[116] Benedict Curtius de Hortis. Bapt. Portainvilla. Where by the way we shall decline the old Theme, so traced by antiquity of crosses and crucifixion: Whereof some being right, and of one single peece without traversion or transome, do little advantage our subject. Nor shall we take in the mystical _Tau_, or the Crosse of our blessed Saviour, which having in some descriptions an _Empedon_ or crossing foot-stay, made not one single transversion. And since the Learned _Lipsius_ hath made some doubt even of the crosse of St. _Andrew_, since some Martyrological Histories deliver his death by the general Name of a crosse, and _Hippolitus_ will have him suffer by the sword; we should have enough to make out the received Crosse of that Martyr. Nor shall we urge the _labarum_, and famous Standard of _Constantine_, or make further use thereof, then as the first letters in the Name of our Saviour Christ, in use among Christians, before the dayes of _Constantine_, to be observed in Sepulchral Monuments of Martyrs,[117] in the Reign of _Adrian_, and _Antoninus_; and to be found in the Antiquities of the Gentiles, before the advent of Christ, as in the Medal of King _Ptolomy_, signed with the same characters, and might be the beginning of some word or name, which Antiquaries have not hit on. [117] _Of_ Marius, Alexander, Roma Sotterranea. We will not revive the mysterious crosses of _Ægypt_, with circles on their heads, in the breast of _Serapis_, and the hands of their Geniall spirits, not unlike the character of _Venus_, and looked on by ancient Christians, with relation unto Christ. Since however they first began, the Ægyptians thereby expressed the processe and motion of the spirit of the world, and the diffusion thereof upon the Celestiall and Elementall nature; implyed by a circle and right-lined intersection. A secret in their Telesmes and magicall Characters among them. Though he that considereth the plain crosse[118] upon the head of the Owl in the Laterane Obelisk, or the crosse[119] erected upon a pitcher diffusing streams of water into two basins, with sprinkling branches in them, and all described upon a two-footed Altar, as in the Hieroglyphicks of the brazen Table of _Bembus_: will hardly decline all thought of Christian signality in them. [118] _Wherein the lower part is some what longer, as defined by_ Upton de studio militari, _and_ Johannes de Bado Aureo, cum comment. clariss. et doctiss. Bi sæi. [119] Casal. de Ritibus. Bosio nella Trionfante croce.