f Christ Jesus was a figure of a
_lamb_,[202:4] to which sometimes a vase was added, into which his blood
flowed, and at other times couched at the foot of a cross. _This custom
subsisted up to the year 680, and until the pontificate of Agathon,
during the reign of Constantine Pogonat._ By the sixth synod of
Constantinople (canon 82) it was ordained that instead of the ancient
symbol, which had been the LAMB, _the figure of a man fastened to a
cross_ (such as the _Pagans_ had adored), should be represented. All
this was confirmed by Pope Adrian I.[202:5]

A simple cross, which was the symbol of eternal life, or of salvation,
among the ancients, was sometimes, as we have seen, placed alongside of
the _Lamb_. In the course of time, the _Lamb_ was put on the cross, as
the ancient _Israelites_ had put the paschal lamb centuries
before,[202:6] and then, as we have seen, they put a _man_ upon it.

Christ Jesus is also represented in early art as the "Good Shepherd,"
that is, as a young man with a lamb on his shoulders.[202:7]

This is just the manner in which the Pagan Apollo, Mercury and others
were represented centuries before.[203:1]

Mrs. Jameson says:

"_Mercury_ attired as a _shepherd_, with a _ram_ on his
shoulders, borne in the same manner as in many of the
Christian representations, was no unfrequent object (in
ancient art) and in some instances led to a difficulty in
distinguishing between the two,"[203:2] that is, between
_Mercury_ and _Christ Jesus_.

M. Renan says:

"The Good Shepherd of the catacombs in Rome is a copy from the
_Aristeus_, or from the _Apollo Nomius_, which figured in the
same posture on the _Pagan_ sarcophagi; and still carries the
flute of _Pan_, in the midst of the four half-naked
seasons."[203:3]

The Egyptian Saviour _Horus_ was called the "Shepherd of the
People."[203:4]

The Hindoo Saviour _Crishna_ was called the "Royal Good
Shepherd."[203:5]

We have seen, then, on the authority of a Christian writer who has made
the subject a special study, that, "there seems no just grounds at
present for assigning an earlier date," for the "earliest instances of
the crucifixion" of Christ Jesus, represented in art, than the _eighth_
or _ninth_ century. Now, a few words in regard to _what these crucifixes
looked like_. If the reader imagines that the crucifixes which are
familiar to us at the present day are similar to those early one