THE namef this stry I"m ging t put at the end， fr yu wuldn"t knw what it means， anyway， until yu have heard the stry， and s it"s n use lking ahead.
All thrugh the years since Christ was crucified， sme peple wh said they believed in Christ had been terribly treated-persecuted， we call it-because they were Christians. They had been flgged； they had been stned； they had been trn with irn hks. They had been rasted and burned t death. Yet， strange as it may seem， in spitef this terrible treatment， mre and mre peple were becming Christians every day. They believed s strngly in life after death， and they believed that they wuld be s much happier after death if they died fr Christ"s sake， that they seemed even glad t suffer and t be killed. At last the emperr himself put a stp t all these persecutins. This is hw it happened.
Abut the year 300 A.D. Rme had an emperr by the namef Cnstantine. Cnstantine was nt a Christian. His gds were theld Rman gds. He prbably did nt put much faith in them， hwever.
Well，nce upn a time Cnstantine was fighting with an enemy when he dreamedne night that he saw in the sky a flaming crss. Beneath this crss were written the Latin wrds， In hc sign vinces. In English this is， "In this sign thu shalt cnquer." Cnstantine thught this meant that if he carried the Christian crss int battle， he wuld cnquer. He thught it wuld at least be wrthwhile t give the Christian gd a trial. S he marked the signf the crssn the shields carried by his sldiers， and he did win the battle. T celebrate his victry， the Rman Senate built the Archf Cnstantine， a triumphal arch with threepenings， in the Frumf Rme. After this， Cnstantine made Christianity a legal religin in the Rman Empire. It is believed that he was baptized just befre he died. Frm that timen， all the Rman emperrs wh came after Cnstantine-all exceptne-were Christians.
Cnstantine"s mther was named Helena. She became a Christian. Then she gave up her life t Christian wrks and built churches at Bethlehem andn the Muntflives. It is said that she went t Palestine and fund the actual crssn which Christ had been crucified three hundred years befre and sent partfit t Rme. When she died she was made a saint. She is nw called St. Helena.
Cnstantine built a churchver the spt where St. Peter was suppsed t have been crucified. Many years later， this church was trn dwn s that a much larger and grander church in hnrf St. Peter might be built there.
Cnstantine did nt care fr Rme. He preferred t live in anther city in the Eastern partf the Rman Empire. This city was called Byzantium. S he mved frm Rme t Byzantium and made that city his capital. Byzantium was called New Rme， and then the name was changed t Cnstantine"s city. In Greek， the wrd fr city is plis. We see the wrd used in Annaplis and Indianaplis. Cnstantine"s City became Cnstantinplis， and then shrtened t Cnstantinple.
Hardly had the Rman Empire becme Christian befre a quarrel arse between thse Christians wh believedne thing and thse wh believed anther. The chief thing they quarreled abut was whether Christ was equal t Gd the Fatherr nt equal t Him. Cnstantine called the tw disagreeing sides tgether at a place called Nicaea t settle the questin. There the leadersf each side argued the matter htly. Finally， it was decided that the Christian Church shuld believe that Gd the Sn and Gd the Father were equal. Then they agreed t put what they believed in wrds. This was called a creed， which means believe， and because it was made at Nicaea it was knwn as the Nicene Creed， which many Christians still say every Sunday.
Befre the timef Cnstantine， there were n weekly hlidays in the Rman Empire. Sunday was n different frm anyther day. Peple wrkedr did just the same thingsn Sunday as they didnther days. Cnstantine thught Christians shuld havene day a week fr the wrshipf Gd-a hly day，r hliday， as we call it-s he made Sunday the Christian dayf rest， a hly day such as Saturday is fr Jews and Friday is fr Muslims.
Althugh Cnstantine was headf the Rman Empire， there was anther man whm all Christians thrughut the wrld lked t as their spiritual head. This man was the Bishpf Rme. In Latin he was called Papa， which means the same thing in Latin that it des in English， father. S the bishpf Rme was called Papa， and this became ppe. St. Peter was suppsed t have been the first bishpf Rme. Fr many centuries the ppe was the spiritual rulerf all Christians everywhere， n matter in what cuntry they lived.
