CROSS, a gibbet made with two pieces of wood placed crosswise, whether they cross at right angles at the top, thus j-, or in the middle of their length, thus × . The cross to which our Saviour was fastened, and on which he died, was of the former kind, at least it is thus represented on old monuments and coins; and St Jerome compares it to a bird flying, and a man swimming, or praying with his arms extended. The punishment of the cross was common amongst the Syrians, Egyptians, Persians, Africans, Greeks, Romans, and Jews.

The death of the cross was the most dreadful of all punishments, by reason of the ignominy and suffering which attended it; and hence it was inflicted as the last mark of detestation upon the vilest of people. It was the punishment of robbers and murderers, provided that they were slaves too; but otherwise, if they were free, and had the privileges of the city of Rome, this was then thought too infamous a punishment for such a one, let his crimes be what they might.

The Mosaic law ordained that the persons executed should not be left upon the tree after sunset, because he who was hanged in this manner was deemed accursed of God. The Jews believe, that the souls of those who remain upon the gibbet, without burial, enjoy no peace, and receive no benefit from the prayers of other people; but that they wander up and down until their bodies are interred. This agrees with the notions which the Greeks and Romans entertained, as may be seen in Homer and in Virgil (Iliad, iv. and Aeneid, vi.)

The form of a cross being such as has been already described, the body of the criminal was fastened to the upright piece by nailing the feet to it, and on the transverse piece generally by nailing the hands on each side. v But, as these parts of the body, being the instruments of action and motion, are provided by nature with a much greater quantity of nerves than others have occasion for, and as all sensation depends upon the spirit contained in these nerves, it follows, as Stanhope observes, that where-cver they abound the sense of pain must needs be in proportion more quick and agonising.

The Jews confess that they indeed crucified people in their nation, but deny that they inflicted this punishment upon any one alive. They first put them to death, and then fastened them to the cross either by the hands or by the neck. But there are indisputable proofs of their having frequently crucified men alive. The worshippers of Baal-peor and the king of Ai were hung up alive; as were also the descendants of Saul, who were put into the hands of the Gibeonites.

Before crucifixion, the criminal was generally scourged with cords; and sometimes little bones, or pieces of bones, were tied to these scourges, that the condemned person might suffer more severely. It was also a custom that the person condemned to be crucified should bear his own cross to the place of execution. After this manner we find that Christ was compelled to bear his own cross; and, as he sunk under the burden, Simon the Cyrenian was constrained to bear it after him and with him. But as it is generally supposed that our Lord bore the whole cross, that is, both the long and the transverse part, this seems to be impossible; and therefore Lipsius (De Supplicio Crucis) has set the matter in its true light when he tells us that Jesus only carried the transverse beam; because the long beam, or the body of the cross, was either fixed in the ground before, or made ready to be set up as soon as the prisoner arrived; and from hence he observes that painters are very much mistaken in their description of our Saviour carrying the whole cross.

There were several ways of crucifying; sometimes the criminal was fastened with cords to a tree, sometimes he was crucified with his head downwards. This last way St Peter chose out of respect to his master Jesus Christ, not thinking himself worthy to be crucified like him; though the common way of crucifying was by fastening the criminal with nails, one through each hand, and one through both feet, or one through each of them; for this was not always performed in the same manner, the ancients sometimes representing Jesus Christ crucified with four nails, and sometimes with three. The criminal was fixed to the cross quite naked; and in all probability the Saviour of the world did not experience any greater tenderness than others upon whom the punishment was inflicted. The soldiers divided his clothes amongst them, and cast lots for his tunic, which is an under garment worn over the flesh like a shirt.

Sometimes they who were fastened upon the cross lived a good while in that condition. St Andrew is believed to have continued three days alive upon it. Eusebius speaks of certain martyrs in Egypt who were kept upon the cross till they were starved to death. Pilate was amazed at Jesus Christ dying so soon; because naturally he must have lived long, if it had not been in his power to have laid down his life and taken it up again. The thighs of the two thieves who were crucified together with our Saviour were broken, in order to hasten their death, that their bodies might not remain suspended upon the cross on the Sabbath day, and to comply with the law of Moses, which forbade the bodies to be left there after sunset. But among other nations they were suffered to remain upon the cross for a long time; sometimes they were devoured alive by birds and beasts of prey; and guards [7:7:481]were appointed to observe that none of their friends or relations should take them down and bury them. The story of the Ephesian matron and the soldier who was set to guard the cross, is very well known. The Roman soldiers who had crucified Jesus Christ and the two thieves continued near the crosses till the bodies were taken down and buried.

In former times, crosses were usually erected on the tops of houses, by which tenants pretended to claim the privileges of the Templars hospitallers, to defend themselves against their rightful lords. But this was condemned by the statute Will. II. c. 37. It was usual also, in those days, to set up crosses in places where the corpse of any of the nobility rested as it was carried to be buried, that a transeuntibus pro animo ejus deprecentur. Crosses are forbidden, by 13 Eliz. c. 2, to be brought into England, on pain of a praemunire. Invention of the Cross, an ancient feast solemnized on the third of May, in memory of St Helena, the mother of Constantine, finding the true cross of Christ deep in the ground on Mount Calvary, where she erected a church for the preservation of part of it; and the rest being brought to Rome, was deposited in the church of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem.

