Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/584

 CROSS

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CROSS

Both the Latin and Greek crosses play an important part in the architectural and decorative styles of church buildings during the fourth and subsequent centuries. The church of Santa Croce at Ravenna is in the form of a Latin cross; and on the pillars of a church built by Bishop Paulinus at Tyre in the fourth century the cross is carved in the Latin way. The facade of the Catliolicon at Athens shows a large Latin cross. And this style of cross was adopted by West and East until the schism occurred between the two churches. Indeed, at Constanti- nople the church of the Apostles, the first church of S. Sophia, consecrated by Constantine, those of the monastery of St. John at Studium, of St. Demetrius at Salonica, of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, as well as many churches at Athens, are in the form of the Latin cross; and it appears in the decorations of capitals, balustrades, and mosaics. In the far-off lands of the Picts, the Bretons, and the Saxons, it was carved on stones and rocks, with elaborate and complex Runic decorations. And even in the Cathol- icon at Athens, crosses no less lavishly ornamented are to be found. In out-of-the-way places in Scot- land, too, it has been discovered (cf. Dictionnaire de r.\cademie des Beaux- Arts, V, 38).

The Greek cross appears at intervals and rarely on monuments during the early Christian centuries. The Crypts of Lucina, in the Catacomb of St. Callistus, yield an inscription which had been placed on a double grave or sepulchre, with the names POT*IXA: EIPHNH. Beneath this is seen the equilateral cross ■J — a disguised image of the gibbet on which the '"I"' Redeemer died (De Rossi, Rom. Soft., I, p. 333, PI. XVIII). It is to be found also painted into the mantle of Moses in a fresco from the Catacomb of St. Saturninus on the Via Salaria Nuova (Perret, Cat. de Rome, III, PI. VI). In later times it is to be seen in a mosaic of a church at Paris built in the days of King Childebert (Lenoir, Statistique monumentale de Paris) and carved on the pedestals of the columns in the basilica of Constantine in the Agro Verano; also on the roofs and pillars of churches, to denote their consecration. More often, as we might expect, we find it on the fagades of the Byzantine basihcas and in their adornments, such as altars, iconastases, sacred curtains for the enclosure, thrones, ambones and sacerdotal vestments. When the Emperor Jus- tinian erected the church of Santa Sophia at Constan- tinople, with the aid of the architects Artemius of Tralles, and Isidore of Miletus, a new architectural type was created which became the model for all churches subsequently built within the Byzantine Empire, and the Greek cross inscribed in a square thus became their typical ground-plan. Perhaps, too, the church of the Twelve Apostles may have been built upon this plan, as a famous epigram of St. Gregory Nazianzen would seem to indicate. There are other forms of cross, such as the crux gammata, the criLV floridd, or flowering cross, the pectoral cross, and the patriarchal cross. But these are noteworthy rather for their various uses in art and liturgy than for any peculiarity of style.

The complete and characteristic form ^ of Christ's monogram is obtained by the super -^N posit ion of the two initial Greek letters, chi and rko, of the name XPISTOS. This is inexactly called the Con- stantinian monogram, although it was in use before the days of Constantine. It gained this name, how- ever, because in his day it came much into fashion, and derived a triumphal signification from the fact that the emperor placed it on his new standard, i. e. the Labarutn (Marucchi, "Di una pregevole ed inedita inscrizione cristiana" in "Studi in Italia", anno VI, II, 1883). Older, but less complete, forms of this monogram are made up of the crux ilecusgafa accom- panied by a defective letter T, differing only slightly from the letter I, or encircled by a crown. These

forms, which were used principally in the third cen- tury, present a striking resemblance to a cross, but all of them are manifest allusions or symbols.

Another symbol largely employed during the third and fourth centuries, the swastika already spoken of at some length, still more closely resembles the cross. On monuments dating within the Christian Era it is known as the crux gammata, because it is made by joining four gammas at their bases. Many fantastic significations have been attached to the use of this sign on Christian monuments, and some have even gone so far as to conclude from it that Christianity is nothing but a descendant of the ancient religions and myths of the people of India, Persia, and Asia generally ; then these theorists go on to point out the close relation- ship that exists between Christianity, on the one hand, and Buddhism and other Oriental religions, on the other. At the very least they insist upon seeing some relation between the symbolical concepts of the an- cient religions and those of Christianity. Such was the opinion held by Emile Bumouf (cf. Revue des Deux Mondes, 15 August, 1868, p. 874). De Rossi ably refuted this opinion, and showed the real value of this symbol on Christian monuments (Bull, d' arch, crist., 1868, 88-91). It is fairly common on the Christian monuments of Rome, being found on some sepulchral inscriptions, besides occurring twice, painted, on the Good Shepherd's tunic in an arcosolium in the Cata- comb of St. Generosa in the Via Portuensis, and again on the tunic of the fossor Diogenes (the original epi- taph is no longer extant) in the Catacomb of St. Domi- tilla in the Via Ardeatina. Outside of Rome it is less frequent. There is one example in an inscription found at Chiusi (see Cavedoni, Ragguaglio di due antichi cimiteri di Chiusi). A stone in the museum at Bergamo bears the monogram joined to the gamma cross, but it would seem to be of Roman origin. An- other in the JIannheim Museum, vnth the name of a certain Hugdulfus, belongs to the fifth or sixth cen- tury. In a sarcophagus at Milan belonging to the fourth centurj' it is repeated over and over again, but evidently as a mere ornamental motive (see Alle- granza, Mon. di Milano, 74).

De Rossi (Rom. Sott. Crist., II, 318) made re- searches into the chronology of this symbol, and the examples of it l be found in the catacombs at Rome, and he observed that it was seldom or never used until it took the place of the anchor, i. e. about the first halt of the third centurj^, whence he inferred that, not be- ing of ancient tradition, it came into fashion as the re- sult of studied choice rather than as a primitive sym- bol linking the beginnings of Christianity with Asiatic traditions. Its genesis is reflex and studied, not primi- tive and spontaneous. It is well known how anx- iously the early Christians sought out means whereby they could at once portray and conceal the Cross of Christ. That in this way they should have discovered and adopted the crux gammata, is easily intelligible, and it is explained not merely by what has already been said, but also by the similarity between the Greek character gamitia (V) and the Phoenician character tan. The latter has been famous since Apostolic times as a symbol of the Cross of Christ and of the Re- demption (cf. Barnabse Epist., ix, 9).

On the crux gammata (swastika) on Christian monumenta and its relation to similar signs on pre-Christian monuments ia the East: Mi nter, ginnbilder der alien ChrMen, 73-85; Le- TRONNK. Annalidcir htit. diCorr. Arch. (1S43), 122; Rochette, Mem. del' acadcniie des inscriptions, pi. II. 302 sq.; MiNER\T[Na, Bull. .Areh. Xap.. Ser. 2, II, 178. 179; C.ivedoni. Ragguaglio di due anliehi cimilcri di Chiusi, 70; G.tRRCCCl, Veiri (2d_ed.), 242, 243; Ml-nz, Archaoloffische Bemerkungen iiber das Kreuz, 25. 26.

Theso-calledConstantinian monogram prevailed dur- ing the whole of the fourth century, assimiing various forms, and combining with the apocalyptic letters A and (see ,\i.rHA .\ni) Omec.x), but ever approaching more and more closely to the form of the cross pure