Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/595

 CROSS CROSS of images was forbidden to the Jews by that text of Exodus (xx, 4 sqq.) which has been so grossly abused by Iconoclasts and Protestants: "Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth be- neath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them: I am the Lord thy God," etc. It also explains the fact that in the first ages of Christianity, when con- verts from paganism were so numerous, and the im- pression of idol-worship was so fresh, the Church found it advisable not to permit the development of this cult of images; but later, when that danger had disappeared, when Christian traditions and Christian instinct had gained strength, the cult developed more freely. Again, it should be noted that the cult of images and relics is not that of latria, which is the adoration due to God alone, but is, as the Second Council of Nicaea teaches, a relative veneration paid to the image or rehc and referring to that which it represents. Pre- cisely this same doctrine is repeated in Session XXV of the Council of Trent : " Images are not to be wor- shipped because it is believed that some divinity or power resides in them and that they must be wor- shipped on that account, or because we ought to ask anything of them, or because we should put our trust in them, as was done by the gentiles of old who placed their hope in idols; but because the honour which Is shown to them is referred to the prototypes which they represent; so that through the images which we kiss, and before which we kneel, we may adore Christ, and venerate the saints, whose semblances they bear." (See also Image.s.) This clear doctrine, which cuts short every objec- tion, is also that taught by Bellarmine, by Bossuet, and by Peta-ius. It must be said, however, that this view was not always so clearly taught. Following Bl. Albertus Magnus and Alexander of Hales, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas, and a section of the Schoolmen who appear to have overlooked the Second Council of Nicaea teach that the worship rendered to the Cross and the image of Christ is that of latria, but with a distinction: the same worship is due to the image and its exemplar, but the exemplar is honoured for Himself (or for itself), with an absolute worship; the image because of its exemplar, with a relative worship. The object of the adoration is the same, though it be primarj' in regard to the exemplar and secondary in regard to the image. To the image of Christ, then, we owe a worship of latria as well as to His Person. The image, in fact, is morally one with its prototype, and, thus considered, if a lesser degree of worship be rendered to the image, that worship must reach the exemplar lessened in degree. Against this theory an attack h.is recently been made in "The Tablet", the opinion attributed to the Thomists being sharply combated. Its adversaries have endeavoured to prove that the image of Christ should be venerated but with a lesser degree of honour than its exemplar. The cult paid to it, they say, is simply analogous to the cult of latria, but in its nature different and in- ferior. No image of Christ, then, should be honoured with the worship of Intria, and, moreover, the term " relative latria ", invented by the Thomists, ought to be banished from theological language a.s equivocal and dangerous. — Of these opinions the former rests chiefly upon considerations of pure reason, the latter upon ecclesiastical tradition, notably upon the Sec- ond Council of Xiciea and its confirmation by the Fourth Council of Constantinople and upon the decree of the Council of Trent. (.'i) Relics of the True Cross. — The testimony of Silvia (Etheria) proves how highly these relics were prized, while St. Cyril of Jerusalem, her contemporarj', testifies as explicitly that "the whole inhabited earth is full of relics of "the wood of the Cross". In 1889 two French archa'ologists, Letaille and Audollent, discovered in the district of S^tif an inscription of the year 359 in which, among other relics, is mentioned the sacred wood of the Cross (de ligno crucis et de terra promissionis ubi natus est Christus). Another inscription, from Rasgunia (Cape Matifu), somewhat earlier in date than the preceding, mentions another relic of the Cross ("sancto ligno salvatoris adlato". — See Duchesne in Acad, des inscr., Paris, 6 December, 1889; Morel, "Les missions catholiques", 25 March, 1890, p. 156; Catech. iv in P. G., XXXIII, 469; cf. also ibid., 800; Procopius, "De Bello Persico", II, xi). St. John Chrj'sostom tells us that fragments of the True Cross are kept in golden reliquaries, which men reverently wear upon their persons. The passage in the "Peregrinatio" which treats of this devotion has already been cited. St. Paulinus of Nola, some years later, sends to Sulpicius Severus a fragment of the True Cross with these words: "Receive a great gift in a little [compass] ; and take, in [this] almost atomic segment of a short dart., an armament [against the perils] of the present and a pledge of everlasting safety" (Epist. xxxi, n. 1, P. L., LXI, 325). About 455 Juvenal, Patriarch of Jerusalem, sends to Pope St. Leo a fragment of the precious wood (S. Leonis Epist. cxxxix, P. L., LIV, 1108). The "Liber Ponti- ficalis", if we are to accept the authenticity of its statement, tells us that, in the pontificate of St. Syl- vester, Constantino presented to the Sessorian basi- lica (Santa Croce in Gerusalemme) in Rome a portion of the True Cross (Duchesne, Liber Pontif., I, 80: cf. 78, 178, 179, 195). Later, under St. Hilary (461- 68) and under Symmachus (498-514) we are again told that fragments of the True Cross are enclosed in altars (op. cit., I, 242 sq. and 261 sq.). About the year 500 Avitus, Bishop of Vienne, asks for a portion of the Cross from the Patriarch of Jerusalem (P. L., LIX, 236, 239). It is known that Radegunda, Queen of the Franks, having retired to Poitiers, obtained from the Emperor Justin II, in 569, a remarkable relic of the True Cross. A solemn feast was celebrated on this occasion, and the monastery founded by the queen at Poitiers re- ceived from that moment the name of Holy Cross It was also upon this occasion that Venantius For- tunatus. Bishop of Poitiers, and a celebrated poet of the period, composed the hymn "Vexilla Regis" which is still sung at feasts of the Cross in the Latin Rite. St. Gregory I sent, a little later, a portion of the Cross to Theodolinda, Queen of the Lombards (Ep. xiv, 12), and another to Recared, the first Catholic King of Spain (Ep. ix, 122). In 690, under Sergius I, a casket was found containing a relic of the True Cross which had been sent to John III (560-74) by the Emperor Justin II (cf. Borgia, "De Cruce Vaticanii", Rome, 1779, p. 63, and Duchesne, "Liber Pontifi- calis", I, 374, 378). We will not give in detail the history of other relics of the Cross (see the works of Gretser and the articles of Kraus and Baumer quoted in the bibliography). The work of Rohault de Floury, "Memoire sur les instnnnent.s de la Passion" (Paris, 1870), describes more prolonged attention; its author has sought out with great care and learning all the relics of the Trite Cross, drawn up a catalogue of them, and, thanks to this labour, he has succeeded in showing that, in spite of what various Protestant or Rationalistic authors have pretended, the frag- ments of the Cross brought together again would not only not "be comparable in bulk to a battleship", but would not reach one-third that of a cross which has been supposed to have been three or four metres in height, with a transverse branch of two metres (see above, under I), proportions not at ali abnormal (op. cit., 97-179). Here is the calculation of this savant: Supposing the Cross to have been of pine-wood, as is believed by the savants who have made a special study of the subject, and giving it a weight of about seventy- five kilograms, we find that the volume of this cross was