Constantine, having conquered Italy and secured his regime as Emperor in 312, has begun promoting Christianity.

It is in these early years of Constantine’s reign that he begins issuing laws conveying upon the church and its clergy fiscal and legal privileges and immunities from civic burdens.

As he writes in a letter of 313 to the proconsul of Africa, secular offices should not distract the Christian clergy from their religious duties “… for when they are free to render supreme service to the Divinity, it is evident that they confer great benefit upon the affairs of state.” In another such letter, directed to the Bishop of Carthage, Constantine mentions the Spanish bishop Hosius.

Consecrated bishop of Córdoba around 295, Hosius had attended the Council of Elvira and from 312 has acted as Constantine’s ecclesiastical adviser.

Since he may well have been with Constantine in Gaul before the campaign against Maxentius, Hosius is possibly instrumental in the conversion of the Emperor to Christianity.

The Edict of Toleration, by which Constantine and his co-emperor Licinius officially recognize Christianity in 313, authorizes the toleration of different religions in the Roman Empire yet gives supremacy to Christianity.