CROSS (AS. crac, 011G. craci, chraei, ehrt7:e, Ger. K run:, Prow. cross, cod; OF. cross, (Told', eroi7, elms, Fr. Croix, It. erocc, cross, from hat. (•rux, cross). 'Ube cross was a common instru ment of capital punishment among the ancients; and the death on the cross was deemed so dis honorable that only slaves and malefactors of the lowest class were subjected to it by the Romans. It was customary to proclaim the name and offense of the person crucified. or to affix to the cross a tablet ('/boot) on which 11:1 me and offense were inscribed. 3lalefaetors were somethnes fastened on a simple upright stake, and so left to die. or they were impaled upon it. and to this upright stake the Latin name crux was originally and more strictly ap plieable; but very generally a cross-piece (puff bithint) was added to the stake, to which the antis of the criminal were tied, or to which his hands were nailed. The person crucified often lived for days. When the cross-piece was fastened at right angles below the summit of the upright stake. the cross was called crux bum (the Latin cross) ; the Greek cross, where the closs-pieee was set, so low as to form four or 'wady equal arms, is a variant of this form; when the crosspiece was fastened at right angles across the top of the upright stake. the cross was cru.r. commissa (also ealled cross of Saint Anthony) : and when it was formed of two beams erossing one another obliquely. it was crux decussate (also called cross of Saint An drew). The cross was erected outside the gates of towns, but in plus's of frequent resort.
It appears that the moss was in use as an emblem, having certain religions and mystic meanings attached to it, long before the Chris Ilan Era. The Spanish conquerors were aston ished to find it an object of religious veneration among tile natives of America. But the death of Christ by crueitixion led Christians to regard it with peculiar feelings of veneration and to adopt it as a symbol with express reference to the central fact of their religion. It was 51501 every‘vhere in Christian countries. ill the home as well as in the church, where it formed an in variable ornament of the altar. The iconoclastic party contended against the worship of the cross, lint the Church. while defining the sense in which worship might be offered to it, condemned their views. Though the word latreia, adoration, is used of the veneration paid to the cross, it is explained as only relative, and referred back to the person of the Crucified. This species of veneration, which is sometimes misunderstood on account of the restricted use of the word 'wor ship' in modern English, is solemnly paid in the Roman Catholic Church to pieces of the true cross (considered the most sacred of all relies) whenever exposed. and to other crosses. espe
cially on (-toot! Friday. The cross on the high altar, which has been wrapped in a violet covet ing throughout Passion-tide, is unveiled during the singing of the anthem "Behold the wood of the Cross, on which the Saviour of the world hung." It is then laid on the altar-steps, and the celebrant and other sacred ministers approach with genuflections and kiss it. After this a smaller cross is offered to the congregation. kneeling at the altar-rails, to he kissed. ( See Cardinal Wiseman. Lectures on the Offices and Ceremonies of Holy Week, London. 1839.) The earliest, account of the solemn veneration of the cross occurs in the Peregrinatio Aancla' rile RV ad Loco 8ancia, recently discovered by Gamut. rini and published in Home, 1887-88, which de scribes a pilgrimage to Jerusalem during the episcopate of Saint Cyril. probably in the year 384 or 385. The sign of the cross has been made in Christian worship, since the second cen tury at least, as an act of homage to God in re membrance of the Redemption, and of blessing to the person or object over which the sign is made. It is differently made in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Churches, and has been disused among most Protestants, as a ceremony of human inven tion tending to superstition. A cross was in the Middle Ages prefixed to most inscriptions and documents as a sort of consecration, and placed before signatures for the same reason; the latter practice is still retained by Roman Catholic bishops.
shops.
The forms given to crosses in art are endless; but the two leading types are the Latin cross. or crux immissa, supposed to he that on which Christ suffered, and the Greek cross, both of which are subject to many fantastic variations. The Greek cross forms the well-known cross of Saint George. which, adopted from the legends of that hero. was the national ensign of the English previous to the union with Scotland. (See UstioN JACK.) The cross of Saint Andrew, or crux de-cots...Wu, consisted of two shafts of equal length crossed diagonally at the middle. According to the legend, this was the form of cross on which Saint Andrew, the national saint of Scotland, suffered martyrdom. As the Scottish ensign, it is now blended with the cross of Saint George in the rnion Jack. The Maltese cross. with its eight forked ends, was a form used by the orders of knights. It is similar to the cross let form where small (Tosses are formed at the ends.