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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Non-Christian Cross, by John Denham Parsons
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: The Non-Christian Cross
+       An Enquiry Into the Origin and History of the Symbol Eventually Adopted as That of Our Religion
+
+Author: John Denham Parsons
+
+Release Date: October, 2005 [eBook #9071]
+[Most recently updated: November 28, 2022]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: An Anonymous Volunteer and David Widger
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NON-CHRISTIAN CROSS ***
+
+
+
+
+THE NON-CHRISTIAN CROSS
+
+An Enquiry Into The Origin And History Of
+The Symbol Eventually Adopted As
+That Of Our Religion
+
+By John Denham Parsons
+
+London
+
+1896
+
+
+"O Crux, Splendidior Cunctis Astris, Mundo
+Celebris, Hominibus Multum Amabilis, Sanctior
+Universis."
+                               [_Breviarium Romanum,_
+       _Festival Of The Invention Of The Holy Cross._
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The history of the symbol of the cross has had an attraction for the
+author ever since, as an enquiring youth, he found himself unable to
+obtain satisfactory answers to four questions concerning the same which
+presented themselves to his mind.
+
+The first of those questions was why John the Baptist, who was beheaded
+before Jesus was executed, and so far as we are told never had anything
+to do with a cross, is represented in our religious pictures as holding
+a cross.
+
+The second question was whether this curious but perhaps in itself
+easily explained practice had in its inception any connection with the
+non-Mosaic initiatory rite of baptism; which Jesus accepted as a matter
+of course at the hands of his cousin John, and in which the sign of the
+cross has for ages been the all-important feature. And it was the
+wonder whether there was or was not some association between the facts
+that the New Testament writers give no explanation whatever of the
+origin of baptism as an initiatory rite, that this non-Mosaic
+initiatory rite was in use among Sun-God worshippers long before our
+era, and that the Fathers admitted that the followers of the Persian
+conception of the Sun-God marked their initiates upon the forehead like
+the followers of the Christ, which finally induced the author to start
+a systematic enquiry into the history of the cross as a symbol.
+
+The third question was why, despite the fact that the instrument of
+execution to which Jesus was affixed can have had but one shape, almost
+any kind of cross is accepted as a symbol of our faith.
+
+The last of the four questions was why many varieties of the cross of
+four equal arms, which certainly was not a representation of an
+instrument of execution, were accepted by Christians as symbols of the
+Christ before any cross which could possibly have been a representation
+of an instrument of execution was given a place among the symbols of
+Christianity; while even nowadays one variety of the cross of four
+equal arms is the favourite symbol of the Greek Church, and both it and
+the other varieties enter into the ornamentation of our sacred
+properties and dispute the supremacy with the cross which has one of
+its arms longer than the other three.
+
+Pursuing these matters for himself, the author eventually found that
+even before our era the cross was venerated by many as the symbol of
+Life; though our works of reference seldom mention this fact, and never
+do it justice.
+
+He moreover discovered that no one has ever written a complete history
+of the symbol, showing the possibility that the _stauros_ or post to
+which Jesus was affixed was not cross-shaped, and the certainty that,
+in any case, what eventually became the symbol of our faith owed some
+of its prestige as a Christian symbol of Victory and Life to the
+position it occupied in pre-Christian days.
+
+The author has therefore, in the hope of drawing attention to the
+subject, incorporated the results of his researches in the present
+essay.
+
+14, ST. DUNSTAN'S HILL,
+
+LONDON, E.C.
+
+
+
+
+C O N T E N T S
+                                                       PAGE
+  CHAPTER I.
+    WAS THE _STAUROS_ OF JESUS CROSS-SHAPED?             13
+  CHAPTER II.
+    THE EVIDENCE OF MINUCIUS FELIX                       31
+  CHAPTER III.
+    THE EVIDENCE OF THE OTHER FATHERS3                   41
+  CHAPTER IV.
+    CURIOUS STATEMENTS OF IRENAEUS                       52
+  CHAPTER V.
+    ORIGIN OF THE PRE-CHRISTIAN CROSS                    57
+  CHAPTER VI.
+    ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN CROSS                        65
+  CHAPTER VII.
+    THE ESTABLISHER OF THE CHURCH                        82
+  CHAPTER VIII.
+    CROSS AND CRESCENT8                                  92
+  CHAPTER IX.
+    THE CORONATION ORB9                                 104
+  CHAPTER X.
+    ROMAN COINS BEFORE CONSTANTINE                      119
+  CHAPTER XI.
+    THE COINS OF CONSTANTINE                            133
+  CHAPTER XII.
+    ROMAN COINS AFTER CONSTANTINE                       142
+  CHAPTER XIII.
+    THE MONOGRAM OF CHRIST                              147
+  CHAPTER XIV.
+    THE CROSS OF THE LOGOS                              163
+  CHAPTER XV.
+    THE PRE-CHRISTIAN CROSS IN EUROPE                   169
+  CHAPTER XVI.
+    THE PRE-CHRISTIAN CROSS IN ASIA                     178
+  CHAPTER XVII.
+    THE PRE-CHRISTIAN CROSS IN AFRICA                   183
+  CHAPTER XVIII.
+    EVIDENCE OF TROY                                    187
+  CHAPTER XIX.
+    EVIDENCE OF CYPRUS                                  193
+  CHAPTER XX.
+    MISCELLANEOUS EVIDENCE                              204
+  CHAPTER XI.
+    SUMMARY                                             214
+
+
+
+
+THE NON-CHRISTIAN CROSS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+WAS THE _STAUROS_ OF JESUS CROSS-SHAPED?
+
+In the thousand and one works supplied for our information upon matters
+connected with the history of our race, we are told that Alexander the
+Great, Titus, and various Greek, Roman, and Oriental rulers of ancient
+days, "crucified" this or that person; or that they "crucified" so many
+at once, or during their reign. And the instrument of execution is
+called a "cross."
+
+The natural result is that we imagine that all the people said to have
+been "crucified" were executed by being nailed or otherwise affixed to
+a cross-shaped instrument set in the ground, like that to be seen in
+our fanciful illustrations of the execution of Jesus.
+
+This was, however, by no means necessarily the case.
+
+For instance, the death spoken of, death by the _stauros_, included
+transfixion by a pointed stauros or stake, as well as affixion to an
+unpointed stauros or stake; and the latter punishment was not always
+that referred to.
+
+It is also probable that in most of the many cases where we have no
+clue as to which kind of stauros was used, the cause of the condemned
+one's death was transfixion by a pointed stauros.
+
+Moreover, even if we could prove that this very common mode of capital
+punishment was in no case that referred to by the historians who lived
+in bygone ages, and that death was in each instance caused by affixion
+to, instead of transfixion by, a stauros, we should still have to prove
+that each stauros had a cross-bar before we could correctly describe
+the death caused by it as death by crucifixion.
+
+It is also, upon the face of it, somewhat unlikely that the ancients
+would in every instance in which they despatched a man by affixing him
+to a post set in the ground, have gone out of their way to provide the
+artistic but quite unnecessary cross-bar of our imaginations.
+
+As it is, in any case, well known that the Romans very often despatched
+those condemned to death by affixing them to a stake or post which had
+no cross-bar, the question arises as to what proof we have that a
+cross-bar was used in the case of Jesus.
+
+Nor is the question an unimportant one. For, as we shall see in the
+chapters to come, there was a pre-Christian cross, which was, like
+ours, a symbol of Life. And it must be obvious to all that if the cross
+was a symbol of Life before our era, it is possible that it was
+originally fixed upon as a symbol of the Christ because it was a symbol
+of Life; the assumption that it became a symbol of Life because it was
+a symbol of the Christ, being in that case neither more nor less than a
+very natural instance of putting the cart before the horse.
+
+Now the Greek word which in Latin versions of the New Testament is
+translated as _crux_, and in English versions is rendered as _cross,
+i.e._, the word _stauros_, seems to have, at the beginning of our era,
+no more meant a cross than the English word stick means a crutch.
+
+It is true that a stick may be in the shape of a crutch, and that the
+stauros to which Jesus was affixed may have been in the shape of a
+cross. But just as the former is not necessarily a crutch, so the
+latter was not necessarily a cross.
+
+What the ancients used to signify when they used the word _stauros_,
+can easily be seen by referring to either the Iliad or the Odyssey.[1]
+
+It will there be found to clearly signify an ordinary pole or stake
+without any cross-bar. And it is as thus signifying a single piece of
+wood that the word in question is used throughout the old Greek
+classics.[2]
+
+The stauros used as an instrument of execution was (1) a small pointed
+pole or stake used for thrusting through the body, so as to pin the
+latter to the earth, or otherwise render death inevitable; (2) a
+similar pole or stake fixed in the ground point upwards, upon which the
+condemned one was forced down till incapable of escaping; (3) a much
+longer and stouter pole or stake fixed point upwards, upon which the
+victim, with his hands tied behind him, was lodged in such a way that
+the point should enter his breast and the weight of the body cause
+every movement to hasten the end; and (4) a stout unpointed pole or
+stake set upright in the earth, from which the victim was suspended by
+a rope round his wrists, which were first tied behind him so that the
+position might become an agonising one; or to which the doomed one was
+bound, or, as in the case of Jesus, nailed.
+
+That this last named kind of stauros, which was admittedly that to
+which Jesus was affixed, had in every case a cross-bar attached, is
+untrue; that it had in most cases, is unlikely; that it had in the case
+of Jesus, is unproven.
+
+Even as late as the Middle Ages, the word stauros seems to have
+primarily signified a straight piece of wood without a cross-bar. For
+the famous Greek lexicographer, Suidas, expressly states, "Stauroi;
+ortha xula perpegota," and both Eustathius and Hesychius affirm that it
+meant a _straight_ stake or pole.
+
+The side light thrown upon the question by Lucian is also worth noting.
+This writer, referring to Jesus, alludes to "That sophist of theirs who
+was fastened to a _skolops_;" which word signified a single piece of
+wood, and not two pieces joined together.
+
+Only a passing notice need be given to the fact that in some of the
+Epistles of the New Testament, which seem to have been written before
+the Gospels, though, like the other Epistles, misleadingly placed after
+the Gospels, Jesus is said to have been _hanged_ upon a _tree_.[3] For
+in the first place the Greek word translated "hanged" did not
+necessarily refer to hanging by the neck, and simply meant suspended in
+some way or other. And in the second place the word translated "tree,"
+though that always used in referring to what is translated as the
+"_Tree of Life_," signified not only "tree" but also "wood."
+
+It should be noted, however, that these five references of the Bible to
+the execution of Jesus as having been carried out by his suspension
+upon either a tree or a piece of timber set in the ground, in no wise
+convey the impression that two pieces of wood nailed together in the
+form of a cross is what is referred to.
+
+Moreover, there is not, even in the Greek text of the Gospels, a single
+intimation in the Bible to the effect that the instrument actually used
+in the case of Jesus was cross-shaped.
+
+Had there been any such intimation in the twenty-seven Greek works
+referring to Jesus, which our Church selected out of a very large
+number and called the "New Testament," the Greek letter _chi_, which
+was cross-shaped, would in the ordinary course have been referred to;
+and some such term as _Kata chiasmon_, "like a chi," made use of.
+
+It should also be borne in mind that though the Christians of the first
+three centuries certainly made use of a transient sign of the cross in
+the non-Mosaic initiatory rite of baptism and at other times, it is, as
+will be shown in the next two chapters, admitted that they did not use
+or venerate it as a representation of the instrument of execution upon
+which Jesus died.
+
+Moreover, if in reply to the foregoing it should be argued that as it
+is well known that cross-shaped figures of wood, and other lasting
+representations of the sign or figure of the cross, were not venerated
+by Christians until after the fateful day when Constantine set out at
+the head of the soldiers of Gaul in his famous march against Rome; and
+that the Christian crosses of the remainder of the fourth century were
+representations of the instrument of execution upon which Jesus died; a
+dozen other objections present themselves if we are honest enough to
+face the fact that we have to show that they were so from the first.
+For the Gauls, and therefore the soldiers of Gaul, venerated as symbols
+of the Sun-God and Giver of Life and Victory the cross of four equal
+arms, {image "plus.gif"}, or {image "x.gif"}, and the solar wheel,
+{image "solarwheel1.gif"} or {image "solarwheel2.gif"}; while the
+so-called cross which Constantine and his troops are said to have seen
+above the midday sun was admittedly the monogram of Christ, {image
+"monogram1.gif"} or {image "monogram2.gif"}, which was admittedly an
+adaptation of the solar wheel, as will be shown further on; and it was
+as tokens of the conquest of Rome by his Gaulish troops, that
+Constantine, as their leader, erected one of these symbols in the
+centre of the Eternal City, and afterwards placed upon his coins the
+crosses {image "solarwheel1.gif"}, {image "solarwheel2.gif"}, {image
+"monogram1.gif"}, {image "monogram2.gif"}, {image "asterisk.gif"},
+{image "monogram3.gif"}, {image "monogram4.gif"}, the cross of four
+equal arms {image "x.gif"}, and several variations of that other cross
+of four equal arms, the right-angled {image "plus.gif"}. And it was not
+till long after these crosses were accepted as Christian, and
+Constantine was dead and buried, that the cross with one of its arms
+longer than the other three (or two), which alone could be a
+representation of an instrument of execution, was made use of by
+Christians.
+
+Another point to be remembered is that when Constantine, apparently
+conceiving ours, as the only non-national religion with ramifications
+throughout his world-wide dominions, to be the only one that could weld
+together the many nations which acknowledged his sway, established
+Christianity as the State Religion of the Roman Empire, the Church to
+which we belong would naturally have had to accept as its own the
+symbols which Constantine had caused to be those of the State in
+question. And it should be added that the cross of later days with one
+of its arms longer than the others, if not also the assumption that the
+stauros to which Jesus was affixed had a cross-bar, may have been
+merely the outcome of a wish to associate with the story of Jesus these
+Gaulish symbols of victory which had become symbols of the Roman State,
+and therefore of its State Church.
+
+Anyway, the first kind of cross venerated by Christians was not a
+representation of an instrument of execution; and the fact that we hold
+sacred many different kinds of crosses, although even if we could prove
+that the stauros to which Jesus was affixed had a cross-bar but one
+kind could be a representation of that instrument of execution, has to
+be accounted for.
+
+Our only plausible explanation of the fact that we hold sacred almost
+any species of cross is that, as we do not know what kind of cross
+Jesus died upon, opinions have always differed as to which was the real
+cross.
+
+This difference of opinion among Christians as to the shape of the
+instrument upon which Jesus was executed, has certainly existed for
+many centuries. But as an explanation of the many different kinds of
+crosses accepted by us as symbols of the Christ, it only lands us in a
+greater difficulty. For if we did not know what kind of cross Jesus
+died upon when we accepted the cross as our symbol, the chances
+obviously are that we accepted the cross as our symbol for some other
+reason than that we assert.
+
+As a matter of fact our position regarding the whole matter is
+illogical and unsatisfactory, and we ought to alter it by honestly
+facing the facts that we cannot satisfactorily prove that our symbol
+was adopted as a representation of the instrument of execution to which
+Jesus was affixed, and that we do not even know for certain that the
+instrument in question was cross-shaped.
+
+It need only be added that there is not a single sentence in any of the
+numerous writings forming the New Testament, which, in the original
+Greek, bears even indirect evidence to the effect that the stauros used
+in the case of Jesus was other than an ordinary stauros; much less to
+the effect that it consisted, not of one piece of timber, but of two
+pieces nailed together in the form of a cross.
+
+Taking the whole of the foregoing facts into consideration, it will be
+seen that it is not a little misleading upon the part of our teachers
+to translate the word stauros as "cross" when rendering the Greek
+documents of the Church into our native tongue, and to support that
+action by putting "cross" in our lexicons as the meaning of stauros
+without carefully explaining that that was at any rate not the primary
+meaning of the word in the days of the Apostles, did not become its
+primary signification till long afterwards, and became so then, if at
+all, only because, despite the absence of corroborative evidence, it
+was for some reason or other assumed that the particular stauros upon
+which Jesus was executed had that particular shape.
+
+But--the reader may object--how about the Greek word which in our
+Bibles is translated as "crucify" or "crucified?" Does not that mean
+"fix to a cross" or "fixed to a cross?" And what is this but the
+strongest possible corroboration of our assertion as Christians that
+Jesus was executed upon a cross-shaped instrument?
+
+The answer is that no less than four different Greek words are
+translated in our Bibles as meaning "crucify" or "crucified," and that
+not one of the four meant "crucify" or "crucified."
+
+The four words in question are the words _prospegnumi, anastauroo,
+sustauroo_, and _stauroo_.
+
+The word prospegnumi, though translated in our Bibles as "crucify" or
+"crucified," meant to "fix" to or upon, and meant that only. It had no
+special reference to the affixing of condemned persons either to a
+stake, pale, or post, or to a tree, or to a cross; and had no more
+reference to a cross than the English word "fix" has.
+
+The word _anastauroo_ was never used by the old Greek writers as
+meaning other than to impale upon or with a single piece of timber.[4]
+
+The word _sustauroo_ does not occur in pre-Christian writings, and only
+five times in the Bible against the forty-four times of the word next
+to be dealt with. Being obviously derived in part from the word
+stauros, which primarily signified a stake or pale which was a single
+piece of wood and had no cross-bar, _sustauroo_ evidently meant
+affixion to such a stake or pale. Anyhow there is nothing whatever
+either in the derivation of the word, or in the context in either of
+the five instances in which it occurs, to show that what is referred to
+is affixion to something that was cross-shaped.
+
+The word _stauroo_ occurs, as has been said, forty-four times; and of
+the four words in question by far the most frequently. The meaning of
+this word is therefore of special importance. It is consequently most
+significant to find, as we do upon due investigation, that wherever it
+occurs in the pre-Christian classics it is used as meaning to
+impalisade, or stake, or affix to a pale or stake; and has reference,
+not to crosses, but to single pieces of wood.[5]
+
+It therefore seems tolerably clear (1) that the sacred writings forming
+the New Testament, to the statements of which--as translated for us--we
+bow down in reverence, do not tell us that Jesus was affixed to a
+cross-shaped instrument of execution; (2) that the balance of evidence
+is against the truth of our statements to the effect that the
+instrument in question was cross-shaped, and our sacred symbol
+originally a representation of the same; and (3) that we Christians
+have in bygone days acted, and, alas! still act, anything but
+ingenuously in regard to the symbol of the cross.
+
+This is not all, however. For if the unfortunate fact that we have in
+our zeal almost manufactured evidence in favour of the theory that
+_our_ cross or crosses had its or their origin in the shape of the
+instrument of execution to which Jesus was affixed proves anything at
+all, it proves the need for a work which, like the present one, sets in
+array the evidence available regarding both the pre-Christian cross and
+the adoption in later times of a similar symbol as that of the catholic
+faith.
+
+Nor should it be forgotten that the triumph of Christianity was due to
+the fact that it _was_ a "catholic" faith, and not, like the other
+faiths followed by the subjects of Rome, and like what Jesus seems to
+have intended the results of His mission to have been inasmuch as He
+solemnly declared that he was sent to the lost sheep of the House of
+Israel and to them alone, the monopoly of a single nation or race.
+
+For if Paul, taking his and other visions of Jesus as the long-needed
+proofs of a future life, had not disregarded the very plain intimations
+of Jesus to the effect that His mission was to the descendants of Jacob
+or Israel, and to them alone; if Paul had not withstood Christ's
+representative, Peter, to the face, and, with unsurpassed zeal, carried
+out his grand project of proclaiming a non-national and universal
+religion founded upon appearances of the spirit-form of Jesus, what we
+call Christianity would not have come into existence.
+
+The fact that but for Paul there would have been no catholic faith with
+followers in every land ruled by Constantine when sole emperor, for
+that astute monarch to establish as the State Religion of his loosely
+knit empire, because, on account of its catholicity, that best fitted
+to hold power as the official faith of a government with world-wide
+dominions, is worthy of a lasting place in our memory.
+
+Nor is the noteworthy fact last mentioned unconnected with the symbol
+of the cross. For, as will be shown, it is clear that it was because
+Constantine caused the figure of the cross to become a recognized
+symbol of his catholic empire, that it became recognized as a symbol of
+the catholic faith.
+
+Not till after Constantine and his Gaulish warriors planted what
+Eusebius the Bishop of Caesarea and other Christians of the century in
+question describe as a cross, within the walls of the Eternal City as
+the symbol of their victory, did Christians ever set on high a
+cross-shaped trophy of any description.
+
+Moreover, but for the fact that, as it happened, the triumph of
+Constantine resulted in that of the Christian Church, we should
+probably have deemed the cross, if to our minds a representation of the
+instrument of execution to which Jesus was affixed, as anything but the
+symbol of Victory we now deem it.
+
+This is evident from the fact that the so-called cross of Jesus
+admittedly fulfilled the purpose for which it was erected at the
+request of those who sought the death of Jesus. And even according to
+our Gospels the darkness of defeat o'ershadowed the scene at Calvary.
+
+To put the matter plainly, the victory of Jesus was not a victory over
+the cross; for He did not come down from the cross. Nor was it a
+victory over His enemies; for what they sought was to get rid of a man
+whom they deemed an agitator, and their wish was gratified, inasmuch
+as, thanks to the cross, He troubled them no more.
+
+In other words the victory which we ascribe to Jesus did not occur
+during the gloom which hung like a pall over his native land at the
+time of His execution, but upon the then approaching Sun-day of the
+Vernal Equinox, at the coming of the glory of the dawn.
+
+For the victory in question, from whatever point of view we may look at
+it, was not the avoidance of defeat, but its retrieval. And its story
+is an illustration of the old-world promise, hoary with antiquity and
+founded upon the coming, ushered in every year by the Pass-over or
+cross-over of the equator by the sun at the Vernal Equinox, of the
+bounteous harvests of summer after the dearth of devastating winter;
+bidding us ever hope, not indeed for the avoidance of death and
+therefore of defeat, but for such victory as may happen to lay in
+survival or resurrection.
+
+It is therefore clear that even if we _could_ prove that the instrument
+of execution to which Jesus was affixed was cross-shaped, it would not
+necessarily follow that it was as the representation of the cause of
+His death which we now deem it, that the figure of the cross became our
+symbol of Life and Victory.
+
+In any case honesty demands that we should no longer translate as
+"cross" a word which at the time our Gospels were written did not
+necessarily signify something cross-shaped. And it is equally incumbent
+upon us, from a moral point of view, that we should cease to render as
+"crucify" or "crucified" words which never bore any such meaning.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE EVIDENCE OF MINUCIUS FELIX.
+
+The Fathers who wrote in Latin, used the word _crux_ as a translation
+of the Greek word _stauros_. It is therefore noteworthy that even this
+Latin word "crux," from which we derive our words "cross" and
+"crucify," did not in ancient days necessarily mean something
+cross-shaped, and seems to have had quite another signification as its
+original meaning.
+
+A reference, for instance, to the writings of Livy, will show that in
+his time the word crux, whatever else it may have meant, signified a
+single piece of wood or timber; he using it in that sense.[6]
+
+This however is a curious rather than an important point, for even the
+assumption that the word _crux_ always and invariably meant something
+cross-shaped, would not affect the demonstration already made that the
+word _stauros_ did not.
+
+As our Scriptures were written in Greek and were written in the first
+century A.C., the vital question is what the word stauros then meant,
+when used, as in the New Testament, without any qualifying expression
+or hint that other than an ordinary stauros was signified. What the
+Fathers chose to consider the meaning of that word to be, or chose to
+give as its Latin translation, would, even if they had written the same
+century, in no wise affect that issue. And, as a matter of fact, even
+the earliest of the Fathers whose undisputed works have come down to
+us, did not write till the middle of the second century.
+
+Granting, however, as all must, that most if not all of the earlier of
+the Fathers, and certainly all the later ones, rightly or wrongly
+interpreted the word stauros as meaning something cross-shaped, let us,
+remembering that this does not dispose of the question whether they
+rightly or wrongly so interpreted it, in this and the next two chapters
+pass in review the references to the cross made by the Fathers who
+lived before Constantine's march upon Rome at the head of his Gaulish
+army.
+
+Commencing, on account of its importance, with the evidence of Minucius
+Felix, we find that this Father wrote
+
+     "We assuredly see the sign of a cross naturally, in the
+     ship when it is carried along with swelling sails, when
+     it glides forward with expanded oars; and when the
+     military yoke is lifted up it is the sign of a cross;
+     and when a man adores God with a pure mind, with arms
+     outstretched. Thus the sign of the cross either is
+     sustained by a natural reason or your own religion is
+     formed with respect to it."[7]
+
+
+Various other pronouncements to a similar effect are to be found in the
+writings of other Christian Fathers, and such passages are often quoted
+as conclusive evidence of the Christian origin of what is now our
+symbol. In reality, however, it is somewhat doubtful if we can fairly
+claim them as such; for the question arises whether, if the writers in
+their hearts believed their cross to be a representation of the
+instrument of execution to which Jesus was affixed, they would have
+omitted, as they did in every instance, to mention that as the right
+and proper and all-sufficient reason for venerating the figure of the
+cross.
+
+Moreover it is quite clear that while, as will be shown hereafter, the
+symbol of the cross had for ages been a Pagan symbol of Life, it can,
+as already stated, scarcely be said to have become a Christian _symbol_
+before the days of Constantine. No cross-shaped symbol of wood or of
+any other material had any part in the Christianity of the second and
+third centuries; and the only cross which had any part in the
+Christianity of those days was the immaterial one traced upon the
+forehead in the non-Mosaic and originally Pagan initiatory rite of
+Baptism, and at other times also according to some of the Fathers,
+apparently as a charm against the machinations of evil spirits.
