and this for generations will be hailed and recognized. after 400 years as a muslim temple, the crusaders replace the crescent atop the sacred dome of the rock with a cross, and turn it into a church. partly motivated by religious zeal, partly motivated by simple desire for conquest. the crusaders were exclusionary. muslims were not allowed to live in christian areas. jerusalem remains in christian hands until 1187, when the hero of islam draws together the muslim to recover the holy land. as the muslims close in on jerusalem once again, pope urban iii realizes that in his predecessor s quest to defend
rome is a giant empire, if you re a christian. and you re saying that you believe in a man, jesus, who is a king above all kings and not the roman king. you are putting yourself in opposition to the roman empire. and that becomes a really dangerous situation for early christians. despite the dangers facing christians in rome, peter holds secret gatherings where he preaches the word of christ. rome is a society which is 75 to 80% slaves. slaves are not human. they can t marry, they can be bought and sold, they can be whipped and raped. so suddenly, there s this movement that is saying, you re a person with dignity, who is created in the image of god, and that makes you worthwhile. so that s part of the power of this christian movement. christ s message strikes a chord with the most down trodden members of roman society. and peter s meetings become more and more popular.
constantine was a great military commander. and when it was his turn to become a junior emperor, he decided to fight his competition. constantine, the payingan commander declares woar on the commander of the east to decide who will become emperor of rome. and the day before the battle, he has a startling vision. he looks up and he sees the sign of the cross. and he thought it was a promise from jesus, that he would win the battle. constantine does win the battle. and the new emperor is forever changed by his vision. he decides he s going to be a christian. one of his first official
acts as the first christian emperor of rome is to issue the edict of milan. this not only makes christianity legal, but favored. this is a big one. for the first time, a roman emperor decided to ally with the church. that meantime the whole of the known world was at the disposal of the church. as constantine moves christianity from outlaw to exalted, church and state become intertwined. constantine saw in christianity a way of uniting the empire. a new ideology that would give everybody the same god, the same moral values. constantine, by legalizing christianity, opened up a space by the bishop of rome that could become a fixture. what constantine did is take the bishops who had been previously persecuted and make
in christendom. pope urban iii is forced to surrender the notion that christianity must rule the world and negotiate new relationships with other faiths. the recognition that it is a christian space that has to be protected by its muslim rulers, not in the sense of actually preventing people from coming in but protecting christians rights to worship. opening and closing the doors to the holiest christian site in jerusalem has been the responsibility of the al hasini man for eight centuries. i am the custodian of the church. we are protecting the church. salah ad-din s gesture has come to symbolize of of what the modern pa modern papacy represents, divine leadership in the face of warring religions. when i came every morning