tion given to doubting Thomas, who said, "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, I will not believe:" and our Saviour said unto him, "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands:" (John xx. 25. 27.) whereby he satisfied the apostle, that he was the Christ; and us, that the Christ was truly crucified; against that fond heresy, which made Simon the Cyrenean not only bear the cross, but endure crucifixion, for our Saviour.* We therefore infer this second conclusion from the undoubted testimonies of his followers, and undefined confessions of his enemies, that our Jesus was certainly and truly crucified, and did really undergo those sufferings, which were pretypified and foretold, upon the cross. Being thus fully assured that the Messias was to be, and that our Christ was truly crucified, it, thirdly, concerns us to understand what was the nature of crucifixion, what the particularities of suffering, which he endured on the cross. Nor is this now so easily understood as once it was: for being a Roman punishment, it was continued in that empire while it remained heathen; but when the emperors themselves received Christianity, and the towering eagles resigned the flags unto the cross, this punishment was forbidden by the supreme authority, out of a due respect and pious honour to the death of Christ. From whence it came to pass, that since it hath been disused universally for so many hundred years, it hath not been so rightly conceived as it was before, when the general practice of the world did so frequently represent it to the Christian's eyes. Indeed if the word which was used to denote that punishment did sufficiently represent or express it, it were enough to say that Christ was crucified: but being the most usual or original word doth not of itself declare the figure of the tree, This was the peculiar heresy of Basilides, a man so ancient, that he boasted to follow Glaucias as his master, who was the disciple of St. Peter. And Irenæus hath declared this particularity of his : Quapropter neque passum eum: et Simonem quendam Cyrenæum angariatum portasse crucem ejus pro eo; et hunc secundum ignorantiam et errorem crucifixum, transfiguratum ab eo, uti putaretur ipse esse Jesus; et ipsum autem Jesum Simonis accepisse formam, et stantem irrisisse eos. Adv. Hær. 1. i. c. 23. And Tertullian, of the same Basilides: 'Hunc (Christum) passum a Judæis non esse, sed vice ipsius Simonem crucifixum esse : unde nec in eum credendum esse qui sit crucifixus, ne quis confiteatur in Simonem credidisse.' De Prasc. adv. Hær. c. 46. From these is the same delivered by St. Epiphanius Hæres. 24. §. 3. and by St. Augustin, Hær. 4. This is observed by St. Augustin, Serm. 18. al. 88. de Verbis Dom. §. 8. Quia ipse honoraturus erat fideles suos in fine hujus seculi, prius honoravit crucem in hoc seculo, ut terrarum principes credentes in eum prohiberent aliquem nocentium crucifigi.' And Tract. 36. in Ioan. §. 4. speaking of this particular punishment: Modo in pœnis reorum non est apud Romanos; ubi enim Domini crux honorata est, putatum est quod et reus honoraretur si crucifigeretur.' Whence appears, first, that in the days of St. Augustin crucifixion was disused: secondly, that it was prohibited by the secular princes. But when it was first prohibited, or by whom, he sheweth not. It is therefore to be observed, that it was first forbidden by the first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great. Sozomenus gives this relation: ̓Αμέλει τοι πρότερον νενομι σμένην ̔Ρωμαίοις τὴν τοῦ σταυροῦ τιμωρίαν νόμῳ ἀνεῖλε τῆς χρήσεως τῶν δικαστηρίων. 