Editing Freedom of religion (section)

===Ancient Roman policy===
The [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] tolerated most religions, including [[Judaism]], and encouraged local subjects to continue worshipping their own gods. They did not, however, tolerate [[Christianity]] because of the Christian refusal to offer honours to the official cult of the emperor until it was legalised by the Roman emperor [[Galerius]] in 311. Holmes and Bickers note that as long as Christianity was treated as a part of Judaism, which was generally tolerated because of its antiquity and its practice of making offers on ''behalf'' of the emperor, it enjoyed the same freedom, but the Christian claim to religious exclusivity meant its followers found themselves subject to hostility.<ref name="Moss">{{cite book|author=Candida Moss|title=[[The Myth of Persecution]]|publisher=[[HarperCollins]]|year=2013|isbn=978-0-06-210452-6|pages=145–151|author-link=Candida Moss}}</ref><ref>Holmes, J. D. and Bickers, B. (1983), ''A Short History of the Catholic Church'', pp. 11–12</ref>

The early Christian apologist [[Tertullian]] was the first-known writer to employ the term "freedom of religion" (''libertas religionis''), which appears in the 24th chapter of his [[Apologeticum]].<ref>Taliaferro, Karen (2019). "Arguing Natural Law: Tertullian and Religious Freedom in the Roman Empire". In ''The Possibility of Religious Freedom: Early Natural Law and the Abrahamic Faiths'', pp. 104–127. Cambridge University Press.</ref> He expanded on the case for the tolerance of all religious views in his epistle to [[proconsul]] Scapula,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.itslikethis.org/tertullian-on-freedom-of-religion/|title=Tertullian on Freedom of Religion|date=13 May 2013 }}</ref> in which he states

{{Blockquote
|[I]t is a human right [(''humanis ius'')], a privilege of nature [(''naturalis potestas'')], that every man should worship according to his own convictions: one man's religion neither harms nor helps another man. It is assuredly no part of religion to compel religion&mdash;to which free-will and not force should lead us<ref>{{cite book | last=Donaldson | first=J. | title=Ante-Nicene Christian Library: The Writings of Tertullian, v. 1 (1872) | publisher=T. and T. Clark | series=Ante-Nicene Christian Library: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325 | year=1869 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Spz5wTrecQC |pages=[https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=0Spz5wTrecQC&pg=PA46 46-47]}}</ref>}}

The [[Edict of Milan]] guaranteed freedom of religion in the Roman Empire until the [[Edict of Thessalonica]] in 380, which outlawed all religions except Christianity.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}