Monuments of the early church . -gions, it was the Mithras cult which competed most seriouslywith Christianity, and that, as a matter of fact, very curiousanalogies were to be traced between the two. One of these 240 PICTOBIAL ABT points of likeness was the fact that, as worshippers of the sun,they observed the same feast day as the Christians. Constan-tines edict forbidding the transaction of public business uponSunday seems to reflect the Mithraic mode of speech ratherthan the Christian, for he calls it the ancient and venerableday of the sun. One of Constantines coins (Fig. 81, a) repre-sen
Monuments of the early church . -gions, it was the Mithras cult which competed most seriouslywith Christianity, and that, as a matter of fact, very curiousanalogies were to be traced between the two. One of these 240 PICTOBIAL ABT points of likeness was the fact that, as worshippers of the sun,they observed the same feast day as the Christians. Constan-tines edict forbidding the transaction of public business uponSunday seems to reflect the Mithraic mode of speech ratherthan the Christian, for he calls it the ancient and venerableday of the sun. One of Constantines coins (Fig. 81, a) repre-sents the sun standing between two stars, one of which is in theshape of the cross. The inscription reads : Soli invicto title invictus (unconquered) given to the sun was peculiarto the Mithraic cult; it alludes to the principal festival of thatreligion — from which we derive our Christmas — when at thewinter solstice the sun proves himself unconquered by thewinter and begins to renew his power. A little later, on a. Fig. 81. —Four coins of coin of Nepotianus (Fig. 82, 6), the monogram is representedbetween two stars and would seem to stand for the sun. About the sign which Constantine saw in the sky there issome confusion, because it is not well understood that the mono-gram was actually intended to represent the cross, and thatwhenever during the Constantinian age a monument is spokenof as a cross, it may generally be presumed to be in the shapeof the monogram. When it is said that Constantine saw a crossin the sky, it is evidently the monogram that is meant, for themonogram was undoubtedly intended to represent what he hadseen. There is very strong probability that what he saw wasconnected in some way with the sun — some unusual and strik-ing effect of the suns rays — and the chief enigma whichremains is, how he came to associate this portent with a Chris-tianity which made of its cross so great a secret. No one has been able to suggest a satisfactory accou
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectchristi, bookyear1901