1. i. c. 8. or manner of the suffering ;* it will be necessary to represent it by such expressions as we find partly in the evangelical relations, partly in such representations as are left us in those authors whose eyes were daily witnesses of such executions. The form then of the cross on which our Saviour suffered was not a simple but a compounded figure, according to the * The original word in the New Testament, for the tree on which our Saviour suffered, is σταυρός, and the action or crucifixion σταύρωσις, the active σταυροῦν, and the passive σταυροῦσθαι. Now σταυρὸς, As from which the rest mentioned are manifestly derived, hath of itself no other sig. nification than of a stake. As we find it first used by Homer, Σταυροὺς δ ̓ ἐκτὸς ἔλασσε διαμπερὲς ἔνθα, καὶ ἔνθα, Πυκνοὺς καὶ θαμέας, τὸ μέλαν δρυὸς ἀμφικεάσσας.—Ὀδυσ. Ε. 11. ̓Αμφί δέ οἱ μεγάλην αὐλὴν ποίησαν ἄνακτι Σταυροῖσιν πυκινοῖσι. — Ιλ. Ω. 453. These are the same which Homer elsewhere calls σκόλοπες, and the ancient grammarians render each by other. Eustathius: Σταυροὶ ὀρθὰ καὶ ἀπωξυμμένα ξύλα. οἱ δ ̓ αὐτοὶ καὶ σκόλοπες λέγονται, ἀφ' ὧν τὸ ἀνασκολοπίζεσθαι, καὶ ἀνασταυροῦσθαι· so he, expounding σταυρός: and in the same manner expounding σκόλοπες· λέγονται δὲ οἱ τοιοῦτοι σκόλοπες καὶ σταυροὶ, ἐκ δὲ τούτων τὸ ἀνασκολοπίζειν, καὶ ἀνασταυροῦν. As when Homer describes the Phæacian walls, 1. xli. c. 22. Αντίγονον ἐμαστίγωσε στους προσδήσας" not that he crucified him, as Baronius mistakes; but that he Τείχεα μακρὰ Ὑψηλὰ σκολόπεσσιν ἀρηρότα, Odyss. H. 44. he gives this exposition: Σκόλοπες δὲ καὶ νῦν ξύλα ὀρθὰ, οἱ καὶ σταυροί. In the same manner Hesychius: Σταυροί, οἱ καταπεπηγότες σκόλοπες, χάρακες· and : Σκόλοπες, ὀρθέα (1. ὀρθὰ) καὶ ὀξέα ξύλα σταυροί, χά ρακες" and again : Χάραξι, φραγμοῖς, ἐξέσι ξύλοις· οἱ δὲ, καλάμοις, οἱ δὲ, σταυροῖς. Besides, they all agree in the same etymology, ἀπὸ τοῦ ἵστασθαι, and therefore always take it for a straight standing stake, pale, or palisado. Thus κελέντες in Antiphon, are briefly rendered öpà ξύλα. but more expressly thus by Etymologus : Κελέοντες, κυρίως οἱ ἱστόποδες, καταχρηστικῶς δὲ καὶ τὰ καταπεπηγότα ξύλα, ἃ καὶ σταυροὺς καλοῦσι. This is the undoubted signification of σταυρὸς, in vain denied by Salmasius, who will have it first to signify the same with furca, and then with crur; first the figure of Y, and then of T. Whereas all antiquity renders it no other than as a straight and sharp stake: in which signification it came at first to denote this punishment, the most simple and prime σταύρωσις οι ανασκολόπισις being upon a single piece of wood, a defixus et erectus stipes. And the Greeks which wrote the Roman history, used the word σταυρὸς as well for their palus as their crux. As when Antony beheaded Antigonus the king of the Jews, Dio thus begins to describe his execution, Hist. Rom. him put to another death after the Roman custom, as those died in Livy, 1. xxviii. c. 29. Deligati ad palum, virgisque casi, et securi percussi. So that σταυρῷ προσδεῖν, is ad palum deligare. Thus were the beads of men said ἀνασταυρωθῆναι, as of Niger and Albinus in Dio, l. lxxiv. c. 8. and l. lxxv. c. 7. and Herodian, l. iii. c. 24. ; which cannot but