CKOSS. 610 CROSSBILL. irag ziir christlichcn Ligcndengesch'ahtc (Ber- lin, ISS'.ll. CKOSS, Judgment of. See Ordeal. CROSS, Obdeb of the Holy. The name of several monastic or semi-monastic Orders. The origin of the lirst eunimunity bearing this name is lost in obscurity; but leaving aside legendary accounts, we tind the Order definitely established in Italy as early as the accession of Pope Alex- ander ill. (11.50). The mother house was at Bologna, and their work was largely the care of the sick. They were confirmed by Urban III. in 1187, and spread until they numbered 200 con vents in all parts of Italy; the Order declined later, so that Pius V. was obliged to reform it in 15GS, and Alexander VII. to suppress it in 1650. ilore important is the congregation of canons regular who were known in England as Crutched or Crossed Friars. This Order was founded by Theodore de Celles at Huy near Lifege in 1211 and confirmed by Innocent III. five years later; it followed the rule of Saint Augustine, assimi- lated in many particulars to that of the Domini- cans. It spread rapidly throughout the Nether- lands, France. Germany, and England; in the latter country it possessed houses in London (1298), Oxford (1349), Colchester, Honiton, and other jilaces. The Order was reformed from within in 1410. At the present day, while still faithful to its original spirit, it has very few houses, the principal ones being two in Holland and two in Belgium. Consult Hermans, A)i- iiales Canonicorum Regulariiim Snncti Auqiisti)i!, Ordinis l^anctcB Cruets (3 vols., Bois-le-Duc, 18.58). A third association, the knightly Order bearing this name, is of some importance in the history of Bohemia. It is distinguished hj a red six- pointed star in addition to the cross worn on the habit, and was originally an outgrowth of the Hospitaler brotherhood attached, in the first halt of the twelfth century, to the hospital of the Poor Clares in Prague. In 1238 Gregory IX. constituted it a definite Order, under the rule of Saint Augustine. It spread throughout Bohemia and other lands now included in Austria-Hun- gary, and was one of the strongest bulwarks of the Church against the sectarian movements of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. At the siege of Eger in the Thirty Years' War they veri- fied their knightly title by fighting at the head of the people. Their hospital at Prague was always open to new allies, and sheltered the first .Jesuits in Bohemia in 1555, the Capuchins in 1599, and the Trinitarians in 1704. From 1561 to 1694 they practically sujiported the archbishops of Prague, who had been deprived of their posses- sions in the wars of religion, making them grand masters during their incumbency of the see. The Order now has less than a hvmdred members: its library consists of 50.000 volumes, including many inciiimbulo. and manuscripts of great value for Bohemian history. Consult Jacksehe, Der rittcrliche Orden der Krcit::herren mit dem rothen Hirrn (Vienna, 1882). The name is also borne by a small religious Order in the Episcopal Church in America, founded in Xew York. 1881, removed in 1892 to Westminster, Md., whose members occupy them- selves largely in conducting missions and re- treats. CROSS, The Southeex. A constellation in tlic Southern Hemisphere, situated near the Ant- arctic Circle, and therefore never visible in northern latitudes. It consists of four liright stars, to which fancy, aided by Christian asso- ciations, gives the cruciform shai)e. The two brilliant stars which mark the sununit and foot of the Southern Cross have nearly the same right ascension. The constellation, therefore, is almost perpendicular when passing the meridian, and these two stars act as pointers to the Antarctic Pole. CROSS, ViCTORi..' See Victobia Cross. CROSS, Charles Robert (1848—). An American physicist, born at Troy, N. Y. He graduated in 1870 at the Massachusetts Institute of Teehnologv', and w-as instructor thei'e in 1870- 77. In 1877 he was appointed professor of physics and director of the Rogers laboratory. He established at the institute in 1882 the first .-merican course in electrical engineering. He has published papers on electricity and acoustics in various scientific periodicals and in the Pro- reedings of the American Academy of Arts and tSciences. CROSS, Mary Axx, or Marlvn. See Eliot, (Jeoroe. CROSS, Mrs. George Frederick. See Cam- URIDCE, .4nA. CROSS, Richard Asshetox, first Viscount Cross (1823 — ). An English politician. Hp was born at P.ed Scar, Lancashire, graduated at Trinity College. Cambridge, in 1846. and in 1849 was called to the bar. He sat in Parliament as a Conservative, for Pi-eston from 1857 to 1802, for Southwest Lancashire from 1868 to 1885, and for Xewton Division, Southwest Lancashire, from 1885 to 1886. From 1874 to 1880 and in 188.5-86 he was Home Secretary, and from 1886 to 1892 Secretary of State for India. He is a magistrate for Cheshire and Lanca.shire, and Lord Pri-V' Council, and has published The Acts Re- lating to the f^rttlement and Renioral of the Poor (1853) and The General and Quarter Ses- sions of the Peaee ( 1858) . CROSS, Wilbur Lucius (1862—). An Ameri- can educator and author, born at Mansfield, Conn. He graduated in 1885 at Yale LTniversity, and from 1894 to 1897 was instmctor in English in the Sheflield Scientific School of Yale. In 1897 he was appointed an assistant professor in English, and in 1902 professor. In addition to magazine contributions on Ibsen, the novel, and other literary topics, and an edition (1900) of Marheth. with notes and an introductory essay, he has published a literary study. The Develop- ment of the English Novel (1899). CROSSBILL. A bird of the genus Loxia, large finches with a singular bill, the mandibles — which are rather long, thick at the base, and much curved — crossing each other at the points when the bill is closed. These mandibles are ca- p.able not merely of vertical, but of lateralmotion, and muscles of extraordinary power are provid- ed for moving them : so that the crossbills read- ily obtain their principal food — the seeds of firs and pines — by tearing off the scales of the cones. They bring the points of the mandibles together (which they can do so as to pick up a very small seed) and insert them into the cone, when the
