Note 218 — Chapter XII · OTHER FORMS OF PAGAN RESIDUUM IN CHRISTIANITY.

Boissier gives a minute account of the vision of Constantine and its effects in leading him to favor Christianity. He quotes from Lactantius, tutor of Constantine’s sons, who describes the vision of the Emperor in his treatise, The Death of the Persecutors. This summary, given by Boissier, shows that the sign which Constantine saw in his vision, and which he engraved upon his military standard, was not the cross proper, but the monogram known as the Chi-Ro. It is described by Lactantius in these words: “The letter ‘X’ crossed by a bar, the top of which was gently recurved, forming thus the monogram of Christ”—(cf. La Fin du Paganisme).