be meant of a single palus: and we read in Ctesias how Amytis put Inarus to death, ἀνεσταύρωσε μὲν ἐπὶ τρισὶ σταυροῖς, not that he crucifed him upon three crosses, but pierced his body with three stakes fastened in the ground, and sharpened at the upper end. As appears by the like Persian punishment inflicted by Parysatis on Mesabates, as delivered by Plutarch in Artaxere, c. 17. προσέταξεν ἐκδεῖξαι ζῶντα, καὶ τὸ μὲν σῶμα πλάγιον διὰ τριῶν σταυρῶν ἀναπῆξαι, τὸ δὲ δέρμα χωρὶς διαπατταλεῦσθαι· which the Latin translator renders, in tres sustolli cruces (a thing impossible); whereas it was to be transversely fastened to three stakes, piercing the body lying, and thrust down upon them; which in the Excerpta of Ctesias is delivered only in the word ἀνεσταυρίσθη. Er Persicis, S'. et κ'. Σταυρός therefore is no more originally than σκόλοψ, a single stake, or an erect piece of wood upon which many suffered who were said ἀνασταυροῦσθαι and ἀνασκολοπίζεσθαι. And when other transverse or prominent parts it retained were added in a perfect cross, still the original name, not only of σταυρός, but also of σκόλοψ as : "Ωφειλεν εἰς ἐπίδειξιν θεότητος ἀπὸ τοῦ σκόλοπος γοῦν εὐθὺς ἀφανὲς γενέσθαι, &c. τὴν ἐπὶ τοῦ σκόλοπος αὐτοῦ φωνὴν ὅτ ̓ ἀπέπνει. Celsus apud Οrig. 1. ii. §. 69. Thus in that long, or rather too long, verse written by Audax to St. Augustin, Epist. 139. Exspectat quos plena fides Christi de stipite pendens.' custom of the Romans, by whose Procurator he was condemned to die. In which there was not only a straight and erected piece of wood fixed in the earth, but also a transverse beam fastened unto that towards the top thereof:* and beside these That the figure and parts of a Roman cross, such as that was on which our Saviour suffered, may be known, we must begin with the first composition in the frame or structure of it: and that is the conjunction of the two beams, the one erect, the other transverse; the first to which the body was applied, the second to which the hands were fastened. These two, as the chief parts of the cross, are several ways expressed: first, by the Jews, who had no one word in their language particularly to express that punishment (as being not mentioned in the law, or at all in use among them), and therefore call it by a double name, expressing the conjunction of these beams Σy y, stamen et subtegmen, the warp and the roof. The Greeks express the same, by the letter Tau, as partly appears by what is already spoken of the number 300, and is yet more evident by the testimony of Lucian, who makes mankind complain of the letter Tau, because tyrants in imitation of that first made the cross: Τῷ γὰρ τούτου σώματί φασι τοὺς τυράννους ἀκολουθήσαντας καὶ μιμησαμένους τὸ πλάσμα, ἔπειτα σχήματι τοιούτῳ ξύλα τεκτήναντας, ἀνθρώπους ἀνασκολοπίζειν ἐπ ̓ αὐτά. Jud. Vo. cal. c. 12. Ipsa est enim litera Græcorum Tau, nostra autem T, species crucis.' Tertull. adv. Marc. 1. iii. c. 22. St. Jerome affirms the same of the Samaritan Tau: but there is no similitude to be found in that which is now in use, or any other oriental, only in the Coptic alphabet Salebdi, that is the cross Di. These two parts of the cross are otherwise expressed by the mast and yard of a ship. So Justin Martyr: Θάλασσα μὲν γὰς οὐ τέμνεται, ἣν μὴ τοῦτο τὸ τρόπαιον, ὃ καλεῖται ἱστίον, ἐν τῇ ναί σῶον μένη. Apol. ii. p. 90. And Tertullian : Antenna navis crucis pars est. adv. Marcion. l. iii. c. 18. And Minutius Felix: Signum sane Crucis naturaliter visimus in navi, cum velis tumentibus vehitur.' c. 29. And Maximus Taurinens. : 'Cum a nautis scinditur mare, prius arbor erigitur, velum distenditur, ut cruce Domini facta aquarum fluentia rumpantur.' de Cruce Dom. Homil. 