CROSS
527
CROSS
iii.l then look at the productions of that art in the
I 1 1 IT period.
Seeing that the cross was the symbol of an igno- minious death, the repugnance of the early Christians In any representation of Christ's torments and igno- r M i 1 1 y is easily understood . On a few sarcophagi of the liflh century (e.g. one in the Lateran, no. 171) scenes ! : I iMi the Passion are shown, but so treated as to show
ill- of the shame and horror attaching to that instru- iit of death which was, as St. Paul says, "to the
i\ s a scandal, and to the Gentiles foolishness". Yet, iiMin the first ages Christians were loth to deprive tlirmselves altogether of the image of their crucified lliileemer, though, for the reasons already stated and Im rause of the "Discipline of the Secret" (q. v.), they ' 1 mid not represent the scene openly. The Council of I Ixira, c. 300, decreed that what was to be adored
ulit not to be used in mural decoration. Wherefore iirse was had to allegory and to veiled forms, as I t he case of the cross itself. (Cf . Br^hier, Les origines du Crucifix dans I'art religieux, Paris, 1904.) One of the most ancient allegories of the Crucifixion is considered to be that of the lamb lying at the foot of the anchor — symbols respectively of the Cross and of Christ. A very ancient inscription in the Crypt of Lucina, in the Catacombs of St. Callistus, shows this picture, which is otherwise somewhat rare (cf. De Rossi, Rom. Soft. Christ., I, PI. XX). The same sym- bol was still in use at the end of the fourth and be- ginning of the fifth century. In the description of the mosaics in the basilica of St. Felix at Nola, St. Paulinus shows us the same cross in connexion with the mystical lamb, evidently an allusion to the Cruci- fixion, and he adds the well-known verse: "Sub cruce sanguinea niveus stat Christus in agno".
We saw above that the trident was a veiled image of the cross. In the Catacomb of St. Callistus we have a more complicated study: the mystical dolphin is twined around the trident — a very expressive symbol of the Crucifi-xion. The early Christians in their ar- ti.stic labours did not disdain to draw upon the sym- bols and allegories of pagan mythology, as long as these were not contrary to Christian faith and morals. In the Catacomb of St. Callistus a sarcophagus, dating from the third century, was found, the front of which ; shows Ulysses tied to the mast while he listens to the( song of the Sirens; near him are his companions, who with ears filled with wax, cannot hear the alluring song. All this is sjTnbolical of the Cross, and of the Cnicified, who has closed against the seductions of ; evil the ears of the faithful during their voyage over/ the treacherous sea of life in the ship which will bring [ them to the harbour of salvation. Such is the inter- pretation given by St. Maximus of Turin in the homily read on Good Friday (S. Maximi opera, Rome, 1874, 151. Cf. De Rossi, Rom. Sott., I, .344-.345, PI. XXX, 5). A verj' important monument belonging to the beginning of the third century shows the Crucifixion openly. This would seem to contradict what we have said above, but it should be remembered that this is the work of pagan, and not of Christian, hands (cf, De Rossi, Bull.'d'arch. crist., lSfi.3, 72, and 1867, 7h), and therefore it has no real value as a proof among purely Christian works. On a beam in the Ptrda- gogium on the Palatine there was discovered a graffito on the plaster, showing a man with an ass's head, and clad in a perizoma (or short loin-cloth) and fastened to a crux immissa (regular Latin cross). Near by there is another man in an attitude of praj'er with the legend AXe^dfievos a^^erai 0e6v, i. e., Alexamenos adores God. This graffito is now to be seen in the Kircherian Museum in Rome, and is but an impious caricature in mockery of the Christian Alexamenos, drawn by one of his pagan comrades of the ipoedagogium. (See Ass.) In fact Tertullian tells us that in his day, i. e. precisely at the time when this caricature was made, Christians were accused of adoring an ass's
head, "Somniatis caput asininum esse Deum nos-
trum" (Apol., xvi; Ad Nat., I, ii). And Minucius
Felix confirms this (Octav., ix). The Palatine graffito
is also important as showing that the Christians
used the crucifix in their private devotions at least
as early as the third century. It would not have
been possible for Alexamenos' companion to trace that
graffito of a crucified person clad in the perizoma (which
was contrary to Roman usage) if he had not seen some
such figure made use of by the Christians. Professor
Haupt sought to identify it as a caricature of a wor-
shipper of the Egyptian god Seth, the Typho of the
Greeks, but his explanation was refuted by Kraus.