+
+This "sign" or "signal" rather than "symbol" of the cross, referred to
+as theirs by the Christian writers of the second and third centuries,
+is said to have had a place before our era in the rites of those who
+worshipped Mithras, if not also of those who worshipped certain other
+conceptions of the Sun-God; and it should be noted that the Fathers
+insist upon it that a similar mark is what the prophet Ezekiel referred
+to as that to be placed upon the foreheads of certain men as a sign of
+life and salvation; the original Hebrew reading "Set a _tau_ upon the
+foreheads of the men" (_Ezek_. ix. 4), and the tau having been in the
+days of the prophet in question--as we know from relics of the
+past--the figure of a cross. Nor should it be forgotten that Tertullian
+admits that those admitted into the rites of the Sun-God Mithras were
+so marked, trying to explain this away by stating that this was done in
+imitation of the then despised Christians![8]
+
+That it was this immaterial sign or signal, rather than any material
+symbol of the cross, which Minucius Felix considered Christian, is
+demonstrated by the fact that the passage already quoted is accompanied
+by the remark that
+
+
+     "Crosses, moreover, we Christians neither venerate nor
+     wish for. You indeed who consecrate gods of wood
+     venerate wooden crosses, perhaps as parts of your gods.
+     For your very standards, as well as your banners, and
+     flags of your camps, what are they but crosses gilded
+     and adorned? Your victorious trophies not only imitate
+     the appearance of a simple cross, but also that of a man
+     affixed to it."[9]
+
+This remarkable denunciation of the Cross as a Pagan symbol by a
+Christian Father who lived as late as the third century after Christ,
+is worthy of special attention; and can scarcely be said to bear out
+the orthodox account of the origin of the cross as a Christian symbol.
+It is at any rate clear that the cross was not our recognised symbol at
+that date; and that it is more likely to have been gradually adopted by
+us from Sun-God worshippers, than by the worshippers of Mithras and
+other pre-Christian conceptions of the Sun-God from us.
+
+As our era was six or seven centuries old before the crucifix was
+introduced, and the earliest pictorial representation of the execution
+of Jesus still existing or referred to in any work as having existed
+was of even later date, much stress has been laid by us upon what we
+allege to be a caricature of the crucifixion of Jesus and of much
+earlier date. The drawing in question was discovered in 1856 to be
+scrawled upon a wall of the Gelotian House under the Palatine at Rome;
+and as no Christian representations of the alleged execution upon a
+cross-shaped instrument of even a reasonably early date exist, it would
+of course be greatly to our interest to be able to quote this alleged
+caricature, which is said to be as old as the third and perhaps even as
+old as the second century, as independent evidence of the truth of our
+story. But can we fairly do so?
+
+The drawing in question is a very roughly executed representation of a
+figure with human arms, legs, and feet; but with an animal's head. The
+arms are extended, and two lines, which are said to represent a cross
+but appear in front of the figure instead of behind it, traverse the
+arms and trunk. In the foreground is a man looking at this grotesque
+figure; and an accompanying inscription is to the effect that
+"Alexamenos adores his God."
+
+Tertullian relates that a certain Jew "carried about in public a
+caricature of us with this label, _An ass of a priest_. This figure had
+an ass's ears, and was dressed in a toga with a book; having a hoof on
+one of his feet."[10]
+
+It is upon the strength of this passage and the two lines traversing
+the figure, that we, ignoring the fact that the figure is standing,
+claim this much-quoted _graffito_ as conclusive evidence of the
+historical accuracy of our story. But it may be pointed out that even
+if this was a caricature of the execution of Jesus made at the date
+mentioned, a caricature, made certainly not less than two hundred years
+after the event, is not altogether trustworthy evidence as to the
+details.
+
+And, was it a caricature of the execution of Jesus? It would appear
+not.
+
+To commence with, the two lines or scratches--for they are little
+more--which we call a cross, need not necessarily have formed a part of
+the original _graffito_; and, even if they did, of themselves prove
+nothing. There is no reference to a cross in the inscription, nor is
+there anything to show that an execution of any kind is what is
+illustrated. Moreover, the hoof upon one foot, mentioned by Tertullian,
+is not to be seen; a remark which also applies to the toga and the book
+he mentions. And even what Tertullian referred to was not a caricature
+of the execution of Jesus.
+
+It should also be noted that the head of the figure in this famous
+graffito, is more like that of a jackal than that of an ass; and
+appears to have been a representation of the Egyptian god Anubis, who
+is so often to be seen upon relics of the past as a figure with a
+jackal's head, with human arms extended, and with human legs and feet,
+as in this drawing.
+
+Upon all points, therefore, our claim concerning the graffito is an
+ill-founded one; and it cannot be considered evidence regarding either
+cross or crucifixion.
+
+There thus being no opposing evidence of any weight, it is quite clear
+from the fact that as late as the third century after Christ we find a
+Christian Father who venerated the sign or figure of the cross
+denouncing it as a symbol, that no material representations of that
+sign or figure were recognised as Christian till an even later date.
+And such a conclusion is borne out by the striking fact that when
+Clement of Alexandria at the beginning of the third century made out a
+list of the symbols which Christians were permitted to use, he
+mentioned the Fish and the Dove but said nothing regarding the
+Cross.[11]
+
+As to the sign or figure of the cross referred to by the Fathers of the
+second and third centuries, even so high an authority as the Dean of
+Canterbury admits, as we shall see in the next chapter, that it was not
+"mainly" as reminding them of the death of Jesus that the Christians of
+the second and third centuries venerated it. If, therefore, not in the
+main, and, it would follow, not originally as a representation of the
+instrument of execution upon which Jesus died, what more likely than
+that the early Christians venerated the sign and figure of the cross as
+the age-old and widely accepted symbol of Life and of the Sun-God we
+know it to have been?
+
+Anyway Minucius Felix may be said to stand alone in denouncing the
+symbol of the cross as non-Christian. And as even he expresses
+veneration for the figure of the cross, and must have approved of the
+sign of the cross in the initiatory rite of baptism, that denunciation
+evidently applied only to material representations of the cross.
+
+Moreover the denunciation in question was clearly due to the fear that
+such objects might degenerate amongst Christians, as they afterwards
+did, into little better than idols. And if the sign or figure of the
+cross did not mainly remind the early Christians of the death of Jesus,
+it must have mainly reminded them of something else.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE EVIDENCE OF THE OTHER FATHERS.
+
+The works which have come down to us from the Fathers who lived before
+the days of Constantine make up over ten thousand pages of closely
+printed matter; and the first point which strikes those who examine
+that mass of literature with a view to seeing what the Christians of
+the first three centuries thought and wrote concerning the execution of
+Jesus and the symbol of the cross, is that the execution of Jesus was
+hardly so much as mentioned by them, and no such thing as a
+representation of the instrument of execution once referred to.
+
+Another fact worthy of special note is that, whether the Fathers wrote
+in Greek and used the word _stauros_, or wrote in Latin and translated
+that word as _crux_, they often seem to have had in their mind's eye a
+tree; a tree which moreover was closely connected in meaning with the
+forbidden tree of the Garden of Eden, an allegorical figure of
+undoubtedly phallic signification which had its counterpart in the Tree
+of the Hesperides, from which the Sun-God Hercules after killing the
+Serpent was fabled to have picked the Golden Apples of Love, one of
+which became the symbol of Venus, the Goddess of Love. Nor was this the
+only such counterpart, for almost every race seems in days of old to
+have had an allegorical Tree of Knowledge or Life whose fruit was Love;
+the ancients perceiving that it was love which produced life, and that
+but for the sexual passion and its indulgence mankind would cease to
+be.
+
+Starting upon an examination of the early Christian writings in
+question, we read in the _Gospel of Nicodemus_ that when the Chief
+Priests interviewed certain men whom Jesus had raised from the dead,
+those men made upon their faces "the sign of the stauros."[12] The sign
+of the cross is presumably meant; and all that need be said is that if
+the men whom Jesus raised from the dead were acquainted with the sign
+of the cross, it would appear that it must have been as a pre-Christian
+sign.
+
+Further on in the same Gospel, Satan is represented as being told that
+"All that thou hast gained through the Tree of Knowledge, all hast thou
+lost through the Tree of the Stauros."[13]
+
+Elsewhere we read that "The King of Glory stretched out his right hand,
+and took hold of our forefather Adam, and raised him: then, turning
+also to the rest, he said, 'Come with me as many as have died through
+the Tree which he touched, for behold I again raise you all up through
+the Tree of the Stauros.'"[14] Some see in this peculiar pronouncement a
+reference to the doctrine of re-incarnation.
+
+In the _Acts and Martyrdom of the Holy Apostle Andrew_ we are told that
+those who executed Andrew "lifted him up on the stauros," but "did not
+sever his joints, having received this order from the pro-consul, for
+he wished him to be in distress while hanging, and in the nighttime as
+he was suspended to be eaten by dogs." There is nothing to show that
+the stauros used was other than an ordinary stauros.
+
+In the _Epistle of Barnabas_ are various references to the stauros;
+mixed up with various passages from the Hebrew Scriptures,
+quoted--without any justification--as referring to the initiatory rite
+of baptism; a rite, be it noted, that was admittedly of Gentile rather
+than Israelitish origin, and not unconnected with the Sun-God worship
+of the Persians and other Orientals of non-Hebrew race.
+
+The references in question commence with the enquiry, "Let us further
+ask whether the Lord took any care to foreshadow the Water and the
+Stauros?"
+
+Afterwards we have a quotation of _Psalm_ i. 3-6--which likens the good
+man to a tree planted by the side of a river and yielding his fruit in
+due season--and the pronouncement, "Mark how he has described at once
+both the Water and the Stauros. For these words imply, Blessed are they
+who, placing their trust in the Stauros, have gone down into the
+Water."
+
+This further reference to the non-Mosaic initiatory rite of baptism is
+followed by a quotation of _Ezekiel_ xlvii. 12, which speaks of a river
+by whose side grow trees those who cat the fruit of which grow for
+ever.
+
+Further on is a declaration that when Moses stretched out his hands (in
+a direction not specified) that victory might rest with the forces he
+commanded, he stretched them out in the figure of a stauros, as a
+prophecy that Jesus "would be the author of life."
+
+A reference is then made to the Brazen Serpent, and to the pole upon
+which it was placed; and it is stated that this lifeless imitation of a
+serpent was a type of Jesus.
+
+In the _Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians_ we read that the stauros
+of the Christ is indeed a stumbling block to those who do not believe.
+The evidence of Irenaeus, as that of one who was through his
+acquaintance with the aged Polycarp almost in touch as it were with the
+apostles, will on account of his importance as a witness be specially
+dealt with in the next chapter.
+
+Justin Martyr, arguing that the figure of the cross is impressed upon
+the whole of nature, asks men to
+
+
+     "Consider all things in the world, whether without this
+     form they could be administered or have any certainty.
+     For the sea is not traversed except that trophy which is
+     called a sail abide safe in the ship; and the earth is
+     not ploughed without it: diggers and mechanics do not
+     their work except with tools which have this shape. And
+     the human form differs from that of the irrational
+     animals in nothing else than in its being erect and
+     having the hands extended and having on the face
+     extending from the forehead what is called the nose,
+     through which there is respiration for the living
+     creature; and this shows no other form than that of the
+     cross. And so it was said by the prophet _The breath
+     before our face is the Lord Christ_. And the power of
+     this form is shown by your own symbols on what are
+     called standards and trophies; with which all your
+     processions are made, using these as insignia of your
+     power and government."[15]
+
+Elsewhere Justin Martyr declares that the Christ
+
+     "Was symbolised both by the Tree of Life which was said
+     to have been planted in Paradise, and by those events
+     which should happen to all the just. Moses was sent with
+     a _rod_ to effect the redemption of the people; and with
+     this in his hands at the head of the people he divided
+     the sea. By this he saw the water gushing out of the
+     rock; and when he cast a _tree_ into the waters of
+     Marah, which were bitter, he made them sweet. Jacob by
+     putting _rods_ into the water troughs caused the sheep
+     of his uncle to conceive . . . . Aaron's _rod_ which
+     blossomed declared him to be the High Priest. Isaiah
+     prophesied that a rod would come forth from the root of
+     Jesse, and this was the Christ."[16]
+
+Further on in the same work, Justin Martyr, alluding to the statement
+in the Israelitish Law "Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree,"
+states that
+
+
+     "It was not without design that the prophet Moses
+     when Hur and Aaron upheld his hands, remained in this
+     form until evening. For indeed the Lord remained upon
+     the tree almost until evening."[17]
+
+Tertullian writes concerning the Christ "With the last enemy Death did
+he fight, and through the trophy of the cross he triumphed"[18]; and
+elsewhere tells us that "Cursed is every one who hangeth on a tree" was
+a prediction of his death.[19]
+
+There is also in existence a long essay by Tertullian which starts by
+discussing the efficacy of "the sign" as an antidote. The sign of the
+cross as traced upon the forehead in the non-Mosaic initiatory rite of
+baptism seems to be what is referred to; and no representation of an
+instrument of execution, or cross-shaped symbol of wood or any
+material, is once mentioned.[20]
+
+In another of Tertullian's works we come across the passage "In all the
+actions of daily life we trace upon the forehead the sign."[21]
+
+His famous reference to the Sun-God Mithras reads as follows:--
+
+
+     "The devil in the mystic rites of his idols competes
+     even with the essential portions of the sacraments of
+     God. He, like God, baptizes some, that is, his own
+     believing and faithful followers, and promises the putting
+     away of sins by baptism; and if I remember rightly
+     Mithras there signs his soldiers upon their foreheads,
+     celebrates the oblation of bread, introduces a representation
+     of the resurrection, and places the crown beyond
+     the sword."[22]
+
+Elsewhere Tertullian writes:--
+
+     "If any of you think we render superstitious adoration
+     to the cross, in that adoration he is sharer with us . .
+     You worship _victories_, for in your trophies the cross
+     is the heart of the trophy. The camp religion of the
+     Romans is all through a worship of the standards . . . I
+     praise your zeal: you would not worship crosses
+     unclothed and unadorned."[23]
+
+In another of Tertullian's works we read:--
+
+
+     "As for him who affirms that we are the priesthood of a
+     cross, we shall claim him as a co-religionist . . .
+     Every piece of timber which is fixed in the ground in an
+     erect position is part of a cross, and indeed the
+     greater part of its mass. But an entire cross is
+     attributed to us . . . . The truth however is that
+     _your_ religion is _all_ cross . . . You are ashamed, I
+     suppose, to worship unadorned and simple crosses."[24]
+
+In the _Instructions of Commodianus_ we read "The first law was in the
+tree, and so, too, was the second."[25]
+
+Cyprian contends that "By the sign of the cross, also, Amalek was
+conquered by Moses."[26]
+
+Elsewhere Cyprian tells us that "In this sign of the cross is salvation
+for all people who are marked on their foreheads"; quoting as proof of
+this, from the Apocalypse, "They had his name and the name of his
+Father written on their foreheads," and "Blessed are they that do his
+commandments that they may have power over the Tree of Life."[27]
+
+Methodius tells us that "He overcame, as has been said, the powers that
+enslaved us by the figure of the cross; and shadowed forth man, who had
+been oppressed by corruption as by a tyrant power, to be free with
+unfettered hands. For the cross, if you wish to define it, is the
+confirmation of victory."[28]
+
+Passing on to Origen, we find in one of his works the noteworthy
+passage:--
+
+     "It is possible to avoid it if we do what the Apostle
+     saith 'Mortify your members which are upon earth,' and
+     if we always carry about in our bodies the death of
+     Christ. For it is certain that where the death of Christ
+     is carried about, sin cannot reign. For the power of the
+     _stauros_ of Christ is so great that if it be set before
+     a man's eyes and kept faithfully in his mind so that he
+     look with steadfast eyes of the mind upon that same
+     death of Christ, no concupiscence, no sensuality, no
+     natural passion, and no envious desire, is able to
+     overcome him."[29]
+
+Whether however this reference to the "_stauros_ of Christ" is or is
+not a reference to the figure of the cross, is doubtful.
+
+Such is the evidence regarding the cross, whether considered as
+immaterial sign or material symbol, obtainable from the writings of the
+Christians who lived between the days of the Apostles and those of
+Constantine; other of course than the _Octavius_ of Minucius Felix,
+which was dealt with in the last chapter, and the writings of Irenaeus,
+which will be dealt with in the next.
+
+Among the noteworthy features of the evidence in question prominently
+stands out the smallness of its volume.
+
+This is but a negative point, however; and what should be carefully
+borne in mind is that the evidence as a whole leads to the conclusion
+that the Christians of the second and third centuries made use of the
+sign and venerated the figure of the cross without, as Dean Farrar
+admits, it "only or even mainly," reminding them of the death of Jesus;
+and therefore otherwise than as a representation of the instrument of
+execution upon which Jesus died.[30]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+CURIOUS STATEMENTS OF IRENAEUS.
+
+The special importance of the evidence of Irenaeus, is due to the fact
+that of all the Fathers whose undisputed works have come down to us he
+is the only one who can be considered to have been anything like in
+touch with the Apostles. As an acquaintance of the aged Polycarp, who
+is said to have been in his youth a pupil of the aged Evangelist and
+Apostle St. John and to have met yet other Apostles, Irenaeus had
+opportunities for ascertaining facts concerning the life and death of
+Jesus which the other Fathers upon whose works we rely did not possess.
+
+What, then, does this important witness have to say, which bears upon
+the points at issue? As a matter of fact, very little.
+
+There are, however, two passages in the works of Irenaeus which it
+would not be right to altogether ignore.
+
+In the first of these passages Irenaeus mentions that some Christians
+believed that Simon of Cyrene was executed instead of Jesus, owing to
+the power of Jesus to metamorphose himself and others having been
+exercised with that object in view.[31] This power is referred to more
+than once in our Gospels, for instance in the account of the so-called
+"Transfiguration" upon the Mount; the Greek word rendered in our Bibles
+as "transfigured" being the word which in translations of the older
+Greek classics is rendered "metamorphosed."
+
+Even if we pass by this belief of certain of the early Christians that
+Jesus was never executed, a question here arises which should at least
+be stated, and that is the question how, if Jesus was metamorphosed
+upon the Mount, as the Gospels tell us, he can be said to have died as
+a man at Calvary? For if upon the Mount of Transfiguration, or at any
+other time previous to the scene at Calvary, Jesus was metamorphosed,
+the form which was the result of the process of re-metamorphosis
+necessary to make him recognisable again cannot be said to have been
+born of the Virgin Mary, and can have been human only in appearance.
+
+The other passage in the writings of Irenaeus which deserves our
+notice, is neither more nor less than an emphatic declaration, by
+Irenaeus himself, that Jesus was not executed when a little over thirty
+years of age, but lived to be an old man. Explain it away how we will,
+the fact remains; and it certainly ought not to be ignored.
+
+At first sight this statement of Irenaeus would decidedly seem to
+support the theory advanced by some, that, as the Roman Procurator
+Pontius Pilate admittedly did not want to carry out the extreme penalty
+in the case of Jesus, though he reluctantly consented to do so in order
+to pacify the Jews and allowed Jesus to be fixed to a stauros and
+suspended in public view, he took care to manage things so that Jesus
+should only appear to die. The idea of course is that if Pilate wished
+to preserve the life of Jesus he could easily have had him taken down
+while in a drugged condition, have had the farce of burial carried out
+at the earliest possible moment, and then have had him resuscitated and
+removed to some region where he could dwell in safety.
+
+What Irenaeus says concerning Jesus is that
+
+
+     "He passed through every age, becoming an infant for
+     infants. . . . So likewise he was an old man for old
+     men, that he might be a perfect Master for all, not
+     merely as regards the setting forth of the truth but
+     also as regards age, sanctifying at the same time the
+     aged also and becoming an example to them likewise.
+     Then, at last, he came on to death itself. . . . From
+     the fortieth and fiftieth year a man begins to decline
+     towards old age, which our Lord possessed while he still
+     fulfilled the office of a Teacher; even as the Gospel
+     and all the elders testify, those who were conversant in
+     Asia with John the disciple of the Lord affirming that
+     John conveyed to them that information. And he remained
+     among them up to the times of Trajan. Some of them
+     moreover saw not only John but the other apostles also,
+     and heard the very same account from them, and bear
+     testimony as to the statement. Whom, then, should we
+     rather believe? Whether such men as these, or
+     Ptolemaeus, who never saw the apostles and who never
+     even in his dreams attained to the slightest trace of an
+     apostle?"[32]
+
+The reader must decide for himself or herself whether Irenaeus believed
+that Jesus was never executed; or that he was executed but survived; or
+that he was born when we suppose, but executed thirty years or so later
+than we suppose; or that, though executed when we suppose, he was then
+an old man, and was born, not at the commencement or middle or end of
+the year A.C. 1, or B.C. 4, or whenever the orthodox date is, but
+thirty years or more before what we call our era began. Anyhow he
+mentions neither cross nor execution, and here seems to assume that
+Jesus died a natural death. And in any case the fact remains that,
+however mistaken he may have been, Irenaeus stated that Jesus lived to
+be an old man; and stated so emphatically.
+
+Even granting that Irenaeus must have been mistaken, his evidence none
+the less affects one of the most important points debated in this work.
+For it is clear that if even he knew so little about the execution of
+Jesus, the details of that execution cannot have been particularly well
+known; and the affirmation that the stauros to which Jesus was affixed
+had a transverse bar attached may have had no foundation in fact, and
+may have arisen from a wish to connect Jesus with that well-known and
+widely-venerated Symbol of Life, the pre-Christian cross.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+ORIGIN OF THIS PRE-CHRISTIAN CROSS.
+
+Having in the foregoing chapters demonstrated that it is possible, if
+not indeed probable, that the instrument of execution to which Jesus
+was affixed was otherwise than cross-shaped; and having also shown that
+it was not mainly, if indeed even partially, that the early Christians
+signified that instrument by the sign of the cross; it is now desirable
+that, as a preliminary to an enquiry into the circumstances under which
+the cross became the symbol of Christianity, we should enquire into the
+origin of the _pre_-Christian cross.
+
+That there was a pre-Christian cross, and that it was, like ours, a
+Symbol of Life, is generally admitted.
+
+The authorities upon such subjects, however, unfortunately differ as to
+the reason why the Cross came to be selected by the ancients as the
+Symbol of Life. And not one of their suggestions seems to go to the
+root of the matter.
+
+Let us therefore in thought go back tens of thousands of years, and
+conceive the genus Homo as a race gradually awakening to reason but as
+yet unfettered by inherited traditions and creeds. Let us imagine Man
+ere he began to make gods in his own image. Let us remember that what
+would strike him as the greatest of all marvels would of necessity be
+Life itself, and that far and away the next greatest marvel must have
+been the glorious Sun; the obvious source of earth life, and Lord of
+the Hosts of Heaven.
+
+Let us bear in mind, too, that though the Nature Worship of our remote
+ancestors had other striking features, the facts mentioned would lead
+to the predominance of the phallic idea, and to its association with
+Sun-God worship. And as Life, the greatest marvel of all, must have had
+a symbol allotted to it at a very early date, let us ask ourselves what
+the untutored mind of Man would be most likely to select as its symbol.
+
+To this question there is, so far as the author can see, but one
+reasonable answer:--the figure of the cross.
+
+And the author conceives this to be the real solution of the difficulty
+for this reason:--because the figure of the cross is the simplest
+possible representation of that union of two bodies or two sexes or two
+powers or two principles, which alone produces life.
+
+For the ancients cannot fail to have perceived that all life more
+immediately proceeds from the _union_ of _two_ principles; and the
+first, readiest, simplest, and most natural symbol of Life, was
+consequently one straight line superimposed upon another at such an
+angle that both could be seen; in other words, a cross of some
+description or other.
+
+It is evidently probable that this was the real reason why the figure
+of the cross originally came to be adopted as the Symbol of Life. But,
+of course, whatever the original reason, as time rolled on other
+reasons for the veneration of the cross were pointed out; nothing being
+more natural than that primitive Man should, or more certain than that
+he did, find pleasure in connecting with other objects of his regard
+than Life itself, that which as the Symbol of Life was pre-eminently a
+symbol of good omen.
+
+The most notable instance of this is the way in which, or rather the
+different ways in which, the figure of the cross was connected with the
+Sun-God.
+
+A good example of the last named fact, is the declaration of the
+philosophers of ancient Greece that the figure of the cross was the
+figure of the "Second God" or "Universal Soul," the _Ratio_ as well as
+the _Oratio_ of the All-Father, which they called the _Logos_ of God; a
+term badly translated in our versions of the Gospel of St. John as the
+_Word_ of God, as if it signified the _Oratio_ only.
+
+It was this Logos or "Second God" whom Philo, who was born before the
+commencement of our era, described as the "Intellectual Sun," and even
+as God's "First Begotten" and "Beloved" offspring, and the "Light of
+the World"; terms afterwards made use of by the writers of our Gospels
+in describing the Christ. And, as will be shown in a chapter upon the
+subject, the reason the philosophers, among whom was Plato, gave for
+declaring the cross to be the figure of the Logos, was that the Sun
+creates this figure by crossing the Equator.
+
+An even better illustration can be seen in the fact that in days of old
+almost every civilised race held feasts at the time of the Vernal
+Equinox, in honour of the Passover or _Cross_-over of the Sun.
+
+The fact that the ancients were thus at special pains to connect the
+symbol of Life with the Sun-God, and also, as we know, spoke of him as
+the "Giver of Life" and the only "Saviour," was doubtless due to their
+perceiving, not only that life is the result of the union of the two
+principles distinguished by the titles male and female, but also that
+the salvation of life is due to the action of the sun in preserving the
+body from cold and in producing and ripening for its use the fruits of
+the earth.
+
+As the Giver of Life, the Sun-God was of course considered to be
+bi-sexual. But when the two great lights of heaven, the Sun and the
+Moon, were associated with each other, as was often and naturally the
+ease, the Sun was considered to be more especially a personification of
+the Male Principle, and the waxing and waning moon, as represented by
+the Crescent, a personification of the Female Principle. Hence the
+worship of the God associated with the radiate sun, as of that of the
+Goddess associated with the crescent moon and called the Sun-God's
+mother or bride, was phallic in character; and their connection is
+repeatedly symbolised upon the relics which have come down to us from
+antiquity by the sign of the crescent containing within its horns
+either a disc or what we should consider a star-like object, which
+latter was almost as favourite a mode with the ancients of representing
+the sun as it is with us of representing a star or planet, as will be
+shown further on.
