CROSS, INVENTION (OR FINDING) OF THE:
The name of an ancient festival of the Church. In the history of the discovery of " holy sites " the finding of the cross of Jesus has its place, even prior to the middle of the fourth century. AMiile Eusebius of Csesarea and the Pilgrim of Bordeaux (333) have nothing to say in the matter, Cyril of Jerusalem, not long afterward (347 or 348), presupposes the existence of this cross and the wide distribution of splinters detached from it ("Catechetical Lectures," iv. 10, x. 19; " Letter to Constantine," iii.; MPG, xxxiii. 468, 685, 1168; NPNF, 2 ser., vii. 21, 63). Still in the same century, the legendary account, no doubt incited by the visit of the empress Helena (the mother of Constantine the Great) to the holy scenes, associates her directly with the event. The empress, it relates, conjointly with the bishop Macarius, instituted researches as to buried crosses on Golgotha; and thanks to the aid of a Jew, or even of a divine revelation, the three crosses were discovered. The true one was recognized by means of the attached titulus (I\Iatt. xxvii. 37, and parallels) or by virtue of a miracle of healing. The reports vary in detail, but are essentially the same in substance. It is nevertheless demonstrable that this narrative has its origin in the transference to the empress Helena of a similar episode in the legend of Abgar (Doctrina Addai ;
RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Cross and Its tTse Crosthwaite
ef. T. Zahn, Forschungen zur Geschichte des neute'stamentlichen Kanons, i., Erlangen, 1891, pp. 370 sqq.; Socrates, Hist, eccl., i. 17, Eng. transl. in NPNF, 2 ser., ii. 21; Sozomen, Hist, eccl, ii. 1, in NPNF, 2 ser., ii. 258-2.59. These relate the discoveries at length).
Both Greeks and Latins commemorated the occurrence in a special festival, the former conibining it with the annual celebration of the dedication of Constantino's Basilica on Sept. 13, the latter appointing a particular date for it on May 3. The first traces of a Latin observance appear in Gaul at the beginning of the Middle Ages. The fusion of the Gallic and Roman ritual carried the festival to Rome about 800, whence it became gradually diffused through the Western Church.
Victor Schtjltze.
Bibliography: J. H. Newman, Two essays on Miracles, pp. 287-326, London, 1873 (defends the legend); W. C. Prime, History of the Invention, Preservation and Disappearance of the Wood knownas the True Cross, New York, 1877; The Legendary History of the Cross, a Series of sixty-four Woodcuts from a Dutch Book . . 1483, . vtith Preface by S. Baring-Gould, ib. 1887; Inventionis crucis . hymnus antiquus, ed. A. Holder, Leipsic, 1889; E. Nestle, De sancta cruce, Berlin, 1889; J. H. Bernard, The Churches of Constantino at Jerusalem, Being Translations from Busehius and the early Pilgrims, London, 1896; DCA, i. 503-506.
CROSS, ORDERS OF THE {Crucifori, Crucigeri): A term applied to the knights of the Teutonic Order (q.v.) and also to four medieval orders in other countries.
1. The Italian Knights of the Cross traced their origin to Cyriacus, the martyr-bishop of Jerusalem, who died c. 362, or, according to another tradition of the order, to Cletus (Anacletus), one of the early bishops of Rome. Historically, however, they are not known to have existed before the middle of the twelfth century, when, c. 1160, Alexander III. granted to their mother house, a large hospital at Bologna, certain privileges which were increased by Urban III. and Innocent III. Gerhard de Rocha, the prior of the mother house under Alexander and Urban, seems to have raised the order to a position of importance in Italy by establishing daughter houses throughout the country, even if he was not actually the founder. In the time of its greatest prosperity, during the rule of Clement IV., the order possessed more than 200 houses in the five provinces of Bologna, Venice, Rome, Milan, and Naples. In the fourteenth century, however, the Knights began to degenerate through schisms and lax discipline. A general chapter held at Bologna in 1462 proved unable to check the decline by the reforms which it proposed, and the order was finally dissolved under Alexander VIII. in 1656.