2. Now because the extremities of the antenna are a kind οι κέρατα (as Virgil that great master of proprieties, Æn. iii. 549. Cornua velatarum obvertimus antennarum'), therefore in Greek κεραία is antenna : and from thence the Greek fathers applied the words of our Saviour, Matt. v. 18. Ιῶτα ἓν ἢ μία κεραία οὐ μὴ παρέλθῃ ἀπὸ τοῦ νόμου, ἕως ἂν πάντα γένηται, to the cross of Christ ; τοῦ γὰρ σταυροῦ Ἰῶτά ἐστι τὸ ὀρθὸν ξύλον, καὶ κεραία τὸ πλάγιον. Because Ιῶτα is like the straight piece or mast of the cross, and κεραία the yard or transverse part ; therefore some of the ancients interpreted this place of the cross, says Theophylact on the place. And Gregory Nyssen, l. ii. de Vita Mosis, p. 217. ̓Αληθῶς γὰρ τοῖς καθορᾷν δυναμένοις ἐν τῷ νόμῳ μάλιστα τὸ κατὰ τὸν σταυρὸν θεωρεῖ μυστήριον. Διό φησί που τὸ Εὐαγγέλιον, ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ νόμου τὸ Ἰῶτα καὶ ἡ κεραία οὐ παρέρχεται· σημαῖνον, διὰ τῶν εἰρημένων τήν τε ἐκ πλαγίου γραμμὴν, καὶ τὴν κάθετον, δι ̓ ὧν τὸ σχῆμα τοῦ σταυροῦ κατα γράφεται. Not that this is the true interpretation of that place (for κεραία signifies a part of a letter, as in Apollonius Syntax. l. i. c. 7. τοῦ ἃ τὴν κεραίαν ἀπήλειψε); but by that they testify their apprehension of the figure of a cross; which is well expressed by Eusebius, describing the form of the cross which appeared to Constantine : Ὑψηλὸν δόρυ χρυσῷ καταμφιεσμένον, κέρας εἶχεν ἐγκάρσιον, σταυροῦ σχήματι περ ποιημένον. De Vita Constant. l. i. c. 31. And this similitude of the mast and yard leads to the consideration of that part of the erected pale which was eminent above the transverse beam. For as the καρχή. σιον was above the κεραία, so the stipes did extend itself above the patibulum. And this is evident by those expressions which make the two beams have four sides, and four extremities, as two lines cutting each other at equal angles needs must have. These Theophanes, Homil. 4. init. and Gregory Nyssen, In Christ. Resur. or. 1. p. 396. call τὰς ἀπὸ τοῦ μέσου τέσσαρας προβολάς Damascen. de Orth. Fid. l. iv. C. 12. τὰ τέσσαρα ἄκρα τοῦ σταυροῦ διὰ τοῦ μέσου κέντρου κρατούμενα καὶ συσφιγγόμενα. Hence Nonnus calls the cross δόρυ τετράπλευρον. c. xix. 91. And of these four parts the fathers interpret the height, and breadth, and length, and depth, mentioned by St. Paul, Eph. iii. As Gregory Nyssen : Ἐφεσίοις τὴν τὸ πᾶν διακρα τοῦσάν τε καὶ συνέχουσαν δύναμιν τῷ σχήματι τοῦ σταυροῦ καταγράφει - ὕψος καὶ βάθος καὶ πλάτος καὶ μῆκος κατονομάζων, ἑκάστην κεραίαν τῶν κατὰ τὸ σχῆμα τοῦ σταυροῦ θεω ρουμένων ἰδίοις προσαγορεύων ὀνόμασιν, ὡς, τὸ μὲν ἄνω μέρος ὕψος εἰπεῖν, βάθος δὲ τὸ μετὰ τὴν συμβολὴν ὑποκείμενον, τὴν δὲ ἐγκάρσιον καθ ̓ ἑκάτερον κεραίαν τῷ τοῦ μήκους τε καὶ two cutting each other transversely at right angles (so that the erected part extended itself above the transverse), there was also another piece of wood infixed into, and standing out from, that which was erected and straight up. To that erected piece was his body, being lifted up, applied, as Moses's serpent to the pole; and to the transverse beam his hands were nailed