+
+Returning, however, to the symbol of the cross, as the first and
+simplest representation of that union of the Male and Female Principles
+which alone produces what we mortals call life, it is extremely curious
+that the selection of the figure of the cross in comparatively modern
+times as the simplest and most natural symbol both of addition and of
+multiplication, should have led no one to perceive that, being for
+these very reasons also the simplest and most natural symbol of Life, a
+probable solution of the mystery surrounding the origin of the
+pre-Christian cross as a symbol of Life, as it were stared them in the
+face. As to the contention of not a few authorities, apparently founded
+upon the mistaken assumption that the _Svastika_ was the earliest form
+of cross to acquire importance as a symbol, that the pre-Christian
+cross was originally a representation of the wheel-like motion of the
+sun or a reference to the wheel of the Sun-God's chariot; it need only
+be remarked that evidence exists to show that the cross was a symbol of
+Life from a period so early, that it is doubtful if the Sun-God had
+then been likened to a charioteer, and not certain that either chariots
+or wheels had been invented. It is true that the Solar Wheel became a
+recognized symbol of the Sun-God, and that additional veneration was
+paid to it because the figure of the symbol of Life was more or less
+discoverable in the spokes allotted to the Solar Wheel; but it is
+putting the cart before the horse to suppose that the cross became the
+symbol of Life because its form was so discoverable.
+
+It only remains to be added that there undoubtedly was a connection,
+however slight, between the pre-Christian Cross as the Symbol of Life,
+the Solar Wheel as a symbol of the Sun-God, and the Cross as the symbol
+of the Christ. And whatever the date at which the cross was first
+adopted as a Christian symbol, or whatever the reason for that
+adoption, there is no doubt that, as will be shown further on, our
+religion was considerably influenced by the facts that the Gaulish
+soldiers whose victories enabled Constantine to become Sole Emperor
+venerated the Solar Wheel, {image "solarwheel1.gif"} or {image
+"solarwheel2.gif"}, and that their leader, who was anxious to obtain
+the support of the Christians, allowed a loop to be added to the top of
+the vertical spoke so that the Christians might be able to interpret
+the victorious symbol as {image "monogram1.gif"} or {image
+"monogram2.gif"}, {image "monogram3.gif"} or {image "monogram4.gif"};
+_i.e._, XP or XPI, the first two or three letters of the Greek word
+XPI{sigma}TO{sigma}, _Christos_, Christ.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN CROSS.
+
+As has already been to some extent pointed out, it is evident that our
+beloved Christendom more or less owes its existence to the fact that
+Constantine the Great when only ruler of Gaul, himself a Sun-God
+worshipper at the head of an army of Sun-God worshippers, seeing how
+greatly the small but enthusiastic bodies of Christians everywhere to
+be met with could aid him in his designs upon the attainment of supreme
+power, bid for their support. For to this politic move, its success,
+and Constantine's perception that only a non-national religion whose
+followers sought to convert the whole world and make their faith a
+catholic one, could really weld together different races of men, we owe
+the fact that when he became Sole Emperor he made Christianity the
+State Religion of the world-wide Roman Empire.
+
+This act and its far-reaching effects, are not all we owe to
+Constantine, however. It should be remembered that even our creed was
+to some extent decided by him. For it was this Sun-God worshipper--who,
+though he advised others to enter what he wished should become a
+catholic and all-embracing religion, refused to do so himself till he
+was dying--who called together our bishops, and, presiding over them in
+council at Nicaea, demanded that they should determine the controversy
+in the ranks of the Christians as to whether the Christ was or was not
+God, by subscribing to a declaration of his Deity. It is even recorded
+that he forced the unwilling ones to sign under penalty off deprivation
+and banishment.
+
+From these and other incidents in his career it would appear that,
+either from policy or conviction, Constantine acted as if he thought
+the Sun-God and the Christ were one and the same deity.
+
+The probability of this is more or less apparent from what we are told
+concerning the part he played in connection with what, thanks, as we
+are about to see, to him, became our recognised symbol.
+
+Our knowledge of the part played by Constantine in connection with the
+symbol of the cross, except so far as we can gather it from a study of
+ancient coins and other relics, unfortunately comes to us solely
+through Christian sources. And the first that famous bishop and
+ecclesiastical historian Eusebius of Caesarea, to whom we owe so large
+a proportion of our real or supposed knowledge of the early days of
+Christianity, tells us about Constantine and the cross, is that in the
+year A.C. 312--a quarter of a century before his admission into the
+Christian Church--Constantine and the Gaulish soldiers he was leading
+saw at noon _over the Sun_ a cross of Light in the heavens, bearing
+upon it or having attached to it the inscription EN TOYT{omega} NIKA,
+_By this conquer_.
+
+The words of the Bishop, who is reporting what he states the Emperor in
+question to have told him personally, are:--
+
+     "He said that at mid-day when the sun was beginning to
+     decline he saw with his own eyes the trophy of a cross
+     of light in the heavens, above the Sun, bearing the
+     inscription EN TOYT{omega} NIKA; he himself, and his
+     whole army also, being struck with amazement at this
+     sight."[33]
+
+Though this marvellous cross, declared by Christian writers of that
+century to have been the so-called Monogram of Christ {image
+"monogram1.gif"} or {image "monogram3.gif"} or {image "monogram2.gif"}
+or {image "monogram4.gif"}, appeared to an army of Sun-God worshippers,
+Constantine himself--as can be seen from his coins--remaining one for
+many years afterwards if not till his death, it is put before us as a
+Christian cross.
+
+It is also noteworthy that no material representation of a cross of any
+description was ever held aloft by adherents of the Christian Church,
+until after Constantine is said to have had this more or less solar
+cross so represented as the standard of his Gaulish army.
+
+Mention should therefore be made of the fact that, upon the coins he
+struck, the symbol {image "monogram1.gif"} is perhaps the one which
+occurs the most frequently upon representations of the famous _Labarum_
+or Military Standard of Constantine; but that the symbol {image
+"monogram1.gif"}, the {image "monogram3.gif"} and {image
+"monogram4.gif"} without the circle, and the {image "solarwheel1.gif"}
+and {image "asterisk.gif"}, are also to be seen.
+
+Now the Gauls led by Constantine specially venerated the Solar Wheel.
+This had sometimes six and sometimes four spokes, {image
+"solarwheel1.gif"} or {image "solarwheel2.gif"}, and the warriors of
+their native land had long been in the habit of wearing a
+representation of the same upon their helmets. It is therefore not
+improbable that even before the date of the alleged vision when
+marching upon Rome, some such symbol formed the standard of
+Constantine's army.
+
+Anyhow, that the worthy Bishop Eusebius was, like other enthusiasts,
+liable to be at times carried by his enthusiasm beyond the limits of
+veracity, or else was the victim of imperial mendacity, is evident. For
+Eusebius tells us in the _Life of Constantine_ he wrote after the death
+of his patron, that the night after this miraculous "cross" and motto
+were seen in the sky above the Sun, the Christ appeared to Constantine,
+and, showing the Gaulish general the same sign that had been seen in
+the sky, directed him to have a similar symbol made, under which his
+army--an army, be it remembered, of Sun-God worshippers--should march
+conquering and to conquer![34]
+
+All that is really likely to have happened is that Constantine, wishing
+to encourage his troops, bade them rally round a standard on which was
+represented the sacred Solar Wheel venerated by the Gauls; and that as
+with this as a rallying point Constantine and his Gauls became masters
+of Rome, the symbol we are discussing became a Roman--and therefore,
+later on, upon the establishment of our faith as the State Religion of
+the Roman Empire, also a _Christian_--symbol. And a loop seems to have
+been sooner or later added to the top of the vertical spoke of the
+Gaulish symbol, so that Christians could accept it as a Monogram of
+Christ; as has already been hinted, and as will be demonstrated further
+on.
+
+A noteworthy point is that we have two accounts of Constantine's
+alleged vision of the Christ, and that they do not quite agree. The
+Bishop of Caesarea's account is, that the night after the Emperor--then
+only ruler of Gaul--and all his soldiers saw the "cross" and motto
+above the meridian sun, the Christ appeared to Constantine
+
+     "With the same sign which he had seen in the heavens,
+     and commanded him to make a likeness of that sign which
+     he had seen in the heavens, and to use it as a safeguard
+     in all engagements with his enemies."[35]
+
+But the author of _De Mortibus Persecutorem_, a work said to have been
+written during the reign of Constantine, and attributed to Lactantius,
+refers to the alleged vision as follows:--
+
+     "Constantine was admonished in his sleep to mark the
+     celestial sign of God on the shields, and thus engage in
+     battle. He did as he was commanded, and marked the name
+     of the Christ on the shields by the letter X drawn
+     across them with the top circumflexed. Armed with this
+     sign his troops--"[36]
+
+and the differences between these two accounts are greater than would
+at first sight appear.
+
+Let us however return to the story of the Bishop of Caesarea, who tells
+us that the morning after the Christ appeared to Constantine, the
+Emperor told this second marvel to his friends, and, sending for the
+workers in gold and precious stones who are assumed to have accompanied
+the Gaulish army, directed them to overlay with gold a long spear
+
+     "On the top of the whole of which was fixed a wreath of
+     gold and precious stones, and within this the symbol of
+     the Saviour's name, two letters indicating the name of
+     the Christ by means of its initial characters, the
+     letter P being intersected with the letter X in its
+     centre."[37]
+
+Several questions naturally arise at this point of our enquiry, and it
+is not easy--nay, it is impossible--for us Christians to honestly
+dispose of all of them and yet retain our cherished opinions upon this
+matter. Only one such question need be stated, and it is this: Is it
+likely that the Infinite Ruler of the universe, either at mid-day or at
+mid-night, went out of his way to induce a Sun-God worshipper who would
+not enter the Christian Church till a quarter of a century later and
+ere then was to become a murderer of innocent persons like the
+boy-Caesar Licinius, to adopt a symbol which he warranted would enable
+Constantine to lead on the Gauls to victory?
+
+Pursuing the narrative of Eusebius we find that he, alluding to the
+symbol which he describes as a monogram but calls a cross, states that,
+setting this "victorious trophy and salutary symbol" in front of his
+soldiers, Constantine continued his march against Maxentius; and, with
+his forces thus "divinely aided," overthrew the Emperor just outside
+the Imperial City, entered Rome in triumph, and thanked God that He had
+enabled him to defeat and slay its ruler and assume the purple in that
+ruler's stead.[38]
+
+Eusebius then tells us that Constantine, who did not dispose of all his
+rivals and become sole emperor till some twelve years later, as victor
+in the fight with Maxentius and master of Rome though not as yet of the
+whole empire, at once
+
+     "By loud proclamation and monumental inscriptions made
+     known to all men the salutary symbol, setting up this
+     great trophy of victory over his enemies, and expressly
+     causing it to be engraven in indelible characters that
+     the salutary symbol was the safeguard of the Roman
+     Government and entire people. Accordingly he immediately
+     ordered a lofty spear in the figure of a cross to be
+     placed beneath the hand of a statue representing himself
+     in the most frequented part of Rome, and the following
+     inscription engraven on it in the Latin tongue:--'By
+     virtue of this salutary sign which is the true test of
+     valour, I have preserved and liberated your city from
+     the yoke of tyranny, and I have also set at liberty the
+     Roman Senate and People, and have restored to them their
+     ancient distinction and splendour.'"[39]
+
+Now, as we have already seen, what Eusebius referred to as the "cross"
+observed above the mid-day sun (and accompanied by a miraculous
+inscription in, presumably, to agree with the monogram, the Greek
+language; which was, well, "Greek" to the Gaulish soldiers) was the
+so-called Monogram of Christ {image "monogram1.gif"} or {image
+"monogram3.gif"} or {image "monogram2.gif"} or {image "monogram4.gif"}.
+That, too, was what Eusebius tells us the Christ afterwards told the
+Gaulish leader Constantine to model his military standard after. That,
+therefore, was the "salutary symbol" and "trophy of victory" referred
+to in the above passage from the same authority.
+
+It is therefore clear that this "lofty spear in the figure of a cross"
+which Eusebius tells us was placed under the hand of the statue of
+Constantine in the central place of honour in Rome, was referred to by
+Eusebius as a "cross" because it was shaped like or in some way
+connected with some form or other of the so-called Monogram of Christ.
+And such a conclusion is borne out by the fact that spears with
+cross-bars had been in use among both Gauls and Romans for centuries,
+whereas this one is referred to as something out of the common.
+
+It should also be noted that it was as a victorious military standard,
+and not as either a monogram of the Christ or a representation of the
+_stauros_ upon which Jesus was executed, that Constantine caused this
+{image "solarwheel1.gif"} or {image "asterisk.gif"}, or {image
+"monogram1.gif"} or {image "monogram3.gif"}, or {image "monogram2.gif"}
+or {image "monogram4.gif"} (all which variations occur upon the coins
+of Constantine and his successors), to become a symbol of the Roman
+Empire.
+
+Further on in his history of the Emperor, Eusebius tells us that
+whenever Constantine saw his troops hard pressed, he gave orders that
+the "salutary trophy" should be moved in that direction, and that
+victory always resulted.
+
+The Bishop of Caesarea then goes on to relate that Constantine selected
+fifty men of his bodyguard, the most distinguished for piety, valour,
+and strength, whose sole duty it was to defend this famous standard;
+and that, of the elect fifty, those who fled were always slain, and
+those who stood their ground were always miraculously preserved.[40]
+
+One would imagine from all this that there was only one labarum. Many
+different kinds are, however, represented upon the coins of
+Constantine; as also almost every variety of ordinary cross, except,
+perhaps, such as might conceivably have been a representation of an
+instrument of execution, like that which has since come into vogue
+among us.
+
+Eusebius also tells us that Constantine caused to be erected in front
+of his palace a lofty tablet, on which was painted a representation of
+himself with the "salutary sign" over his head and a dragon or serpent
+under his feet.[41]
+
+He also informs us that inside the palace and in the principal
+apartment, on a vast tablet in the ceiling, Constantine caused "the
+symbol of our Saviour's passion to be fixed, composed of a variety of
+precious stones inwrought with gold."[42]
+
+Which of all the "salutary" signs that appear upon the coins of
+Constantine these particular crosses were, we do not know; but it is,
+at any rate, obviously unlikely that a worshipper of Apollo who refused
+to enter the Christian Church till he was dying, and on his coins
+always attributed his victories to the Sun-God, elevated either as a
+representation of an instrument of execution.
+
+As to the alleged finding at Jerusalem, by Helena the mother of
+Constantine, of three stakes with transverse bars attached, all of
+which were ancient instruments of execution and one of which was shown
+by the occurrence of a miracle to have been a cross to which Jesus was
+affixed three centuries before, it is clear that this is a fairy tale.
+The story cannot be traced further back than to St. Cyril of Jerusalem
+about A.C. 350; and Eusebius, who gives an account of Helena's visit to
+Jerusalem, does not mention any such occurrence as that in question; a
+sure sign that it was an invention of later date.
+
+The Christian Church, however, in a weak moment vouched for the truth
+of this ridiculous story; and while what was suffered to remain in
+Jerusalem of the true cross became the treasure of that city and a
+trophy captured by its foes but afterwards secured from them and once
+more placed in its holiest shrine, what was broken up into relics for
+the faithful throughout Christendom multiplied into a thousand
+fragments; one of which forms the centre of the Vatican Cross, and such
+few others of which as survive would not if examined, 'tis said, even
+prove to be all of the same kind of wood, or even limited to the two
+kinds for the presence of which a supposed cross-bar of another kind of
+timber might be held accountable.
+
+The same Christian Bishop to whom this fairy tale can be traced, in a
+letter to one of the Emperors that succeeded Constantine declared that
+on the seventh of May A.C. 351 he and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem
+saw a brilliant cross in the heavens, stretching from Mount Golgotha to
+the Mount of Olives, and _shining like the Sun for several hours_.[43]
+And this marvellous vision is vouched for by St. Jerome, Socrates,
+Matins, and the Alexandrine Chronicle, as well as by St. Cyril; and is
+still kept in memory by the Greek Church, a solemn festival being held
+upon anniversaries of the day in question. But which particular
+"salutary sign" thus shone in the sky like the Sun for hours, is
+uncertain.
+
+These painfully obvious inventions cannot but incline broad-minded
+Christians to the belief that our Church went to great lengths in order
+to induce people to believe that the cross was essentially a
+_Christian_ symbol; which tends to show that there was a danger of
+their thinking otherwise.
+
+It is also clear from the evidence already quoted concerning the
+adoption by Christians in the fourth century of a symbol they denounced
+in the third, that whether Jesus was executed upon a cross-shaped
+instrument or not, that was not the chief reason why the phallic symbol
+of Life became recognised as the symbol of the Christ.
+
+The striking fact that though, as will be shown, the cross of four
+equal arms (a cross which, as we have seen, preceded the Latin cross as
+a Christian symbol, and one form of which is still the favourite symbol
+of the Greek Church; while even in the other two great divisions of
+Christendom its numerous variations, wheel-like and otherwise, as a
+whole dispute the supremacy with the Latin cross) occurs many times
+upon the coins of Constantine, yet it was the so-called Monogram of
+Christ or adapted solar wheel of the Gauls which the Christians of the
+fourth century were most careful to claim as a Christian symbol, should
+also be noted. For though the cross of four equal arms was also put by
+Constantine upon his coins as a solar symbol, yet that, being then, as
+for ages previously, a symbol of the Sun-God of world-wide acceptation,
+and one which as we shall see had already appeared as such upon Roman
+coins, it was not so much a Gaulish symbol as the other; and it was
+evidently because that other was the symbol followed by the triumphant
+leader of the Gauls and his victorious army, that the Christians wished
+to specially identify it with the Christ.
+
+In any case, whether the so-called Monogram of Christ was more or less
+forced upon Christianity when Constantine made our faith the State
+Religion of his empire, or whether it was adopted by Christians of
+their own volition, it was a politic move (than which few possible
+moves could have done more to secure the triumph of our faith) to
+accept as the symbol of the Christian Church what was at one and the
+same time the symbol of Constantine, of the Roman State, and of the
+universally adored Sun-God.
+
+That the more generally accepted symbol of the Sun-God, the cross of
+four equal arms, should in time supplant the more local one, was of
+course only to be expected; as was the adoption of a cross with one arm
+longer than the others, as being the only kind which could possibly be
+connected with the story of Jesus as the Christ incarnate.
+
+As to the possible objection that what has been dealt with in this
+chapter has been rather the origin of the Christian custom of
+manufacturing and venerating material representations of the sign or
+figure of the cross than the origin of the Christian cross itself, the
+answer is obvious. And the answer is that the first cross which can
+_justly_ be called "Christian," was the one which was the first to be
+considered, to use Dean Farrar's expressions, "mainly," if not "only,"
+a representation of an instrument of execution; which cross was
+undoubtedly not a transient sign or gesture but a material
+representation of the cross with one arm longer than the others and was
+introduced after such representations of the cross of four equal arms
+and of the so-called Monogram of Christ had come into vogue among
+Christians as a consequence of the influence of Constantine.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE ESTABLISHER OF THE CHURCH.
+
+Having already shown not a little cause for believing that the adoption
+of the cross as our symbol is due to the fact that we Christians helped
+to secure the triumph of the ambitious ruler of the Gauls, and after
+receiving numberless smaller favours from Constantine during the years
+he was ruler of Rome but not as yet sole emperor eventually obtained
+from him the establishment of Christianity as the State Religion of the
+Roman Empire, adapting the victorious trophy of the Gauls and the
+various crosses venerated by them and other Sun-God worshippers to our
+faith as best we could, it is desirable that we should pause to trace
+the career of the man we hail as the first Christian Emperor.
+
+To do this properly we must commence by referring to Constantine's
+father, Constantius Chlorus; and to the favour shown to Constantius
+Chlorus by his patron the Emperor Diocletian.
+
+Finding the supreme rule of the almost worldwide Roman Empire too much
+for one man in ill-health to undertake successfully, Diocletian in the
+year A.C. 286 made Maximian co-emperor. And in A.C. 292 Diocletian
+followed this up by conferring the inferior position and title of
+Caesar upon Galerius and Constantius Chlorus.
+
+In A.C. 305 Diocletian relinquished power altogether, forcing Maximian
+to abdicate with him; Galerius and Constantius Chlorus thus obtaining
+the coveted title of Augustus, and sharing the supreme power.
+
+Galerius now ranked first, however; for it was to the ruler of
+Illyricum and not to that of Gaul that Diocletian gave the power of
+appointing Caesars to govern Italy and the East.
+
+Constantius Chlorus died in Britain A.C. 306, the year after Diocletian
+abdicated; and Galerius, who had married a daughter of Diocletian,
+naturally thought that under the circumstances he ought to become sole
+emperor.
+
+The legions of Gaul, however, proclaimed the son of Constantius Chlorus
+as Augustus in his stead; and as Constantine thus became ruler of Gaul
+and a power to be reckoned with, Galerius thought it best to give way
+so far as to grant Constantine the inferior title of Caesar.
+
+Soon afterwards Galerius conferred the title of Augustus upon Severus;
+and a little while after that the Eternal City was lost to Galerius
+through the revolt of his son-in-law Maxentius, the son of Maximian.
+
+The Senate of Rome then asked Maximian to re-assume the purple, and he
+and Maxentius shared the power between them, both taking the title of
+Augustus.
+
+Upon this Severus at the request of Galerius marched upon Rome. He was,
+however, defeated and slain.
+
+After being more or less expelled by his son Maxentius, Maximian in the
+year A.C. 308 marched to Gaul and married his daughter Fausta to
+Constantine; at the same time conferring upon him the title of
+Augustus. About this time Galerius made his friend Licinius an Augustus
+in the place of Severus; whereupon Maximin, the Governor of Syria and
+Egypt, demanded and was granted that title also.
+
+There were thus in the year A.C. 308 some half-a-dozen Roman Emperors
+instead of one; there being Constantine and Maximian in the west,
+Maxentius at Rome, and Galerius, Licinius, and Maximin elsewhere; not
+to mention Diocletian, who was content to remain in retirement.
+
+This decided break-up of the Roman Empire was Constantine's
+opportunity; and he was favourably placed, for he had a warlike and
+faithful people under him.
+
+Moreover by reversing so far as lay in his power as ruler of Gaul the
+traditional policy of Rome towards Christianity, and setting himself
+forward as a champion of a non-national religion which had been
+persecuted because it was non-national, Constantine was secure of the
+enthusiastic backing of all the Christians to be found in the dominions
+of his various rivals.
+
+In A.C. 310 Constantine either executed his father-in-law the Emperor
+Maximian, or caused him to commit suicide; and the first of his five
+rivals was disposed of.
+
+In A.C. 311 the Emperor Galerius died from disease, and Constantine's
+most formidable competitor, and one who undoubtedly had a better claim
+than himself to the position of sole emperor, thus opportunely made way
+for the ruler of Gaul.
+
+In A.C. 312 Constantine marched at the head of the Gauls against the
+Emperor Maxentius, defeated him near the Milvian Bridge outside Rome,
+and entered the Eternal City in triumph. Maxentius is said to have been
+drowned in the Tiber; and the Senate decreed that Constantine should
+rank as the first of the three remaining Augusti.
+
+In A.C. 313 the Emperor Maximin fought the Emperor Licinius; but his
+forces were defeated, and he soon afterwards died.
+
+Some ten years or so later Constantine went to war with his only
+remaining rival, Licinius, defeated him, and became sole emperor, A.C.
+324.
+
+That despite his great qualities as a ruler the character of
+Constantine was not perfect, can be easily seen from the fact that, not
+content with executing the Emperor Licinius after accepting his
+submission, he murdered the young Licinius; a boy certainly not over
+twelve years of age, and according to some authorities two or three
+years younger than that. He also put his own son Crispus to death, and
+other relations as well.
+
+We are told that Constantine was so tortured by the memory of these and
+other crimes that he applied to the priests of the Gods of Rome for
+absolution, but that they bravely said that there was no absolution for
+such sins, whereupon this worshipper of the Sun-God turned to his
+friends the Christians and they gave him what he desired.[44]
+
+This statement seems somewhat improbable, however, as one would imagine
+that the Pagan priests, when called upon by one who was Pontifex
+Maximus and therefore their spiritual superior as well as the supreme
+emperor, would not have scrupled to invent some purifying rite--if they
+had none such--warranted to blot out the stain of every crime and
+thoroughly appease offended heaven.
+
+However this may have been, these terrible crimes of Constantine, all
+committed many years after his alleged conversion to our faith, show
+how badly advised we are to so needlessly go out of our way to claim as
+a Christian one who refused to enter the Christian Church till he was
+dying and possibly no longer master of himself.
+
+It is said that this refusal of his to be baptised till he was weak and
+dying and surrounded by Church officials who would perhaps have spread
+the report that he had been baptised even if they had not then at last
+been able to induce him to take the decisive step, was due, not to want
+of belief, but to excess of belief; Constantine's idea being that the
+longer he put off the rite in question, the more crimes would it wash
+out. Or, in other words, that delay would enable him to sin with
+impunity a little longer.
+
+This may possibly have been the case, but it should at the same time be
+borne in mind that whether Constantine called him Apollo or Christ, it
+seems probable that it was the Sun-God to whom he referred. For
+everything tends to show that this astute emperor, who so naturally
+wished to establish and mould a religion which all his subjects of
+whatever race or nationality might be reasonably expected to become in
+time willing to accept, acted during his reign as supreme ruler of the
+Roman World, if not from first to last, as if the Christ were but
+another conception of the Sun-God he was brought up to worship as
+Apollo and all countries venerated under some name or other.
+
+This point is not only demonstrated by the fact that upon his coins
+Constantine repeatedly declared that the Sun-God was his invincible
+guide and protector and the giver even of the victory foreshadowed by
+the alleged vision of the cross or Monogram of Christ above the
+meridian sun, but is also clearly shown by certain incidents connected
+with the founding towards the end of his life of the new metropolis
+which in less than a century equalled Rome in all save antiquity.
+
+New Rome, or, as we now call it, Constantinople, the city of
+Constantine, was built on the site of, and often called by the name of,
+Byzantium. It was not designed till A.C. 324, and was not dedicated
+till A.C. 330, or, as some think, an even later date: Constantine dying
+in the year A.C. 337.
+
+We are told that Constantinople was dedicated to the Virgin Mother of
+God.[45] This should remind us of the fact that long before our era,
+and right down to the time when Constantine selected Byzantium as the
+site of a new capital, that place was considered dedicated to the
+Virgin Queen of Heaven.
