CROSS and CRUCIFIXION, an instrument, and method, of capital punishment widely used in ancient times. It is doubtful whether crucifixion was employed by the Greeks ; the Romans, who inflicted it only on slaves and criminals of the lowest class, probably borrowed it from the Carthaginians, among whom its use was frequent. Hints of its use among the Jews have been seen in Deut. xxi. 2 2-23 ; Josh. viii. 29, x. 26.
The victim of this cruel ishment was either impaled on, or bound to, an upright stake (crux simplex) ; or else fastened, by cords or by nails through his hands and feet, to an upright post (stipes) with a cross-bar bulum). In either case he was then left to die of exhaustion, thirst and wounds (under the mans crucifixion was always ceded by scourging). Besides the simple stake, the Romans used three kinds of cross: the crux commissa, or tau cross (T), sometimes called St. Anthony's cross; c. immissa, or Latin cross (1-) ; c. decussata, or St. Andrew's cross (X . By general dition, it was on a crux immissa that Christ died; but some hold it was the tau cross. After the scourging, the criminal was made to carry his cross to the place of execution; he was then stripped naked, and nailed or bound to the cross as it lay on the ground, or after it had been set up in position. The former method is most frequently f ounn in representations of the crucifixion of Christ ; but a few miniatures and other paintings depict Him as mounting a ladder placed against the cross, and the ladder is not infrequently found among the mediaeval "Emblems of the Passion." Pre-Christian Crosses.—The cross has been used both as a religious symbol and as an ornament from the dawn of man's civilization. Various objects, dating from periods long anterior to the Christian era, have been found, marked with crosses of different designs, in almost every part of the old world. India, Syria, Persia and Egypt have all yielded number less examples, while numerous instances, dating from the later Stone age to Chris tian times, have been found in nearly every part of Europe. The use of the cross as a religious symbol in pre-Christian times and among non-Christian peoples may prob ably be regarded as almost universal, and in very many cases it was connected with some form of nature worship. Two of the most frequent forms of pre-Christian cross are the tau cross, so named from its resemblance to the Greek capital letter T, and the swastika or f ylf of fj also called "Gammadion" or crux gammata, owing to its form being that of four Greek capital letters gamma r placed together. The tau cross with a handle ( crux ansata) often occurs in Egyptian and Assyrian sculp tures as a symbol of divinity. The swastika has a very wide range of distribution and is found on all kinds of objects. It was used as a religious emblem in India and China many cen turies before the Christian era, and is met with on prehistoric monuments from various parts of Europe, Asia and America. It is, in fact, a device of such common occurrence on objects of pre Christian origin that it is hardly necessary to specify individual in stances. The cross, as a device in different forms and often en closed in a circle, is of frequent occurrence on coins and medals of pre-Christian date in France and elsewhere. Indeed, objects marked with pre-Christian crosses are to be seen in every impor tant museum.
Another festival of the holy cross is kept on Sept. 14 and is known as the "Exaltation of the Holy Cross." It seems to have originated at Jerusalem, to commemorate first the dedication, in the year 335, of the churches built on the sites of the crucifixion and the holy sepulchre and afterwards the restoration by Herac lius, in 629, of the relic which had been carried off by the Persians in 614. It came into observance at Rome before the end of the 7th century and has long been one of the principal feasts of the Roman Catholic Church.
The superscription placed over the Saviour's head, which St. Helena is said to have found with the cross, seems to have been sent by Constantine to Rome, where it is now preserved in the church of S. Croce in Gerusalemme. As regards the nails, a ques tion has arisen as to their number. In most of the early pictures of the Crucifixion the feet are shown as separately nailed to the cross, but at a later period they are crossed, and a single nail fixes them. In the former case there would be four nails, in the latter only three; and it has been argued that there were probably only two, one for each hand. Four is the number generally accepted: one is said to have been cast by St. Helena into the sea, during a storm, in order to subdue the waves ; another is said to have been beaten out into the iron circlet of the crown of Lombardy, now preserved at Monza. Some 3o more "holy nails" are preserved among the relics at Milan, Carpentras and other places.
The employment of the cross as the Christian symbol has been so manifold in its variety and application, and the different forms to which the figure has been adapted and elaborated are so com plex, that it is only possible to deal with the outline of the subject.
We learn from Tertullian and other early Christian writers of the constant use which the Christians of those days made of the sign of the cross. Tertullian (De Cor. Mil. cap. iii.) says: "At each journey and progress, at each coming in and going out, at the putting on of shoes, at the bath, at meals, at the kindling of lights, at bedtime, at sitting down, whatsoever occupation engages us, we mark the brow with the sign of the cross." We should naturally expect, therefore, to find it very frequently used in the public worship of the Church. The earliest liturgical forms are comparatively late, and are without rubrics, but allusions by early writers to the ceremonial use of the sign of the cross in the public services are so numerous, and lay such stress upon it, that we are left in no doubt on the point. St. Augustine, indeed, speaks of the sacraments as not duly ministered if the use of the sign of the cross were absent from their ministration (Horn. cxviii. in St. Joan). As to its later liturgical use we need only refer to the service books of the Greek and Latin churches, which plainly indi cate the frequency of, and the importance attached to, its employ ment. Its occasional use is retained by the Lutherans, and in the Church of England it is authoritatively used at baptism, and at the "sacring" or anointing of the sovereign at the coronation.
Besides the forms of cross already described, the equilateral or Greek cross (+) should be mentioned. It appears, though rarely, on early Christian monuments, and from the 4th century onwards has been of fre quent use, especially in the Eastern Churches.