upon the lower part coming out from the erected piece his sacred body rested, and his feet were transfixed and fastened with nails: his head, being pressed with a crown of πλάτους ὀνόματι διασημαίνων. Contra Eunom. Orat. iv. p. 582. et Idem Catech. Orat. c. 32. et in Christ. Resur. Orat. 1. p. 396-7. And St. Augustin makes the same interpretation: In hoc mysterio figura crucis ostenditur:' which he thus expresseth: Latitudo est in eo ligno quod transversum desuper figitur,-longitudo in eo quod ab ipso ligno usque ad terram conspicuum est;-altitudo est in ea ligni parte, quæ ab illo quod transversum figitur sursum versus relinquitur, hoc est, ad caput crucifixi, &c.' Epist. 120. al. 140. c. 26. §. 64. et alibi sæpe. These four parts are severally expressed by the ancients, and particularly by the figure of a man with his hands stretched forth; which is the most proper similitude, because the cross was first made adapted to that figure. Quod caput emicat, quod spina dirigitur, quod humerorum obliquatio cornuat, si statueris hominem manibus expansis, imaginem crucis feceris.' Tertull. ad Nat. 1. i. c. 12. Beside the direct and transverse parts of the cross, with their four extremities, which only usually are considered, and represented in the figures, we must find yet another part, and a fifth extremity. Irenæus giving several examples of the number five, delivers it plainly thus, I. ii. c. 42. 'Ipse habitus crucis fines et summitates habet quinque, duos in longitudine, et unum in medio, ubi requiescit qui clavis affigitur.' Beside therefore the four extremities of the direct and transverse beams, there was a fifth ångov in medio (viz. of the erected palus), on which the crucified body rested. This fifth part of the cross fastened to the arrectarius stipes was before Irenæus acknowledged and described by Justin Martyr, under the notion of the horn of the rhinoceros, taken to be a figure or type of the cross : Μονοκέρωτος γὰρ κέρατα οὐδενὸς ἄλλου πράγματος ἢ σχήματος ἔχοι ἄν τις εἰπεῖν καὶ ἀποδεῖξαι, εἰ μὴ τοῦ τύπου ὃς τὸν σταυρὸν δείκνυσιν. ὄρθιον γὰρ τὸ ἕν ἐστι ξύλον, ἀφ ̓ οὗ ἐστὶ τὸ ἀνώτατον μέρος εἰς κέρας ὑπερῃρμένον, ὅταν τὸ ἄλλο ξύλον προσαρμοσθῇ, καὶ ἑκατέρωθεν ὡς κέρατα τῷ ἑνὶ κέρατι παρε ζευγμένα τὰ ἄκρα φαίνηται· καὶ τὸ ἐν τῷ μέσα πηγνύμενον ὡς κέρας καὶ αὐτὸ ἐξέχον ἐστὶν, ἐφ ̓ ᾧ ἐποχοῦνται οἱ σταυρούμενοι· καὶ βλέπεται ὡς κέρας καὶ αὐτὸ σὺν ἄλλοις κέρασι συνέσχε ματισμένον καὶ πεπηγμένον. Dial. cum Try phone, p. 318. Where beside the úhov, or arrectarius stipes, and the Eúkov, or transversarium lignum, there is a third, τὸ ἐν μέσῳ πηγνύμενον fastened in the middle; ἐφ ̓ ᾧ ἐποχοῦνται οἱ σταυρούμενα, says he: ubi requiescit qui clavis afgitur,' says Irenæus. So Tertullian, I. L ad Nationes, c. 12. 'Pars crucis, et quidem major, est omne robur quod directa statione defigitur. Sed nobis tota crux imputatur, cum antenna scilicet sua, et illo sedilis excessu.' Where the excessus is the rò xov, signifying the nature, as the sedile signifieth the use of the part. Which in another place, in imitation of Justin, he refers unto the typical unicorn: Nam et in antenna navis, quæ crucis pars est, extremitates cornua vocantur: Unicornis autem medio stipite palus.' Adv. Marcion. 1. iii. c. 18. et adt. Jud. c. 10. To this sedile in the cross, Mæcenas seemeth to allude in those words in Seneca: Hanc mihi vel acuta subsidem cruce sustine.' And Seneca himself does expound him: Suffigas licet, et acutam sessuro crucem subdas, est tanti vulnus suum premere, et patibulo pendere districtum.' Epist. 