Sign of the Cross & Roman Catholicism [under construction]

I have yet to provide all links for bibliography or rewrite this page in my own words. In the interim you may read my half assed notes taken from 'The Two Babylons' by Alexander Hislop

THE SIGN OF THE CROSS



The cross is
adored with all the homage due only to the Most High ; and for
any one to call it, in the hearing of a genuine Romanist, by the
Scriptural term, " the accursed tree," is a mortal offence. To say
Fig. 43. t>t¥ 1.* 2.t 3.t 4. 5.
that such a superstitious feeling for the sign of the cross, such
worship as Rome pays to a wooden or a metal cross, ever grew out
of the saying of Paul, " God forbid that I should glory, save in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ ; " that is, in the doctrine of Christ
crucified, is a mere absurdity, a shallow subterfuge and pretence.
The magic virtues attributed to the so-called sign of the cross, the
worship bestowed on it, never came from such a source. The same
sign of the cross that Rome now worships was used in the Babylonian
Mysteries, was applied by Paganism to the same magic
purposes, was honoured with the same honours. That which is now
called the Christian cross was originally no Christian emblem at all,
but was the mystic Tau of the Chaldeans and Egyptians—the true
original form of the letter T—the initial of the name of Tammuz
which, in Hebrew, radically the same as ancient Chaldee, as found
on coins, was formed as in No. 1 of the accompanying woodcut
(Fig. 43) ; and in Etrurian and Coptic, as in Nos. 2 and 3. That mystic Tau was marked in baptism on the foreheads of those
initiated in the Mysteries,* and was used in every variety of way as
a most sacred symbol. * Tebtullian, De Prescript. Eceret. cap. 40, vol. ii. p. 54, and Note The
language of Tertullian implies that those who were initiated by baptism in the
Mysteries were marked on the forehead in the same way as his Christian country- men in Africa, who had begun by this time to be marked in baptism with the sisn
of the cross.

To identify Tammuz with the sun it was
joined sometimes to the circle of the sun, as in No. 4 ; sometimes it
was inserted in the circle, as in No. 5.f Whether the Maltese cross,
which the Romish bishops append to their names as a symbol of
their episcopal dignity, is the letter T, may be doubtful ; but there
seems no reason to doubt that that Maltese cross is an express
symbol of the sun ; for Layard found it as a sacred symbol in Nineveh
in such a connection as led him to identify it with the sun. J The
mystic Tau, as the symbol of the great divinity, was called "the
sign of life;" it was used as an amulet over the heart ;§ it was
marked on the official garments of the priests, as on the official
garments of the priests of Rome ; it was borne by kings in their
hand, as a token of their dignity or divinely-conferred authority.
||t Stephen's Central America, vol. ii. p. 344, Plate 2
t Layabd's Nineveh and Babylon, p. 211; Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii
p. 446.
§ Wilkinson, vol. i. p. 365, Plate.
|| See woodcut of King in next Chapter, p. 214.


The Vestal virgins of Pagan Rome wore it suspended from their
necklaces, as the nuns do now.U IT Pebe Lafitan, Mceurs des Sauvages Amcriquains, vol. i. p. 442.


The Egyptians did the same, and
many of the barbarous nations with whom they had intercourse, as
the Egyptian monuments bear witness. In reference to the adorning
of some of these tribes, Wilkinson thus writes : " The girdle was
sometimes highly ornamented; men as well as women wore ear-rings ; and they frequently had a small cross suspended to a
necklace, or to the collar of their dress. The adoption of this last
was not peculiar to them ; it was also appended to, or figured upon,
the robes of the Eot-n-no ; and traces of it may be seen in the
fancy ornaments of the Rebo, showing that it was already in use
as early as the fifteenth century before the Christian era.* Wilkinson, vol. i. p. 376.


There is hardly a Pagan tribe where the cross has not been
found. The cross was worshipped by the Pagan Celts long
before the incarnation and death of Christ, f t Crabb's Mythology, p. 163.

p199



"It is a fact,"
says Maurice, " not less remarkable than well-attested, that the
Druids in their groves were accustomed to select the most stately
and beautiful tree as an emblem of the Deity they adored, and
having cut the side branches, they affixed two of the largest of them
to the highest part of the trunk, in such a manner that those branches
extended on each side like the arms of a man, and, together with the
body, presented the appearance of a huge ceoss, and on the bark, in
several places, was also inscribed the letter Thau." JJ Maurice's Indian Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 49.


It was worshipped
in Mexico for ages before the Roman Catholic missionaries
set foot there, large stone crosses
being erected, probably to the Me- ib -
" god of rain."§§ Prescott's Conquest of Mexico, vol. i. p. 242.

The cross thus
widely worshipped, or regarded
as a sacred emblem, was the unequivocal
symbol of Bacchus, the
Babylonian Messiah, for he was
represented with a head -band
covered with crosses (see Fig.
45). || [| The above figure is the head of that which is given in p. 48, ante, only
magnified, that the crosses may be more distinctly visible. Let the reader turn
back from this point, and read over again what is said in p. 154 about the worship
at Borne on Good Friday of the " cross of fire," and the full significance of that
worship will now appear.

