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diff --git a/9071-0.txt b/9071-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9a356b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/9071-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5145 @@ +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. + +------ +For those who do not have access to the images used in the above text, +here are some crude representations of them.--(Editor) + + + +x.gif + +X X + X X + X X + X + X X + X X +X X + + + +t.gif + +XXXXXXXXXXXXX + X + X + X + X + X + X + + + +plus.gif + + X + X + X +XXXXXXXXXXXXX + X + X + X + + + +asterisk.gif + +X X X + X X X + X X X + X + X X X + X X X +X X X + + + +solarwheel1.gif + + o ooooo o + o X o + o X X X o +o X X X o +o X X X o +o X o +o X X X o + o X X X o + o X o + o ooooo o + + + +solarwheel2.gif + + o ooooo o + o X o + o X o +o X o +o X o +oXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXo +o X o + o X o + o X o + o ooooo o + + + +monogram1.gif + + o ooooo o + o XXX o + o X X X X o +o X XXX X o +o X X X o +o X o +o X X X o + o X X X o + o X o + o ooooo o + + +monogram2.gif + + o ooooo o + o XXX o + o X X o +o XXX o +o X o +oXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXo +o X o + o X o + o X o + o ooooo o + + +monogram3.gif + + xxx +X x x X + X xxx X + X x X + x + X x X + X x X + X x X + + +monogram4.gif + + XXX + X X + XXX + X + XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX + X + X + X + + + +svastika1.gif + + X XXXXXXXXXX + X X + X X + X X + XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX + X X + X X + X X + XXXXXXXXX X + + + +svastika2.gif + + XXXXXXXXX X + X X + X X + X X + XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX + X X + X X + X X + X XXXXXXXXXX + + + +taucross.gif + + XXXXXXX + X + X X X + X X X + XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX + X X X + X X X + X + XXXXXXX + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NON-CHRISTIAN CROSS *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the +United States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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