of highest honour, so that even emperors laid aside the diadem to 263 assume the cross. “Let him bear the cross,” says Paulinus, “who would wear the crown.”[434] Christians were known as “devotees of the cross,”[435] and this sign of Christ[436] was employed to hallow every act of their lives, their down-sitting and up-rising, their going out and coming in.[437] It was especially adopted, as several of the Fathers remark,[438] as the attitude of prayer, and Chrysostom quotes in explanation the words of the Psalmist, “Let the lifting up of my hands be as the evening sacrifice.”[439] Tertullian and Asterius Amasenus[440] expressly declare that thus is set forth the passion of Our Lord. This symbol acquired at length in popular apprehension the power of a sacred talisman to banish demons, vanquish Satan, avert evil, protect 264 in time of danger or temptation, and to shut the mouths of lions about to devour the intrepid confessors of the faith.[441] The sign of the cross on the forehead and heart, says Prudentius, banishes all evil.[442] Another poet of the fifth century recommends the mystical charm as an antidote to diseases of cattle. Into such superstition had Christianity already degenerated.[443] More common than any other Christian symbol in the Catacombs is the so-called Constantinian monogram, ☧. The first certain example of 265 this is the following, which bears the date A. D. 331:[444] [Illustration: ☧ ASELLVS ET LEA PRISCO PATRI BENEMERENTI IN PACE QVI BIXIT ANNIS LXIIII MENSIBVS III DIES N XII. [Frond] IN SIGNO ☧ [Palm leaf] Asellus and Lea to Priscus, their well-deserving father, in peace, who lived sixty-four years, three months, twelve days. In the sign of Christ. Fig. 55.--Earliest dated Constantinian Monogram.] A somewhat similar form occurs with the date A. D. 291, but De Rossi thinks it is only an ornamental point.[445] The following fragment may possibly belong to the year 298, when one of the consuls was named Gallus; but it cannot be proved that he is the one mentioned in the inscription: [VI]XIT ... ☧ ... GAL . CONSS.--“He lived in Christ ... and Gallus being consuls.”[446] In the year 339 the second dated example occurs, enclosed in a circle. In A. D. 341 three examples are found, and in A. D. 343 it occurs four times in one inscription. After this it becomes exceedingly common, and is even employed as a mark of punctuation between the words. 266