Pm-itan standpoint : " If the miracle of the lumi- nous cross was a reality, has not God himself sanctioned the use of the cross as the appointed symbol of our religion ? so that there is no superstition in the use of it, but the Catholics are correct and the Protestants in an error on this subject ? " ^ Theodoret says that Constantine was called not of men or by men {oik oir' av^pciwov, oiiSe 5i' av^pd>Trov, comp. Gal. i. 1), but from heaven, as the divine apostle Paul was {uvpav69ev KaTo. Thf bf7ov o.-koo-toXoi'). Hist. Eccl. 1. i. c. 2. § 2. CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 25 all claim to credibility and common respectability. Besides it should be remembered that tlie older testimony of Lactantius, or whoever was the author of the work on the Deaths of Per- secutors, is quite independent of that of Eusebius, and dei-ives additional force from the vague heathen rumors of the time. Finally the Moo vince which has passed into proverbial signifi- cauce as a most appropriate motto of the invincible religion of the cross, is too good to be traced to sheer falsehood. Some actual fact, therefore, must be supposed to underhe the tradi- tion, and the question only is this, whether it was an external visible phenomenon or an internal experience. The hypothesis of a natural formation of the clouds, which Constantino by an optical illusion mistook for a supernatural sign of the cross, besides smacking of the exploded rationalistic explanation of the IN'ew Testament miracles, and deriving an important event from a mere accident, leaves the figure of Christ and the Greek or Latin inscription : By this sign thou shalt conquer ! altogether unexplained. We are shut up therefore to the theory of a dream or vision, and an experience within the mind of Constantine. This is supported by the oldest testimony of Lactantius, as well as by the report of Ruflnus and Sozomen, and we do not hesitate to regard the Eusebian cross in the skies as originally a part of the dream,' which only subsequently assumed the character of an outward objective apparition either in the imagination of Constantine, or by a mistake of the memory of the historian, but in either case without intentional fraud. That the vision was traced to supernatural origin, especially after the happy success, is quite natural and in perfect keeping with the j)i*evailing ideas of the age.'' TertulUan and other ' So Sozomenus, H. E. lib. i. cap. 3, expressly represents it : ovap elSe t^ toO (TTavpov a-n/xuou (TeXayi^ov, etc. Afterwards he gives, it is true, the fuller report of Eusebius in his own words. Comp. Eufin. ix. 9 ; Euseb. Vit. Const, i. 29 ; Lact. De mort. persec. 44, and the allusions of the heathen panegyrists. ^ Lieinius before the battle with Maximin had a vision of an angel who taught him a prayer for victory (Lactant. De mort. persec. c. 46). Julian the Apostate was even