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 CROSS

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CROSS

HotrssATE, Les Ceremonies de la Semaine Sainte,. , eriltc dr la Croijc in Ra>. ties Questions Historiques (187S). XXIII. 47J sq.; The Sign of the Cross in the Early ChureA in The Dltb. Krv. (ISai). XX. 113; RKRNAnnAKis, I.r culle de la Croix che: Irs (Irees in Eclios d'OrunI (1901'), 193-202; Rkvius. De Cullu Crucis (Levdeu, ISol); Ai.i:kr. History of the Cross (Boston. 1858); Bkiukau. Ilistorii of the Holy Cross (London. 1S63); RoHAULT iiE Fleuhy. Mt'-moire siirles instruments de la Passion (Paris, 1870); Nestle, De Sanctd Cruce (Berlin. 1889).

On tlie Firuling of the Cross in particular: Papebrock in Aeta as., 3 May; Cabrol. Etude sur la Peregrinatio Silvia- (Paris, 1895), 103-105; Holden. Inventio S. Cruets (Leipzig. 1S89): Combes, tr. by Luigi Cappadelta, The Finding of the Cross (London. 1907); Stalev, The Liturgical Year, an Ez- •nlnnation of the Origin, Hislori/ and Significance of the Festival Doi/s and Fasting Dans of the English Church (London, 1907), 101-103; DurHESNE, tr. Mct'i.unE. Christian Worship (Lon- don, 1904), 274 sq., and of. li>. Liber Pontificalis, I, 374. 378; Fe *sev, Ancient English Ilolij Week Ceremonial (London, 1897), 114 sq.

See also Baumer in Kirchenlex., s. vv. Kreuz, Kreuzer- findung, Kreuz partikel: Marucchi in Diet, de la Bible, s. v. C'roj".r.- Schulte in Realencyk fur prot. Theol., s. vv. Kreuz u. Kreuzigung. Kreuzaiiffindung, Krcuzeszeichen.

For additional bibliography see Baumer and above all Chevauer, TopO'Bibl., s.v. Croix.

Fernand Cabrol.

III. The Cross and Crucifix in LiTtmcT. — (1) Material Objects in Liturgical Use.— A. The Altar- Cros.s. — As a permanpiit ailjunct to the altar, the cross or crucifix can hanlly be traced farther back than the thirteenth centurj'. The third canon of the Second Council of Tours (.567), "ut corpus Domini in altario non in imaginario ordine sed sub crucis titulo coni- ponatur"', which has sometimes been appealed to to prove the early existence of an altar-cross, almost certainly refers to the arrangement of the particles of the Host upon the corporal. They were to be arranged in the form of a cross and not according to any fanciful idea of the celebrant (see Hefele, Concilien- geschichte). On the other hand. Innocent lU at the beginning of the thirteenth century in his treatise on the Ma-ss says plainly, "a cross is set upon the altar, in the middle between two candlesticks", but even this probably refers only to the actual duration of the Holy Sacrifice. From the ninth to the eleventh cen- tury the rule is several times repeated: "Let nothing be placed on the altar except a chest with relics of saints or perhaps the four gospels or a pyx w'ith the Lord's Body for the viaticum of the sick" (cf. Thiers, Sur les principaux autels des ^glises, 129 sqq.). This no doubt was understood to exclude even the crucifix from the altar, and it is certain that in various liturgical ivory car^'ings of the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries no cross is shown. At the same time it should be noted that the ciborium, or canopy over the altar, was often surmounted by a plain cross, and also that the cnrontv, or ornamental circular frames which were suspended from the inner side of the ciborium, frequently had a cross hanging down in their midst. Some such corona> are explicitly referred to in the "Liber Pontificalis" during the ninth centurj'. The best-known existing example is the corona of Reccsvinlhus now at the Musee de Cluny, Paris, in which the pendent cross is set with large gems. The papal chronicle just referred to also mentions a silver cross which was erected not over, but close beside, the high altar of St. Peter's in the time of Leo III (795-816): "There also he made the cross of purest silver, gilded, which stands beside the high altar, and which weighs 22 pounds" (Lib. Pont., Leo III, c. Ixxxvii). It is probable that when the cross was first introduced as an ornament for the altar it w.as most commonly plain and without any figure of Our S;iv- iour. Such is the cross which a well-known Anglo- Saxon manuscript ropr(>sents King Cnut as presenting to Hyde Abbey. Winchester. But the a.ssociation of the figure of Christ with the cross was familiar in England as early as 678, when Benedict Biscop brought a painting of the Crucifixion from Rome (Bede, Hist. .Vbb.. §9). anil we can hardly doubt that a people capable of producing such sculptural work as the stone crosses at Ruthwell and Bewcastle. or