Recently, a similar opinion has been put forth by
Wiinsch, who takes his stand on the letter Y which is
placed near the crucified figure, and which has also
been found on a tablet relating to the worship of
Seth; he therefore concludes that Alexamenos of the
graffito belonged to the Sethian sect. (With refer-
ence to the Alexamenos graffito, which certainly has a
bearing on the crucifix and its use by the early Chris-
tians, see Raffaele Garucci, " Un crocifisso graffito da
mano pagana nella casa deiCesari sul Palatino", Rome,
1857 ; Ferdinand Becker, " Das Spott-Crucifix dei
romischen Kaiserpalaste", Breslau, 1866; Kraus,
"Das Spott^Crucifix vom Palatin", Freiburg im
Breisgau, 1872 ; Visconti, " Di un nuovo graffito pala-
tino relativo al cristiano Alessamcno", Rome, 1870;
Visconti and Lanciani, "Guida del Palatino", 1873, p.
86; De Rossi, "Rom. Sott. Crist.", 1877, pp. 353-354;
Wiinsch, ed., "Setianische Verfluchungstafeln aus
Rom", Leipzig, 1898, p. 110 sqq.; Vigouroux, "Lee
livres saints et la critique rationaliste", I, 94-102.)
The crucifix and representations of the Crucifixion be-
came general after the sixth century, on manuscripts,
then on private monuments, and finally even on public
monuments. But its appearance on monuments up to
about the eighth century surely indicates such monu-
ments to be works of private zeal and devotion, or, at
least, not clearly and decidedly public. As a matter of
fact, it is noteworthy that, in the year 692, i. e. at the
end of the seventh century the Quinisext Council of
Constantinople, called the TruUan, ordered the sym-
bolical and allegorical treatment to be laid aside.
The earliest MS. bearing a representation of Christ
crucified is in a miniature of a Syriac codex of the
jGospels dating from a. d. 586 (Codex Syriacus, 56),
iwritten by the scribe Rabula, and which is in the
Laurentian Library at Florence. Therein the figure
of Christ is robed (Assemani, Biblioth. Laurent.
Medic, catalog., PI. XXIII, p. 194). Other images of
the crucifix belong to the sixth century. Gregory of
Tours, in his work "De Gloria Martyrum", I, xxv,
speaks of a crucifix robed in a colobium, or tunic,
which in his day was publicly venerated at Narbonne
in the church of St. Genesius, and which he consid-
ered a profanation — so far was the public cult of the
crucifix from having become general up to that time.
A cross belonging to the sixth century is to be found
in the treasury at Monza, on which the image of the
Saviour is wrought in enamel (cf. Mozzoni, "Tavole
cronologiche-critiche della stor. eccl: sccolo VII", 79),
and which seems to be identical with that given by
St. Gregory the Great to Theodolinda, Queen of the
Lombards. We know also that he gave a cross to
Recared, King of the Visigoths, and to others (cf. S.
Gregorii Lib. Ill, Epist. xxxii; Lib. IX, Epist. cxxii;
Lib. XIII, Epist. xlii; Lib. XIV, Epist. xii).
It is certain, then, that the custom of displaying the Redeemer on the Cross began with the close of the sixth century, especially on eneolpia, yet such ex- amples of the crucifix are rare. As an example, we have a Byzantine encolpion, with a Greek inscrip- tion, which was erroneously thought to have been dis- covered in the Roman Catacombs in 1662, and about which the renowned Leo Allatius has written learn- edly (cf. "Codice Chigiano", VI; Fea, "Miscellanea
