The Non-Christian Cross: An Enquiry into the Origin and History of the Symbol Eventually Adopted as That of Our ReligionParsons, John Denham
Religion
The Non-Christian Cross: An Enquiry into the Origin and History of the Symbol Eventually Adopted as That of Our Religion
Parsons, John Denham
Crosses
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?
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