101. Of this Innocentius the First also speaks, Serm. 1. de uno Mart. Fuerunt in cruce Dominica ligna quatuor; stipes erectus, et lignum transversum, truncus suppositus, et titulus superpositus.' This Gregorius Turonensis, after the use of the cross was long omitted, interpreted of suppedaneum, a piece of wood fastened under the feet of him that suffered, De glor, Mart. c. vi. Clavorum ergo Dominicorum gratia, quod quatuor fuerint, hæc est ratio. Duo sunt affixi in palmis, et duo in plantis: et quæritur cur plantæ affixe sint quæ in cruce sancta de pendere visæ sunt potius quam stare. Sed in stipite erecto foramen factum manifestum. Pes quoque parvulæ tabellæ in hoc foramen insertus est. Super hanc vero tabulam tanquam stantis hominis sacræ affixæ sunt plantæ.' thorns, was applied to that part of the erect which stood above the transverse beam; and above his head to that was fastened the table,* on which was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin characters, the accusation, according to the Roman custom; "and the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH, the King of THE JEWS." (John xix. 19.) Thus by the propriety of the punishment, and the titular inscription, we know what crime was then objected to the immaculate Lamb, and upon what accusation Pilate did at last proceed to pass the sentence of death upon him. It was not any opposition to the Law of Moses, not any danger threatened to the Temple, but pretended sedition and affectation of the crown objected, which moved Pilate to condemn him. The Jews did thus accuse him: "We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Cæsar, saying that he himself is Christ a king;" (Luke xxiii. 2.) and when That which was written over the head of our Saviour is called simply by St. Luke irygan, by St. Matthew alria, by St. Mark ἡ ἐπιγραφὴ τῆς αἰτίας, and by St. John Tires, making use of a Latin word, as is observed by Nonnus: Καὶ Πιλάτος θηητὸν ἐπίγραφε μάρτυρι γόμφω Γράμμα, το περ καλέουσι Λατινίδι τίτλον ἰωῇ. c. xix. 100. From all which we may collect, that there was an inscription written over the head of our Saviour, signifying the accusation and pretended crime for which he was condemned to that death, Gloss. Vet. Airia, causa, materia, titulus. As Ovid. Trist. 3. Eleg. 1. 47. 'Causa, superpositæ scripto testata co. ronæ, Servatos cives indicat hujus ope :' that is, OB CIVES SERVATOS was πıyçapǹ τῆς αἰτίας, 'causa scripto testata.' In the language of Suetonius, Calig. c. 32. 'Titulus, qui causam pœnæ indicavit.' As Ovid. Fast. vi. 190. 'Vixit ut occideret damnatus crimine regni, Hunc illi titulum longa senecta dabat.' This was done according to the Roman custom; as we read in Dio, 1. liv. c. 3. of the son of Capio : Τὸν δοῦλον τὸν προδόντα αὐτὸν διά τε τῆς ἀγορᾶς μέσης μετὰ γραμμάτ των, τὴν αἰτίαν τῆς θανατώσεως αὐτοῦ δη λούντων, διαγαγόντος, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ἀνασταυρώσαντος. This title was written upon a table, and that table fastened to the upper part of the cross. The Syriac, Arabic, and Persian translations render TiThe expressly a table. And Hesychius, τίτλος, πτυχίαν ἐπίγραμμα ἔχον (not ἔχων, as it is printed), not the inscription itself, Ο σταυρός, ἦλοι, καὶ γραφῆς τίτλος ἄνω. |