We need to consider that the majority of the remained Christians were the weakest ones. The martyrs were the best ones, the other preferred to abjure and live, so when the edict came it was easy to go into the deepest apostasy because the leaders and the best Christians were gone. Constantine Augustus and Licinius Augustus. The persecution of Christians ended in 313 when Constantine of the West and Licinius of the East proclaimed the Edict of Milan, which established a policy of religious freedom for all.