+
+Now in the central place of honour in his new metropolis, one would
+naturally expect Constantine to erect something or other to the honour
+of the God to whom he attributed his victories.
+
+Whose, then, was the statue Constantine towards the end of his life,
+and about twenty years after his alleged conversion to our faith,
+erected in the centre of the Forum of New Rome?
+
+It was a statue of the Sun-God Apollo; or, as some explain it, a statue
+of himself adorned with the attributes of the Sun-God.
+
+In fact, taking the career of Constantine as a whole, there is nothing
+inconsistent with the supposition that he was a Christian only in so
+far as, out of policy or conviction, he acted as if he considered the
+Christ to be one of many conceptions of the Sun-God. For although, as
+has been mentioned and will be shown in a later chapter, Constantine,
+upon the many varieties of coins he issued, repeatedly acclaimed the
+Sun-God as his companion and the author of his triumphs, he never once,
+except in so far as he may have considered the God we Christians
+worship to be the Sun-God, so attributed his victories to the Christ.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+CROSS AND CRESCENT.
+
+Before passing in review the evidence regarding the symbol of the cross
+derivable from Roman coins and other relics of antiquity, a few
+introductory remarks are necessary regarding the too often forgotten
+fact that the ancients naturally looked upon the Giver of Life as
+bi-sexual; no life being known to them which was not a result of the
+conjunction of the Male and Female Principles.
+
+The necessarily bi-sexual character of the creator of both the Male and
+Female Principles, was, it should be remembered, borne in mind by the
+thinkers of old all the while they accommodatingly spoke of the Sun-God
+or Giver of Life as being a personification of the Male Principle and
+gave him a Bride or Virgin Mother to represent the Female Principle.
+
+Moreover, just as the disc of the Sun, or the star-like form which the
+ancients often used to signify the radiate or impregnating Sun,
+naturally came to be recognised as the symbol of the Male Principle, so
+the Crescent, as signifying the increasing Moon and the lesser of the
+two great lights of heaven, in like manner came to be adopted as the
+natural symbol of the Female Principle.
+
+In this connection it will not be amiss to draw attention to the symbol
+of the conquerors of the city founded by Constantine. For though
+misleadingly called "the Crescent," that symbol is, as the reader
+cannot very well fail to be aware, not a mere crescent; but one which
+has within its horns what we consider to be a star-like form and
+therefore call a star. And though it is possible that it was not
+knowingly adopted as such by the Moslems, this dual symbol was a
+combination of the ancient symbols of the Male and Female Principles.
+
+An erroneous account of the origin of this symbol as a Moslem symbol is
+given in all our works of reference which deal with the matter, as if
+their compilers copied one from another without troubling to consider
+the evidence for themselves.
+
+The incorrect but widely accepted explanation in question, is to the
+effect that the so-called _star_ and crescent had its origin as a
+Moslem symbol in the capture of Byzantium or Constantinople by the
+Turks in A.C. 1453; our works of reference stating that it was then
+adopted by Mahomet II., as the symbol of the famous city he had taken
+from the Christians.
+
+But was the "star and crescent" the symbol of the City of Constantine?
+It would appear not.
+
+Ancient Byzantium was, as stated in a previous chapter, considered,
+long before our era and right up to the days of Constantine, as
+dedicated to the Virgin Queen of Heaven; whose symbol was a crescent.
+And when Constantine rebuilt and renamed Byzantium, he dedicated New
+Rome--or, as we now call it, Constantinople--to the Virgin Mother of
+God and Queen of Heaven; whose symbol, as can be seen upon reference to
+both ancient and modern representations of the Virgin Mary, is also a
+crescent. It would therefore appear that the symbol of the city is more
+likely to have been a simple crescent than the so-called _star_ and
+crescent. Such a conclusion is entirely borne out by the evidence. For
+though the so-called star and crescent can be seen upon three or four
+coins struck at Byzantium before such a place as New Rome was thought
+of, this proves little if anything; inasmuch as the symbol in question
+was a very common one in days of old, and occurs frequently upon coins
+struck elsewhere.
+
+Moreover the question is what the symbol of Constantinople was at the
+time it was captured by the Turks. And an inspection of the coins
+issued by the Christian rulers of that city during the thousand years
+and more it was in their hands, will reveal to the enquirer that though
+the crescent with a _cross_ within its horns appears occasionally upon
+the coins of the Emperors of the East, and in one or two instances we
+see a cross of four equal arms with each extremity piercing a crescent,
+it is doubtful if a single example of the so-called "_star_ and
+crescent" symbol can be found upon them.
+
+We learn from other sources also that the symbol of the imperial
+Christian Metropolis captured by the Turks nearly five hundred years
+ago and ever since retained by them, was a simple crescent. And there
+is no doubt whatever that the dual symbol of the Moslems was adopted by
+them, not when they brought about the downfall of Constantinople as a
+Christian city, but centuries before, as a result of the conquest of
+Persia.
+
+It was in the year A.C. 641 that the battle of Nehavend, ever after
+called by the Moslems the _Victory of Victories_, laid at the feet of
+the followers of the Prophet the kingdom of Iran or Persia, and brought
+to an end the Sassanian Monarchy.
+
+Now the coins of the Sassanian kings then and for the previous two
+centuries bore upon them, with scarcely an exception, the so-called
+"_star_ and crescent"; and it was as the symbol of this Zoroastrian
+dynasty and of the fair land of Iran, that the Moslems adopted it as
+their own. What the star-like object (star-like, that is, in _our_
+opinion) represented upon the coins of Iran or Persia when placed
+within the horns of a crescent, was, of course, the Sun. The
+supposition of certain writers that the dual symbol represented the two
+crescent-presenting orbs, Venus and the Moon, is entirely mistaken. For
+though the conjunction of the two crescent-shaped and feminine lights
+of heaven, was of old, like the combination of the symbol of the
+Sun--as representing the Male Principle--with that ever feminine symbol
+the Crescent, held to signify Increase and Life, we are dealing with
+what was admittedly a Mithraic symbol. And not only was the star-like
+object in question the symbol of the Sun-God Mithras, but it was, as
+any student of the coins of the Sassanian dynasty can see, substituted
+for the disc.
+
+Upon the Sassanian coins the so-called star, in reality a
+representation neither of a star nor of a planet but of the radiate
+Sun, seems to have been first substituted for the round disc as a
+representation of the Sun, by Perozes, about A.C. 457; the disc in the
+horns of a crescent being the symbol on the coins of his father
+Isdigerd II. and other predecessors. But the dual symbol miscalled the
+"star and crescent" was one even then of great antiquity, as will be
+shown in a later chapter dealing with Phoenician relics discovered in
+Cyprus and elsewhere.
+
+The primary signification of the dual symbol in question, often
+accompanied on the Sassanian coins by a prayer that the monarch might
+"increase," or flourish generally, was undoubtedly _Life_. And it is
+clear that the conjunction of the Crescent as the symbol of the Female
+Principle of Life with the star-like figure which represented the
+radiate, life-giving, or impregnating Sun, must have not only signified
+Life, but also the necessarily bi-sexual Giver of Life.
+
+We are thus brought to the conclusion that the Cross and the so-called
+Crescent are more or less allied in signification.
+
+Nor is this noteworthy fact to be wondered at. For only words and forms
+divide the faiths of Mankind, and at heart the one object of our
+desires is Life. Even those who piously lay down their lives for others
+here, do so in the hope of being rewarded with longer life and more
+blissful life hereafter.
+
+Another point which is too often overlooked, is that if the followers
+of the so-called Crescent have, as would appear to be the case,
+forgotten the meaning of their symbol and the fact that it alludes to
+the bi-sexual nature of the Creator, we followers of the Cross may all
+unconsciously be in a very similar position regarding our symbol. And
+as the Cross as the recognised symbol of the Christ is not of older
+date than the conquest of Rome by the Gauls, and more or less resulted
+therefrom, it is clear that the same remark applies if we consider the
+Moslems to have adopted their symbol as that of the land they conquered
+from the Sassanian kings, rather than as one with the primal and
+natural interpretation of which they were content.
+
+Anyway the cross as well as the "star and crescent" is more or less a
+bi-sexual symbol, as will be clear to those who understand how the
+cross came to be recognised ages before our era as the natural symbol
+of Life. And a good illustration of the fact in question still exists
+in the Caroccio crucifix of Milan; in which relic we see, under the
+usual inscription, an androgynous Christ upon a cross, with a man's
+head but half the body of female form, and with, instead of a cloth or
+fig-leaf, the phallic _crux ansata_, or Egyptian cross or symbol of
+Life, placed sideways, and as if the oval represented the female organ
+of reproduction, and the _tau_ or incomplete cross that of the other
+sex.
+
+Like the Red Cross of to-day, the Carocco bi-sexual crucifix, once so
+common in Italy, was a symbol of Life and Salvation in two senses; it
+not only being considered so in itself, but being also used on the
+battlefield as a rallying point for wounded soldiers, signalling to
+them that bandages, drugs, and surgical aid, could be obtained where it
+towered aloft.
+
+These references to the fact that in days of old many very naturally
+came to the conclusion that the Creator and Giver of Life and only
+Saviour must be bi-sexual, should remind us Christians that our
+assertion that the Infinite Spirit is "Our Father" is not from all
+points of view an improvement upon the ideas of the ancients. For they
+also, and rightly, conceived what we wrongly ignore, _viz._, that the
+Infinite Author of all existence must also be "Our Mother."
+
+In this respect Protestants have if possible gone even further astray
+than members of the Greek and Roman Churches. For in the veneration
+paid by the latter to Mary of Nazareth as the Bride of God, the Mother
+of God, the Star of the Sea, and the Queen of Heaven, can be seen a
+survival, however toned down or distorted, of the old idea that the
+Deity must necessarily be of both sexes.
+
+Even the plainly evident fact that, while in pre-Christian days the
+symbol of the cross represented the two sexual powers in conjunction,
+it has in Christian times come to be considered the symbol of Life as
+being the symbol of the SON of God, should, moreover, lead us to note
+that our religion scarcely does justice to the part played in the
+economy of Nature by the fair sex. This is doubtless due to the fact
+that the moulding of our creed and the interpretation of things hard to
+be understood has for the most part been in the hands of the sex which,
+as the author belongs to it, may by way of contrast be called unfair.
+
+What, for instance, can be more unfair than the assumption that God, if
+incarnated as one of the genus Homo, must have been born a male? Yet
+that assumption is at the very basis of modern Christianity.
+
+Moreover, even granting that the Deity was specially incarnated in
+Jesus the Nazarene and therefore as a male, why should we, as if
+supposing that a passing form could stamp its sex upon an Infinite
+Spirit, speak of "God the Son" yet never of "God the Daughter?"
+
+The fact is that the natural disabilities and disadvantages of the
+childbearing sex have from the first resulted in the power of the male
+sex to rule the roast, and one result of the predominance thus ensured
+to the male sex by the laws of Nature has of course been a similar
+predominance for the opinion that the Creator is of the male sex.
+
+Some enthusiastic champion of her sex, alluding to the fact that the
+opposing sex now has a monopoly of the priesthood, may even go so far
+as to ask with a special meaning, Has not Man from the beginning made
+God in his own image?
+
+The male sex did not always have a monopoly of the priesthood, however;
+and in few if any instances did the priests of old go so far as to
+teach that the Creator, whom out of compliment to the Deity--or
+themselves--they naturally spoke of as belonging to the stronger sex,
+was a male and _only_ a male. Nor did they even assume such a thing.
+Though the different gods and goddesses were spoken of as belonging to
+this or that sex, more than one were regarded as in reality
+androgynous; and the fact that the Creator and Giver of Life must of
+necessity be so was very generally recognised.
+
+As a matter of fact it is by no means certain that the Creator is not
+represented as being androgynous even in our Bible. For in the account
+of the Creation which the Jews brought with them from Babylon, the
+Creator is represented as saying "Let _us_ make man in _our_ image";
+and a race which like the Jews solemnly declared that there was but one
+God, could only, it would seem, have accepted such a declaration as a
+divine revelation if they conceived the God supposed to be speaking to
+be androgynous, and addressing the other part of himself. This would
+account for the emphasis laid upon the statement that man was created
+"male _and_ female," like, or in the image of, the Creator.
+
+In any case it is clear that if God be not female as well as male, Man
+was _not_ created in the likeness of God.
+
+The theory of the ancients that Man himself was created an androgynous
+being, capable, like the Creator, of creating life in himself, but was
+afterwards divided into halves, one of which is ever seeking to find
+the other, need only be mentioned.
+
+Suffice it to add that it can scarcely be said to have been altogether
+progress in the right direction, which has led us mortals to call the
+Author of all Life "Our Father," to the utter obscuration of the
+equally important fact that the Deity in whom we live and move and have
+our being must also be "Our Mother."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE CORONATION ORB.
+
+The fact that though we Christians fail to do the matter justice, the
+ancients upon the contrary recognised that the Creator and the Giver of
+Life cannot be rightly spoken of as belonging to one sex and one alone,
+is not the only fact which those who examine relics of antiquity, such
+as the coins of the Roman Empire, with a view to ascertaining what
+evidence is derivable from them that bears upon the history of the
+symbol of the cross, should ever bear in mind. Another point to be kept
+in view is the evolution of the Christian symbol now known as the
+Coronation Orb.
+
+This compound symbol, which plays so prominent a part in the regalia of
+a Christian Monarch, also crowns the topmost height of many a Christian
+Temple including both St. Peter's at Rome and St. Paul's at London. And
+it is noteworthy that it bears a certain resemblance to the
+representation of the Apex, once worn by the Salian priests and
+afterwards by the Pontifex Maximus and the Flamens generally, which
+appears upon ancient coins of the _Fabia_ gens; the office of _Flamen
+Quirinalis_ having been hereditary in the Fabia family.
+
+Upon other coins also, what is said to be meant for the pontifical apex
+occurs as a round ball surmounted by something very like a cross, in
+the hand of a female figure representing Rome; exactly as the so-called
+Coronation Orb is to be seen upon coins of later date in the hand of
+this or that Christian Emperor.
+
+The evidence as a whole, however, favours the supposition that the
+Coronation Orb, instead of having been derived from the Apex of the
+Pagan priests and thus signifying the claim to priesthood or headship
+of the church so often made by monarchs, is a development of the round
+object, frequently unsurmounted by anything, so continually to be met
+with upon ancient coins of Rome in the hand of this or that God,
+Goddess, or Ruler.
+
+This being the case, it is a matter of very considerable importance
+that we should be quite sure what the round object in question used to
+signify, and should base our assurance upon the results of personal
+investigation rather than upon the assumption that the popular
+explanation is necessarily the correct one.
+
+Though the round object in question was, as stated, in days of old
+often used as a symbol by itself, it was sometimes, and, as time rolled
+on, more and more frequently, surmounted by a small female figure with
+wings; which figure was a representation of Victory. This figure was,
+after the establishment of Christianity as the State Religion of the
+Roman Empire, gradually, and only gradually, supplanted by the figure
+of the cross.
+
+Although several writers of note assume that the initiative in this
+direction was taken by Constantine himself, the first step seems to
+have been taken upon the death of Constantine, when a coin or medal was
+issued on which the deceased monarch is called a God and is represented
+as holding a round object surmounted by the so-called Monogram of
+Christ; a symbol continually referred to by Eusebius and other writers
+of the fourth century as a cross.
+
+Later on an instance occurs of the Monogram surmounting a round object
+held by a female figure representing Rome. This is upon a coin issued
+by Nepotianus, a nephew of Constantine.
+
+Passing on to the reign of Valentinianus II., we find that that Emperor
+issued a coin upon which a round object surmounted by a cross is to be
+seen in the hand of Victory herself. This would appear to have been the
+first instance in which what we should call a cross, supplanted the
+representation of Victory as a small female figure with wings, as a
+symbol surmounting the round object which we are considering.
+
+A similar coin was issued by Theodosius I., surnamed the Great; the
+last of the Emperors of Rome whose rule extended throughout the whole
+of the Roman world.
+
+The instances named are, it will be understood, the exceptions to the
+general rule during a considerable period. And upon many of the coins
+of the Emperors mentioned, as well as upon those of the intervening
+Emperors, the round object held by those rulers is surmounted by either
+a Victory or a Phoenix; usually by the former, but in several instances
+by the latter.
+
+The first ruler who caused _himself_ to be represented as holding a
+round object surmounted by an ordinary cross, was Theodosius II.,
+Emperor of the East.
+
+The fact that for a long time the Victory, the Phoenix, and the Cross,
+were made use of as symbols which might be substituted one for another,
+is worthy of special note. For the facts that the round object held by
+Theodosius II. is as often surmounted by a Victory as by a Cross, and
+that a Victory instead of a Cross was often used by succeeding
+Christian Emperors, tend to show that the Victory, the Phoenix, and the
+Cross were allied in signification, and equally connected with the
+round object the nature and meaning of which we are about to enquire
+into.
+
+The reader may possibly object that no case has been made out for such
+enquiry, inasmuch as not only did the cross in course of time entirely
+supplant the Victory, but the round object from first to last, and
+whether unsurmounted by anything or surmounted by a Victory or a
+Phoenix or a Cross, signified the world upon which we dwell, the round
+world, and nothing but the world.
+
+Such is, of course, the popular assumption; based upon what we are
+taught in school books and in standard works of reference. But, as a
+matter of fact, in many cases the round object admittedly signified an
+apple; the Golden Apple of the Hesperides: a well known phallic symbol.
+Whenever a round object unsurmounted by anything is to be seen in the
+hand of either the Sun-God Hercules or Venus the Goddess of Love, it
+admittedly may have been, for it admittedly often was, a
+representation, not of the world, but of the Golden Apple. And not only
+does it so occur upon a very large number of coins, but in some
+instances we see the Victory surmounting it; recalling to our minds the
+fact that victory, as signifying the triumph of Life over Death, had a
+phallic as well as a martial meaning, and is achieved every time that a
+man is born into the world as a result of the tasting of the fruit of
+the Tree of Life or of the knowledge of good and evil.
+
+Moreover, though the fact is now for some reason or other ignored, the
+so-called Coronation Orb of Christian Monarchs was itself once known as
+the Golden Apple. It is so referred to in important Latin documents of
+the Middle Ages; for instance in the famous Bull of Charles IV.
+regarding the Imperial elections, wherein we read of the right of the
+Counts Palatine of the Rhine to carry the symbol in question at the
+coronation of their Emperor. And to this very day the so-called
+Coronation Orb is known throughout Germany and Austria as
+_Reichsapfel_, the Imperial Apple.
+
+It is therefore by no means certain that the round portion of the
+Coronation Orb which thus caused the name of "the Golden Apple" to be
+given to this compound Christian symbol, is not, like the cross above
+it, to some extent a phallic symbol.
+
+Every one should know the classic story of the Golden Apple; how the
+tree which bore the Golden Apples grew up in the Garden of the
+Hesperides in honour of the wedding of Hera, a goddess who more or less
+personified the female sex; how the Golden Apples are variously said to
+have been dedicated to the Sun (Hellos), to the Sun-God (Dionysos), and
+to the Goddess of Love (Aphrodite); how the Sun-God Hercules as one of
+the twelve labours which represented the months, slew the Serpent which
+guarded the tree, and plucked the fruit; and how the Goddess Eris, who
+alone of all the deities was not invited to the nuptials of Peleus and
+Thetis, revenged herself by throwing among the guests a Golden Apple
+inscribed "To the fairest," and Paris awarded it to the Goddess of
+Love, Aphrodite or Venus.
+
+The story of the Garden of the Hesperides is at heart one with that of
+the Garden of Eden; for it is obvious that the same phallic meaning
+underlies each, and that they are but different versions of the same
+allegory.
+
+It may here be called to mind that it has this century been discovered
+from the cuneiform inscriptions of Western Asia, that Eden was the name
+given by Babylonians in days of old to the plain outside Babylon,
+whereupon, according to the legends of that city, the creation of
+living beings took place. Also that much evidence has accrued which,
+impartially weighed in the balance, leads clearly to the conclusion
+that the all-important commencement of Genesis, which forms as it were
+the very basis of both the Jewish and the Christian Scriptures, was
+borrowed by the Jews from Babylon. And that it was in reality a
+_Babylonian_ tradition or series of traditions of far older date than
+any writing of purely Jewish origin, has not only been amply proved by
+recent discoveries, but might indeed have been guessed from its
+reference to the Tower of Babel or Babylon.
+
+Nor is this all, for among the age-old relics discovered in Western
+Asia is a pictorial representation of the allegorical Temptation and
+Fall.
+
+Upon this noteworthy piece of evidence the Tree of Knowledge or Life,
+with which the figure of the cross was identified by the early
+Christians; the Serpent, which in all countries and every age has been
+more or less identified with the sexual powers; the Man; the Woman; and
+the Apple; are all represented. And it is important to note that,
+according to the cuneiform inscription upon another time-worn relic in
+the British Museum, the Babylonians of old, at a time when the
+descendants of Jacob or Israel were without scriptures of their own,
+had a tradition to the effect that the fate of our first parents--who,
+thanks to a wicked Serpent of Darkness, tasted of the forbidden fruit
+which grew in the "Garden of the Gods"--was placed in the hands of
+"their Redeemer."
+
+It should also be pointed out that this voice from the dim and distant
+past distinctly states that the Redeemer in question was--the Sun-God.
+
+In ancient days the so-called forbidden fruit or apple seems to have
+borne somewhat the same symbolic meaning that the egg did. But while
+the apple not only represented Life, but also, and primarily, that
+union between two sexes or principles which produces life, the egg more
+or less lacked the latter meaning, and, on the other hand, signified
+Existence in a wider sense than the apple did.
+
+The _Cosmos_ itself was an egg according to the conceptions of many of
+the ancients; and few ideas were more widely spread, or can be traced
+further back, than the one that the whole visible creation emerged from
+the original Chaos or Darkness in the shape of an egg.
+
+The egg also, and above all, signified the Sun-God, as the acknowledged
+Giver of Life and Saviour of Life. Hence the prominent part which it
+played in the various religious mysteries of the ancients, and also the
+fact that the Egyptians represented the Sun-God Ra as giving forth such
+utterances as "I am the Creative Soul of the celestial abyss. None sees
+my nest, and none can break my egg." The egg referred to, was of course
+the Sun itself.
+
+Even our Christian custom of exchanging eggs at Easter is more or less
+derived from Sun-God worship, being a survival from customs practised
+long before our era at that particular period of the year, the time of
+the Vernal Equinox or Pass-over of the Sun, when the Orient Light
+crosses the Equator to rise once more in the Northern Hemisphere.
+
+Nor are these the only facts connecting the egg with Sun-God worship,
+for the Sun-God Apollo was of old represented as born from the egg of
+Leda, and the Sun-God Osiris was also said to have been born from an
+egg.
+
+Moreover the Chinese believe that the first man was born from an egg,
+the Orphic hymns speak of the "First-Begotten One" as "egg-born," and
+the Greeks fabled that their Sun-God Dionysos sprang from the cosmic
+egg.
+
+As to the origin of the Coronation Orb, it is noteworthy that no finer
+or more natural symbol of Power could have been fixed upon than a
+representation of that ball of fire which was so frequently spoken of
+in bygone ages as "the Orb," and from which all earthly life and power
+may be said to proceed.
+
+However the available evidence certainly seems to show that the round
+object we are considering is more likely to have signified the cosmic
+egg than the solar orb.
+
+In any case the object in question cannot be shown to have represented
+the world upon which we dwell and that alone; and nothing is more
+likely than that so famous a symbol should, like the cross which now
+adorns it, have more or less signified Life.
+
+It should also be pointed out that this symbol of Power may have
+signified, not so much that the Ruler who used it laid claim to
+world-wide dominion, as that he held in his hand power over the lives
+of others; and, possibly, also that he claimed to be, as the vicegerent
+of the Sun-God and Giver of Life, the only legitimate Saviour of his
+country.
+
+The facts that the symbol was used in clays of old by others than the
+Emperors whose sway extended over the whole of the Roman Empire, and is
+nowadays considered the rightful symbol of every Christian Monarch
+however limited the area over which his power is felt, should also be
+borne in mind; though not of much value as evidence, as even petty
+rulers have been known to boast that they held the world in their
+grasp.
+
+It should however be remembered that though the ancients, struck by the
+dome-like appearance of the sky and the circular movements of the
+constellations, conceived the cosmos or universe to be spherical, and
+in some instances even constructed celestial globes upon which to
+record the movements of Sun, Moon, Planets, and Stars, it is doubtful
+if a single one of them considered the world upon which we dwell to be
+spherical. Also, that many a Christian Monarch has used the Coronation
+Orb as a symbol of power, and yet believed the earth to be otherwise
+than a globe in shape.
+
+In this connection it should be pointed out that the round object which
+the ancients represented Atlas as supporting upon his shoulders,
+usually in the presence of Jupiter, was not as is vulgarly supposed the
+earth, but the heavens; Hesiod telling us that Atlas bore heaven with
+his head and hands, Ovid that upon Atlas rested heaven and all the
+stars, and other writers of bygone ages that Atlas was a king who first
+taught men that heaven had the shape of a globe.
+
+It is of course possible that the ancients may have conceived the earth
+to be otherwise than spherical, and yet, because the horizon which
+appears to limit its extent seems to be circular, or for some other
+reason, have considered a round object to be a representation of it.
+
+Even where, however, the ball-like symbol we are considering may have
+represented something other than the Golden Apple, the probability is
+that it seldom if ever represented the earth.
+
+For as, though the ancients may have conceived and spoken of the world
+we live upon as being "round" in the same sense as a circular coin is
+round, they did not think of it as being a globe, it is obvious that
+the ball-like symbol in question is much less likely to have signified
+the--in their belief--non-globular earth, than it is to have been a
+representation of something which they did consider to be globular.
+
+Such is the nature of the evidence which tends to show that we
+Christians may be mistaken in supposing that our famous symbol the
+Coronation Orb represents the round world upon which we dwell,
+surmounted by the instrument of execution upon which Jesus died.
