Of the crux composita or compound cross there were three sorts : i, crux decussata ; 2, crux corn missa ; 3, crux immissa. The crux decussata is also called Andrew's cross, because tradition reports that on a cross of this kind the Apostle Andrew suffered death. Jerome (Comment. on yerem. c. 31) de scribes this cross in the following terms :—Decus sare est per medium secare velut si dux regulx concurrent ad speciem literm X qum figura est crucis : saying in effect that the name indicates two lines cutting each other after the manner of the letter X. So Isidorus Hisp. (Orig. I. 1. 3) says that the letter X denotes a cross and the number ten (in Roman numerals).
The crux commissa, Lipsius states, was formed by putting a cross piece of wood on a perpendicular one, so that no part of the latter may stand above the former. This form is found in the figure T. Of the crux iminissa, or as others prefer to term it, crux capitata, the following is given as the descrip tion a cross in which the longer piece of wood or pale stands above the shorter piece which runs across it near the top. It is distinguished from the preceding by the part of the longer beam which is above the shorter or transverse, thus T.This form is found in paintings more frequently than any other, and on a cross of this kind our Saviour is believed to have suffered death.
It is unnecessary here to do more than refer to the legend of the finding of the cross on which our Lord suffered ; the reader will find a full view of the authorities bearing on this point in Tillemont (Mentoires Eccles. vii. 8-16); and the whole subject discussed by Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 326, No. 42-50), Jortin (Remarks ii. 238-48), Mahon, cited by Milman (Gibbon) iv. 94), etc. That the cross was of wood is certain, but of what wood no adequate evidence remains. No value can be attached to the tradition that the true cross con sisted of three kinds, cypress, pine, and cedar, or of four kinds, cedar, cypress, palm, and olive.
Quatuor ex lignis Domini crux dicitur esse ; Pea crucis est cedrus; corpus tenet alta cupressus; Palma manus retinet ; titulo lwtatur oliva.
Lipsius (De Cruce iii. 13) supposes that the cross was made of oak, since it is likely it would be con structed of such wood as was most abundant, and therefore probably nearest at hand, and oak grew plentifully in Judaea.
According to Ambrosius (Oratio de Obitu Theo dor. p. 498), the piece which bore the title stood on the top of the cross of our Lord (John xix. 19
22, 47r1 roil ; comp. Matt. xxviii. 37; Mark xv. 26; Luke xxiii. 33) : the form then would be somewhat thus But all that can with any cer tainty be determined as to the shape of the Saviour's cross is, that the prevalent form was that of the crux capitata, and that this form is generally found on coins and in the so-called monogram (Munter's Si nnbilder, 1. iv.) Much time and trouble has been wasted in dis puting as to whether three or four nails were used in fastening the Lord to his cross. Nonnus affirms that three only were used, in which he is followed by Gregory Nazianzen. The more general belief gives four nails, an opinion which is supported at much length and by curious arguments by Curtius, an Augustine friar, who wrote a treatise De Clovis Donzinicis, in the beginning of the seventeenth century. Others have carried the number of nails so high as fourteen. Of the four original nails, the Empress Helena is reported to have thrown one into the Adriatic, when furiously raging, thereby producing an instant calm. The second is said to have been put by Constantine into either his helmet or crown. This nail, however, was afterwards to be found in a mutilated state in the church of Sta. Croce. In the Duomo of Milan is a third nail, which Eutropius affirms was driven through one of Jesus' hands, and which Constantine used as a bit, intending thereby to verify the prophecy of Zechariah (xiv. 2o) : In that day shall he upon the bells (margin, bridles) of the horses, Holiness unto the Lord.' Treves possesses the fourth nail, which is alleged to have been driven through the sufferer's right foot. Those who maintain the number of nails to have been more than four have had no difficulty in finding as many nails as their hypo thesis in each case needed, and as many sacred places for their safe keeping.
Another dispute has been agitated relative to the existence of a hypopodium or tablet whereon the feet were supported. Gregory of Tours, who had seen the alleged true cross, affirms that it had such a footstool ; but his dictum has been called in question. It is, however, doubted whether the hands alone, without a prop beneath, could sustain the weight of the body, and some have supposed that a kind of seat was placed, on which the suf ferer may be said to have in some way sat. The controversy is treated at length in the first of the four Hyponznemata de Cruce of Bartholinus. [CRuctFixtoNJ—J. R. B.