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Wipe it out. >> the empire at this time was maybe 60 million people, so there might have been something like 3 million christians at this time. and they were known to be a problem throughout the empire, and so dioclesian decided to try and persecute the christians. >> a religion whose founder told people to turn the other cheek now witnessed its followers slaughtered by the thousands in public spectacles. it was another roman emperor, constantine, who came to the rescue. was his vision of jesus just before battle a miracle, or just smart politics to pacify a growing faith?

So he made christianity legal in the year 313 that ended decades of brutal persecution. but it marked fierce internal battles in the church. the biggest of which went to the heart of christianity. >> now while the church was persecuted in an illegal religion and underground, there was only so much work that it could do to normalize what would be the heart of christian teaching about the nature of god, about the nature of jesus, about relationships within the church. >> but once constantine legalized the church, long standing doctrinal questions broke into the open. the biggest of them going to...

The year 313 that ended decades of brutal persecution. but it marked fierce internal battles in the church. the biggest of which went to the heart of christianity. >> now while the church was persecuted in an illegal religion and underground, there was only so much work that it could do to normalize what would be the heart of christian teaching about the nature of god, about the nature of jesus, about relationships within the church. >> but once constantine legalized the church, long standing doctrinal questions broke into the open. the biggest of them going to the core of christian belief. wa...

Christianity because he wanted a unified empire, and he wanted to use christianity to help him unifiy his culturally diverse empire, so he wanted christians throughout the empire to agree on major theological issues. >> in the year 325 a.d., constantine called the world's bishops to the small town of nicaea outside the imperial city of byzantium to grapple with the essence of christian belief. >> what we now call the nicaean creed, "i believe in god, the father almighty and heaven on earth." those tenets of faith come down from the 4th century and are still the bottom line of christian teachin...

On the banks of the tiber river near the milvian bridge to fight for control of the empire. though constantine's soldiers were outnumbered four to one, he had a secret weapon. >> before the battle, he had a vision in which he saw a sign of the cross in the sky, and the words written over it that said "by this conquer" he didn't know what this meant, so he called in some dream interpreters, and they told him this meant that it was the cross of christ that would allow him to be victorious. and so he arranged to have the