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Church of the holy sepulcher built where jesus was buried and rose from the dead. and also a church built to honor the giving of our father, the lord's prayer. she had a building program there. and she had the money and his support. >> constantine also found in her faith something that would redeem him. >> he knew christian faith very well, and he knew baptism remitted all your sins, and he had quite a bit of blood on his hands. he wasn't the head of the roman empire for being mr.nice emperor.

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. was jesus truly the son of god or just a wise man? >> constantine didn't care which side won this debate. constantine wanted a unified christianity because he wanted a unified empire, and he wanted to christianity to help him unifiy his culturally diverse empire, so he wanted christians throughout the empire to agree on major theological ...

And christianity offering something that appeared to be utterly and beautifully coherent. about everything, from the smallest detail of your daily live and community around you through to eternity. this is very compelling. >> some would say it was ultimately power politics, both divine and earthly, with an emperor recognizing the power of the people and their faith. >> it seems to me that what really made the difference in turning what was the whole greco-roman world into christian was essentially the roman government decision. that is to say, christianity was spreading, and it was getting big...

The shields of all of his warriors. >> constantine vowed to convert to christianity if he won the battle. and for centuries, his victory was seen as a turning point for christianity. but did constantine really convert to the faith his empire had tried to destroy? >> some historians have doubted whether constantine actually converted in the year 312, and it's true that there's some evidence that he retained a devotion to some of the roman gods. even after allegedly converting, for example, he minted coins in which he had a picture of the sun god. the inscription on the coin was saul invictus, t...

On october 28th in 312 a.d., emperors maxentius and constantine and their armies met 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