+
+Although, however, most points have now been touched upon, including
+the important fact that the so-called Coronation Orb of Christian
+Monarchs used to be called, even by Christians, the Golden Apple, the
+idea that it may have been the _crux ansata_, or Egyptian symbol of
+Life (an upright oval, perhaps signifying the female principle, set
+upon the top of the _tau_, or {image "t.gif"} cross, and thus turning
+into a complete cross what is really an incomplete one, and may be
+supposed to have signified the male principle), _reversed_ (_e.g.,
+Archaeological Journal_ xlii. 164), should at least be mentioned. It
+ought, however to be pointed out that the Orb is even more like the
+ancient symbol of the planet sacred to Venus, the Goddess of Love,
+reversed.
+
+Even this point does not exhaust the subject in hand; for the fact that
+in days of old we used to represent the Christ as the Pagans
+represented the Sun-God, _viz._, as standing by the Tree of Life and
+holding a round object meant for the phallic apple, has not yet been
+dealt with in any way.
+
+It is however desirable that before discussing the matter further we
+should ascertain the nature of the evidence, regarding this and kindred
+subjects, derivable from the coins of the Roman Empire.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ROMAN COINS BEFORE CONSTANTINE.
+
+Bearing in mind the matters mentioned in the two last chapters, let us
+now pass in review the coins struck by the Romans, and make a note of
+such features as may, directly or indirectly, bear upon the history of
+the cross.
+
+The first cross we meet with on the coins in question, is upon one of
+Julius Caesar; who was appointed _Flamen Dialis_ B.C. 87, _Pontiff_
+B.C. 74, Military Tribune B.C. 73, Quaestor B.C. 68, _Pontifex Maximus_
+B.C. 63, and Dictator B.C. 49.
+
+The cross in question consists of the name _C. Cossutius Maridianus_
+arranged as a cross of four equal arms. And it should be noted that it
+is admitted, even by such well-known authorities as Mr. C. W. King,
+M.A., that the name was so arranged out of compliment to the official
+in question _because his name had reference to the meridian sun_.[46]
+
+Upon a coin struck by Caesar's heir, the almost equally famous Augustus
+(Consul B.C. 43, Emperor B.C. 29--A.C. 14), about twenty years before
+our era, we see a head of the Sun-God Bacchus upon one side; and on the
+reverse a man presenting a military standard, the banner of which is
+ornamented with a St. Andrew's cross.
+
+Two other coins of the same reign and about the same date, have upon
+them representations of military standards bearing the same symbol.
+
+Upon another coin struck by Augustus we see a crescent with a star or
+radiate sun within its horns, the ancient phallic symbol adopted by the
+followers of the prophet Muhammad centuries later.
+
+A similar symbol occurs upon the coins of Hadrian (A.C. 117-138).
+
+Upon two coins of Antoninus Pius (A.C. 138-161) we see the Sun-God
+Hercules plucking the Golden Apple from a tree around which the
+traditional serpent is coiled.
+
+On another coin of the same reign the Sun-God Hercules can be seen
+holding a round object which admittedly represents the Golden Apple;
+that symbol both of the Sun-God as (1) the bi-sexual Giver of Life and
+(2) the personification of the Male Principle, and of the Goddess who
+represented (1) the Love of the two sexes and (2) the Female Principle.
+
+Upon another coin Jove holds a similar looking object.
+
+Many coins issued in the name of Annia Galeria Faustina the wife of
+Antoninus Pius, and by Marcus Aurelius (A.C. 161-180), and in the name
+of his wife Annia Faustina, have upon them representations of Venus the
+Goddess of Love holding a round object which is admittedly meant for
+the Golden Apple. The favourite legends are _Venus Victrix_, _Venus
+Felix_, and _Venus Genetrix_, and of phallic import; and in one
+instance the Goddess of Love holds an infant wrapped in swaddling
+clothes as well as the phallic apple.
+
+Other coins of Marcus Aurelius or his wife have upon them
+representations of Eternity as a female figure holding a round object.
+In some cases the round object is surmounted by a Phoenix.
+
+Upon a coin struck by Lucius Aurelius Verus (A.C. 160-169) that ruler
+is to be seen holding a round object surmounted by a Victory.
+
+On the coins of Commodus (A.C. 180-192) sometimes Jove and sometimes
+the Emperor holds a small round object. A Victory in some cases
+surmounts it.
+
+Venus holding the Golden Apple--that is, a round object which in such
+instances is admitted to have represented the Golden Apple--is to be
+seen upon many coins issued in the name of Lucilla, the sister of
+Commodus.
+
+Upon coins issued by Caius Pescennius Niger a small round object
+surmounted by a Victory is to be seen in the hand of Jove. On a coin
+struck by Septimus Severus (A.C. 193-211) we see Rome represented as a
+female figure with a shield at her side marked with a cross.
+
+Upon another coin we see the Goddess of Love holding a round object
+admittedly meant for the Golden Apple, while a child is stationed at
+her feet. The legend is _Venus Genetrix_. Among the coins issued in the
+name of Julia Domna, the wife of the last named Emperor, are nearly a
+dozen varieties upon which Venus is represented as holding a round
+object. A crescent occurs upon the reverse in some instances.
+
+Upon several coins of Caracalla (A.C. 211-217) we see that Emperor
+holding a small round object surmounted by a Victory; upon others he is
+to be seen holding a Victory only.
+
+Various coins issued in the name of Fulvia Plantilla the wife of
+Caracalla, show us the Goddess of Love holding a round object. The
+legends are _Venus Felix_ and _Venus Victrix_.
+
+In the reign of Elagabalus or Heliogabalus (A.C. 218-222) a coin was
+struck on which we see the Goddess Astarte, Ashtoreth, Ishtar, or
+Venus, holding a cross.
+
+Venus holding a round object is to be seen upon many coins issued in
+the names of Soaemias the mother of Elagabalus, his wife Julia Aquilia
+Severa, Julia Mamma the mother of Alexander Severus, and his wife
+Orbiana.
+
+On a coin of the Emperor Decius (A.C. 249-251) struck at Maeonia, we
+meet with the so-called "Monogram of Christ" upon a Roman coin in the
+form {image "monogram3.gif"} for the first time.
+
+Upon a coin of Trebonianus Gallus (A.C. 251-254) Eternity is
+represented as a female holding a small round object.
+
+On another coin of this reign we see a Phoenix instead of a Victory
+upon the round object held by the Emperor.
+
+Many of the coins of ancient Rome acclaim the Sun-God as the Saviour,
+and upon a coin issued by Gallienus (A.C. 254-268) we see the Sun-God
+Apollo holding a cross.
+
+Upon a coin issued by the younger Valerian we see the Sun-God holding a
+small round object.
+
+A coin struck by Tetricus (A.C. 267-264) has upon its reverse a
+representation of the Sun-God holding a round object, while in the
+field near the Sun-God is a cross.
+
+On a coin issued by Claudius II. we see the Sun-God Hercules holding a
+round object admittedly meant for the Golden Apple.
+
+Upon a coin issued by Aurelianus we see the Sun-God holding a round
+object surmounted by a crescent.
+
+On a coin issued by Vabalathus we see the Sun-God Hercules holding a
+round object admittedly representing the Golden Apple.
+
+Upon a coin of Numerianus (A.C. 283-284) we see the Goddess of Love
+holding a round object surmounted by a Victory. Such instances as this
+should be specially noted, as nothing distinguishes the round objects
+so surmounted from those held by Venus which admittedly represent the
+Golden Apple, and the present fashion of our symbol the Coronation Orb
+or Imperial Apple is due to the fact that a century later Theodosius
+II. Emperor of Constantinople started the idea of substituting a cross
+for the Victory.
+
+Upon several coins of Carinus (A.C. 282-284) we see the Sun-God holding
+a small round object.
+
+On other coins of this reign Eternity appears as a female holding a
+small round object surmounted by a Phoenix.
+
+Upon the coins issued in the name of Magnia Urbica, wife of Carinus, on
+which we see Venus holding a small round object which admittedly
+represented the Golden Apple, the Crescent frequently accompanies the
+representations of the Goddess of Love.
+
+On coins issued by Diocletian (A.C. 284-305) we see both Jove and the
+Sun-God holding a small round object; like the Emperor himself. A
+Victory in some cases surmounts it.
+
+The Sun-God Hercules holding a round object which admittedly signified
+the Golden Apple is to be seen on other coins issued during this reign.
+
+Among the coins issued by Diocletian's co-Emperor Maximian, is one
+bearing a representation of the Sun-God Hercules in the Garden of the
+Hesperides near the Tree encircled by the Serpent he slew. The Sun-God
+holds a round object representing a Golden Apple plucked from the Tree
+in question.
+
+On the reverse of another coin bearing the names both of Jove the
+All-Father and Hercules the Sun-God, we see the latter represented as
+holding a round object, admittedly meant for the Golden Apple.
+
+In some cases where Hercules holds the Golden Apple-for instance, upon
+a coin bearing the legend _Herculi invicto Aug_.--the Golden Apple is
+surmounted by a Victory.
+
+A coin issued by Constantius Chlorus, the ruler of Gaul and father of
+Constantine the Great, represents the Sun-God Hercules in the act of
+plucking a Golden Apple from the famous Tree.
+
+A coin issued in the joint names of Galerius and Constantius Chlorus,
+bearing the legend _Genio Populi Romani_, has in the field on the
+reverse side a cross, which takes the place occupied upon otherwise
+similar coins by a star-like object not improbably representing the
+sun.
+
+Such are the more striking features of the evidence which can be
+obtained from the Roman coins issued prior to the accession of
+Constantine to the throne of Gaul.
+
+The reader will have seen that the symbol of the cross occurs several
+times upon the coins in question, and in almost if not quite every
+instance in connection with the Sun-God.
+
+The fact that upon a coin of Julius Caesar, and therefore before our
+era, a cross admittedly occurs as a symbol of the sun, will also have
+been remarked.
+
+It will also have been noticed in how very large a number of cases the
+round symbol which was a precursor of our Coronation Orb admittedly
+signified the Golden Apple, and therefore was of phallic import.
+
+Another point which the reader cannot very well fail to bear in mind,
+is that where the Goddess of Love, as the representative of the sex
+whose felicity lies in motherhood or the victorious production of life,
+is seen carrying the symbol in question, the surrounding legend is
+Venus _Genetrix_, or _Victrix_, or _Felix_, or some variation or other
+of the same; and that the said legends are obviously phallic in
+signification.
+
+If we also keep before us the fact that the Golden Apple whether held
+by the Sun-God or his complement the Goddess of Love, was at times
+surmounted by the figure of Victory for which Christian Emperors
+gradually and only gradually substituted the figure of the cross, it is
+curious to note that in early Christian representations of the Christ
+he is often to be seen with the Apple or forbidden fruit of the Tree of
+Life or of the knowledge of good and evil.
+
+When the Christ is in such cases depicted as a youth, the phallic apple
+is usually to be seen lying near him; but when the Christ is
+represented as a man, it is placed in his hand.
+
+For instance a good example of the Christ holding the fruit of the Tree
+of Life is reproduced for us in the well known work on the likeness of
+Jesus by the late Thomas Heaphy.[47] Here we see, in a picture which
+occurs upon a glass ornament found in the Catacombs of Rome in the tomb
+of a Christian named Eutychia, an illustration of the Christ standing
+by the side of the Tree of Life. The rays of the Sun surround the head
+of the Christ, and in his hand is the phallic Apple.
+
+It will have been remarked that the round object to be seen upon
+innumerable Roman coins in the hand of this or that ruler or deity, and
+popularly supposed to have always represented the round world upon
+which we dwell although it is at the same time believed that the world
+was not then considered to be round, frequently occurs in the hand of a
+female figure representing Eternity. It is self-evident that a
+representation of the world we live on is less likely to have been so
+placed than a symbol of Life.
+
+A still more striking fact, which cannot fail to have been noticed by
+the reader of the evidence from the coins of ancient Rome quoted in the
+earlier part of this chapter, is that in several instances a Phoenix
+and not a Victory surmounts the so-called orb. For the story of the
+Phoenix was derived from the Egyptian City of the Sun.[48] And the
+fabulous bird in question was, according to Tacitus as well as
+Herodotus, specially connected with the temple of the Sun-God at
+Heliopolis.
+
+Upon this point it may be added that the famous story of the Phoenix
+seems to have been known to the writer of _Job_; the Septuagint version
+of _Job_ xxix. 18, being "I shall die in my nest and shall multiply my
+days as the Phoenix" according to some of the best authorities.
+
+The various ages allotted to this allegorical bird had reference to the
+calendar; as indeed we learn from Pliny, who tells us that
+
+     "The revolution of the Great Year in which the seasons
+     and stars return to their former places, agrees with the
+     life of this bird."[49]
+
+This is borne out by the periods spoken of as the lifetime of the
+Phoenix; as among them are one of 600 years, the Great Year referred to
+by Josephus and others, and one of 1,461 years, which was the Sothic
+period of the Egyptians.
+
+It is also clear that, like the Victory and the Golden Apple it
+surmounted, the Phoenix and its wonderful egg were not only connected
+with the Sun-God, but also had a phallic signification.
+
+The problem as to whether bird or egg first existed scarcely applies to
+the fabulous Phoenix and its equally fabulous egg, and need not be
+discussed here. Suffice it to say that the round object from which that
+Christian symbol the Coronation Orb is descended, though it may at
+times have more or less represented the world upon which we dwell,
+seems to have primarily signified, as associated with each other in
+idea, both the Golden Apple of Love and the Phoenix-like life principle
+enshrined in the Egg, both the egg-like _Cosmos_ or Universe and
+Eternity; but in all, and through all, and above all, the basis of all
+power whether finite or infinite, _viz._, Life.
+
+It is therefore not surprising to find that the monarchs of ancient
+days claimed to rule by divine right as vice-gerents of the Sun-God, to
+whose favouring influence all earthly life is traceable; and caused
+themselves to be represented, upon Roman coins as receiving the Golden
+Apple, and upon Egyptian monuments as receiving the Cross, from the
+Sun-God, as the symbol of their authority.
+
+Yet another point to be borne in mind, is that we Christians are
+expressly taught that God the Father and God the Son are as nearly
+identical as the ancients considered the Central Fire, which they
+deemed the Parent of all things, and the Warmth and Light issuing
+therefrom to be; or the Sun's disc and the emanations therefrom; the
+Christ being represented as saying "I and My Father are one" and "He
+that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." For though we describe ours as
+a _co-equal_ Trinity, no such identity with either God the Father or
+God the Son is affirmed of God the Holy Ghost, and it is remarkable
+that in our ancient illustrations of the Three Persons, both the First
+and the Second are represented as holding the so-called globe and
+Cross, while the Third, even where depicted as of human shape like the
+other two, is not.
+
+The fact is that the co-equality of the Holy Spirit of a God who is
+Himself, as Jesus declared, a Spirit, is an idea which did not find
+much acceptance among Christians till a comparatively late date and is
+the outcome of confused thought. And the separate personality of this
+Spirit of a Spirit being entirely a Christian conception, and without a
+counterpart in the theology of the ancients, few if any Pagan symbols
+such as the so-called globe and the cross would have been associated
+with it in any case.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE COINS OF CONSTANTINE.
+
+We are more or less in the habit of assuming that just as Paul, the
+founder of the catholic faith, was converted, not altogether by reason
+but as it were by force and with the rapidity of a flash of lightning,
+under the rays of a meridian sun ("About _noon_ suddenly there shone
+from heaven a great light round about me," _Acts_ xxii. 6; "At
+_mid-day_," _Acts_ xxvi. 13), so Constantine, the establisher of that
+faith as the State Religion of the empire in which Paul was so proud of
+his rights as a citizen, was in similarly rapid fashion converted by
+the appearance of a miraculous "cross" of light and an accompanying
+legend above a meridian sun ("At _mid-day_," Eusebius, _Vit. Const.
+I._).
+
+But, as has already been pointed out, this alleged vision of
+Constantine is said to have taken place during his march upon Rome in
+the year A.C. 312; and during the remaining twenty-five years of his
+life he acted rather as if he were converting Christianity into what he
+thought most likely to be accepted by his subjects as a catholic
+religion, than as if he had been converted to the teachings of Jesus
+the Nazarene.
+
+The fact is that Constantine was favourable to our religion out of
+policy rather than conviction; and if after refusing so long he did
+indeed, a quarter of a century after the alleged vision, consent to be
+baptised when ill and dying, policy doubtless swayed him even then.
+Anyway, as has already been stated and will now be seen, the evidence
+of his coins conclusively shows that the God to whom Constantine from
+first to last attributed his victories, was--the Sun-God.
+
+Upon one coin issued by Constantine we see upon the reverse a nude
+figure crowned with rays, with the right hand elevated toward the east,
+and a round object in the left hand. In the field is a cross widened at
+the extremities, and the surrounding legend is a significant one, _Soli
+Invicto Comiti_. This coin was struck years after the alleged
+conversion of Constantine, and the combined reference to the Sun-God
+and use of the cross are worthy of special notice.
+
+Upon two somewhat similar coins of Constantine the cross is placed
+within a circular wreath of bay or laurel.
+
+On another coin with the same legend we see the same nude figure
+crowned with rays, representing the Sun-God and carrying a round
+object; while in the field we see the Gaulish symbol, sometimes called
+a cross, which by the addition of a loop was, as we shall see later on,
+turned into the so-called Monogram of Christ.
+
+Upon a coin with the anything but Christian legend _Marti
+Conservatori_, is a cross with four equal arms.
+
+On a somewhat similar coin with the same legend, the helmet on the
+reverse is ornamented with the so-called Monogram of Christ.
+
+Upon another coin we see Mars leaning on a shield adorned with the
+so-called Monogram of Christ, the legend being _Marti Patri
+Conservator_.
+
+On a coin issued in the name of his son Crispus during the reign of
+Constantine, we see two Victories holding a shield upon a pedestal
+marked with a cross of four equal arms.
+
+A similar cross appears upon a coin issued during this reign in the
+name of another son of Constantine.
+
+Upon a coin bearing the inscription _Constantinus Max. Aug._ we see
+upon the reverse a cross of four equal arms.
+
+On an otherwise similar coin a compound _tau_ cross of four equal arms,
+{image "taucross.gif"}, appears.
+
+Upon a well-known engraving of a coin in the _Annales Ecclesiastici_ of
+Baronius, the {image "monogram3.gif"} form of the so-called Monogram of
+Christ appears upon the helmet of Constantine. Some authorities,
+however, state that this is copied as the familiar {image
+"monogram3.gif"} in error; what appeared on the helmet being the
+Gaulish symbol {image "asterisk.gif"} with a dot representing a star
+near the top of the vertical bar. Such a dot can be seen in a similar
+place upon two or three coins bearing the legend _Virtus Exercit_.
+
+On another coin the legend _Gloria Exercitus_ surrounds two soldiers
+holding military standards, between which is the symbol of the cross.
+
+On a somewhat similar coin the compound tan cross, of which we have
+already noted an example, occurs between the standards.
+
+A cross of four equal arms appears upon a coin bearing the legend _Pax
+Publica_.
+
+A coin issued during the reign of Constantine the Great in the name of
+his son Constantine, has upon its reverse a cross of four equal arms,
+the extremities of which are rounded.
+
+On an otherwise similar coin the compound tau cross appears.
+
+Upon a coin bearing the inscription _Constantinus Max. Aug._ a cross of
+four equal arms occurs near a soldier armed with spear and shield.
+
+On the reverse of one coin we see two soldiers holding military
+standards, and between the standards the so-called Monogram of Christ
+appears.
+
+A coin of similar type was issued during the reign of Constantine the
+Great in the name of his son Constantine.
+
+Upon a coin which on the obverse bears the inscription _Constantinus
+Max. Aug._, we see upon the reverse Victory carrying a palm. In the
+field is the symbol {image "monogram4.gif"}. The surrounding motto is
+_Victoria constantini Aug._
+
+Several coins with the legend _Gloria Exercitus_ have upon the same
+side two soldiers with a labarum or military standard between them,
+upon the banner of which is the symbol {image "monogram4.gif"}.
+
+On a coin with the legend _Victoria Caesar NN_ we see Victory carrying
+a palm. In the field is the Gaulish symbol {image "asterisk.gif"}.
+
+The reverse of another coin has the legend _Constantinus Aug._, and
+represents Constantine as holding a labarum or military standard
+terminating in a round object. Upon the banner is the symbol {image
+"monogram4.gif"}.
+
+On a coin bearing upon its obverse the inscription _Constantinopolis_,
+we see upon the other side a figure of Victory and a cross of four
+equal arms.
+
+On another coin bearing the same legend we see upon the reverse Victory
+standing upon a ship, and to the left the so-called monogram.
+
+Upon another coin we see the same symbol above the wolf and twins of
+the city of Rome.
+
+A rare coin bears upon the obverse the inscription _Constantinus Max.
+Aug._, and on the reverse, surrounded by the legend _Spes Publica_, a
+labarum or military standard the handle or base of which transfixes a
+serpent. Upon the banner three globules are embroidered, and the symbol
+{image "monogram3.gif"} appears above the cross-bar from which the
+banner hangs.
+
+Upon one medal or coin of Constantine we see the significant legend
+_Soli Invicto Aeterno Aug._ inscribed around the quadriga of the
+Sun-God Phoebus.
+
+On another piece struck by Constantine the Great, the Sun-God is given
+the title _Comes Aug._; Companion, Guardian, or Saviour, of the
+Emperor.
+
+Upon several coins we see the legend _Comiti Aug. NN_, and, surrounded
+by the same, the Sun-God holding a small round object.
+
+On numerous other coins also, the Sun-God is represented as holding a
+small round object.
+
+Other significant Sun-God legends to be met upon the coins of this
+alleged Christian Emperor, are _Comis Constantini Aug., Soli Invicto,
+Soli Comiti Augg. NN, Soli Invicto Com. D.N._ and the like.
+
+Upon a coin bearing the legend _Soli Comiti Aug. N._ we see the Sun-God
+presenting Constantine with a small round object surmounted by a
+Victory.
+
+On a coin with the legend _Pax Augustorum_, Constantine holds a
+standard ornamented with a cross.
+
+Upon another coin Constantine is to be seen holding what is said to be
+a representation of the Zodiac.
+
+On a coin issued in his own name, as upon others already mentioned as
+issued in the names of his sons, we see two Victories supporting a
+shield upon an altar ornamented with a cross.
+
+Upon a somewhat similar coin the altar is ornamented with the star-like
+object which in days of old so often stood for the radiate sun.
+
+A coin with the inscription _Divo Constantino_, and on the reverse the
+legend _Aeterna Pietas_ and a representation of Constantine holding a
+round object surmounted by the symbol {image "monogram4.gif"}, though
+usually included in the coins of that Emperor was evidently struck
+after his death and deification.
+
+The same remark applies to a somewhat similar coin, which has an
+additional symbol in a plain cross in the field to the right of the
+Emperor-God.
+
+It should be noted that the question here arises as to how far it is
+fair of us to claim this cross and so-called Monogram of Christ as
+Christian and at the same time denounce as Pagan the deification of
+Constantine referred to upon the same coins.
+
+As to the coins of Constantine the Great as a whole, it need only be
+remarked once more that while upon many of the pieces struck by him
+Constantine attributed his victories to the Sun-God, not upon a single
+one of them did he attribute them to the Christ; while it was ever the
+Sun-God and never the Christ whom he alluded to on his coins as his
+Companion, Partner, Guardian, or Saviour.
+
+This being so, how can we honestly claim that the so-called Monogram of
+Christ, and other forms of the cross, were ever placed upon his coins
+by Constantine as symbols of the Christ, yet never as symbols of the
+Sun-God?
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+ROMAN COINS AFTER CONSTANTINE.
+
+Passing on to the Christian successors of Constantine the Great, we are
+at once met with the significant fact that Constantine the Second
+issued many different coins bearing a representation of the Sun-God
+holding a small round object; and, as the surrounding legend, _Claritas
+Reipublicae_.
+
+Another coin of this son of Constantine the Great, and one which
+deserves special attention, has upon its reverse a Cross and a Crescent
+in juxtaposition, as if the cross signified the sun.
+
+A very similar coin has the symbol {image "monogram3.gif"} between the
+military standards.
+
+Upon another coin we see on the reverse both this Christian Emperor and
+the Sun-God; the former holding a small round object, and the latter
+crowning him. The surrounding legend is _Soli Invicto Comiti_.
+
+The reverse of another coin bears the same Sun-God legend, and
+represents the Sun-God as holding a small round object.
+
+Upon another coin we see Constantine holding a small round object
+surmounted by a Victory. On the reverse is the symbol {image
+"monogram3.gif"}.
+
+Constans I., another son of Constantine the Great, issued a coin on
+which he is represented as holding in one hand a simply formed labarum
+or military standard consisting of a straight pole terminating at the
+top in a crossbar, from which hangs a banner bearing the symbol {image
+"monogram3.gif"}; while in the other hand he holds a small round object
+surmounted by a _Phoenix_.
+
+Constantius II., yet another son of Constantine the Great, issued a
+coin on which is the symbol {image "monogram3.gif"} between the letters
+{alpha} and {omega} (? APX{omega}); the legend being _Salus Aug
+Nostri_.
+
+On another coin is Constantius II. as the Sun, upon one side; and upon
+the other the symbol {image "monogram3.gif"} between the letters alpha
+and omega once again.
+
+Nepotianus, a nephew of Constantine the Great who took Rome in A.C. 350
+but was killed as an usurper the same year, issued a coin on the
+reverse of which, surrounded by the legend _Urbs Roma_, is a female
+figure representing Rome and holding in her hand a round object
+surmounted by the symbol {image "monogram3.gif"}.
+
+The symbol {image "monogram4.gif"} frequently occurs upon the coins of
+Valeus (A.C. 364-378). And upon one coin of this Emperor we see the
+letter P surmounting a cross; surrounded by the legend _Gloria
+Romanorum_.
+
+Upon a coin of Valentinianus II. we see Victory holding a round object
+surmounted by a cross, the legend being _Victoria Augustorum_.
+
+On the coins of Theodosius I. (A.C. 378-395) we find representations of
+the Emperor holding a round object surmounted by a Phoenix, and of the
+Emperor holding a round object surmounted by a Victory; as also of
+Victory holding a round object surmounted by a cross.