"The cross," says Colonel Wilford, in the Asiatic Researches,
"though not an object of worship among the Baud'has or Buddhists,
is a favourite emblem and device among them. It is exactly the
cross of the Manicheans, with leaves and flowers springing from it.
This cross, putting forth leaves and flowers (and fruit also, as I am
told), is called the divine tree, the tree of the gods, the tree of life
and knowledge, and productive of whatever is good and desirable, and is placed in the terrestrial paradise."* * Asiatic Researches, vol. x. p. 124.




In the Office of the Cross, it is
called the "Tree of life," and the worshippers are taught thus to
address it : " Hail, O Cross, triumphal wood, true salvation of the
world, among trees there is none like thee in leaf, flower, and bud.
Fig. 46.
O Cross, our only hope, increase righteousness to the godly,
and pardon the offences of the guilty." JJ Review of Epistle of Dr. Gentianus Harvet of Louvaine, p. 251, A. The
following is one of the stanzas of the above hymn in the Original :—
" O crux, lignum triumphale
Mundi vera salus, vale,
Inter ligna nullum tale
Fronde, flore, genuine.
The above was actually versified by the Romanisers in the Church of England,
and published along with much besides from the same source, some years ago, in
a volume entitled Devotions on the Passion. The London Record, of April, 1842,
gave the following as a specimen of the " Devotions " provided by these " wolves
in sheep's clothing " for members of the Church of England :
" O faithful cross, thou peerless tree,
No forest yields the like of thee,
Leaf, Bower, and bud ;
Sweet is the wood, and sweet the weight
And sweet the nails that penetrate
Thee, thou sweet wood."



Can any one, reading the gospel narrative of the crucifixion, possibly believe that that
narrative of itself could ever germinate into such extravagance of
" leaf, flower, and bud," as thus appears in this Roman Office 1




1 But
when it is considered that the Buddhist, like the Babylonian cross,
was the recognised emblem of Tammuz, who was known as the
mistletoe branch, or "All-heal," then it is easy to see how the
sacred Initial should be represented as covered with leaves, and how
Rome, in adopting it, should call it the " Medicine which preserves
the healthful, heals the sick, and does what mere human power
alone could never do." ** From hymn already quoted.


Now, this Pagan symbol seems first to have crept into the
Christian Church in Egypt, and generally into Africa. A statement
of Tertullian, about the middle of the third century, shows how
much, by that time, the Church of Carthage was infected with the
old leaven. |t Tertullian, De Corona Militis, cap. iii., vol. ii. p. 80.



Egypt especially, which was never thoroughly evangelised,
appears to have taken the lead in bringing in this Pagan
symbol. The first form of that which is called the Christian Cross,
found on Christian monuments there, is the unequivocal Pagan Tau,
or Egyptian " Sign of life." Let the reader peruse the following
statement of Sir G. Wilkinson : "A still more curious fact may be
mentioned respecting this hieroglyphical character [the Tau], that
the early Christians of Egypt adopted it in lieu of the cross, which
was afterwards substituted for it, prefixing it to inscriptions in the
same manner as the cross in later times. For, though Dr. Young
had some scruples in believing the statement of Sir A. Edmonstone,
that it holds that position in the sepulchres of the great Oasis, I can
attest that such is the case, and that numerous inscriptions, headed
by the Tau, are preserved to the present day on early Christian
monuments.":]:t Wilkinson, vol. v. pp. 283, 284.



the decisive victory at the Milvian bridge, that decided the fortunes
of avowed Paganism and nominal Christianity. That story, as commonly
told, if true, would certainly give a Divine sanction to the
reverence for the cross. But that story, -when sifted to the bottom,
according to the common version of it, will be found to be based on
a delusion—a delusion, however, into which so good a man as Milner
has allowed himself to fall. Milner's account is as follows :—" Constantine,
marching from France into Italy against Maxentius, in an
expedition which was likely either to exalt or to ruin him, was
oppressed with anxiety. Some god he thought heedful to protect
him ; the God of the Christians he was most inclined to respect, but
he wanted some satisfactory proof of His real existence and power,
and he neither understood the means of acquiring this, nor could he
be content with the atheistic indifference in which so many generals
and heroes since his time have acquiesced. He prayed, he implored
with such vehemence and importunity, and God left him not unanswered.
While he was marching with his forces in the afternoon,
the trophy of the cross appeared very luminous in the heavens,
brighter than the sun, with this inscription, ' Conquer by this.' He
and his soldiers were astonished at the sight ; but he continued
pondering on the event till night. And Christ appeared to him
when asleep with the same sign of the cross, and directed him
to make use of the symbol as his military ensign."* Such is the
statement of Milner. Now, in regard to the " trophy of the cross,"
a few words will suffice to show that it is utterly unfounded. I do
not think it necessary to dispute the fact of some miraculous sign
having been given. There may, or there may not have been on this
occasion a " dignus vindice nodus," a crisis worthy of a Divine interposition.
Whether, however, there was anything out of the ordinary
course, I do not inquire. But this I say, on the supposition that
Constantine in this matter acted in good faith, and that there actually
was a miraculous appearance in the heavens, that it was not the sign
of the cross that was seen, but quite a different thing, the name of
Christ. That this was the case, we have at once the testimony of
Lactantius, who was the tutor of Constantine's son Crispus—the
earliest author who gives any account of the matter, and the indisputable
evidence of the standards of Constantine themselves, as
handed down to us on medals struck at the time. The testimony
of Lactantius is most decisive : " Constantine was warned in a dream
to make the celestial sign of God upon his soldiers' shields, and so to
join battle. He did as he was bid, and with the transverse letter X
circumflecting the head of it, he marks Christ on their shields.
Equipped with this sign, his army takes the sword." f + Lactantius, De mortibus Persecutorum, 44, pp. 565, 566. The exact words
of Lactantius are as follows :—" Commonittis est in quiete Constantinus, ut cosleste
signum Dei notaret in scutis, atque ita prcelium committeret. Fecit ut jussus est
et transversa X literasummo capite circumflexo, Christum scutis notat. Quo signo
armatus exercitus capit ferrum."





