introduced after such representations of the cross of four equal arms
and of the so-called Monogram of Christ had come into vogue among
Christians as a consequence of the influence of Constantine.



CHAPTER VII.

THE ESTABLISHER OF THE CHURCH.

Having already shown not a little cause for believing that the adoption
of the cross as our symbol is due to the fact that we Christians helped
to secure the triumph of the ambitious ruler of the Gauls, and after
receiving numberless smaller favours from Constantine during the years
he was ruler of Rome but not as yet sole emperor eventually obtained
from him the establishment of Christianity as the State Religion of the
Roman Empire, adapting the victorious trophy of the Gauls and the
various crosses venerated by them and other Sun-God worshippers to our
faith as best we could, it is desirable that we should pause to trace
the career of the man we hail as the first Christian Emperor.

To do this properly we must commence by referring to Constantine's
father, Constantius Chlorus; and to the favour shown to Constantius
Chlorus by his patron the Emperor Diocletian.

Finding the supreme rule of the almost worldwide Roman Empire too much
for one man in ill-health to undertake successfully, Diocletian in the
year A.C. 286 made Maximian co-emperor. And in A.C. 292 Diocletian
followed this up by conferring the inferior position and title of
Caesar upon Galerius and Constantius Chlorus.