+
+This Emperor Theodosius I., better known as Theodosius the Great, after
+securing sole control of the Roman Empire brought about the final
+disruption of the world-wide dominions of Rome by bequeathing them in
+two portions to his sons Arcadius and Honorius; the elder, Arcadius,
+becoming Emperor of Constantinople and the East, while the younger,
+Honorius, became Emperor of Rome and the West: A.C. 395.
+
+Less than a century later, _viz._, between the years A.C. 475 and 480,
+the Western Empire was finally extinguished by Odoacer; the Eastern
+Empire surviving it nearly a thousand years, lasting as the latter did
+from the partition in A.C. 395 to the capture of Constantinople by
+Mahomet II. in A.C. 1453.
+
+It was, as stated in a previous chapter, upon the coins of an Emperor
+of the East, _viz._, Theodosius II., that the first example occurs of a
+representation of an Emperor holding a round object surmounted by a
+cross; though, as has been noted, instances of Victory carrying an
+object so surmounted had previously occurred. And it need only be added
+that the symbols {image "monogram3.gif"} and {image "monogram4.gif"},
+often the centre of a circle or surrounded by a circular wreath of bay
+or laurel, continually occur upon the coins of the Eastern Empire, the
+symbol {image "asterisk.gif"} frequently, and the undisguised solar
+wheel, {image "solarwheel1.gif"} upon the coins of Eudoxia, Theodosius
+II., Leo I., and others.
+
+The evidence of the coins of the Roman Empire given in this and the two
+preceding chapters, coupled with the too-often forgotten fact that the
+only form of cross which could possibly be a representation of the
+instrument of execution to which Jesus was affixed was the very last
+form of cross to be adopted as a Christian symbol, cannot, it will be
+seen, lead the unprejudiced enquirer to any other conclusion than that
+the cross became the symbol of Christendom because the advent of
+Constantine and his Gauls made it a prominent symbol of the Roman
+Empire. And that the symbol in question was not altogether unconnected
+with Sun-God worship, should be equally clear to the reader.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE MONOGRAM OF CHRIST.
+
+The so-called "Monogram of Christ "--a term which has at one time or
+another been applied to each of the symbols {image "solarwheel1.gif"}
+or {image "asterisk.gif"}, {image "monogram1.gif"} or {image
+"monogram3.gif"}, and {image "monogram2.gif"} or {image
+"monogram4.gif"}, as but variations of one and the same
+symbol--deserves a chapter to itself.
+
+Though not first placed upon the coins of the Roman Empire by
+Constantine any more than was the right-angled cross of four equal arms
+or the so-called St. Andrew's cross, the symbol {image "monogram3.gif"}
+was, like the {image "x.gif"} cross and the many varieties of
+right-angled crosses of four equal arms, first brought into prominence
+as a Roman symbol by the Emperor in question.
+
+From the evidence at our disposal it would appear that Decius was the
+first Roman ruler to make use of this form of the so-called Monogram of
+Christ. Anyhow, as has already been remarked, this symbol {image
+"monogram3.gif"} occurs upon a coin of the Emperor Decius struck at
+Maeonia about A.C. 250; and therefore more than half a century before
+the days of Constantine. And it is noteworthy that it was as a Pagan
+symbol that the {image "monogram3.gif"} thus first appeared upon the
+Roman coinage.
+
+The coin in question is a bronze one, and the "Monogram of Christ"
+occurs in the centre of a Greek inscription surrounding a
+representation of the Sun-God Bacchus; and, apparently, as an
+amalgamation or contraction of the two Greek letters equivalent to our
+R and CH, _viz._: the Greek letters P and X.[50]
+
+Why these particular letters should have been contracted, is, however,
+uncertain; and the question arises as to whether the {image
+"monogram3.gif"} first arose as a contraction of such Greek letters, or
+as an amalgamation of the Roman letters P and X, or as the cross {image
+"x.gif"} _plus_ the Greek P (our R) as the initial letter of the Greek
+name for Rome.
+
+Moreover if it be decided that the symbol first arose as a contraction
+of certain letters, yet further questions arise; _viz._; in what order
+those letters were first read, and what word they first represented.
+
+Before going into such matters as these, however, it is important that
+we should fully realise how certain it is that the so-called Monogram
+of Christ was originally a _Pagan_ symbol. For even if this be not
+considered demonstrated by its occurrence upon a Roman coin long
+before, according to our Church, the Christ caused Constantine to use
+it as the military standard of the Gauls, it is clearly shown by its
+occurrence upon many relics of pre-Christian date.
+
+The so-called "Monogram of Christ" can be seen, for instance, upon a
+monument of Isis, the Virgin Mother of the Sun-God, which dates from
+the second century before our era.[51] Also upon the coins of
+Ptolemaeus; on one of which is a head of Zeus Ammon upon one side, and
+an eagle bearing the {image "monogram3.gif"} in its claws upon the
+other.[52] The symbol in question also appears upon Greek money struck
+long before the birth of Jesus; for instance upon certain varieties of
+the Attic tetradrachma. And the {image "monogram4.gif"} occurs upon
+many different coins of the first Herod, struck thirty years or more
+B.C.
+
+Whether the Pagan {image "monogram3.gif"} and the Pagan {image
+"monogram4.gif"} originally had the same signification or not, is
+uncertain.
+
+Almost equally uncertain is the date at which we Christians first
+adopted these Pagan symbols as Christian symbols because they could be
+interpreted as formed of the two first letters of the Greek word
+XPI{sigma}TO{sigma}, _Christos_, Christ.
+
+The probability is that Christians had at least drawn attention to this
+possible interpretation of the symbols in question before the days of
+Constantine. But this scarcely renders less noteworthy the fact, shown
+further on, that the favourite symbol of the Gaulish warriors, the
+solar wheel {image "solarwheel1.gif"} or {image "solarwheel2.gif"}, was
+sooner or later altered by their leader into {image "monogram1.gif"} or
+{image "monogram2.gif"} to please the Christians; while the symbols
+{image "monogram3.gif"} and {image "monogram4.gif"} were also made use
+of by Constantine.
+
+Which form of solar wheel, monogram, or cross, was that actually
+carried by the Gauls in triumph within the walls of Rome and set up by
+their leader in the heart of the Eternal City, is not quite certain.
+But it is clear that as both the {image "monogram3.gif"} and the {image
+"monogram4.gif"} appeared upon coins struck before our era, Constantine
+cannot very well have been ignorant of the fact that these were
+originally Pagan symbols, when he favoured the addition of a loop to
+the top of the vertical bar of the Gaulish solar symbols {image
+"solarwheel1.gif"} or {image "asterisk.gif"} and {image
+"solarwheel2.gif"} or {image "plus.gif"} in order that what his Gaulish
+army venerated as triumphal tokens might be accepted as symbols of
+victory by his Christian supporters also.
+
+That this Gaulish monarch did so alter, and for the reason named, the
+symbol or symbols venerated by his troops, is admitted by, amongst
+others, that well known writer the Reverend S. Baring Gould, M.A. For,
+referring to the solar wheel as a symbol of the Sun-God venerated by
+the ancient Gauls, this author tells us that Constantine
+
+     "Adopted and adapted the sign for his standards, and the
+     _Labarum_ of Constantine became a common Christian
+     symbol. That there was policy in his conduct we can
+     hardly doubt; the symbol he set up gratified the
+     Christians in his army on one side and the Gauls on the
+     other. For the former it was a sign compounded of the
+     initial letters of Christ, to the latter it was the
+     token of the favour of the solar deity."[53]
+
+As the fact that both the {image "monogram3.gif"} and {image
+"monogram4.gif"} were in use as symbols before the commencement of our
+era thoroughly disposes of our contention as Christians that the
+so-called "Monogram of Christ" had its origin in the formation of a
+monogram out of the two first letters of the Greek word
+XPI{sigma}TO{sigma} (_Christos_, Christ), it is clear that these
+symbols must have had some other origin.
+
+Assuming that the symbols {image "monogram3.gif"} and {image
+"monogram4.gif"} had the same origin, and the same signification, and
+that if the {image "monogram4.gif"} was a combination of two letters
+the Greek or Latin T (instead of X) was not one of them; or rather, as
+these would be very considerable assumptions, more or less confining
+our attention to the {image "monogram3.gif"} as the more likely of the
+two to have arisen as a combination of the Greek letters P and X; let
+us in passing briefly enquire into the origin of the so-called Monogram
+of Christ as a Pagan symbol.
+
+If we seek for that origin as a combination of the first two letters of
+some other Greek word than Christos, _Christ_, and for the moment
+assume the letters P and X to have occurred in the same order as in
+that word, we see at once that the monogram may have been derived
+either from the word Chrestos, _Good_, or the word Chronos, _Time_, or
+the word Chrusos, _Gold_.
+
+There is, by the way, another curious connection between the three
+Greek words in question. For the name of the famous god Kronos or
+Cronos was often spelt XPONO{sigma} _i.e._, Chronos.[54] And this god
+Chronos--the father of Zeus; and more or less a personification of
+Time, the Old Father from whom we are all descended--was identical with
+Saturn, while the Saturnian Age was, as in Virgil's fourth eclogue,
+ever that spoken of as the Golden age when the ancients were referring
+to what they pictured as the good old times.
+
+It will not do, however, to assume that if the symbol we are
+considering first arose as a combination of the Greek letters P and X,
+they were of necessity taken from, and representative of, a word in
+which they occur in the same order as in _Christos_. And the fact that
+in the {image "monogram4.gif"}, if not also in the {image
+"monogram3.gif"}, the P is the leading feature, gives emphasis to the
+point in question.
+
+If we suppose that the so-called monogram arose as a combination of the
+Greek letters in question occurring in the order P X, the student of
+such matters can scarcely fail to note that the letters in question
+occur in that order as the centre both of the word APXH, the _Head_,
+_Chief_, or _First_; and also as the centre of the kindred word
+APX{omega}, _to be first_, the only remaining letters of which, and
+therefore the first and the last of this word as of the old Greek
+alphabet, are, as will be seen, Alpha and Omega, the letters so
+continually placed on either side of the symbol {image "monogram3.gif"}
+in Christian times.
+
+In this connection it should be pointed out that according to some of
+the best authorities the first {image "monogram3.gif"} which occurs
+upon any Roman coin, coming as it does after the letter _alpha_ in a
+Greek inscription, should be taken with that letter as forming the PX
+of APX, the latter being an abbreviation of some form or other of the
+title _Archon_. This title was that given to the dignitary who was at
+one and the same time the chief magistrate of the state and its chief
+priest, and it may be worth remark that as Bacchus was the deity
+worshipped in Lydia, the Archon in question would therefore have been
+the chief priest of the Sun-God.
+
+Several writers have, in their zeal for our religion, outrun their
+discretion, and gone so far as to assume that the existence of the
+so-called monogram of Christ upon this coin of the Emperor Decius is
+due to some Christian having been employed in turning out the coin in
+question, and having in _his_ zeal surreptitiously introduced a symbol
+of his faith. But though gravely supported by more than one great
+authority, this is obviously an absurd position to take up. And in any
+case the facts remain that it was in this instance placed over a
+representation of the Sun-God, and had for centuries been in use as a
+Pagan symbol.
+
+Passing on, however, we have next to note that, as before hinted, even
+if the symbol {image "monogram3.gif"} arose as a combination of two
+letters, though we know that symbol to have been often used as a
+contraction of the Greek letters P and X (our R and CH), there is no
+proof that it arose as a combination of two Greek letters; and the
+symbol may have arisen as a combination of the Roman letters P and X.
+
+It should therefore be pointed out that in the inscriptions which have
+come down to us from the Gaulish Christians of the sixth, seventh, and
+eighth centuries after Christ, the symbols {image "monogram3.gif"} and
+{image "monogram4.gif"} are continually used as contractions of the
+Latin word PAX, _Peace_. For though the fact that the Monogram was
+often so interpreted by Christians centuries A.C. can by no means be
+considered evidence that it was thus that it first arose as a Pagan
+symbol centuries B.C., such a possibility should be kept before us.
+
+But did the so-called Monogram of Christ first come into being as a
+combination of two letters; Greek, Roman, or otherwise?
+
+Even this is not certain, for this pre-Christian symbol may originally
+have been a cross, as a symbol of Life and of the Sun-God, _plus_ the
+Greek letter P as the initial character of the word "Rome" in what may
+be called the court language of the time.
+
+Such an explanation would more or less account for the variations
+{image "monogram3.gif"} and {image "monogram4.gif"}; these being
+obviously the natural ways of adding the letter P, signifying Rome, to
+the crosses {image "x.gif"} and {image "plus.gif"} respectively.
+
+All the foregoing references to the origin of the so-called monogram as
+a Pagan symbol of pre-Christian date, are but speculations however. Its
+origin cannot be ascertained for certain.
+
+The revival of this pre-Christian symbol, and the prominence given to
+it upon the coins of the Roman Empire, _are_, however, traceable. And,
+as has been shown, they are traceable to Constantine; who induced the
+Christians to accept as the Monogram of the Christ, and therefore as a
+Christian as well as a Gaulish symbol of victory, the Solar Wheel
+venerated by the Gaulish conquerors of Rome.
+
+Nowadays the so-called Monogram of Christ is almost always reproduced
+for us as {image "monogram3.gif"} or {image "monogram4.gif"}; but the
+fact that Constantine sometimes so used it should not blind us to the
+facts that it was at first usually the centre of a circle, like the
+spokes of a wheel; and that the undisguised solar wheel {image
+"solarwheel1.gif"} appears upon not a few of the coins issued by the
+Christian successors of Constantine, while since his reign the solar
+wheel {image "solarwheel2.gif"} and many an artistic variation of the
+same have been Christian symbols, and when in our ornamentation of
+ecclesiastical properties we omit the circle we as often as not make
+the cross itself wheel-like by rounding the extremities and widening
+them till they nearly meet.
+
+Moreover it should not be forgotten that it was evidently one form or
+other of the solar wheel of the Gauls, _plus_ the politic loop to one
+of its spokes, which Constantine and his Gaulish warriors are said to
+have seen above the meridian sun, with the divinely written legend EN
+TOYT{omega} NIKA, _By this conquer_, attached. For though that
+miraculous symbol is referred to as a "cross," the Monogram itself was
+so referred to; and Eusebius, after telling us that the Christ appeared
+to Constantine and commanded him to make a military standard for the
+Sun-God worshipping Gauls, "With the same sign which he had seen in the
+heavens," expressly describes this as composed of "Two letters
+indicating the name of the Christ, the letter P being intersected with
+X at the centre." And on this particular Labarum of Constantine, as on
+the majority of the Labara represented upon his coins, the {image
+"monogram3.gif"} was the centre of a circle or circular wreath, like
+the spokes of a wheel.[55]
+
+In any case the fact that the symbol {image "monogram3.gif"} was a
+Pagan one centuries before the Christ is said to have made it a
+Christian one for the Sun-God worshipping Gauls to follow on to
+victory, coupled with the facts that they are said to have seen it
+above the mid-day sun, and that it was admittedly a politic adaptation
+of the Solar Wheel, show us how much Eusebius and other Christian
+chroniclers both invented and suppressed, and also how largely the
+influence of Sun-God worship permeated and moulded our religion.
+
+In this connection it may be noted, as a curious fact rather than as
+evidence, that according to some authorities the so-called Monograms of
+Christ were in earlier ages Monograms of the Sun-God Osiris.[56] Also
+that both Socrates and Sozomen tell us that when the temple of the
+Sun-God Serapis at Alexandria was pulled down, the symbol of the Christ
+was discovered upon its foundations and the Christians made many
+converts in consequence a somewhat significant statement.
+
+Moreover we are told that upon every _Dies Solis_, or in other words
+upon that day of the week which throughout the Roman Empire was held
+sacred to the Sun-God and throughout Christendom is called Sun-day,
+Constantine made his troops, assembled under what was admittedly a
+solar symbol, recite at a given time, which was probably dawn or
+mid-day, a prayer commencing "We acknowledge thee to be God alone, and
+own that our victories are due to thy favour."[57] Who could this God
+have been but the Sun-God, seeing that it was to the Sun-God that
+Constantine upon his coins ever attributed his victories? And what is
+more likely than that, wishing to take a friendly view of the deity
+worshipped by their supporters the Christians, it was as conceiving the
+Christ to be but the latest addition to the many conceptions of the
+Sun-God, that Constantine altered the solar symbols of his troops into
+the so-called Monograms of Christ, and that his troops accepted the
+alterations?
+
+And, passing from the symbol to the deity represented, let us remember
+that it is recorded that various Christian paintings of ancient times
+bore upon them the dedicatory words _DEO SOLI_. For this remarkable
+legend means both "To God alone" and "To the Sun-God," both "To the
+Sole God" and "To the God Sol;" and forcibly reminds us, not only of
+the prayer which Constantine caused his troops to repeat, but also of
+that fine address to the "universally adored" Sun-God commencing
+
+     "Latium calls thee Sol because in honour thou
+              art Solitary,
+     After the Father."[58]
+
+Now, as will be shown further on, a cross of some description or other
+was in every land accepted as the symbol of the universally adored
+Sun-God. And while not a single one of the many books forming the New
+Testament states that Jesus was executed upon a cross-shaped
+instrument, and the _first_ crosses Christians used as signs or symbols
+bore every form but that which a cross-shaped instrument of execution
+would have borne, the Christians of the fourth century, as we have
+seen, went out of their way to claim even the so-called Monogram of
+Christ as a cross; Eusebius so carefully speaking of it as such even
+where he relates that Constantine and his soldiers saw it above the
+meridian sun, that one might not unreasonably imagine him to be
+claiming it as Christian because it was more or less cruciform and
+therefore more or less like the world-wide symbol of the Sun-God.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE CROSS OF THE LOGOS.
+
+Having made clear the part played by Constantine in the prominence
+given in his lifetime to the cross as a symbol of the Roman Empire and
+therefore of what he made its State Religion, and having also shown
+that while the Christian chroniclers of those days are silent
+concerning the various forms of crosses placed by Constantine upon his
+coins they went out of their way to allude to the so-called Monogram of
+Christ as a cross, to claim it as such, and even to associate it with
+the sun, let us now turn our attention again to the pre-Christian
+cross.
+
+So great was the veneration in which that phallic and solar symbol the
+cross was held in the ages which preceded the birth and death of Jesus,
+that the philosophers of those days even went so far as to declare that
+the cross was the figure of the Life or Soul of the Universe.
+
+Though it is a matter of very considerable importance, we Christians
+for some reason or other ignore the fact that long before our era
+commenced philosophers thus conceived the figure of the cross to be the
+symbol of the _Logos_ of God.
+
+Now although, following the Gospel of St. John, we have made it a main
+article of our belief that the Logos, really the Thought _plus_ Speech,
+of God, became about the year B.C. 4 specially incarnate in the person
+of Jesus the Nazarene, we ought not to forget that, being the one Power
+by which all that ever came into existence was created and all that
+exists is sustained, the Logos in any case ever was, is, and will be,
+incarnate in every sentient being.
+
+As the Logos of God (or, as the Authorised Version of the Bible into
+English most inadequately renders it in the first chapter of St. John's
+Gospel, the _Word_ of God) was by the philosophers called the
+"Intellectual Sun" and the "Light of the World",[59] being, as a
+personification of the _Thought_ and _Speech_ of the All-Father, a
+personification of Wisdom and Reason (which, in an even more real sense
+than the emanations of the physical sun, form the "Light of the World,"
+or, as the original text of the New Testament puts it, the "Light of
+the _Cosmos_"), the fact that pre-Christian philosophers affirmed that
+the cross was the symbol of the said "Light of the Cosmos," is
+obviously one which every writer concerning the cross as a Christian
+symbol ought in common honesty to deal with.
+
+That pre-Christian philosophers did so affirm, can be seen by turning
+to the _Timaeus_ of Plato, where, referring to the begetting of the
+Universal Soul (whom Philo, another pre-Christian philosopher, speaks
+of as the "Second God"; and as God's "Beloved Son," "Image,"
+"Ambassador," "Mediator," and "First-Begotten"), Plato says
+
+     "Such was the whole plan of the Eternal God about the
+     God that was to be:--and in the centre he put the soul
+     which he diffused throughout the body:--and he made the
+     Universe a circle moving in a circle. Having these
+     purposes in view he created the world a blessed God:--he
+     made the soul on this wise--joined--at the centre like
+     the letter X."[60]
+
+Concerning this pronouncement of the great Teacher he so revered,
+Proclus wrote as follows
+
+     "Two circles will be formed, of which one is interior
+     but the other is exterior. One of these is called the
+     circle of the Same and one the circle of the Different,
+     or of the Fixed and of the Variable, or rather of the
+     Equinoctial Circle and of the Zodiac. The circle of the
+     Different revolves about the Zodiac, but the circle of
+     the Same about the Equinoctial. Hence we conceive that
+     the right lines are not to be applied to each other at
+     right angles but like the letter X, as Plato says, so as
+     to cause the angles to be equal only at the summit but
+     those on each side and the successive angles to be
+     unequal. For the Equinoctial Circle does not cut the
+     Zodiac at right angles. Such therefore in short is the
+     mathematical discussion of the figure of the (Universal)
+     Soul."[61]
+
+Even the Fathers of the Christian Church admitted that their ideas of
+the Son of God and of the cross being his symbol, were more or less
+derived from pre-Christian philosophers. For we find Justin Martyr
+remarking that Plato declared that
+
+     "The Power next to the Supreme God was figured in
+     the shape of the letter X upon the universe."[62]
+
+And in another place this famous Father states that
+
+     "Whereas Plato, philosophising about the Son of God,
+     says God expressed him upon the universe in the shape
+     of the letter X, he evidently took the hint from Moses,
+     who took brass and made the sign of the cross and
+     placed it by the holy tabernacle, and declared that if
+     people would look upon that cross and believe they would
+     be saved."[63]
+
+The value of all this evidence is so obvious that its mere parade is
+almost sufficient.
+
+It should however be pointed out that this cross {image "x.gif"}, being
+avowedly adopted by the pre-Christian philosophers as the symbol of the
+"Logos" or "First-begotten" of God in preference to the {image
+"plus.gif"} because the zodiac or pathway of the Sun does not "cross"
+the equator at right angles, was clearly a solar symbol. And it may be
+added that though Justin Martyr is careful to claim this particular
+solar cross as a symbol of the Christ, no one claims that Jesus was
+executed upon an instrument so shaped; while the story that St. Andrew
+was affixed to an instrument of execution so shaped, is admittedly a
+worthless legend.
+
+This claim of Justin Martyr that the solar cross of the philosophers
+was a pre-Christian symbol of the Christ, is, when considered in
+connection with the fact that nearly all the Fathers allude to the
+figure of the cross, _any_ kind of cross, as a life-giving symbol from
+time immemorial, significant of much.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE PRE-CHRISTIAN CROSS IN EUROPE.
+
+That the symbol of the cross was widely venerated in Europe long before
+our era, is well known to archaeologists. Of Britain in those days we
+know next to nothing, history being almost silent upon the subject and
+relics conspicuous by their absence. The cross is however a conspicuous
+feature upon certain funeral urns which are said to date back to the
+period in question. And it is noteworthy that both it and the solar
+wheel occur upon several of the earliest British coins; which whether
+issued as some say before, or as others aver after, the advent of
+Julius Caesar, were admittedly of pre-Christian date. Evidences of the
+veneration of the cross in France before our era are so numerous and
+easily ascertainable, that it will only be necessary to refer the
+reader to the _Collection Roujou_, the pages of the _Revue de
+Numismatique_, and the writings of Messieurs De la Saussaye, Lenormant,
+De Saulcy, E. Lambert, and other French authorities.
+
+If, continuing our journey eastwards, we pass over the border into the
+northern provinces of Italy, we find equally striking evidence of the
+pre-Christian veneration of the symbol in question.
+
+Let us take for example the evidence furnished by the remarkable
+discoveries made in the pre-Christian cemetery unearthed at Gola-Secca.
+For upon a very large proportion of the articles discovered in the
+ancient tombs of the cemetery in question, a cross of some kind is the
+prominent feature.
+
+Particulars of these articles can be found recorded in the literary and
+scientific journals of France. And the conclusion arrived at by the
+authorities upon such matters cannot be better put than in the revised
+edition in book form of an article in the _Revue Archeologque_ by
+Monsieur G. de Mortillet.
+
+After referring to the relics of so much of ancient Gaul as is
+comprised in modern France, a subject he takes leave of in the words--
+
+     "But the pre-Christian cult of the cross was not
+     confined to Savoy and the environs of Lyons. A glance at
+     the coins of ancient Gaul is sufficient to show that it
+     existed in nearly every part"--
+
+M. de Mortillet, crossing the frontier and dealing
+with the said tombs of Gola-Secca near Milan
+in Italy, sums up as follows
+
+     "One sees that there can be no doubt whatever concerning
+     the use of the cross as a religious sign for a very long
+     time before Christianity. The cult of the cross was well
+     spread over Gaul before its conquest and already existed
+     in Emilia in the Bronze Age, more than a thousand years
+     before Jesus Christ."
+
+Let us pass on to yet another country, Switzerland. Here also we find
+unexceptional evidence of the general recognition of the cross before
+our era as a symbol which should above all others be venerated.
+
+The Lake Dwellings of Switzerland may be said to have been brought to
+light by the extraordinary drought experienced in the years A.C.
+1853-4; for though piles and ancient remains were found upon the shores
+of various lakes before that date, no great heed was paid to them till
+the drought in question lowered the waters of the lake of Zurich and of
+other lakes to an unprecedented extent, and certain discoveries due
+thereto led to the matter being thoroughly investigated by
+antiquarians.
+
+The result was that many relics of the Lake Dwellers were found. And,
+placed upon those relics by this forgotten race of hoary antiquity as
+the sign they venerated, was the symbol of the cross.
+
+These relics, preserved for us by the sediment carried into the lakes
+by various rivers, cannot be less than 3,000 years old, are not
+improbably 4,000 years old, and may quite possibly be 5,000 years old;
+some authorities--Monsieur Morlot for instance--estimating their age at
+from 6,000 to 7,000 years. Suffice it to record the fact that these
+relics are admittedly pre-Christian.
