. In AD 311, the Roman Emperor Galerius issued a decree that Christians be treated with “toleration.” In practice, this simply cancelled the official persecution of Christianity begun by Diocletian in 303. Return of confiscated property and the restoration of rights were not, however, part of Galerius’s decree.