adopted as a Christian symbol, or whatever the reason for that
adoption, there is no doubt that, as will be shown further on, our
religion was considerably influenced by the facts that the Gaulish
soldiers whose victories enabled Constantine to become Sole Emperor
venerated the Solar Wheel, {image "solarwheel1.gif"} or {image
"solarwheel2.gif"}, and that their leader, who was anxious to obtain
the support of the Christians, allowed a loop to be added to the top of
the vertical spoke so that the Christians might be able to interpret
the victorious symbol as {image "monogram1.gif"} or {image
"monogram2.gif"}, {image "monogram3.gif"} or {image "monogram4.gif"};
_i.e._, XP or XPI, the first two or three letters of the Greek word
XPI{sigma}TO{sigma}, _Christos_, Christ.



CHAPTER VI.

ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN CROSS.

As has already been to some extent pointed out, it is evident that our
beloved Christendom more or less owes its existence to the fact that
Constantine the Great when only ruler of Gaul, himself a Sun-God
worshipper at the head of an army of Sun-God worshippers, seeing how
greatly the small but enthusiastic bodies of Christians everywhere to
be met with could aid him in his designs upon the attainment of supreme
power, bid for their support. For to this politic move, its success,
and Constantine's perception that only a non-national religion whose
followers sought to convert the whole world and make their faith a
catholic one, could really weld together different races of men, we owe
the fact that when he became Sole Emperor he made Christianity the