Monuments of the early church . mpire and the Church united in thesuppression of evil. It is strange to find upon so ancient amonument the expression of an idea which was destined to 242 PICT OBIAL ART become at once the greatest and the most disturbing ideal ofEuropean history. The Constantinian symbol was very early accompanied bythe letters Alpha and Omega, so that this sign came to signifynot only Christs Name and his Passion, but his Fig. 103 one may see two different types of the mono-gram with these two letters ; the third type of the monogram,without the letters, appears in
Monuments of the early church . mpire and the Church united in thesuppression of evil. It is strange to find upon so ancient amonument the expression of an idea which was destined to 242 PICT OBIAL ART become at once the greatest and the most disturbing ideal ofEuropean history. The Constantinian symbol was very early accompanied bythe letters Alpha and Omega, so that this sign came to signifynot only Christs Name and his Passion, but his Fig. 103 one may see two different types of the mono-gram with these two letters ; the third type of the monogram,without the letters, appears in Fig. 104. On a lead sarcoph-agus from Phoenicia (Fig. 9) the monogram is surrounded bythe letters of the word Ichthus. In the Christian Museum ofthe Vatican, there is a large representation of the monogram inivory, framed in a horseshoe instead of the wreath. From the very introduction of this emblem it became atonce exceedingly common throughout the Empire, and itserves as one of the readiest marks for distinguishing the date. Fig. 82. — Coins of Nepotianus, of early Christian monuments. Strange to say, it almost asquickly passed out of use. It is rare to find it in Rome laterthan the fatal year 410. It was from the first a symbol oftriumph, and it ill befitted the sad condition of Eome after itscapture by the Goths. The cross then came into use in itsrealistic form, and the type of monogram Which most closely re-sembled this (Fig. 80, /) remained latest in use. In the Orient,on the other hand, the original monogram survived much supposition that Constantine merely adopted a symbolwhich was already common among the Christians finds nosupport in the monuments, for there is nothing to show thatbefore his time these two letters w^ere ever combined as anemblem of Christ. They do appear, however, though veryrarely, as an abbreviation. The name Jesus was sometimesabbreviated by writing only the first two letters, IH. Like-wise, the two initials of the name Jesus Christ
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectchristi, bookyear1901
