above, making up the five (as the Jerusalem Cross has and the wounds of Christ were). The middle figure has a threefold leaf (pointing to the Trinity) on the left side, and on the right alpha and omega in one letter, making so also the five. The last figure is simply a cross, the upright beam of which is shaped to a Greek R. It has the alpha on one side and the omega on the other.
At Philæ are—[1]
It would be easy to explain the first, but I do not wish to speculate, and pass rather to the second. Here we have in the four corners round shaped points or knobs, indicating already the later Jerusalem Cross with its four crosslets. And so it is with the next, which at the four ends has half circles, and is in appearance not very different from the Jerusalem Cross with the gallows-shaped ends and the four crosslets.
Going over to Europe we find a similar development of the cross in the time before the Crusades.
In the catacombs at Rome and elsewhere were found lamps with the following figures:[2]
Crosses of St. Andrew with a Greek R in the middle and on the sides, alpha and omega in the corners, in the one figure, and in the other two rings.
The Emperor Charlemagne (A.D. 768-814) put to his name and signature this sign:
