Page:Curious myths of the Middle Ages (1876).djvu/390

 word for sign used by the prophet is Tau, meaning, as Gesenius says in his Lexicon, signum cruciforme; and he adds, “The Hebrews on their coins adopted the most ancient cruciform sign 🞣.”

The Mediævals went further still, they desired to see the cross still stronger characterized in the history of the Jewish Church, and as the records of the Old Covenant were deficient on that point, they supplemented them with fable.

That fable is the romance or Legend of the Cross, a legend of immense popularity in the Middle Ages, if we may judge by the numerous representations of its leading incidents, which meet us in stained glass and fresco.

In the churches of Troyes alone, it appears on the windows of S. Martin-ès-Vignes, of S. Pantaléon, S. Madeleine, and S. Nizier.

It is frescoed along the walls of the choir of the church of S. Croce at Florence, by the hand of Agnolo Gaddi. Pietro della Francesca also dedicated his pencil to the history of the Cross in a series of frescoes in the Chapel of the Bacci, in the church of S. Francesco at Arezzo. It occurs as a predella painting among the specimens of early art