scholar of St. Ambrose, and bishop of Nola, flourished about the year 420) there was much more of the relics of the cross than there was of the original wood. Where- upon that father says " it was miraculously increased ; it very kindly afforded wood to men's importunate de- sires without any loss of its substance." Dr. SchaflF • comments on it thus : "The legend is at best faintly ini- jylied in Eusebius, in a letter of Constantine to the bish- ^
op Macarius of Jerusalem ( Vita Const, iii, 30 — a passage fl
which Gieseler overlooked — though in iii, 25, where it should be expected, it is entirely unnoticed, as Gieseler correctly observes), and does not appear till several de- cennia later, first in Cyril of Jerusalem (whose Epist. ad Constantium of 351, however, is considered by Gieseler and others, on critical and theological grounds, a much later production), then, with good agreement as to the main fact, in Ambrose, Chrysostom, Paulinus of Nola, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, and other fathers. With all these witnesses the fact is still harilly credible, and has against it particularly the following considerations: (1.) The place of the crucifixion was desecrated under the emperor Hadrian by heathen temples and statues, be- sides being filled up and defaced beyond recognition. (2.) There is no clear testimony of a contemporary. (3.) The pilgrim from Bordeaux, who visited Jerusalem in 333, and in a scill extant itinerarium ( Vetera Rom. itine- raria, ed. P. Wesseling, p. 593) enumerates all the sacred things of the holy city, knows nothing of the holy cross or its invention (comp. Gieseler, i, 2, 279, note 37 ; Edinb. ed. ii, 36). This miracle contributed very much to the increase of the superstitious use of crosses and crucifixes. Cyril of Jerusalem remarks that about 380 the splinters of the holy cross filled the whole world, and yet, accord- ing to the account of the devout but credulous Paulinus of Nola {Epist.31, al. 11) (whom we mentioned above), the original remained in Jerusalem undiminished — a continual miracle!" (Schaff, CL B ist. ii, ibO; compare particularly the minute investigation of this legend by Isaac Taylor, The Invention of the Cross and the Miracles thei-eicith connected,'u\ Ancient Christianiti/, ii, 277-315; Wheatley, Common Prin/er, p. 61 sq. ; Walcott, Sacred A rckceol. p. 351). See Ckoss. (J. H. W.)
Investiture (Latin investire, to put on a vest or covering), in general, is defined by mediaeval writers as " the conferring or the giving of possession of a fief or a jiroperty by a suzerain lord to his vassal," and was usu- ally accompanied by a certain ceremonial, such as the delivery of a branch, a banner, or an instrument of of- fice, more or less designed to signify the power or au- thority which it is supposed to convey (compare Gott- fried, abbot of Yendome [Vindocinensis], Tractatus de ordiuatione Episcoporum et Investitura Laicorum, in Melch. Goldasti Apoloffice pj-o Henrico I V^adv. Grego- rii VII, P. criminationes [Hamb. 1611, p. 262]). ?
The contest about ecclesiastical investitures is so in- terwoven with the whole course of medireval history that a brief account of its origin and nature is indis- pensable to a right understanding of many of the most important events of that period.
1. By the liberality of the northern nations, the Church of Rome had gradually attained considerable wealth, both personal and real. " The Carlovingian and Saxon emperors, the kings of England and Leon, had vied with their predecessors in bestowing on her lavish benefactions, and the clergy were, in consequence, no strangers to wealth. IMany churches possessed sev- en or eight thousand manses ; one with two thousand passed for indifferently rich (comp. Hallam, Middle Ar/es, ii, pt. i, ch. vii, p. 142, small English edition). Of the lands ))ossessed by the clergy, the greater part might ;
be of little value at the time they had been given, per- haps consisting of wild and deserted tracts of country; ' , but they were capable of cultivation and improvement, and as civilization and ]iopulation increased they be- came a source of gain and profit." Nay, this accumula- tion of lands in the hands of the clergy progressed so rapidly that it naturally excited the jealousy of the sov
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ercigns. These provocations were still further sharp- ened by another great source of clerical enrichment, viz. the payment of tithes, which seems to have received a legal sanction in the 9th century, but which in the I'ith century had become universal. Still other revenues were derived from the free donations and offerings of the laity. " Some made oblations to the Clunch before entering on military expeditions; bequests were made by others in tlie terrors of dissolution." Indeed, it became at last a pious custom to assign a portion of the property of a de- ceased person to the clergy for their distribution among the poor and the needy. But by degrees crafty Roman- ists learned to rank their churches among the poor, "and as it was believed that the deceased would regard them with si)ecial favor, thej- absorbed the lion's share of the alms, until the other poor were forgotten altogether." Thus what began as a pious custom the Church gradu- ally so distorted until it all flowed into her coffers, and was finally made a compulsory tribute. But, as if all these soin-ces of income were not yet sufficient to meet the wants of an indolent clergy, dependent wholly for their support upon a superstitious and ignorant class, in the ]\Iiddle Ages as well as in our own day, the pen- ances \vere atlded, and, by being made canonical, were imposed u])on repentant offenders; and acts of lawless- ness, wliicli it ought to have taken more than an ordi- nary lifetime to discharge, were allowed to be commit- ted for money payments. " One day's fasting might be redeemed with a penny; a year's fasting with thirty shillings, or with freeing a slave that was worth that money (one of the few good things that the Church of the Middle Ages is guilty of). Many, in a glow of zeal, vowed to go on a crusade, but, when the first ardor had cooled down, were glad to purchase exemption. Many, to atone for their sins, set out on jiilgrimages to well-known shrines ; and, as the clergy had not failed to inculcate that no atonement coidd be so acceptable to Heaven as liberal presents, large offerings were pre- sented to such churches by the remorse of repentance. At Komc, in the year of jubilee, two priests stood with rakes in their hands sweeping the micounted gold and silver from the altars." No wonder, then, that the Chiu-ch and her officers the bishops, as well as all the clergy, with possessions so vast, and resources so un- bounded and fertile, became the objects of suspicion to temporal princes, and objects of envy to the nobles.