As nw yu knw what the namef this stry means， I"m putting it here：
In Hc Sign Vinces
192 美国学生世界历史 · A Child"s Histryf the wrld【中文阅读】
这个故事的题目我要放到最后才说，因为直到听完这个故事，你才会明白题目 的意思，所以提前看题目也没有用。
自从耶稣在十字架上被钉死后的很多年，那些声明自己信仰基督的人都遭到了 残酷的虐待--我们称之为"受逼迫"--因为他们是基督徒。他们被人鞭笞，被 人用石头砸，被人用铁钩子撕裂。他们还被放在火上烤，乃至活活烧死。然而，说 来似乎很奇怪，尽管受到这样的迫害，成为基督徒的人却与日俱增。他们坚定地相 信有死后的世界，并且认为如果他们为基督而死，那死后他们会更加幸福，因此， 他们似乎甘愿吃苦受难。最终，罗马皇帝自己下令制止这些迫害。事情是这样发 生的：
大约公元 300 年，罗马有个皇帝名叫君士坦丁。君士坦丁不是基督徒，他敬奉 的是古罗马那些神灵。不过，他大概对这些神灵也并没有多大信仰。
有一次，君士坦丁带兵和敌人作战，一天晚上，他做梦看到天空中有一个正燃 烧的十字架。十字架下方写着一行拉丁文字"In hc sign vinces"，意思是"靠此神 迹，你将征服"。君士坦丁认为，这就意味着如果他带着基督教的十字架进入战斗， 他就一定能征服敌人。他想，基督徒的神是否灵验至少值得试一试。于是，他在士 兵们拿的盾牌上做了个十字架标记，这次他果然打了胜仗。为了庆祝这次胜利，罗 马元老院就在罗马的广场上建了一座君士坦丁凯旋门，这座凯旋门有三个拱顶通道。 之后，君士坦丁让基督教成为罗马帝国的合法宗教。据信，君士坦丁在临死时，受 洗成为基督徒。从那以后，君士坦丁之后的所有罗马皇帝--只有一个除外--都 是基督徒。
君士坦丁的母亲叫海伦娜，也成为了基督徒。她把毕生的精力都奉献给了基 督教的事业，还在伯利恒和橄榄山都建造了教堂。据说，她去了巴勒斯坦，找到了 三百年前钉死耶稣的十字架，将其中一部分送到罗马。她死后被封为圣徒。现在， 人们都称她为圣海伦娜。
君士坦丁在据称是圣彼得受难的地方建了一座教堂。许多年后，这座教堂被拆 除，是为了在原地建造一座更大、更宏伟的教堂来纪念圣彼得。
君士坦丁不喜欢罗马城，他更愿意住在罗马帝国东部的另一个城市，这个城市 叫拜占庭。于是，他从罗马搬到拜占庭去住，并把那里作为他的都城。拜占庭城又 叫新罗马城，之后改名为"君士坦丁之城"。在希腊语中，表示"城市"的词叫"波 利斯"。我们看到，在"安纳波利斯"（美国马里兰州首府）和"印第安纳波利斯"（美国印第安纳州首府）中都有"波利斯"。君士坦丁之城也就变成了"君士坦丁波 利斯"，后来又简化为"君士坦丁堡"。
罗马帝国刚成为信仰基督教的国家，基督徒内部就产生了一场争论，争论的双 方在信仰认识上有分歧。争论的主要焦点是耶稣基督是否等同于圣父上帝。君士坦丁就把争论的双方召集到一个叫尼西亚的地方来解决这个问题，在这里双方的领头 人就此问题展开了激烈的争论。最后，终于确定基督教教会都应坚信圣子和圣父是 等同的。这时，他们同意把他们的信念用文字记录下来。这被称为"信经"，意思是 "基本信条的陈述"，因为是在尼西亚制定的，所以被称为《尼西亚信经》，现在很多 基督徒在每个礼拜日还会念诵它呢。
在君士坦丁时代以前，罗马帝国每周都没有假日。星期天和其他日子没什么区 别，星期天人们和平时一样工作、做事。君士坦丁认为，基督徒应该每周有一天专 门礼拜上帝--有一个"圣日"，我们现在叫"假日"--所以，他把星期天定为基 督徒的休息日，也是基督徒的"圣日"，就如星期六是犹太人的"圣日"，星期五是 穆斯林的"圣日"一样。
虽然君士坦丁是整个罗马帝国的首领，但是还有一个人，世界上所有基督徒都 把他视为精神领袖。这个人就是罗马主教。拉丁文中他被称为"爸爸"，这个词在拉 丁文里的意思跟英语里的"父亲"一样。所以，罗马的主教就被称为"爸爸"，后来 演变为"教皇"。圣彼得被认为是第一代罗马教皇。几千年来，教皇一直是世界各地 所有基督徒的精神领袖，无论这些基督徒居住在哪个国家。
现在你知道这个故事名字的意思了，我就把名字写在这儿吧：
靠此神迹，你将征服
