A reply unto M. Hardinges answerA replie vnto M. Hardinges ansvveare

And, to conclude, we grant, that the people, being newly brought to the knowledge of the Gospel, after they had pulled down the Scutchins of the Idol Serapis,¹ & other like Monuments of Idolatry, in the place thereof, straight way set up the Cross of Christ in token of Conquest,² in their entries, in their Walls, in their Windows, in their Posts, in their Pillars: briefly in their Flags, Banners, Arms, Scutchins, Targets, and Coins.³ Al these things, I say, we yield unto M. Harding without exception. Even so Christian Princes this day use the same Cross in their Arms, & Banners, both in peace, & in war, of divers forms, and sundry colours, as in token,⁴ they fight under the banner of Christ. Labarum among the old Romans was the Imperial standard of Arms, richly wrought in Gold, & beset with stone, carried only before the General of the field, & therefore reverenced of the soldiers above all other. Sozomenus as a Greek writer, & therefore not able to guess rightly of the Latin tongue,⁵ seemeth to call it, Laborum. For thus he writeth:[Greek or Hebrew]: The one of the standards, which the Romans call Laborum: ⁶Onles there be an error in the Greek. Notwithstanding it may be thought, The Emperor Severus had some respect unto the same,⁷ when he gave this Watchword unto his Soldiers, Laboremus, Let us labour. Likewise S. Gregorie writeth, Christum belli socium habuisti, cuius Labarum insigne gestasti, ipsā dico vivificatricem Crucem: This standard the Christian Emperor Constantinus so blazed with the Cross, as others before him had done with Minotaurus, ⁸or with Aquila. And, notwithstanding Eusebius say, Constantinus used this Cross, as a preservation of his safety, yet doubtless his affiance was only in Christ, and not in the Material Cross. For Niceporus saith, Constantinus caused these words to be graven in the Cross,