+
+Upon the articles in question, as on those discovered in the
+pre-Christian tombs of Gola-Secca, the cross is stamped as a symbol of
+life, of good omen, and of salvation. Even dies for stamping articles
+with the cross have been discovered among the remains of the Lake
+Dwellers. And the crosses are of three kinds; (1) the right-angled
+cross of four equal arms, of which so many variations, some enclosed in
+circles and some with the extremities widened and rounded, are used as
+Christian symbols; (2) the other cross of four equal arms, known as the
+St. Andrew's cross or _Chi_ cross; and (3) the Fylfot or Svastika
+cross.
+
+The last named cross is a peculiar one of quite unmistakeable design;
+and there are two varieties, {image "svastika1.gif"}, and {image
+"svastika2.gif"}, of which one is obviously an impression or reverse
+view of the other.
+
+The names _Fylfot_ and _Svastika_ are very generally applied to both
+these symbols. The term _Svastika_, an Indian one, is however applied
+by the inhabitants of Hindostan to one only; they calling the other
+_Sauvastika_. And it is curious to note that the meanings attached to
+these names, though, like the symbols allied in nature, are, also like
+them, the reverse or negative or complement of each other.
+
+For instance we are told by Sir G. Birdwood that the right handed
+Svastika signifies the Male Principle, the Sun on its daily journey
+from East to West, Light and Life; and that the left-handed Svastika
+signifies the Female Principle, the Sun in Hades or the Underworld on
+its journey from West to East, Darkness and Death.[64]
+
+This more or less official pronouncement may be taken as a fairly
+accurate one, although it is obvious that the annual as well as the
+diurnal movement of the Sun should have been referred to; the half year
+between the Vernal Equinox and Autumnal Equinox representing Light and
+Life, and that between the Autumnal Equinox and Vernal Equinox Darkness
+and Death, just as clearly as do the half days between sunrise and
+sunset, sunset and sunrise. But it is to be feared that even those who
+remember how often Death and Darkness are referred to as periods of
+Gestation, will have some difficulty in seeing how a sign or symbol of
+the Female Power of Generation can have signified Death.
+
+The fact of course is that the symbol in question represented both Life
+and Death, and represented the latter only in a minor sense and owing
+to the fact that the Female Principle of Life was regarded as the
+necessary reverse, negative, or complement of the Male Principle; which
+latter, having of the two the better claim to be considered the starter
+of life, was the one more particularly identified with Life and
+therefore with the vernal Sun-God.
+
+It would also appear that the two symbols in question to some extent
+signified Fire and Water; Fire being of course the Male Principle, Day,
+Summer, Light, and Life; and Water the Female Principle. This still
+further illustrates the point dealt with above; for though Water is the
+negative of Fire, yet Fire cannot produce Life without the aid of
+Water.
+
+Returning however to our consideration of the cross as a symbol of Life
+of pre-Christian date and origin, and having already dealt with the
+lands now known as Britain, France, Italy, and Switzerland, let us now
+consider the evidence of Greece.
+
+At Mycenae and elsewhere Dr. Schliemann discovered, among other relics
+of a bygone age, not only articles marked with the Svastika cross and
+the cross of four equal arms, but even seals and dies giving
+impressions of such crosses; thus demonstrating how large and prominent
+a part the symbol of the cross played in pre-Christian times among
+those in whose classic tongue the earliest known copies of the
+Christian Scriptures were written centuries later.
+
+It is also remarkable that Dr. Schliemann found golden crosses in the
+previously unopened tombs he discovered and explored at Mycenae; as
+many as five such crosses having in some instances been placed with a
+single body by those who sealed up the vaults in question thousands of
+years ago and many centuries before the commencement of our era.
+
+As few if any unrifled tombs of so ancient a date have been discovered
+in Greece and first explored by a trustworthy investigator, and as,
+moreover, it would only have been with the bodies of important
+personages that crosses of so valuable a material as gold would have
+been buried, these discoveries, coupled with the self-evident fact that
+crosses of more perishable material may have been buried with the
+bodies of less distinguished people, and by this time, like both the
+bodies and the tombs which enclosed them, have gone to dust, are most
+remarkable. And they entirely corroborate the testimony borne by the
+coins of ancient Gaul, the contents of the tombs of Gola-Secca, and the
+remains of the Lake Dwellers of Switzerland, to the veneration paid
+long before our era by the inhabitants of Europe to the cross as the
+recognised symbol of Life. Nor as the symbol only of the life which
+ends in the grave, but also of the glorious hope that as the Sun, from
+whom we derive that life, whether considered from a daily or yearly
+point of view sinks but to rise again, even so we who owe our brief
+lives to the Sun-God, may, like the Giver of Life and only Saviour,
+rise from one life to another.
+
+For whether the ancients were or were not unphilosophic enough to
+believe in the resurrection of bodies whose constituent atoms are
+continually changing and in time form part of other bodies, it is
+absurd to assume that they did not at times like ourselves conceive and
+dwell upon a hoped-for, if unexpected and improbable, Life-to-come.
+
+Moreover it is with us, as it was with them, a _hope_; and it is
+disingenuous to label as Christian what was pre-Christian, and to claim
+as ours what has been common to the reasoning minds of suffering men
+and women of all eras.
+
+It is equally disingenuous on the part of us Christians to keep in the
+background the noteworthy fact that even in pre-Christian ages the
+symbol of that hope was--the cross.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE PRE-CHRISTIAN CROSS IN ASIA.
+
+If, leaving Europe, we pass on into Asia, we find that not only have
+the two varieties of Svastika crosses for thousands of years played a
+prominent part as a religious symbol in Hindostan, Thibet, and China,
+but that other kinds of crosses also were in bygone ages venerated by
+their inhabitants.
+
+For instance our Eastern Empire is strewn with the remains of ancient
+temples built, like those of Christendom in later days, in the shape of
+a cross; and we are told that the oldest of its rock-hewn caves were
+planned after the same figure. It is also well-known that isolated
+stone crosses of pre-historic date are to be seen in various parts of
+India.
+
+The evidence of Hindostan is however outweighed by that obtainable from
+the antiquities of Western Asia, concerning some of which Sir A. H.
+Layard wrote:
+
+     "The crux ansata, the tau or sign of life, is found in
+     the sculptures of Khorsabad, on the ivories of
+     Nimroud--which as I have shown are of the same
+     age--carried too by an Assyrian King."[65]
+
+We have also to note the equally significant facts that the recognised
+symbol of the Phoenician Goddess of Love--Astarte, Ashtoreth, or
+Ishtar, the Bride of the Sun-God--was a cross; that a cross was also
+associated with the Phoenician Baal or Sun-God; and that the circle and
+cross, now the symbol of the planet held sacred to the Goddess of Love,
+frequently occurs upon the ancient coins of Western Asia and was not
+improbably more or less akin in signification to the crux ansata of
+Egypt. The fact that upon very ancient remains still existing the Baal
+is represented as crowned with a wheel-like nimbus of rays should also
+be mentioned.
+
+The cross more especially connected with the Phoenician "Bride of the
+Sun-God" in ancient days, was, as can easily be seen upon reference to
+ancient coins, where it occurs in the hand of the goddess in question,
+a long handled cross such as is frequently to be seen in our pictorial
+representations of John the Baptist.
+
+As John the Baptist was an Asiatic and to some extent a pre-Christian
+Asiatic, we can here, without wandering very far from the matter in
+hand, pause to consider the question why we Christians represent John
+the Baptist, who had nothing to do with a cross, as holding a cross; if
+it be not that while Jesus was supposed to represent the Sun in its
+annual ascension, John was supposed to represent the Sun in its annual
+declension? What other rational explanation have we of the facts, (1)
+that John is represented as saying that he baptised with water but that
+Jesus would baptise with _fire_ (where the rains of winter and the heat
+of summer may be referred to); and (2) that the Christian Church in
+framing its calendar fixed upon what we call Midsummer day as the
+birthday of John the Baptist, and upon the clay which bears the same
+relation to the other solstice as the birthday of Christ, as if wishing
+to illustrate that other remarkable pronouncement of John, thus placed
+at the point where the days begin to shorten, concerning Jesus, thus
+placed where the days begin to lengthen, "He must increase but I must
+decrease"?
+
+The probability that to its original signification of Life, that of
+Salvation was added to the cross as a recognition of the fact that the
+salvation of Earth-Life in general and of Mankind in particular is due
+to the fact that at the Vernal Equinox the Sun-God "crosses" to save,
+summer and the fruits of the earth and therefore salvation and increase
+being due to the fact that the Sun then crosses the Equator, is
+supported by evidence from all quarters. And if we refuse to admit that
+Christianity is permeated with the ideas of Sun-God worship, we not
+only have no rational explanation to offer of the prophecies put by the
+Evangelists in the mouth of John the Baptist to the effect that Jesus
+would baptise with _fire_ and would _increase_, but also none to offer
+of many another prominent feature of our religion; such as, for
+instance, the fact that while pretending to reverence all the Ten
+Commandments we deliberately make a point of breaking one of them in
+order to keep as a day of rest not the seventh day but the first, the
+day which from time immemorial was held sacred throughout the Roman
+Empire as _Dies Solis_, the Day of the Sun. For to aver as we do that
+Jesus was not made the subject of a Sun-God allegory, but purposely
+rose from the underworld on the Day of the Sun, at the time of the
+Vernal Equinox, in order to annul a commandment previously laid down by
+God and substitute a new one in silence, is only to make ourselves
+ridiculous.
+
+Returning however to the matter more particularly in hand, it should be
+pointed out that the crux ansata mentioned by Layard is not the only
+kind of cross to be found upon the relics of ancient Babylonia and
+Assyria. For the cross of four equal arms and the solar wheel are also
+to be met with.
+
+Moreover, as all visitors to our museums should be aware, the monarchs
+are represented as wearing in the place of honour round their neck and
+on their breast, a Maltese cross. And this cross, worn by the kings
+centuries before our era as the symbol which should above all others be
+venerated, or as best signifying their power over the lives of their
+subjects and their position as vice-gerents of the Sun-God, is admitted
+by all the best authorities to have been the sign and symbol of the
+Sun-God.[66]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE PRE-CHRISTIAN CROSS IN AFRICA.
+
+Passing on to Africa and a consideration of the _crux ansata_ or
+so-called 'Key of the Nile,' we find that this variety of cross had
+much the same significance attached to it by the ancients as had the
+more widely accepted varieties.
+
+As a matter of fact no one acquainted with Egyptian antiquities who
+enquires into the matter in thorough going fashion, can in the end fail
+to be convinced that the Egyptian cross was a phallic symbol having
+reference to the sexual powers of generation and to the Sun, and being
+therefore a symbol both of Life and of the Giver of Life.
+
+The connection between the crux ansata and the Sun-God in the minds of
+the inhabitants of the Land of the Nile in pre-Christian days, is very
+clearly set forth by an illustration of Khuenaten in the act of
+distributing gifts to his courtiers which faces page 40, volume I., of
+Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson's "_Manners and Customs of the Ancient
+Egyptians_." For this monarch--also known as Amenophis IV.--and his
+wife are both represented as receiving the crux ansata from the
+Sun-God, and the Sun is marked with the crux ansata as its peculiar
+symbol.
+
+Upon Plate IV. facing page 43 of the same famous work, we see Seti I.
+surmounted by the Sun; two crosses adorning the latter. The crosses
+are, moreover, attached to two serpents issuing from the sun; and these
+were in ancient days phallic signs representing the sexual powers.
+
+On page 405 is a representation of the Egyptian god Khem, or Amen-Ra
+Generator; the Egyptian Priapus, or god of Generation. The names of
+this phallic deity show his connection with the Sun.
+
+It is noteworthy that this particular conception of the Sun-God is
+accompanied by emblems of the sexual organs of reproduction, and that
+he bears a St. Andrew's cross upon his breast.
+
+Upon page 24 of volume III. of the same work is another representation
+of Khem, or Amen-Ra Generator. In this case also he is accompanied by
+phallic and solar emblems and wears a St. Andrew's cross upon his
+breast.
+
+On page 26 Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson tells us that
+
+     "Khem was considered the generating influence of the
+     sun, whence perhaps the reason of his being connected
+     with Amen-Ra: and in one of the hieroglyphic legends
+     accompanying his name he is styled the sun; that is the
+     pro-creating power of the only source of warmth, which
+     assists in the continuation of the various created
+     species."
+
+Upon Plate XXII., facing page 44 of volume III., are three different
+instances of the crux ansata being attached to the sun as the symbol of
+the Sun-God.
+
+Upon page 46 is another instance of the crux ansata being attached to
+the solar serpent issuing from the sun's disc.
+
+On Plate XXIII., facing page 52, is another illustration of the
+reception of the crux ansata from the Sun-God.
+
+Upon page 82 Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson rightly observes that it is
+absurd to speak of the crux ansata or Egyptian cross as the _Key of the
+Nile_, inasmuch as this cross "is less frequently seen in the hand of
+the God Nilus than any deity of the Egyptian pantheon."
+
+Upon the remarkable Plate XXXI., facing page 136, we see inscriptions
+describing the reigning Pharaoh as the "Vice-gerent of the Giver of
+Eternal Life"; or, in other words, of the Sun-God. Other expressions
+applied to the Pharaoh are "Giver of Life and Strength like the Sun";
+"Who gives all Life, Stability, and Health like the Sun"; and "Approved
+of the Sun and Giver of Life like the Sun."
+
+It is thus clear that ages before our era the cross was venerated in
+Egypt as in other lands as the symbol both of Life and of the Giver of
+Life; and that the deity worshipped as the Giver of Life, and ever
+associated with that salutary symbol the cross, was the Sun-God.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+EVIDENCE OF TROY.
+
+Dr. Schliemann has told us that in his researches upon the site of Troy
+he found that in pre-Christian if not indeed pre-historic times the
+cross was, in that classic locality as elsewhere, a phallic emblem and
+the symbol of life; as well as a solar emblem and the symbol of the
+holy fire with which life was more or less identified. For instance on
+page 337 of his _Ilios_ (1880 edition) Dr. Schliemann describes a
+leaden idol discovered by him and of great antiquity. He tells us that
+it was female in character and had the vulva marked with the triangle,
+a symbol of the Feminine Principle. And he points out that within the
+triangle was the Svastika cross.
+
+On page 521 Dr. Schliemann describes an ancient terra cotta vase, with
+the characteristics of a woman upon it, and on the vulva a St. Andrew's
+cross.
+
+Upon page 523 is a reference to another vase of similar design. Here
+also a cross appears to mark the vulva.
+
+On page 353 Dr. Schliemann admits that the Svastika cross drawn within
+the triangle marking the vulva, shows that this cross was a sign of
+generation in ancient and pre-historic times. This remark should
+evidently have been applied by him to the St. Andrew's cross as well,
+for he shows that also to have been used as a sign of the organ of
+generation, as has been shown above.
+
+We are here reminded of the fact, already noted, that the Egyptians
+represented their God of Generation, Khem, or Amen-Ra Generator, as
+wearing a conspicuous St. Andrew's cross. And as Khem was the Egyptian
+Priapus it ought also to be pointed out that it was in ancient times
+the practice to erect wooden crosses to this conception of the Sun-God.
+
+An illustration of one example of the crosses erected to Priapus can be
+seen in figure XI. of plate XXIX. of that well-known work, _Antique
+Gems and Rings_.[67] And the phallic nature of such crosses cannot be
+denied.
+
+Returning, however, to the discoveries of Dr. Schliemann upon the site
+of Troy, we find on page 350 of _Ilios_ that both varieties of the
+Svastika cross are extraordinarily common upon the articles he
+discovered.
+
+As an Indian symbol the Svastika cross can only be traced back as far
+as the fourth or fifth century B.C.; and its occurrence upon these and
+other relics of earlier ages and other lands, shows us that it is
+inaccurate and misleading to speak of it as "Indian."
+
+The origin of the Svastika cross, whether the {image "svastika1.gif"},
+or the {image "svastika2.gif"}, is unknown; but Dr. Schliemann quotes
+with approval Professor Max Muller's remarks to the effect that Mr.
+Thomas our distinguished Oriental numismatist
+
+     "Has clearly proved that on some of the Andra coins and
+     likewise on some punched coins depicted on Sir W.
+     Elliot's plate ix. _Madras Jour. Lit. and Science_, vol.
+     III., the place of the more definite figure of the sun
+     is often taken by the Svastika, and that the Svastika
+     has been inserted within the rings or normal circles
+     representing the four suns of the Ujjain pattern on
+     coins. He has also called attention to the fact that in
+     the long list of the recognised devices of the
+     twenty-four Jaina Tirthankaras the sun is absent; but
+     that while the eighth Tirthankara has the sign of the
+     half-moon the seventh Tirthankara is marked with the
+     _Svastika, i.e._, the sun. Here then, I think, we have
+     very clear indications that the Svastika, with the hands
+     pointing in the right direction, was originally a symbol
+     of the Sun, perhaps of the vernal sun as opposed to the
+     autumnal sun, the _Sauvastika_, and therefore a natural
+     symbol of light, life, health, and wealth. That in
+     ancient mythology the sun was frequently represented as
+     a wheel is well known. Grimm identifies the Old Norse
+     _hjol_ or hvel, the A.-S. _hvehol_, English 'wheel,'
+     with {kappa|upsilon with
+     tonos|kappa|lambda|omicron|rho}, Sk. Kakra, wheel; and
+     derives jol, 'yule-tide,' the time of the winter
+     solstice, from hjol, 'the (solar) wheel.'"
+
+Both the {image "svastika1.gif"} and the {image "svastika2.gif"} occur
+upon the famous footprints of Buddha carved upon the Amaravati Tope,
+and Dr. Schliemann remarks that we find the Svastika or Sauvastika
+cross
+
+     "In Ezekiel ix. 4, 6, where--in the form of the old
+     Hebrew letter Tau--it is written as the sign of life on
+     the forehead, like the corresponding Indian symbol. We
+     find it twice on a large piece of ornamental leather
+     contained in the celebrated Corneto treasure preserved
+     in the Royal Museum at Berlin; also on ancient pottery
+     found at Konigsberg in the Neumark and preserved in the
+     Markisches Museum in Berlin; and on a Bowl from Yucatan
+     in the Berlin Ethnological Museum. We also see it on
+     coins of Gaza, as well as on an Imperial coin of Asido;
+     also on the drums of the Lapland priests."
+
+It is noteworthy that in the neighbourhood of Troy, as in Cyprus and
+other places, a cross of four equal arms, like our sign of addition, in
+days of old shared with the Svastika crosses the veneration of the
+people and was evidently more or less akin to those crosses in
+signification. Dr. Schliemann tells us that this cross of four equal
+arms "occurs innumerable times on the whorls of the three upper
+pre-historic cities of Hissarlik," and that if, as Burnouf and others
+suggest, the {image "svastika2.gif"} and {image "svastika1.gif"}
+represented primitive fire machines, this other cross "might also claim
+the honour of representing the two pieces of wood for producing the
+holy fire by friction."
+
+Elsewhere in the same work Dr. Schliemann quotes with approval the
+opinion of Professor Sayce that the Svastika cross, {image
+"svastika2.gif"} or {image "svastika1.gif"}, "was a symbol of
+generation."
+
+As phallic worship and Sun-God worship were admittedly always closely
+connected, it is not surprising to find that Dr. Schliemann also very
+highly commends a dissertation on the {image "svastika2.gif"} and
+{image "svastika1.gif"} by Mr. Edward Thomas, whose conclusion is that
+
+     "As far as I have been able to trace or connect the
+     various manifestations of this emblem, they one and all
+     resolve themselves into the primitive conception of
+     solar motion, which was intuitively associated with the
+     rolling or wheel-like projection of the sun through the
+     upper or visible arc of the heavens."
+
+It may therefore be considered proven that the inhabitants of classic
+Troy like those of the Land of the Nile and other countries, recognised
+a close affinity between the productive forces and the sun, and were
+one in accepting a cross of some description as the natural symbol
+whether of Life or of the Giver of Life.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+EVIDENCE OF CYPRUS.
+
+Although now, owing to the march of events, the island of Cyprus is out
+of the way and seldom visited, it was once otherwise. For in days of
+old it occupied a favoured position between the countries then foremost
+in the arts of civilisation.
+
+In those days Cyprus was a centre of Phoenician enterprise. And, as we
+are told in that fine work _'Kypros, the Bible, and Homer: Oriental
+Civilisation, Art and Religion in ancient times,'_ "The oldest extant
+Phoenician inscriptions, _themselves the earliest examples of letters
+properly so called_, come from Cyprus."
+
+As, moreover, when face to face with the relics of the Phoenicians we
+are, as Dr. Max Ohnefalsch-Richter also remarks, "In the very midst of
+ancient Canaanitish civilisation as depicted in the Old Testament," it
+will be seen that a study of the antiquities of Cyprus should have a
+special interest for us Christians.
+
+Let us therefore see what the ancient remains found in the island in
+question, and others referred to in the work mentioned as illustrative
+of the same, can tell us regarding phallic worship in general and the
+pre-Christian cross in particular.
+
+One of the first points to be noted in the illustrations supplied by
+Dr. Max Ohnefalsch-Richter is in a cut of an ancient Cyprian coin on
+Plate X.; upon which coin we see over a temple gateway the phallic
+symbol since adopted by the Moslems, and commonly spoken of as the
+'_star_ and crescent' although, as already shown, it originality
+represented the radiate Sun or Male Principle in conjunction with the
+Crescent moon or Female Principle.
+
+Upon Plate XIX. we see several examples of the Svastika cross occurring
+upon an ancient Cyprian vase.
+
+On Plate XXV. we are shown a gold leaf taken from an ancient grave,
+upon which the Svastika cross occurs.
+
+Figure 10 upon the same plate shows us a gold leaf discovered at
+Amathus upon which we see the Sun and Moon in conjunction, the Sun in
+this instance being represented as a disc in the horns of the crescent.
+
+Upon Plate XXVI. we have representations of stone pillars at Atheniaon,
+upon the capitals of which are phallic emblems, including that of the
+Sun as a disc within the horns of the Crescent moon.
+
+On Plate XXX. we have in figure 7 a cut of an important cylinder now
+stored in the Berlin Museum, upon which are represented both the Sacred
+Tree and the Ashera. The winged Sun-disc appears over the former and
+the Crescent moon over the latter.
+
+Figure 11 upon the same plate shows us a Masseba representing the Male
+Principle, surmounted by the star-like form which represented the
+radiate Sun; and an Ashera, representing the Female Principle,
+surmounted by the Crescent moon.
+
+Just as in modern Christianity we make a distinction without alleging
+much difference between the Father and the Son, even so in ancient
+times a distinction of a similarly vague kind was made between the
+All-Father _Fire_ and His Image and First-begotten Son _Light_. The
+disc of the Sun seems to have represented the former and the Sun-star
+or radiate Sun the latter where both were represented in one
+illustration, as for instance in figure 12 on the plate last mentioned.
+
+The illustration in question is an important one. On the left is an
+Ashera under a Crescent moon; in the centre is a Masseba under the
+Sun-star or radiate Sun; and on the right is an altar under a sun disc.
+
+The phallic meaning of all this is evident; and a kind of Trinity is
+presented to us, _viz._ (1) The Female Principle and perhaps the
+primeval Darkness, needing impregnation or illumination ere the same
+can cause aught to be; (2) the Male Principle and Light, the First-born
+Son of Fire; and (3) Fire itself, the one origin of all things and
+Father of Spirits, made manifest unto mortals by His First-born Son,
+and best symbolled, as is Light, by the Solar Orb.
+
+On Plate XXXI. we have in figure 4 a representation of the goddess
+Ishtar, the bride of the Sun-God. Over her we see the phallic symbol of
+the radiate Sun and Crescent moon in conjunction.
+
+On Plate XXXII. we see in figure 23 the Svastika cross under a tree, in
+a representation of a scarab from Ialysos. This cross coupled with the
+presence of two bulls, one on either side of the tree, seem to show
+that the Male Principle is referred to.
+
+On Plate XL. we have a cut of a votive arm, holding in its hand that
+phallic symbol the apple, and obtained from the sanctuary of Apollo at
+Voni.
+
+On Plate LVIII. in representations of the stone capitals of two votive
+pillars from the shrine of Aphrodite at Idalion, we see various phallic
+emblems; including the familiar Sun disc and Crescent moon in
+conjunction.
+
+The same remark applies to Plate LIX., where two more such pillars are
+illustrated.
+
+Upon Plate LXIX. are given no less than 134 illustrations of ancient
+religious symbols, and the phallic character of nearly if not quite all
+is plainly apparent.
+
+In twelve of these the presence of the Sun or the Crescent Moon as the
+case may be, points out that in the former event the Male Principle of
+Life, and in the latter the Female Principle of Life, is referred to.
+In six other cases the presence of the Sun and Crescent moon in
+juxtaposition shows that both those Principles are referred to. And in
+four other examples the presence of the Sun and Crescent moon in
+conjunction shows that the union of those Principles is referred to.
+
+Besides the numerous Masseboth and Asheroth, respectively representing
+the Male and Female Principles, we see numerous examples of the
+triangle which represented the female _vulva_ and of the diamond shaped
+symbol which represented the female _pudendum_.
+
+Among the remaining symbols is the cross of four equal arms.
+
+Upon Plate LXXV. is an illustration of a vase painting in red figures
+from a Stamnos from Vulci Panofka. The representation is one of the
+Sun-God Dionysos upon a cross.
+
+The said cross, which like various Christian crosses of the Dark and
+Middle Ages has projecting branches and foliage, seems to have been
+more or less connected with the Tree worship of ancient times.
+
+On Plate LXXVI. we are given thirteen examples of Sacred Trees
+discovered in the groves of Astarte-Aphrodite and Tanit-Artemis-Cybele,
+being clay copies of the Sacred Trees erected at the entrances to the
+temples. As Dr. Ohnefalsch-Richter states, these evidently phallic
+symbols undoubtedly played a part in the worship of the Sun-God
+Tammuz-Adonis and his bride Astarte-Aphrodite.
+
+Upon Plate LXXVII. we have a cut of an important Phoenician seal, where
+we see (1) a man kneeling in adoration to a Divine Trinity connected
+with the winged disc of the sun, and (2) a priest worshipping three
+symbols. The three sacred symbols in question are (1) the Ashera or
+symbol of the Female Life Principle; (2) the Masseba or symbol of the
+Male Life Principle; and (3) a combination of the Ashera and Masseba
+symbols representing the two Life Principles in conjunction.
