PRESTON ROMAN PAVEMENT. 2 09 



This "Amulet of the Gauls" was adopted by Christians, who 

 named it " the star of Constantine." Regarded as a chrisma it 

 was, not the Chi Rho, but the Iota Chi, that found its place in 

 the decoration of Syrian churches, as at El Barah (Vogiie, 

 Plates 42, 49), and afterwards in Italy. 



The Labarum, a ringed Chi without the Iota, is called by 

 M. Gaidoz (pp. '/., p. 78) " la roue dquilaterale disposee 

 diagonalement." 



The dates given to some Irish Illuminated MSS. in a footnote 

 (p. 183) are the earliest references to them by the Annalists. 

 The late Bishop Reeves, to whom the question of their antiquity 

 was referred by Haddon and Stubbs, assigned the Books of 

 Armagh, Moling, Dimma, Macdurnan, Durrow, and Kells to the 

 early part of the IX. cent. (H. and S., Councils and Ecclesiastical 

 Documents, I., 190). 



