"We know that modifications of the form of the cross have been found on monuments already discovered; others may turn up with the so-called 'gammadion' found upon Egyptian stuff of such an early date. The recurrence of the gammadion upon Christian monuments is curious. It is shown in the catacombs, and in numerous later instances. Christianity widened the meaning of this symbol and made it teach the doctrine of the Atonement of Calvary, and that Christ is our corner-stone. In the thirteenth century it was taken to be an apt memorial of His five wounds and, remembering the stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi, this gammadion became the favourite device of such as bore that Saint's name."[I] [I] Dr. Rock, "Introduction to Textile Fabrics at South Kensington Museum" (Chapman and Hall, 1870), p. cxxxix. No less than twenty varieties of these polygonal ornaments, many of them introducing the gammadion, are to be found in the lacework of the Assisi alb. _See_ Plate 3. The tradition mentioned by Dr. Rock of the device of the gammadion being identified with St. Francis may, I think, have originated in the circumstance of his having worn this alb. In Plate 6 I give two examples of early Italian punto reale of the same kind although very inferior in variety and in workmanship, but in most of these early "cartiglia," as this work is called in Italy, the polygonal idea is still predominant. The other complete alb is also of linen lace, and is said to have been worn by Pope Boniface VIII. in 1298. (_See_ Plate 2.) It is preserved in the Treasury of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, where I had an opportunity of examining it closely and of obtaining the technical details I give. As to its possible history I may note that St. Nilos and his monks were driven from the East by the Saracens at the end of the tenth century, and came to Italy, where they were welcomed by Pope Gregory V. He established them in the monastery a few miles from Rome, where their successors still worship with their Eastern rites. The famous alb may have been brought by these very monks or those who followed them from the East.[J] [J] "The Pope, Gregory V. (996-999), and the Western Emperor, Otho III. (993-1002), who was then also at Rome, went out to meet the strangers beyond the walls, and received them with all possible honour and respect. And out there in the Campagna, at Grottaferrata, St. Nilos at last built a home for his monks, and there he died. Grottaferrata has stood unchanged till now, no Pope has tried to destroy or Latinise it; after ten centuries, its monks sing out their Greek office in the very heart of the Latin Patriarchate, while outside the Latin olives shelter its Byzantine walls."--"The Orthodox Eastern Church," Adrian Fortescue, D.D. London, 1907.