statue of Serapis, adored it, and held it as a god. To comprehend which it is necessary first to know the Arabians of old times were people very learned in the heavens, and in the phases of the stars…made images and statues…rings and other things, taking care to do so, at certain times and epochs when the planets and other stars were in a certain posture." And further on he says, "it is remarkable how the Egyptians esteemed the symbol of the cross above all other symbols."
It may be that, as Pedro Mexia says, the Egyptians looked upon the cross as something sacred, because it is "a perfect and most excellent figure geometrically considered." All things are possible, but a whole people lost in the admiration of a figure for geometric reasons seems improbable. Geometry is a most admirable science, but appeals little to imagination, and still less to any of the well rooted principles of folly inherent in mankind, which generally impel them to choose a subject to adore.
Again Antonio Llobera, in his book called "El Porqué de Todas las Ceremonias," printed at Figueras by Ignacio Porter in 1758, informs us that "all temples and churches are symbols or figures of the human body…the high altar is the head, the transepts are the arms, and the rest of the temple…is the body," so that he knew apparently, that churches were built according to a canon and had assumed the form in which we know them for a special reason. Many have known as much as did Antonio Llobera, and like