Theodoret mentions the discovery of three crosses, that of Jesus Christ and those of the two thieves; and, according to him, they distinguished between them by means of a sick woman, who was immediately healed by touching the true cross. The place is said to have been pointed out to her by St Quiriacus, then a Jew, but afterwards converted and canonized.

Exaltation of the Cross, an ancient feast held on the 14th of September, in memory of the restoration to Mount Calvary in 642, of the true cross, which had been carried off fourteen years before by Cosroes, king of Persia, upon his taking Jerusalem from the Emperor Phocas, and afterwards recovered by Heraclitus.

The adoration of the cross appears to have been practised in the ancient church; for the heathens, particularly Julian, reproach the primitive Christians with this species of idolatry, and we do not find that their apologists disclaim the charge. Mornay indeed asserted that this had been done by St Cyril, but could not support his allegation at the conference of Fontainbleau. St Helena is said to have reduced the adoration of the cross to its just principle, since she worshipped in the wood, not the wood itself, which would have been direct idolatry and heathenism, l but him who had been nailed to this wood. With such modifications some Protestants have been induced to admit the adoration of the cross. John Huss allowed the phrase, provided it were expressly added, that the adoration was relative solely to the person of Christ. But, however Roman I Catholics may seem to triumph in virtue of such distinctions and mitigations, it is well known that these have no great place in their own practice. Imbert, the good prior of Gascony, was severely prosecuted in 1683 for telling the people, that, in the ceremony of adoring the cross practised in that church on Good Friday, they were not to adore the wood, but Christ who was crucified on it. The curate of the parish, however, told them the contrary, affirming that it was the wood, and the wood only, they were to worship. Imbert replied, it was Christ, not the wood; and for this he was cited before the Archbishop of Bordeaux, suspended from his functions, and threatened with chains and perpetual imprisonment. It little availed him to cite the Bishop of Meaux’s distinction; it was answered that the church allowed it not.

CROss-Bearer (port-croix, cruci ger), in the Roman Catholic church, the chaplain of an archbishop or a primate, who bears a cross before him on solemn occasions.

The pope has the cross borne before him everywhere; a patriarch anywhere out of Rome; and primates, metropolitans, and those who have aright to the pallium, throughout their respective jurisdictions. Gregory XI. forbade all patriarchs and prelates to have it borne in presence of cardinals. A prelate bears a single cross, a patriarch a double cross, and the pope a triple one on his arms.

CROSS-Bearers also denote certain officers in the inquisition, who make a vow before the inquisitors or their vicars to defend the Catholic faith, though with the loss of fortune and life. Their business is to provide the inquisitors with necessaries; and they were formerly of great use; but in process of time their constitutions were changed, and they were called to undergo the penance of St Dominic.

Pectoral Cross, is a cross of gold or silver, or other precious materials, often enriched with diamonds, which the bishops, archbishops, abbots, and regular abbesses, wear hanging from the neck.

Order of the Cross, or Crusade, an order of ladies instituted in 1668 by the Empress Eleonora de Gonzagua, wife of the Emperor Leopold, on occasion of the miraculous recovery of a little golden cross in which were inclosed two pieces of the true cross, from the ashes of part of the palace, which had been consumed. It seems the fire had burnt the case in which it was inclosed, and melted the crystal, yet the wood remained untouched.

Maids of the Cross, a community of young women instituted in 1265, at Roye, in Picardy. They instructed young persons of their own sex, and some took the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, while others retained their liberty. They were under the direction of a superior.

Cross, in Heraldry, defined by Guillim an ordinary composed of fourfold lines, of which two are perpendicular, and the other two transverse; for so we must conceive of them, though they be not drawn throughout, but meet by couples, in four right angles, near the fesse point of the escutcheon.

This bearing was first bestowed on such as had performed, or at least undertaken, some service for Christ and the Christian profession; and it is held by many to be the most honourable charge in all heraldry. What brought it into such frequent use, was the expeditions into the Holy Land; for the pilgrims, after their return, took the cross as their cognizance, and the ensign of that war was the cross on the shoulder. In those expeditions the Scots carried a St Andrew’s cross; the French, a cross argent; the English, a cross or; the Germans, a cross sable; the Italians, a cross azure; the Spaniards, a cross gules.

St Georges Cross, or the red cross, in a field argent, is now the standard of England; that saint being the reputed patron of this nation.

But it is not only in crosses that the variety is so great; the same is found in many other bearings, and particularly in lions, and in parts of them, of which Columbière gives us no less than ninety-six varieties. Leigh mentions forty-six different crosses; Sylvanus Morgan, twenty-six; Upton, thirty; Johannes de Bado Aureo, twelve; and others, whom it is needless to mention, other numbers.