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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[July, 



stitution formed under the immediate auspices of the enlightened Minister 

 of Public Instruction. As a foreign member of Committee, 1 have recently 

 received a volume entitled " L'hiitoire de Dieu" — a startling and almost 

 profane heading. Its meaning, however, is to give a view of the various 

 aspects under which Christian Art hart regarded the persons and attributes 

 of the Divine Three in One. To illustrate and explain the figured and sym- 

 bolic art of sacred edifices, and to give a key to the symbols profusely scat- 

 tered throught the architecture, sculpture, glazing, painting, and printing of 

 past times. This volume is by M. Didron, of the Royal Library of Paris and 

 Secretary of the Committee of Arts and Monuments. I shall translate his 

 words almost without note and comment, and only pray you to remember 

 that in repeating the lively expressions of an impassioned believer in the 

 traditions of early periods, I can by no means adopt the unreserved cre- 

 dulity of the animated Frenchman in his acceptation of the iconolatry of his 

 and our forefathers. 



On the Application or the Form of Cross during the 



Middle Ages. 



(From the Hisloire de Dieu par M. Didron.^ 



Tlie Cross is more than a type of Christ : it is in iconngrapliy, Christ 

 liimself or his symbol. Hence a legend lias arisen concerning it, as if 

 it were a living being; hence it has been made the jiero of an epic 

 poem, which originating in the apocryphal writings, was developed in 

 the gulden legend, detailed and completed in the works of sculpture 

 and painting, from the 14th to tlie 16th century. It would not be un- 

 profitable in this place to give an abridgement of this history, for we 

 should thus ascertain the meaning attached to the representation of 

 the Cross, and the explanation to be given to all those figures and nu- 

 merous paintings and sculptures with which our cathedrals are adorn- 

 ed ; but this would lead to a too lengthened research. We return 

 then to the work of Jacques de Vorage, we there find the first part of 

 that poem on the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ at the Feast of the In- 

 vention (discovery) of the Cross, and the second part tliatof its exalt- 

 ation. The Invention (discovery) is celebrated on the 3rd of May, 

 The exaltiition on the 14th of September. On the death of Adam, 

 Seth planted on the tomb of his father a branch from the tree of life 

 which grew in Paradise. From this branch proceed three shoots 

 which unite in a single trunk; whence Moses plucks the rod with 

 which he works wonders in the land of Egypt and in the Desert. 

 Solomon would make of this now gigantic tree, a pillar for his palace, 

 being either too long or too short, it is rejected and serves as a bridge 

 over a torrent. Tlie Queen of Sheba refuses to cross this bridge, 

 foreseeing that it will cause the ruin of the Jews. Solomon casts into 

 the pool, the beam destined to communicate its virtues to the waters. 

 When Jesus is condemned to death, it is of this wood tliat his cross is 

 formed ; the cross is buried at Golgotlia, afterwards discovered by St. 

 Helen. It is carried away captive by Chosroes, king of Persia, rescued 

 and brouglit back again in triumph to Jerusalem by the emperor 

 Heraelius, broken into many fragments and scattered over Christen- 

 dom, it performs innumerable miracles: it restores the dead to life 

 and the blind to sight; it cures paralytics and cleanses lepers; it 

 casts out devils and banishes mary ills which oppressed whole coun- 

 tries ; it extinguishes fires, and calms the fury of the waves. The 

 wood of the Cross was seen in Paradise at the beginning, at the end 

 of the world it will again appear in the heavens, in the arms of Christ 

 or of his angels, when the Lord shall come to judge mankind. 



In the 9th century the praises of the Cross were sounded as the 

 praises of a god or a hero, and Rhabau Maur, archbishop of Mayence 

 in y47, composed a poem in its honour. Long before Rhabau, the 

 fathers had show n that the form of the Cross was engraven on the pro- 

 ductions of nature, in the works of man, in the attitude of things in- 

 animate, in the gestures of human beings. The world takes the form 

 of a Cross; the East shines as the summit, the North extends to the 

 right, the South to the left, and the West lengthens under our feet. 

 Tlie very birds, in ascending to heaven, stretch fortli their wings in 

 the form of a cross. The position of man in prayer is that of the 

 cross, ai,d as it is, when spreading forth his hands to swim, man diifers 

 Iroin the brute creation in that, he stands erect and can extend his 

 arm-i. The ship, in sailing on the ocean, unfurls its sails in the form 

 of a Cross, and it cuts the waves only as the roast rises cross-like in 

 the ait; we. cannot even cultivate the earth without making use. of 

 this holy emblem, and the "Tau," the cross-like letter, is the letter of 

 salvation. Similar, if not equal worship as that offered to Christ, has 

 then been rendered tothe Cross: this sacred wood has received almost 

 equal adoration to that paid to God himself. Numerous churches 

 have been dedicated to it, under the name of the Holy Cross.* Yet 

 lurther, the greater number of our churches, the largest as well as the 

 sm.illest, cathedrals as well as chapels, reproduce in their construction 

 the form of the Cross, and thus we are brought back again to icono- 

 graphy, and to the notice of the principal forms of the cross. 



* St. Crocc in Geruaalemm, and St. Cross, Winchester, for example. 



Varieties of the Cross. 



There are four kinds of Cross, the Cross witliout an apex, the Cross 



with an apex, and one simple piece of timber placed transversely ; 



the Cross with an apex and two pieces placed transversely, and the 



Cross with an apes and thi^e pieces placed across it. The Cross 



without an apex lias only three branches, and takes the form of a T, 

 or of the symbolic tau, of which we have spoken. Many ancient 

 churches, principally the basilicas of Constantine, St. Pierre, and St. 

 Paul at Rome, are presented very nearly in this form of the tau : the 

 church of Bellaigue, in Auvergue, is thus constructed. We have al- 

 ready spoken of the mystical significations of the tau, we will not 

 therefore advert to them here. 



The Cross with the apex and beam placed transversely has four 

 branches, its virtue is greater ; in fact the Cross with three branches 

 is the Cross foretold, the Cross prefigured, the Cross of the Old Testa- 

 ment ; the Cross with four divisions is the real Cross, the Cross of 

 Jesus, the Cross of the Gospel. The Cross in form of the tau bor- 

 rowed virtue from the Cross with four branches, it was like a planet 

 having no light in itself, and receiving all its brightness from the Sun 

 of the Gospel. The Cross of Christ was composed of a vertical tree 

 and a transverse beam in the form of a mallet or gibbet. 



It is worthy of note, says Guillanme Duraud, that the Cross is di- 

 vided into four parts, either on account of the four depraved principles 

 in us, which Christ has rectitiod by his passion, or to signify that 

 Christ draws all men unto him from the four quarters of the world, 

 according to this prophecy — " and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, 

 will draw all men unto me." These four divisions may also refer to 

 the human soul — the Cross is high, long, wide and deep. The foot 

 planted in the earth is the depth, the distance from the foot to the 

 arms is the length, the width is from arm to arm, the height is from 

 tlie arms to the top. The depth signifies Faith resting on ils founda- 

 tion; the height signifies Hope, which reaches heaven ; the breadth 

 Charity, which extends towards the left, to our enemies; the length, 

 perseverance unto the end. 



The two leading forms of the Cross (with four divisions) are again 

 subdivided and multiplied, they are called the Greek Cross and the 

 Latin Cross, because the first is beloved by the Greek Christians and 

 Oriental Churches, the second by the Latin Christians and Western 

 Churches. 



In the figures above, these crosses are formed of two parts — tf a 

 staff or shaft, and a transverse beam which cuts it. In the Greek 

 Cross the transverse is equal to the upright beam, and the arms are 

 equal to the shaft. If you divide a circle by two right lines, passing 

 from its centre and cutting each other at right angles ; these two lines 

 will give you the Greek Cross. This Cross is tormed, then, of four 

 equal parts; of a foot, a summit, and two branches. In the Latin 

 Cross the foot or shaft is longer than the summit or the branches. 

 This cross cannot be inclosed within a circle, but is rectangular. In 

 the Roman Cross the shaft is longer than the transverse beam, and 

 longer also than the apex. This torm is that of a man extending his 

 arms. The width from arm to arm is less than the length from the 

 head to tlie feet; the distance from the head to tlie shoulders is less 

 than that from the shoulders to the feet. The transverse beam is, as 

 it were, from one arm to the other ; the upper part of the shaft is, as 

 it were, from the head to the shoulders, and the lower part of the 

 shaft is from the shoulders to the feet. The Latin Cross resembles 

 the actual Cross of Jesus, and the Greek Cross is an ideal one. The 

 Latins, as materialists, preferred the natural form ; the more imagina- 

 tive Greeks idealized the reality, spiritualized and transfoinied the 

 Cross of Calvary, — they have made an ornament of the gibbet. 



Originally these two forms of Cross were not confined, the one to 

 the Greek and the other to the Latin Church, but were common to 

 both. Thus, in Procupius, it is mentioned that the Church of the 

 Holy Apostles at Constantinople was buiit in the form of a Cross, the 

 nave of which was made longer than the choir, in order to give the 

 exact form of the Cross. Amongst the ancient monuments of Greece, 

 at Athens, in the Morea, at Macedonia, and at Constantinople, we find 

 instances of the Cross of unequal dimensions. This Cross, then, of 

 unequal dimensions, was known and emjiloyed in Greece, but the 

 other was most frequently adopted by the Eastern Church. 