2. In 1211 a canon of Liege named Theodore of Celles founded at Huy, a town in his diocese, an order which was destined to spread through Holland, France, the west and south of Germany, and, for a time, even to Ireland. The chief object of the new order was the conversion of heretics, and Its Augustinian rule, modified according to Dominican principles, is said to have received the sanction of Innocent III. in 1216. These Knights of the Cross have preserved their existence until the present day, despite the losses which they suffered
both at the Reformation and during the French Revolution. At present they have five houses, two in Holland, two in Belgium, and one in Germany. The indult granted them by Leo X. in 1516, by which they are permitted to bless rosaries with an indulgence of 500 days for each Pater Noster or Ave Maria, has been confirmed repeatedly by succeeding popes, most recently by Leo XIII. in 1884.
3. The Knights of the Cross with the Red Star (Ordo militaris crucigerorum cum rubra siella) believe that they originated as an order of knights spiritual during the Crusades, although historically they seem to have been established c. 1235 as a hospital brotherhood in a Franciscan monastery founded at Prague by the Bohemian princess Agnes. In 1252 they received their rule with their emblem of a cross within a hexagonal red star. Within the year they had assumed control of a hospital newly erected at Breslau, and Bohemia and Silesia remained the centers of their activity. The order soon became wealthy, but at the same time degenerated and many of its houses later passed to other orders, the one at Prague being controlled successively by the Jesuits (1555) and the Capuchins (1599).
4. A distinctively Polish Order of Knights of the Cross with the Red Heart was established in the monastery of St. Mark at Cracow in the second half of the thirteenth century. It was distinguished from the preceding order, which was clothed in black, by a white habit, and was primarily a penitential organization (known officially as Ordo de pcenitentia sanctorum martyrum). It attained its greatest prosperity about the beginning of the sixteenth century, after which it rapidly declined.
(O. ZoCKLERf.) Bibliogkapht: 1. B. Leoni, Origine e fondatione dell'ordine di Crociferi, Venice, 1598; Helyot, Ordres monastiques, ii. 222 sqq.; KL, vii. 1101-04; Currier, Religious Orders, p. 188. 2. C. R. Hermans, Annates canonicorum regularium . ordinis S. crucis, Bois-le-duc, 1858; Helyot, ut sup., ii. 222-234; Heimbucher, Orden und Kongregationen, i. 406-408; Currier, ut sup., pp. 188-189; KL, Yii. 1105-11. 3. F. Jachase, Die ritterliche Orden der Kreuzherren mit dem roten Stern, Vienna, 1882; Helyot, ut sup., ii. 236 sqq.; Heimbucher, Orden und Kongregationen, i. 408-409; KL, vii. 1111-17. 4. Helyot, ut sup., ii. 241; Heimbucher, ut sup., i. 409; KL, ii. 1449- 1450.
CROSS, SIGN OF THE. See Choss and its Use AS A Symbol.
CROSTHWAITE, ROBERT JARRATT: Bishop of Beverley; b. at Wellington (7 m. s.w. of Taunton), Somersetshire, England, Oct. 13, 1837. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A., 1860), where he was fellow 1862-67. He was successively curate of North Cave, Yorkshire (1862-66), and of Bishopthorpe, York (1866-68), private secretary and domestic chaplain to the archbishop of York (1866-69), and vicar of Waghen-Wrawne, Yorkshire (1869-74), Brayton, Yorkshire (1874-83), and St. Lawrence cum St. Nicholas, Yorkshire (1883- 1885). He was also chaplain to the archbishop of York 1879-84, prebendary of Grindal in York Cathedral, and archdeacon of York since 1884, and rector of Bolton Percy, Yorkshire, since 1885. He was rural dean of Selby, Yorkshire, in 1883-85 and of Ainsty, Yorkshire, 1893-95. In 1889 he was
Crowther Crucifixion