The contraction IHC, : now called the Sacred popular as it was in the :
IHS, i
mediaeval times the confusion may not have arisen, in spite of the ambiguity of the Greek H in Gothic character, for the letter J was often replaced by IH or HI, and ' Ihesus ' w way of spelling the holy name. Meanwhile the c
CHRIST IX ART
CHRIST IN ART
the title XPS has been almost forgotten ; its use in such an inscription as IHS XPS XIKA would seem strange to our eyes; but IHS XPS occur on a portrait of Christ in the Codex Egberti (c. 1000), and are not unknown in late niedis\-al art, e.g. both are found among the tiles of Malvern Abbey.
The initials of the Stipersciiption INRI ('lesiis Xazarenus Kex Judjeormii '), which now rank next to the IHS in popular estimation, do not seem to have appeared till the 13th cent., after which they became the favourite abbreviation of painters (cf. below under ' Crucifixion ').
i. The sj-mbol of the Cross eventuallj- sup. planted altogether that of the Fish, But in early Christian art representations of it are very rare, and at first only given in a disguised form, al- though the sign of the Cross was already so greatly reverenced towards the end of the 2nd cent, as to be used by Christians before almost every act of daily life, — dressing, eating, bathing, going to bed, etc., — ' qucecumque nos conversatio exercet, frontem erucis signaculo terimus,' etc. (Tert. de Coron. Mil. iii.). This great reserve was due partly to the natural shrinking from the portrayal of an instru- ment which was still in use for the most degraded form of execution, partly also to the fact that nil Christian symbolism was necessarily of a hidden nature in the ages previous to the Peace of the Church. Thusthefirst rciiivM'iitatiuiw of theCross are very indirect; the n,i-- 111,1 1 k^ cm the roimd Eucliaristic loaves, wliii h ;uv ImuihI u^ t-arly as the 2nd cent, (on a sarcophauu- in tin- (.'atacomb of Priscilla), merely represent the folding up of the comers of the bread to make it round. The Anchor (a symbol which is rare after the 3rd cent.) often has a crossbar so marked as to he clearly sym- bolic ; it was, in fact, according to JIarucelu, a hidden form of the Cross, a symbolized hope in the Cross.
The earliest reiJresentation of the Cross by itself — the sivastica or ' fylfot ' pU— which is found in the Catacombs in the 3rd cent., and is not un- common in the earliest Christian textiles— was a form so ' dissimulated' as to pass unnoticed among pagans \\ ho were accustomed to its use as a con- %entional ornament. Only one undisguised Cross occurs in the Catacombs during the ages of sepul- ture (i.e. before the Sack of Rome in 410), and this is the so-called Greek or equilateral Cross +, which has no special connexion with the Eastern Church ; a small 4th cent, example of this Cross has been found in the nameless hi/pof/eum near St. Callistus. There^.is a Cross, still dissimulated, in a 4th cent, fresco in the Catacomb of Callistus, a green tree with two branches, under which are two (loves ; for the rest, in the Catacomb.s the earliest 'true and proper Cross,' as Wilpert calls it, the earliest, that is, which is not a bare symbol, is in the Catacomb of Ponziano— a gemmed Latin Cross of the end of the 5th cent.; another similar ex- ample in the same place is attributed to the 6th or 7th. In a late 4th cent, mosaic in the church of St. Pudenziana, Rome, is one of the few undis- guised Crosses that have been discovered of an earlier date than the 5th cent. ; it stands in the midst of the half dome of the ai)se, and is of the so-called Latin shape (c>-«a; immis.sa), and gemmed ; but the use of the Latin Cross did not become common till the 6th century.
Tl\e crux rommissa, orTau Cross, appears earlier ; for, though a more exact representation of the actual instrument of death, it would nass unnoticed as the letter T- Of '''is form Tertullian says (ndr. Marc. iii. 22), 'Ijisa ot enim littfiaCiracoiiim Tan, nostra autemT, species i-iucis." 'I'ht' C'ldss was prob- ably recognized as hidden in thf pre-('cin~taiitiniaii form of the Monogram ^ ; and tliougli it is still
disguisetl in the ' Constantinian Monogram,' yet this symbol vP was considered as a Cross in the 4th cent., and it must have been the 'Cross' which Constantine saw in the sky, since the Cross is always represented by this Jlonogram in contem- porary art. In the later varieties of the Mono- gram, as we have seen, the Cross was more plainly introduced, e.ff. .^.
Later.aafes increased the number of forms till there were about fifty, not couiuini^- subdivisions, which are duly named by the
nieili' ,,: !, 1 ,; 1-. /. the Cross Potent, Fleurie, Fleurettc'e, Pat ■ M ' . i: ■ iiiive. Pomini^e, L'rdi^e, Fourch(^e, Pater- no~i 1, '>''. ■■ ' ' ■ - t-nted. Interlaced, etc., in addition to
the; ■>' , ' ij-is worn by the Knisrhts Templars and
the altar during service time ; indeed, the use of an altar-Cross continued to be far from universal throughout the Middle Ages.