Indeed, you are correct, Cleopas, that even the Primative Church of the NT was not pristine (despite differing claims). Perhaps we would do well to recognize that the Church is made up of people and that where there are people there are bound to be disagreements, problems, and corruption. We all know that even the most seemingly gentle, peaceful, benign denomination will struggle with issues of corruption and sin. So maybe we shouldn't be so hard on the Church on one hand; how do we know how we'd have behaved had we lived under the rule of Constantine? There is no guarantee we'd have done anything differently.
However, I am still curious about the book-burnings and the persecution of heretics...This remains in my mind, a great missing link to the puzzle, and sadly, we may never know the full truth about it all.