“The old temples, and the old basilicas, the arrangements of the apse, etc., in the latter almost unchanged--the lustral, or holy water--the mural paintings sometimes left, sometimes altered to suit the persons of the new heroes, or saints--the incense, the pomp of worship, the long train of vested priests--all and much more, would make the transition from the old to the new faith, externally, a matter of little difficulty. As to the cross, there it was, and there it would continue, and has continued.”[216] In view of these and many similar facts, it is easy to understand how the cross became a permanent and prominent feature in the symbolism of paganized Christianity. The famous vision of Constantine the Great, in which he is said to have seen a cross in the sky, in connection with the sun, is not supported by evidence which places it among facts. It was not unnatural, however, that he, a devout sun-worshipper, and familiar with the cross as the symbol of the lowest form of that worship, should associate the two, as he has been said to have done. The symbol which he adopted on his military standard was not the cross proper, but the two Greek initials of the name of Christ, the “_chi-ro_.” One of these letters, resembling the English X, gave the standard a similarity to the cross. Under Valens, Emperor of the East, who died in 378 A.D., the cross appears without the letters, and from that time the letters gradually disappear. The Empress Eudocia wore the heathen form of the cross on her head.[217] It was the exact counterpart of that which the moon-goddess, Diana, had worn before. The leading facts concerning the cross may be summed up as follows: Up to the time of Constantine--early part of the fourth century--the cross remained what it had always been, a pagan symbol, type of its most revolting _cultus_. It is the same in India to-day. By the opening of the fifth century it had become the symbol of paganized Christianity. The crucifix--a figure of Christ nailed to the cross--appears first about the middle of the fifth century. The following is the general order whereby the transition was accomplished: 1. Constantine adopts the initial letters, giving the _chi-ro_ standard, about 312 A.D.[218] 2. The _chi_ (_Χ_) was gradually changed to the form of a cross, while the _ro_, similar to the English P, remained in its original position. 3. The _ro_ was rejected, and the _chi_ (_Χ_) was changed to the Greek cross of Bacchus. 4. The heathen _tau_ (_Τ_), as used in India and Egypt, was brought in, probably because of its supposed resemblance to the cross on which Christ was (said to have been) put to death. 5. The _tau_ appears, surmounted by a roundel, evidently the sacred egg of the heathen. This was the emblem of the Goddess of Nature, the productive principle. This brought the original heathen symbol into still greater similarity to what is now known as the Latin cross.