[317:1] Tertullian, “De Praescrip.  Haeret.” c. 40.  See also Kaye’s Tertullian, p. 441.  “The ancient world was possessed by a dread of demons, and under an anxious apprehension of the influence of charms, sought for external preservatives against the powers of evil, and accompanied their prayers with external signs and gestures.”  Bunsen’s “Hippolytus,” iii. 351.

[317:2] See Justin Martyr, “Dialogue with Trypho,” pp. 259, 318, and “Apol.” ii. p. 90.  Tertullian, “Adv.  Judaeos,” c. 10.  In the “Octavius” of Minucius Felix, the following remarkable passage occurs:—­“What are your military ensigns, and banners, and standards, but crosses gilded and ornamented? Your trophies of victory not only imitate the appearance of a cross, but also of a man fixed to it.  We discern the sign of a cross in the very form of a ship, whether it is wafted along with swelling sails, or glides with its oars extended.  When a military yoke is erected there is a sign of a cross, and, in like manner, when one with hands stretched forth devoutly addresses his God. Thus, there seems to be some reason in nature for it, and some reference to it in your own system of religion.”  The monogram [symbol:  Chi-Rho], composed of the initial Greek capitals [Greek:  Chi] and [Greek:  Rho] of the name [Greek:  christos], was in use among the heathen long before our era.  It is to be found on coins of the Ptolemies.  Aringhus, “Roma Subterranea,” ii. p. 567.

[318:1] Tertullian maintains ("Ad Jud.” c. xi.) that the mark mentioned Ezekiel ix. 4 was the letter T, or the sign of the cross.  See a Dissertation on this subject by Vitringa, “Observationes Sacrae,” lib. ii. c. 15.  See also Origen.  “In Ezechielem,” Opera, tom. iii. p. 424, and Cyprian to Demetrianus, Sec. 12.  It would appear that the worshippers of Apollo used to mark themselves on the forehead with the letters [Greek:  CHI ETA].  See Kitto’s “Cyclopaedia of Bib.  Lit.” art.  FOREHEAD.

[318:2] Tertullian, “De Corona.” c. 3.  By the Romans, crosses were erected in conspicuous places to intimidate offenders, just in the same way as the drop is now exhibited in the front of a jail.  It is not improbable that some of these crosses were afterwards worshipped by the Christians!  Aringhi mentions a stone, to be seen in his own time in the Vatican, which was treated with the same absurd reverence.  On this stone many of the early Christians were said to have suffered martyrdom, probably by decapitation; but it was afterwards held “in very great honour” at Rome, and regarded as “a sacred thing!” “Roma Subterranea,’” i. 219.

[319:1] Minucius Felix, “Octavius,” c. 24.  There is a similar passage in Tertullian, “Apol.” c. 12.

[319:2] Clemens Alexandrinus, “Paedagog.” iii.  Opera, pp. 246, 247.

[319:3] Clemens Alexandrinus, “Stromat.” v.  Opera, p. 559.

[320:1] Canon 30.  The comment of the Roman Catholic Dupin upon this canon is worthy of note.  “To me,” says he, “it seems better to understand it in the plainest sense, and to confess that the Fathers of this Council did not approve the use of images, no more than that of wax candles lighted in full daylight.”—­History of Ecclesiastical Writers, Fourth Century.