Footnote

The cross as a symbol dates back to an unknown antiquity. It was recognized in all countries throughout the world at all times. Before the present era the Buddhists, Brahmans, and Druids utilized the device. Seymour tells us: “The Druids considered that the long arm of the cross symbolized the way of life, the short arms the three conditions of the spirit world, equivalent to heaven, purgatory and hell.” With the ancient Egyptians the cross was a reverenced symbol. Their ankh (crux ansata or handled cross) represented life, and a perpendicular shaft with several arms at right angles (Nile cross) appears to have had some reference to fertility of crops. Five of their planet symbols . . . were represented by a cross attached to a circle or part of a circle. Prescott says that when the first Europeans arrived in Mexico, to their surprise, they found “the cross, the sacred emblem of their own faith, raised as an object of worship in the temples of Anahuac.”