CROSS
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CROSS
in Rome, and at the Lateran basilica. There are also,
- is already noticed, incontestable examples both of
I nisses surmounting the ciborium over the altar, and • 'i the large crosses suspended, with or ■n-ithout a iMnma, from the underside of the ciborium. It must, linivever, be pronounced very doubtful whether the inil. which in so many churches of the four- t It nth and fifteenth centuries occupied the great arcli, can be regarded as a development of this idea. I'll is point will be more fully treated under Roon- S( KEEN. It will be sufficient to notice here that in the 'liirU'cnth century a practice grew up of screening off 'Ii'- choir from the nave of the greater churches by a -I rurture broad enough to admit a narrow bridge or u- 111 ry spanning the chancel arch and most commonly I I rued by a great crucifix with the figures of Our 1 mIv and St. John. The rood-loft of the cathedral of . as described by J. B. Thiers (Traits sur les jub^s) ^( Is a valuable hint of how this process was effected. ■ insisted, he tells us, of two stone pulpits quite -I |i:irate from each other, supported by columns, and Willi a crucifi.x between them, each having an entrance II the choir side and an exit down into the nave, on I itliiT side of the principal door of the choir. From n !< it seems probable that the two ambos (q. v.) tie ini which the Gospel and Epistle were sung in earlier times, became gradually connected by a continuous gallery upon which was erected a great crucifi.x, and that in this way we may trace the development of the rood-loft, or jube, which was so conspicuous a feature in later medieval architecture. There can at least be no doubt that this loft was used on certain occasions of ceremony for reading the Epistle and Gospel and for making announcements to the people. The great rood above the rood-screen was saluted by the whole procession, as they re-entered the church on Palm Sun- day, with the words: Ai-e Rex nost^r.
(1) H. Absolution Crosses. — These have already been spoken of in the article BuRi.\i„ Christian. They seem for the most part to have been rude crosses of lead laid upon the breast of the corpse. It is only in some few examples, of which the most important is that of Bishop Godfrey of Chichester (1088), that a formula of absolution is found inscribed upon them en- tire. We may infer that the practice in the West was alwaj's in some measure irregular, and it is only the absolution paper, which is uniformly placed in the hand or on the breast of the corpse in the Eastern Church, which explains them and gives them a certain impor- ance as a liturgical development.
(1) J. Crosses on Vestments, etc. — Rubrical law now requires that most of the vestments, as well as some other objects more immediately devoted to the service of the altar, should be marked with a cross. Speaking generally, this is a comparatively modern develop- ment. For example, the great majority of the stoles and maniples of the Middle Ages do not exhibit this feature. At the same time Dr. Wickham Legg goes much too far when he says without qualification that such crosses were not used in pre-Reformation times. For example, the stole of St. Thomas of Canterbury preserved at Sens has three crosses, one in the middle and one at each extremity, just as a modern stole would have. That the archiepiscopal pallium, like the Greek omophorion (see Co.vst.a.ntinople, Rite of) was always marked with crosses, is not disputed. The large cro.ss conspicuous upon most modern chasubles, which appears behind in the French tj-pe and in front in the Roman, does not seem to have been originally adopted with any sjTnbolic purpose. It probably came into existence accidentally for sartorial reasons, the orphreys having been so arranged in a sort of Y- cross to conceal the seams. But the idea, once sug- gested to the eye, was retained, and various sjonboli- cal reasons were found for it. In somewhat of the same way a cro.ss was marked in the Missal before the Canon, and this the priest was directed to kiss when
beginning this portion of the Mass ; probably this cross
first arose from an illumination of the initial T, in the
words : Te igitur clementissime Pater. As Innocent III
writes, " Et forte divina factum est providentia ut ab
ea litera T [tau] canon inciperet quae sui forma signum
crucis ostendit et exprimit in figura"; and Beleth fur-
ther comments, "Unde profecto est, quod istic crucis
imago adpingi debeat" (See Ebner, Quellen und
Forschungen, 445 sqq.). The tradition is perpetu-
ated in the picture of the CmcifLxion which precedes
the Canon in every modern Missal. The five crosses
commonly marked on altar-stones depend closely on
the rite of the consecration of an altar.
(1) K. Crosses for Private Devotion. — These mayall be held to wear a liturgical aspect in so far as theChurch, in the " Rituale, " provides a form for their blessing, and presupposes that such a cross should be placed in the hanrls of the dying. The crosses which surmount the Stations of the Cross, and to which the Indulgences are directly attached may also be noticed. In the Greek Church a little wooden cross is used for the blessing of holy water, and is dipped into it in the course of the ceremony.
(2) Liturgical Forms connected with the Material Olijects. — A. Blessing of Consecration Crosses. — The " Pontificale Romanum " directs that towards the close of the dedication ceremony the twelve consecration crosses previously marked upon the walls of the church, three upon each wall, are to be each anointed by the bishop with chrism, the following form of words being spoken over each: "May this temple be hal- lowed -I- and consecrated + in the name of the Father + and of the Son + and of the Holy Ghost -f in honour of God and the glorious Virgin Mary and of all the Saints, to the name and memory' of Saint N. Peace be to thee." This is prescrilied" in practically identical terms in English pontificals of the tenth cen- tury; and the Pontifical of Egbert (?768) describes the anointing of the walls, though it does not give the words of the form. What is more, an analogous cere- mony must have existed in the Celtic Church from a very early date, for a liturgical fragment in the Lealjar Breac describes how the Ijishop with two priests is to go round the outside of the church marking crosses upon the "tel-columns" mth his knife, while the three other priests do the same within (see Olden in "Trans. St. Paul's Ecclcs. Soc.", IV, 103). In this case, however, the use of chrism is not mentioned. From this Celtic practice the .\nglo-Saxon and .Sanim uses seem to have derived the custom of affixing con- secration crosses outside the church as well as within.
(2) B. In the consecration of an altar, also, crosses are to be marked in chrism upon the altar-slab with almost the same form of words as that used for the walls. This practice may equally claim Celtic ana- logues, whose antiquity is shown by the fact that the altar to be consecrated must have been of wood. The Tract in the " Leabar Breac" says: "The bishop marks four crosses with his knife on the four corners of the altar, and he marks three cro.sses over the middle of the altar, a cross over the middle on the east to the edge, and a cross over the middle on the west to the edge, and a cross exactly over the middle. " This makes seven crosses, but the Roman usage for many centuries has jirovided five only.
(2) C. Pontifical Blessings of Crosses. — The consecration cro.sses on the walls of churches and on altars are clearly not substantive and independent objects of cultus; the blessing they receive is only a detail in a longer ceremony. But the "Pontificale Romanum" supplies a solemn form of episcopal blessing for a cross, under the title, Benedirtio novae Crucis, which, besides containing several prayers of considerable length, in- cludes a consecrator>' preface and is accompanied with the use of incen.se. XX the conclu.sion of the ceremony we find the rubric: "Tum Pontifex, flexis ante cmcem genibus, ipsam devote adorat et osculatur." This
