Explore Christianity’s first century and its expansion from a handful of followers into a religion that encompassed much of the ancient Western world. Jesus, Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene form the core of a large cast of characters in this sequence of early events in Christian history. Additional sections explain the secrecy of the early church, martyrdom, and the development of the gospels. Jump forward to the third century in the epilogue —the turning point when Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and the Council of Nicaea established a uniform doctrine for the religion.