( For such crosses see HERALDRY. ) Church Crosses.—In the middle ages the cross-form, in one way or another, was predominant everywhere, and was intro duced whenever opportunity offered itself for doing so. The larger churches were planned on its outline, so that the ridge line of their roofs proclaimed it far and wide. This was more particularly followed in north Europe, but when it was first intro duced is not quite certain. Practically all the ancient cathedral churches of England and Wales are cruciform in plan; Llandaff is an exception.
The artistic skill and ingenuity of the mediaeval designer have produced cross designs of endless variety and of singular elegance and beauty. Some of the most beautiful of these designs are the gable crosses of the old churches. Fig. 5 shows the west gable cross of Washburn church, Worcestershire ; fig. 6 that of the nave of Castle Acre church, Norfolk; and fig. 7 the east gable cross of Hethersett church in that county. They may be taken as good examples of a type of cross which is of ten of great beauty, but it is overlooked owing to its bad position for observation.
Other architectural crosses, of great beauty of design, are those which occur on the grave slabs of the middle ages. In stances of a plainer type occur in Saxon times, but after the 11th century they were fashioned after the intricate and beautiful designs with which ancient churches are, as a rule, so plentifully supplied. Sometimes these crosses are incised in the slab, some times they are executed in low relief. The long shaft of the cross is most commonly plain, but in many instances branches, with leaf designs, are thrown out at intervals down the entire length of the shaft. The Calvary cross (Latin cross on steps) is sometimes found. Fig. 8 from Stradsett church, Nor folk, and fig. 9 from Bosbury church, Here fordshire, are good examples of the designs at the head of sepulchral crosses. Of up right standing crosses the Irish and Iona types are well known, and their great artis tic beauty and elaboration and excellence of sculpture are universally recognized. These crosses are sometimes spoken of as "Runic Crosses," some of them bearing in scriptions in Runic characters. Standing crosses, of different kinds, were commonly set up in every suitable place during the middle ages, as the mutilated bases and shafts still remaining readily testify. Such crosses were erected in the centre of the market place, in the churchyard, on the village green, or as boun dary stones, or marks to guide the traveller. Some, like the Black Friars cross at Hereford, were preaching stations, others, like the beautiful Eleanor crosses at Northampton, Geddington and Wal tham, were commemorative in character. Of these latter crosses, which marked the places where the funeral procession of Queen Eleanor halted on its way from Nottinghamshire to Westminster, there were originally ten or more, erected between 1291 and 1294. These crosses, like the Black Friars cross at Hereford, are elabo rate architectural erections, and very similar to them in thie respect are the beautiful market crosses at Winchester, Chichester, Salisbury, Devizes, Shepton Mallet, Leighton Buzzard, etc. Of churchyard crosses, as distinguished from memorial crosses in churchyards, one of the most perfect now remaining stands in the churchyard of Somerby, in Lincolnshire (Tennyson's birthplace), a tall shaft surmounted by a pedimented tabernacle, on one side of which is the Crucifixion, on the other the Virgin and Child. Churchyard crosses may have been used as occasional preaching stations, for reading the Gospel in the Palm Sunday procession, and for public proclamations of ter the chief Sunday morning service, much in the same way that market crosses were used for proclamations on market days.
The custom of carrying a cross at the head of an ecclesiastical procession seems to have been general in early times. The long shaft was sometimes removable, so that the cross or crucifix at the top could be set in a stand and kept on the altar. This was perhaps the origin of the altar cross, of whose use there seems no in disputable evidence before the 11th cen tury. (See H. Thurston, Cath. Encyl., iv. 533.) As a personal ornament the cross came into common use, and was usually worn over the chest (and so called a pectoral cross), suspended by a chain from the neck. A cross of this kind, of very great interest and beauty, was found about 1690 on the breast of Queen Dagmar, the wife of Waldemar II., king of Denmark (d. 1213). It is of Byzantine design and workmanship, and is of enamelled gold (fig. Io shows both sides of it) ; on one side is the Crucifixion, on the other the half-figure of our Lord in the centre, with the Virgin and St. John the Evangelist on either side, and St. Chrysostom and St. Basil above and below. At the pres ent day a pectoral cross forms part of the recognized insignia of a Roman Catholic bishop, and is worn by him over his robes, but this official use of the pectoral cross is quite modern. The cus tom appears to have taken rise in the 17th century on the Conti nent. A cruciform reliquary was found on the body of St. Cuth bert when his tomb was opened in 1827, but it was evidently worn as an object of devotion, not as part of his episcopal attire. The custom of wearing a pectoral cross over ecclesiastical robes has, curiously enough, been copied from the comparatively modern Roman Catholic usage by the Lutheran bishops and superintend ents of Scandinavia and Prussia; and in Sweden the cross is now delivered to the new bishop, on his installation in office, by the archbishop of Uppsala, together with the mitre and crozier. Within the last generation the use of a pectoral cross, worn over their robes as part of the insignia of the episcopal office, has been adopted by some bishops of the Church of England, but it has no ancient sanction or authority.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-J. Lipsius, De Cruce ltbri III. ; J. Bingham, Bibliography.-J. Lipsius, De Cruce ltbri III. ; J. Bingham, Antiquities of the Christian Church (1 708) ; E. L. Cutts, Manual of Sepulchral Slabs and Crosses (1849) ; J. P. Bergeau, History of the Holy Cross (1863) ; C. de Mortillet, La Signe de la croix avant le Christianisme (1866) ; H. Leclerc in F. Cabrol, Dictionnaire d'arche ologie chretienne, et de liturgie, iii. (1903) ; F. Cabrol and H. Thurston in Catholic Encyclopaedia, iv. (190 7) .