" In Hoc Vinces X."  "In this thou shalt overcome."


letter X was just the initial of the name of Christ, being equivalent
in Greek to ch. If, therefore, Constantine did as he was bid, when
he made " the celestial sign of God " in the form of " the letter X,"
it was that " letter X," as the symbol of " Christ," and not the sign
of the. cross, which he saw in the heavens. When the Labarum, or
far-famed standard of Constantine itself, properly so called, was made,
we have the evidence of Ambrose, the well-known Bishop of Milan,
that that standard was formed on the very principle contained in
the statement of Lactantius—viz., simply to display the Redeemer's
name. He calls it " Labarum, hoc est Christi sacratum nomine
signum."*—"The Labarum, that is, the ensign consecrated by the
name of Christ."! There is not the slightest allusion to any cross
to anything but the simple name of Christ. While we have these
testimonies of Lactantius and Ambrose, when we come to examine
the standard of Constantine, we find the accounts of both authors
fully borne out ; we find that that standard, bearing on it these very
words, " Hoc signo victor eris," " In this sign thou shalt be a conqueror,"
said to have been addressed from heaven to the emperor, has
nothing at all in the shape of a cross, but " the letter X." In the
Roman Catacombs, on a Christian monument to " Sinphonia and her
sons," there is a distinct allusion to the story of the vision ; but that
allusion also shows that the X, and not the cross, was regarded as
the " heavenly sign." The words at the head of the inscription are
these :—
" In Hoc Vinces J
X."
Nothing whatever but the X is here given as the " Victorious Sign.''
There are some examples, no doubt, of Constantine's standard, in
which there is a cross-6ar, from which the flag is suspended, that contains
that "letter X;"§ and Eusebius, who wrote when superstition
and apostacy were working, tries hard to make it appear that that
cross-bar was the essential element in the ensign of Constantine. But
this is obviously a mistake ; that cross-bar was nothing new, nothing
peculiar to Constantine's standard. Tertullian shows || that that
cross-bar was found long before on the vexillum, the B.oman Pagan
* Ambrosii Opera, vol. iv. p. 327.
f Epistle of Ambrose to the Emperor Theodosius about the proposal to restore the
Pagan altar of Victory in the Roman Senate. The subject of the Labarum has been
much confused through ignorance of the meaning of the word. Bryant assumes
(and I was myself formerly led away by the assumption) that it was applied to the
standard bearing the crescent and the cross, but he produces no evidence for the
assumption ; and I am now satisfied that none can be produced. The name
Labarum, which is generally believed to have come from the East, treated as an
Oriental word, gives forth its meaning at once. It evidently comes from Lab, " to
vibrate," or "move to and fro," and dr, "to be active." Interpreted thus,
Labarum signifies simply a banner or flag, " waving to and fro " in the wind, and
this entirely agrees with the language of Ambrose,


* Ambrosii Opera, vol. iv. p. 327.
f Epistle of Ambrose to the Emperor Theodosius about the proposal to restore the
Pagan altar of Victory in the Roman Senate. The subject of the Labarum has been
much confused through ignorance of the meaning of the word. Bryant assumes
(and I was myself formerly led away by the assumption) that it was applied to the
standard bearing the crescent and the cross, but he produces no evidence for the
assumption ; and I am now satisfied that none can be produced. The name
Labarum, which is generally believed to have come from the East, treated as an
Oriental word, gives forth its meaning at once. It evidently comes from Lab, " to
vibrate," or "move to and fro," and dr, "to be active." Interpreted thus,
Labarum signifies simply a banner or flag, " waving to and fro " in the wind, and
this entirely agrees with the language of Ambrose, " an ensign consecrated by the
name of Christ," which implies a banner.
X " In this thou shalt overcome."
§ Dr. Maitlakd's Church in the Catacombs, p. 1C9.
|| Apologeticus Adv. Gentes, cap. 16, vol. i. pp. 368, 369.