CROSS
534
CROSS
of York crucem ante se deferre juxta antiquam consue-
tudinem. In all ecclesiastical functions an archbishop
in his own province has a right to be preceded by his
cross-bearer with cross displayed. Hence an arch-
bishop when solemnly giving his blessing gives it with
head uncovered out of reverence for the cross which
is held before him. An ordinary bishop, who is not
privileged to have such a cross, blesses the people with
his mitre on. As regards form, both the papal and
the archiepiscopal cross consists in practice of a simple
crucifix mounted upon a staff, the material being
silver or silver gilt. The crosses with double and
triple bars, which are sometimes termed distinctively
archiepiscopal, patriarchal, or papal crosses, have for
the most part only a heraldic existence (see Barbier
de Montault, La croix a deux croisillons, 1883). An
archiepiscopal cross is borne with the figure turned
towards the archbishop.
(1) D. Pectoral Crosses. — These objects seem origi- nally to have been little more than costly ornaments upon which much artistic skill was lavished and which usually contained relics. A jewel of this kind which belonged to Queen Theodelinda at the end of the sixth cent\iry is still preserved in the treasury of Monza. Another of much later date, but wrought with wonderful enamels, was found in the tomb of Queen Dagmar and is at Copenhagen. When the present Queen Alexandra came to England in 1863 to marry the then Prince of Wales, she was presented with a facsimile of this jewel containing, among other relics, a fragment of the True Cross. Such encolpia were probably at first worn by bishops not as insignia of rank, but as objects of devotion. For example, a famous and beautiful jewel of this kind was found in the tomb of St. Cuthbert and is now at Durham. When they contained relics they often came later on to be enclosed in processional crosses. This no doubt was the case with the Cross of Cong, mentioned above, upon which we read in Irish characters the Latin verse: Hac cruce crux tegitur qua passus conditor orbis. — See Journ. Soc. Antiq. Ireland, vol. XXXI (1901). As a liturgical cross, and part of the ordinary episcopal insignia, the pectoral cross is of quite modern date. No word is said regarding it in the first edition of the "Caeremoniale Episcoporum" of 1600, but latereditions speak of it, and its liturgical character is fully recog- nized by all modern rubricians. It is worn by all bishops at Mass and solemn functions, and also forms part of their ordinary walking-dress. It is usually a plain Latin cross of gold suspended round the neck by a gold chain or a cord of silk and gold. Its use seems gradually to have been introduced during the seven- teenth and eighteenth centuries in imitation of the pectoral cross which we know to have been regularly worn by the popes from a much earlier date. Cer- tain metropolitans (e. g. the Patriarch of Lisbon and the Archbishop of Armagh) are accustomed to wear a cross with two bars or transoms (Anal. Jur. Pont., 1896, 344). The privilege of wearing a pectoral cross has also been conceded to certain canons.
(1) E. Consecration Crosses. — These are the twelve crosses, usually merely painted on the wall, which mark the places where the church walls have been anointed with chrism in a properly consecrated church. A candle-bracket should be inserted immediately be- low. Some of these consecration crosses are even yet distinguishable on the walls of old churches which go back to the Romanesque period. The Carlovingian oratory in Nimeguen preserv'es, perhaps, the most ancient known example. In other cases, e. g. at Fiirstcnfeld, some of the old Romanesque candle- brackets also remain. Owing to the number of unc- tions, it was not infrequently the custom to place these consecration crosses on shields, each borne by one of the twelve Apostles. In the Sainte Chapelle at Paris, built by St. Louis in the thirteenth century, we find twelve statues of the Apostles carrying discs
used for this purpose. In England it was the custom
to mark twelve consecration crosses on the outside
walls of the church as well as twelve on the inside.
The Roman Pontifical only prescribes the latter. (See
Consecration.) Salisbury cathedral still preserves
some remarkable examples of consecration crosses.
At Ottery St. Mary, Devon, the old crosses are carved
in high relief on shields borne by angels within moulded
panels, a quatrefoil in a square. Those inside have
marks of the remains of iron brackets for candles or
a lamp. (See, on English examples, Middleton in
"Archaologia", XLVIII, 1885.)
(1) F. Churchyard or Monumental Crosses. — In the contemporary life of St. Willibald (bom c. 700) we have a significant mention of the Anglo-Saxon custom of erecting a cross instead of a church as a rendezvous for prayer. Many ancient stone crosses still surviving in England are probably witnesses to the practice, and the conjecture of Prof. Baldwin Browne (Arts in Anglo-Saxon England), that the cross and graveyard often preceded the church in date, has much to rec- ommend it. Certain it is that the earliest known forms for blessing a cemetery (q. v.) contain five bles- sings pronounced at the four points of the compass and one in the centre, thus forming a cross, while crosses were later on planted in the ground at each of these places. Throughout the Middle Ages, both in England and on the Continent, there seems always to have been one principal churchyard cross. This was commonly an object of great importance in the Palm Sunday procession, when it was saluted with prostrations or genuflexions by the whole assembly. There was also a scattering of boughs and flowers, and the cross was often decorated with garlands of yew or box. For this reason it was often called crux huxata (cf. Gasquet, Parish Life, 1906, pp. 171-4). Many beautiful churchyard crosses are still preserved in England, France, and Germany; the most remark- able English examples being perhaps those of Ampney Crucis, near Cirencester, and Bag Enderby, Lincoln- shire. The famous ancient Northumbrian crosses at Bewcastle and Ruthwell (which English scholars still assign to the seventh and eighth centuries, despite the plea for a much later date put forward by Prof. A. S. Cook of Yale) may possibly have been principal churchyard crosses. The fact that they were prob- ably memorial crosses as well does not exclude this. When St. Aldhelm died in 709, his body had to be transported fifty miles to Malmesbury, and at each stage of seven miles, where the body rested for the night, a cross was afterwards erected. These crosses were still standing in the twelfth century (William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pont., 383). An even more famous example of such memorial crosses, hut of much later date, is supplied by the removal of the body of Eleanor, Queen of Edward I, from Lincoln to London. Several of these crosses in a more or less mutilated form exist at the present day. The most famous of the series, however. Charing ( ? Ch'cre Rcine) Cross in London, is a modern reconstruction. The route followed by the body of St. Louis of France on its way to St.-Denis was similarly honoured, and it seems probable that a large number of wayside crosses originated in this manner. No stronger testimony of the early connexion of the cross with the cemetery could be desired than the directions given by St. Cuthbert for his own burial : " Cinn auteni Deus susce- perit animam meam, sepelite me in hac mansione juxta oratorium meum ad meridiem, contra orientalem plagam sanctae crucis quam ibidem erexi" (Bede, Vita S. Cuthberti).
(1) G. Rood, Rood-Screen, and Rood-Loft. — From very early times it seems to have been not unusual to introduce a plain cross in such a way into the mosaics of the apse or of the main arch (Trinmphbogen) as to dominate the church . Notable examples may be found i at S. Apollinare in Classe at Ravenna, at S. Pudenziana ,