the Franks' casket, would soon have attempted the same subject in the solid. We know at any rate that a gold crucifix was found in the tomb of St. Edward the Confessor, and a crucifix is mentioned in one of the later Lives of St. Dunstaii. That such objects were sometimes used for the altar seems highly probable. Still, Innocent III speaks only of a cross, and it is certain that for several centuries later neither cross nor crucifix were left upon the altar except at Mass time. Even so late as the beginning of the sixteenth century an engraving in the Giunta "Corpus .luris " shows the altar-crucifix being carrieil in at high Mass by the celebrant, while in many French dioceses this or some similar custom lasted down to the time of Claude de Vert (Explication, IV, 31). At present the "Caere- moniale Episcopo rum " assumes the permanency of the crucifix on the altar, with its attendant candlesticks [see Altar-Crucifix, under Alt.\r (in Liturgy)].

(1) B. The Processional Cross. — When Bede tells us that St. Augustine of England and his companions came before Ethelbert "carrying a silver cross for a standard" {reniebant crucem provexillo jerenles argen- team) while they said the litanies, he probably touches upon the fundamental idea of the processional cross. Its use seems to have been general in early times and it is so mentioned in the Roman "Ordines" as to suggest that one belonged to each church. An inter- esting specimen of the twelfth century still survives in the Cross of Cong, preserved in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. This is made of oak covered with copper plates, but much decoration is added in the form of gold filigree work. It lacks most of the shaft, but is two feet six inches high, and one foot six inches across the arms. In the centre is a boss of rock crystal, which formerly enshrined a relic of the True Cross, and an inscription tells us that it was made for Turloch O'Conor, King of Ireland (1123). It seems never to have had any figure of Christ, but other processional crosses of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries are for the most part true crucifixes. In a great number of cases the shaft was removable, and the upper portion could be set in a stand to be used as an altar-cross. Indeed it seems not improbable that this was the actual origin of the altar-cross employed during Mass (Rohault de Fleury, La Messe, V, 123-140). Just as the seven candle- sticks carried before the pope in Rome were deposited before or behind the altar, and probably developed into the six altar-candlesticks (seven, it will be re- membered, when a bishop celebrates) with which we are now familiar, so the processional cross seems also to have first been left in a stand near the altar ami ultimately to have taken its place upon the altar itself. To this day the ritual books of the Chinch seem to assume that the handle of the processional cro.ss is detachable, for in the funeral of infants it is laid down that the cross is to be carried without its handle. All Christians are supposed to be the fol- lowers of Christ, hence in procession the crucifix is carried first, with the figure turned in the direction in which the procession is moving.

(1) C. Archiepiscopal and Papal Cross. — It is not e.a.sy to determine with certainty at what period the archie- piscopal cross came into separate use. It was prob- ably at first only an ordinary processional cross. In the tenth "Ordo Romanus" we read of a subdeacon who is set aside to carry the crui papalis. If this specially pajj.al cro.ss had been in existence for some time it is likely that it was imitated by patriarchs and metropolitans as a mark of dignity which went with the pallitim. In the twelfth centurv- the archbi.shop's cross w.as generally recognizeil, and in the dispute regarding the primacy between the Archbishojjs of Canterbury and York the right to carry their cross before them played a prominent part. In 112.') Pope Honorius II admonished the Southern bishops of England that they should allow Archbishop Thurstan