+
+On Plate LXXIX. we have in figure 14 a representation both of the
+Sacred Tree and of the combined Ashera and Masseba. Over the latter we
+naturally see the radiate Sun and Crescent moon in conjunction.
+
+In figure 16 on the same plate are representations of an Ashera and a
+Masseba, respectively surmounted by a Crescent moon and a radiate Sun.
+
+A similar remark applies to figure 17. A sacrificing priest can be seen
+in this and the last named instances.
+
+On Plate LXXX. we have in figure 1 a representation of a holy pillar,
+the volute capital of which has on it a Crescent moon within the horns
+of which is a disc plainly marked with a cross. This is taken from an
+ancient cylinder of Hittite origin.
+
+On the same plate we see in figure 7 a Sun column from Tyre, upon which
+we see the Crescent and disc in conjunction as in the last case, but
+without the cross.
+
+On Plate CXVIII. we have in figure 8 a cut of a fine vase from Melos
+ornamented with a Svastika cross.
+
+Upon Plate CXXXIII. we have, in figures I to 4, representations of a
+sacred Boeotian chest or ark. On the front are seven Svastika crosses
+(some of each variety) and one ordinary cross like our sign of
+addition. On the lid we see two serpents surrounded by eight Svastika
+crosses (some of each variety) and eight crosses formed of tau crosses,
+{image "taucross.gif"}; besides two other crosses.
+
+On the back are eight Svastika crosses (some of each variety) and eight
+other crosses.
+
+In figure 6 we have a cut of a chest from Athiaenon upon which two
+Svastika crosses will be noticed.
+
+In figure 8 of the same plate is an illustration of one side of another
+sacred chest or ark from Athiaenon, on which two Svastika crosses of
+the other variety can be seen.
+
+Upon Plate CLV. we have in figure 9 a cut of an important Cyprian
+Graeco-Phoenician Amphora discovered in an ancient grave at Kition and
+now stored in the British Museum. The object represented upon it is a
+Sacred Tree marked at the bottom with a St. Andrew's cross and
+surrounded with Svastika crosses.
+
+On Plate CLXXIII. we see in group 19 various objects discovered in
+ancient graves; one bearing several ordinary crosses and also several
+Svastika crosses, one bearing a Svastika cross of the other variety,
+and a third bearing Svastika crosses of both kinds.
+
+Upon Plate CXCII. are cuts of various Cyprian coins, the phallic symbol
+of the circle and cross occurring upon Nos. 1, 9, and 10.
+
+Leaving the Book of Plates and turning to the illustrations given with
+the Text of the valuable work we are considering, we discover upon page
+62 a cut showing the impression of a chalcedony cylinder from the
+collection of the Due de Luynes, where the Sun is represented by a
+Cross of four equal arms.
+
+Upon page 85 we have in figure 117 an illustration of an inscribed
+cylinder, now belonging to the Bibliotheque Nationale of France, in
+which, as Dr. Ohnefalsch-Richter remarks, the priest or king
+represented is raising his arm
+
+     "In adoration in the direction of the Cross suspended in
+     the air before him, a holy object we often meet on
+     Assyrian and Babylonian monuments."
+
+This cross, like that last named, is more like a Greek cross than a
+Maltese cross.
+
+On page 148 we have in figure 150 an illustration of a coloured image
+of Aphrodite or Astarte discovered in an early Graeco-Phoenician tomb
+at Kurion. This representation of the Goddess of Love and Bride of the
+Sun-God is marked with several Svastika crosses, and is yet further
+evidence of the phallic and solar character of that symbol.
+
+Such is the evidence of the phallic worship and Sun-God worship of the
+Phoenicians and their neighbours, of the close relationship between
+such phallic worship and Sun-God worship, and of the part played in
+connection with the same by the pre-Christian cross, borne by a work of
+research so free from bias against the views of the Christian Church
+that it has prefixed to it a letter of warm commendation from that
+veteran statesman and theologian, the author of the ultra-orthodox
+"_Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture_."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+MISCELLANEOUS EVIDENCE.
+
+The most noteworthy features of the available evidence illustrative of
+the real origin and history of the symbol of the cross have now been
+placed before the reader, but a number of more or less miscellaneous
+facts directly or indirectly throwing additional light upon the subject
+have still to be drawn attention to.
+
+For instance, no mention has yet been made of the _Hermae_ of bygone
+ages. And although their origin may have had no connection with the
+symbol in question, it is noteworthy that some at least of the early
+Christians discovered in the more or less cruciform outline of the
+Hermae a reason or excuse for paying them homage, while very similar
+figures are to be seen illustrated upon Christian antiquities, such as
+the mosaic of which the great cross of the Lateran forms the principal
+feature.
+
+The Hermae venerated by the ancient Greeks were pillars, usually of
+stone and quadrangular, surmounted in most instances with a head of
+either Hermes or Dionysos; and with a peculiar transverse rail just
+below the head, much used for hanging garlands upon, which made the
+whole look more or less like a cross.
+
+These pillars were erected in front of temples, tombs, and houses; but
+more especially as sign posts at cross roads; and whether the head at
+the top was that of Hermes the Messenger of the Gods, or, as was very
+often the case, that of Dionysos the Sun-God, a phallus was always a
+prominent feature.
+
+Moreover these phallic and often solar erections called Hermae,
+undoubtedly more or less cross-shaped owing to the transverse rail,
+were worshipped as conducive to fecundity.
+
+It is also worthy of notice that the cross is well known to have been
+venerated in America before even the Norsemen who preceded Columbus set
+foot upon that afterwards rediscovered continent.
+
+For instance a cross surrounded by a circle was in use among the
+ancient Mexicans as a solar sign, another cross was a solar symbol of
+the natives of Peru from time immemorial, and we are also told by the
+authorities that a cross of four equal arms with a disc or circle at
+the centre was the age-old Moqui symbol of the Sun.[68]
+
+Other noteworthy points are that the cross occurs upon Runic monuments
+in Europe long before Christianity was introduced into the regions
+containing them; that ancient altars to the Sun-God Mithras bearing the
+sacred symbol of the cross have been discovered even in England; and
+that the Laplanders of old when sacrificing marked their idols with the
+symbol of the cross, using the life blood of their victims for that
+purpose.[69]
+
+It should also be pointed out that on a coin of Thasos bearing
+representations of a phallic character connected with the worship of
+the Thracian Bacchus, a Svastika cross is a prominent symbol; that upon
+ancient vases the headgear of Bacchus is sometimes ornamented with the
+cross of four equal arms; that upon a Greek vase at Lentini, Sicily, an
+ancient representation of the Sun-God Hercules is accompanied by no
+less than three different kinds of crosses as symbols; and that upon an
+archaic Greek vase in the British Museum, the Svastika cross, the St.
+Andrew's cross, and the other and right angled cross of four equal
+arms, appear under the rays of the Sun. Nor should it be forgotten that
+though the Svastika cross has almost died out as a Christian symbol and
+was perhaps never thoroughly acclimatised as such, it often appeared
+upon Christian ecclesiastical properties of the Middle Ages, and,
+either as a Pagan or Christian symbol, continually occurs in the
+catacombs of Rome.
+
+We are told that circular wafers or cakes were used in the mysteries of
+the Sun-God Bacchus, and, being marked with a cross, resembled the
+disc-like wafers of the Christian Mass. Whether this was so or not, it
+is noteworthy that a cross is said to appear upon the representation of
+a circular wafer used in the mysteries of Mithras which occurs upon an
+ancient fresco at Rome.
+
+In this connection it may be mentioned, as a series of curious
+coincidences, that in the Zoroastrian religion long before our era the
+Sun-God Mithras bore much the same relation to the All-Father that the
+Christ does in ours, and is referred to in the Zend Avesta as the
+_Incarnate Word_; that Mithras is said, like the Christ, to have been
+born in a cave; that the Fathers admitted that the new-born Sun had
+been worshipped in the cave at Bethlehem to which the story of the
+birth of Jesus referred; and that in framing its calendar our Church
+fixed upon the recognised birthday of Mithras, the _Natalis Invicti_ of
+the Roman Brumalia, as the birthday of the Christ.
+
+It is also noteworthy that the Christ is thus said to have been born as
+well as to have risen again the third _or fourth_ ("_After_ three
+days," _Matt_, xxvii. 63; _after_ "Three days and three nights," Matt,
+xii. 40) day. For the birthday of Mithras and afterwards of the Christ,
+known to us as Christmas day, seems to have been fixed upon as the
+third or fourth day after the winter solstice, and as that upon which
+the sun's resurrection from the south was first discernible after its
+apparent cessation of movement or death.
+
+In this connection it should be added that Lucian records the fact that
+the Sun-God referred to by the Fathers as worshipped at Bethlehem was
+lamented as dead once a year and always acclaimed as alive again the
+third day; that in several places in the Zend Avesta we meet with
+passages which show that the Mithras worshippers of old believed that
+at the death of a man his spirit sits at the head of the corpse for
+three days and three nights, and then, at dawn, rises free from all
+earthly attachments; and that we say that the execution of Jesus took
+place at the time of the Passover or Vernal Equinox, while instead of
+the prophesied "three days and three nights in the heart of the earth"
+(_Matt_. xii. 40) the period between the death and burial on Good
+Friday evening and the resurrection before dawn on Easter Sunday is
+just about that during which the Sun's disc is at the Vernal Equinox
+transfixed by the Equator, _viz._, 32 2/3 hours.
+
+The question why the Cock so often, like the Cross, surmounts the
+steeples wherewith we adorn our Christian churches, is brought before
+us by the fact that it was in ancient days a well-known symbol both of
+the generative powers and of the Sun-God; often appearing as such upon
+the top of a sacred pillar in Assyrian and Babylonian representations
+of priests in the act of sacrificing or worshipping. It was probably as
+the "herald of the dawn" that this bird became a symbol of the Sun-God,
+and it would seem that we place its effigy aloft with the same idea in
+view.
+
+Another point to be noted is that in the Kunthistorisches Museum at
+Vienna is an ancient vase upon which is a representation of the Sun-God
+Apollo bearing upon his breast as his one ornament and symbol a
+Svastika cross.
+
+We are reminded of the facts that we Christians were once in the habit
+of alluding to the cross as the Tree of Life, and that the ancients
+dressed up the trunks of trees and worshipped them as symbols of life
+and growth, by an Attic vase of the fifth century B.C. Upon this is a
+red coloured painting of a tree so dressed, on which is to be seen near
+the top a head of the Sun-God Dionysos, and surrounding the trunk a
+shirt or garment covered with crosses.
+
+As to the evidence obtained from the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii,
+it is said that much which is of a phallic character has been, from
+quite worthy motives, kept in the background. An important fact has
+however been mentioned by Mr. C. W. King, M.A., in his well known work
+on the _Gnostics and, their Remains_, and this at least can be
+commented upon. He tells us that the Cross and the Phallus were found
+placed in juxtaposition upon the walls as meaning one and the same
+thing, and he goes on to add that
+
+     "This cross seems to be the Egyptian Tau, that ancient
+     symbol of the generative power and therefore transferred
+     into the Bacchic mysteries."
+
+The foregoing are the last of the evidences throwing light upon the
+origin and history of the symbol adopted by our religion as its own,
+which the author thinks it necessary to bring forward in support of his
+contention. And however much of the evidence sought out by the author
+and in this work marshalled by him into something like order may seem
+by itself to be untrustworthy or worthless, no reader can reasonably
+deny that it has been proved that the cross was a well known symbol of
+Life long before our era, and that as a whole the evidence tends to
+show that it became such as a phallic symbol, and therefore as a symbol
+of the Sun-God.
+
+And what is the moral of the real, as distinguished from the imaginary,
+history of the symbol of the cross but this: that from the beginning
+nought has caused the beliefs of men to assume an appearance of radical
+difference, save the difference in the name or dress with which this or
+that set of men have clothed similar ideas?
+
+For, as has already been hinted, Humanity has ever had but one God and
+but one Religion. And as from one point of view Life is but another
+term for the Real Presence, and Death but another term for the
+withdrawal of Deity, it may be said that that God is Life, and that
+Religion the desire for Life, more Life, and fuller Life. Moreover, as
+has been said before, this universal worship of Life is discernible
+even in the willingness of some to sacrifice what remains to them of
+mortal life in the hope of thus being enabled to lay hold of a life
+immortal which is not for all.
+
+The worship of Life is natural, and must of necessity continue. Let us
+however render it nobler by recognising its catholicity; and by
+contemptuously refusing to either seek or accept a life of bliss
+hereafter which any of our brothers and sisters are, either in our
+imagination or in reality, to be debarred from sharing.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+SUMMARY.
+
+At the commencement of this work it was shown that, as the Greek text
+of the writings forming the New Testament testifies, not one of the
+Apostles or Evangelists ever stated that Jesus was executed upon a
+cross-shaped instrument of execution. The circumstances under which the
+figure of the cross became the symbol of our religion, were then made
+clear. And, having since demonstrated the existence in pre-Christian
+ages of a widespread veneration of the figure of the cross as the
+symbol of Life and of the Sun-God, which may have given rise to the
+desire to associate Jesus therewith, little remains for the author to
+do save draw the notice of the reader to the admissions of other
+writers concerning the rise of the cross as the symbol of Christianity;
+for the sake of brevity more or less confining his attention to two
+well known works upon the history of religious art.
+
+It should first however be pointed out that though we Christians affirm
+that crucifixion was a form of capital punishment made use of in days
+of old, and abolished the fourth century after Christ by Constantine
+because Jesus was so executed, we cannot exactly prove that the
+_staurosis_ thus abolished was crucifixion, or even that it included
+crucifixion. For various as are the different forms of 'death by the
+stauros' of which descriptions have come down to us from pre-Christian
+ages and the first three centuries of our era, no relic of that date
+bears a representation of an instrument of execution such as we cause
+to appear in our sacred pictures, and even if, regardless of the more
+exact meaning of the word stauros, we suppose the term staurosis to
+have included every form of carrying out the extreme penalty by means
+of affixion or suspension, we meet with no description of such an
+instrument of execution as we picture. Therefore even if we were to
+exclude from the staurosis abolished by Constantine all forms of
+transfixion by a stauros, we could not, upon the evidence before us,
+fairly say that what that astute Emperor abolished was what is usually
+understood by the term crucifixion.
+
+It will not be necessary to quote again the admission of the Reverend
+S. Baring-Gould, M.A., to the effect that the so-called Cross of
+Constantine or monogram of Christ was but the symbol of the Sun-God of
+the Gauls with a loop added by their crafty leader to please the
+Christians, but it may be pointed out that this fact is also admitted
+in _Chambers's Encyclopaedia_; where we read that
+
+     "The so-called cross of Constantine was not really a
+     cross but a circle containing the X P I, the first three
+     letters of the name of Christ in Greek; and was merely
+     an adaptation of a symbol of a Gaulish solar deity."
+
+And it may be added that the fact that the Monogram of Christ and the
+ordinary cross so frequently used as symbols by Constantine upon his
+coins and elsewhere, and thus made symbols of the Roman Empire in the
+first half of the fourth century, were at first Pagan rather than
+Christian symbols, also seems to be borne out by Dean Burgon in his
+_Letters from Rome_, where he states
+
+     "I question whether a cross occurs on any Christian
+     monument of the first four centuries."[70]
+
+Passing on however to the representative works on Christian Art already
+referred to, we first come to Mrs. Jameson's famous _History of Our
+Lord as exemplified in works of art_.
+
+Upon page 315 of Volume II. the gifted authoress, after confessing that
+the cross was venerated by the heathen as a symbol of Life before the
+period of Christianity and referring to St. Chrysostom, who flourished
+half a century after Constantine, admits that
+
+     "It must be owned that ancient objects of Art, as
+     far as hitherto known, afford no corroboration of the use
+     of the cross in the simple transverse form familiar to
+     us at any period preceding or even closely succeeding
+     the words of St. Chrysostom."
+
+That is to say, although Constantine introduced the Monogram of Christ
+and the cross of four equal arms before St. Chrysostom was born, and,
+making them symbols of the Roman Empire, would, whether a Sun-God
+worshipper or a Christian, in any case have imposed them upon what he
+established as his State Religion, it was not till after these solar
+symbols of the Gauls were accepted as Christian that such a cross as
+could possibly have been a representation of an instrument of execution
+was introduced.
+
+As to the crucifix, we are told that though this is said by some to be
+referred to in the works of St. Gregory of Nyssa--a Bishop of Tours who
+lived in the sixth century, and also in the injunctions of the often
+quoted council of Greek bishops A.C. 692 called the "Quini-sextum" or
+"in Trullo," the evidence is
+
+     "Insufficient to convince most modern archaeologists
+     that a crucifix in any sense now accepted was meant."
+
+In other words, not only is it clear that the cross as a representation
+of the instrument of execution upon which Jesus died was not introduced
+till after the days of Constantine, but it is also evident that the
+crucifix, the earliest known representation of that execution, was not
+introduced till centuries later.
+
+Other noteworthy admissions are made in the work above quoted from, but
+we must pass on to the Dean of Canterbury's comparatively recent work
+upon the same subject.
+
+Dean Farrar states upon page 11 of his _Life of Christ as represented
+in Art_ that "Of all early Christian symbols the _Fish_ was the most
+frequent and the favourite."
+
+The Fish; and not the Cross.
+
+Moreover the Dean significantly adds upon the next page, that the Fish
+
+     "Continued to be a common symbol down to the
+     days of Constantine."
+
+And the significance lies in the fact that the introduction by
+Constantine of the solar symbols venerated by the Gauls, may account
+for the displacement of the symbol of the Fish from favour.
+
+Upon page 19 Dr. Farrar goes on to say that
+
+     "Two symbols continued for ages to be especially common,
+     of which I have not yet spoken. They were not generally
+     adopted, even if they appeared at all, until after the
+     Peace of the Church at the beginning of the fourth
+     century. I mean the cross and the monogram of Christ."
+
+Here again, it will be seen, the Dean admits that the cross, as the
+symbol of our religion, came in with Constantine.
+
+Directly after the passage last quoted Dean Farrar very misleadingly
+remarks: "It must be remembered that the cross was in itself an object
+of utter horror even to the Pagans." For the exact reverse is the
+truth, inasmuch as in almost every land a cross of some description had
+been for ages venerated as a symbol of Life.
+
+The fact of course is that the Dean here and elsewhere, like other
+Christian writers, does not take the trouble to distinguish between the
+symbol of the cross and the death caused by execution upon a stauros;
+which instrument, by the way, was, as has been shown, not necessarily
+in the shape of a cross, and appears to have been in most cases a stake
+without a transverse rail. What the Pagans held in utter horror was the
+awful death caused by transfixion by or affixion to a stauros, whatever
+its shape; the symbol of the cross was, upon the contrary, an object of
+veneration among them from time immemorial.
+
+On page 23 Dr. Farrar, alluding to the use of the transient sign of the
+cross by the Christians of early days, makes the admission
+
+     "That it did _not_ remind them of the Crucifixion only
+     or even mainly is proved alike by their literature and
+     other relics."
+
+Exactly so: for the non-material sign traced by them (and by us) upon
+the forehead in the _non-Mosaic_ initiatory rite of baptism and perhaps
+also upon the breast or in the air at other times, seems to have been
+the survival of a Pagan and pre-Christian custom.
+
+Upon page 24 Dean Farrar admits that
+
+     "The cross was only introduced among the Christian
+     symbols tentatively and timidly. It may be doubted
+     whether it once occurs till after the vision of
+     Constantine in 312 and his accession to the Empire of
+     the East and West in 324."
+
+Further on upon the same page the Dean of Canterbury, passing without
+notice from symbols to instruments of execution and making no
+distinction whatever, states that
+
+     "Crosses were of two kinds. The _Crux Simplex_, 'of
+     one single piece without transom,' was a mere stake,
+     used sometimes to impale, sometimes to hang the victim
+     by the hands."
+
+Exactly so.
+
+But, to bring this work to a conclusion with what is the crux of the
+whole matter, is it not disingenuous in the extreme upon the part of
+those of us Christians who know better, to hide the fact that it may
+have been upon some such cross as the Dean here refers to, that is,
+upon no cross at all, that Jesus was executed? Is it not dishonest of
+us to place before the masses Bibles and Lexicons wherein we ever
+carefully translate as "cross" a word which at the time the ancient
+classics and our sacred writings were penned did not necessarily, if
+indeed ever, signify something cross-shaped? Is it not gross disloyalty
+to Truth to insist, as we do in our versions of the Christian
+Scriptures, upon translating as "crucify" or "crucified" four different
+words, not one of which referred to anything necessarily in the shape
+of a cross?
+
+Another point which should be mentioned, though such matters cannot be
+discussed here, is that the questions whether Jesus did not prophesy
+that the final Day of judgment would come before those whom he
+addressed should die, and did not solemnly declare that his mission was
+to the descendants of Jacob or Israel and to them alone, undoubtedly
+affect our story.
+
+As to the Gospel of the Cross, have not we Christians by, in our
+imaginations, limiting its saving effects to the few who are able to
+believe in it, all the centuries that we have re-echoed the cry "the
+Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" _forced_ upon the same the unutterably
+selfish meaning that the kingdom at hand for the many who simply cannot
+believe is that of Hell? Was _that_ what Jesus meant, and all that the
+so-called cross effected?
+
+Moreover, whether the message of Jesus which we proclaim and variously
+interpret was or was not a gospel--that is, "glad tidings "--to all
+men, and from an unselfish point of view, what possible good purpose
+can be served by insisting upon supplementing the simple story of his
+stressful life, his magnificent love for the afflicted and suffering,
+his equally magnificent hatred of qualities not altogether dissimilar
+from that which enables some of us to claim to be not only admirers but
+also genuine followers of a Communist who declared that those who would
+follow him must first sell all their possessions and give the proceeds
+to the poor;--what good purpose can be served by supplementing this,
+and the account of the final conflict of Jesus with the officials of
+his native land and his subsequent execution upon a stauros or stake
+not stated to have had a cross-bar attached, by the adoption and
+culture of a partisan and misleading fiction regarding the origin and
+history of the symbol of the cross?
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+---------------------
+FOOTNOTES
+[1] _e.g._, _Iliad_, xxiv. 453; _Odyssey_, xiv. 11
+[2] _e.g._, Thuc. iv. 90; Xen. _An._ v. 2, 21.
+[3] _Gal._ iii. 13; I _Pet._ ii. 24; _Acts_ v. 30; _Acts_ x. 39;
+    _Acts_ xiii. 29.
+[4] _e.g._, Hdt. iii. 125.
+[5] _e.g._, Thuc. vii. 25.
+[6] Livy, xxviii. 29.
+[7] Minucius Felix, _Oct._ xxix.
+[8] _De Praescrip_. xl.
+[9] _Oct._ xxix.
+[10] _Ad Nationes_, xiv.
+[11] Poed iii. II, 59.
+[12] _Nicodemus_ i.
+[13] _Nicodemus_ vii.
+[14] _Nicodemus_ viii.
+[15] _Apol_, i. 55.
+[16] _Dial. cum Trypho_, lxxxvi.
+[17] _Dial. cum Trypho_, xcvii.
+[18] _Against Marcion_, iv. 20.
+[19] _Against Marcion_, iii. 18.
+[20] _Scorpiace_, i.
+[21] _De Corolla_, iii.
+[22] _De Proescrip_, xl.
+[23] _Apologiticus_, xvi.
+[24] _Ad Nationes_, xii.
+[25] xxxvi.
+[26] _Testimonies against the Jews_, ii. 21.
+[27] _Testimonies against the Jews_, ii. 22.
+[28] _Apud Gretserum_, ii.
+[29] _Epist. ad Romanos_, Lib. vi.
+[30] _Christ in Art_, p. 23.
+[31] _Against Heresies_, i. xxiv.
+[32] _Against Heresies_, II., xxii. 4-5.
+[33] _Vit. Const. I._
+[34] _Vit. Const. I._, 28, 29, 30.
+[35] _Vit. Const. I._, 29.
+[36] _De Mart. Pers._, c. 44.
+[37] _Vit. Const. I._, 31.
+[38] _Vit. Const. I._, 37.
+[39] _Vit. Const. I._, 40.
+[40] _Vit. Const. II._ 7-9.
+[41] _Vit. Const. III._ 3.
+[42] _Vit. Const. III._ 49.
+[43] _Opera S. Cyrilli_ cura Ant. Touttee 351 Menaeum Graecum
+     ad diem 7 Maii.
+[44] zosimus ii.
+[45] Both Zonaras and Cedrenus bear testimony to this effect.
+[46] _Early Christian Numismatics_.
+[47] _The Likeness of Christ_, p. 20.
+[48] Herodotus II., 73.
+[49] Pliny, x., 2.
+[  ] 2 Tacitus, _Annal_. Vi., 28. Editorial note: There is no reference
+     in the text to this footnote #2 at the bottom of page 130
+[50] An engraving of the coin can be seen in Duruy's _Histoire
+     des Romains_, Torn. vii.
+[51] Bockh, C.I.G. n. 4713 b.
+[52] Berlin Collection 428.
+[53] _Strange Survivals_, 286.
+[54] _e.g._, Arist. _Mundi_.
+[55] Bar. _Ann_. A.C. 312.
+[56] Basnage, iii., 23.
+[57] Eusebius, _Vit. Const._ iv.
+[58] Martianus Capella.
+[59] _e.g._ Philo, _De Somniis_, i.
+[60] _Timaeus_, 34-36.
+[61] _Theol. Plat._
+[62] _Apol._
+[63] _Apol._
+[64] _Report on the Old Records of the India Office_, London,
+     1891, x., xi.
+[65] _Nineveh_, ii. 213.
+[66] _e.g._, C. W. King, M.A.  _Early Christian Numismatics_;
+     Professor Rawlinson; &c., &c.
+[67] C. W. King, M.A.
+[68] _First Annual Report U. S. Bureau of Ethnology._
+[69] Ol. Varelli, _Scandage Runic;_ Ans. Rudbeckins, _Atlant.:
+     e.g._ an altar discovered ac Rudchester, Northumberland: Sheffer,
+     _Lapponic_.
+[70] _Letters from Rome_, 1862, p. 210.
+
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