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Title: The Legendary History of the Cross A Series of Sixty-four Woodcuts from a Dutch Book Published by Veldener, A.D. 1483 Author: John Ashton Illustrator: Veldener Release Date: September 7, 2014 [EBook #46800] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF THE CROSS *** Produced by Chris Curnow and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) [Transcriber's Notes: All spelling, capitalization, and punctuation inconsistencies retained with the exception of those few listed at the end of this text. The following notations were used in the text: = for bold _ for italics + for an Old English font ^ for superscripted letters or numbers {} for sequential superscripted letters or numbers] +The Legendary History of the Cross.+ [Illustration: This Copy is _No._..............] [Illustration] _The Legendary Hiſtory of the Croſs_ A SERIES OF Sixty-four Woodcuts _From a Dutch book publiſhed by_ VELDENER, A.D. 1483 WITH _AN INTRODUCTION_ Written and Illuſtrated By JOHN ASHTON _PREFACE_ By S. BARING GOULD, M.A. [Illustration] +London+ T. FISHER UNWIN M.D.CCC.LXXXVII UNWIN BROTHERS, _Old Style Printers_, THE GRESHAM PRESS, LUDGATE HILL, E.C. [Illustration] _PREFACE._ THE origin of the mediæval romance of the Croſs is hard to diſcover. It was very popular. It occurs in a good number of authors, and is depicted in a good many churches in ſtained glaſs. I may perhaps be allowed here to repeat what I have ſaid in my article on the Legend of the Croſs, in “Myths of the Middle Ages:”— “In the churches of the city of Troyes alone it appears in the windows of four: S. Martin-ès-Vignes, S. Pantaléon, S. Madeleine, and S. Nizier. It is freſcoed along the walls of the choir of S. Croce at Florence, by the hand of Agnolo Gaddi. Pietro della Franceſca alſo dedicated his pencil to the hiſtory of the Croſs in a ſeries of freſcoes in the chapel of the Bacci, in the church of S. Franceſco at Arezzo. It occurs as a predella painting among the ſpecimens of early art at the Accademia delle Belle Arti at Venice, and is the ſubject of a picture by Beham, in the Munich Gallery. The Legend is told in full in the ‘Vita Chriſti,’ printed at Troyes in 1517; in the ‘Legenda Aurea’ of Jacques de Voragine; in a French MS. of the thirteenth century, in the Britiſh Muſeum. Gervaſe of Tilbury relates a portion of it in his ‘Otia Imperalia,’ quoting Peter Comeſtor; it appears in the ‘Speculum Hiſtoriale’ of Gottfried of Viterbo, in the ‘Chronicon Engelhuſii,’ and elſewhere.” In the very curious Creation window of S. Neot’s Church, Cornwall, Seth is repreſented putting three pips of the Tree of Life into the mouth and noſtrils of dead Adam, as he buries him. Of the popularity of the ſtory of the Croſs there can be no doubt, but its origin is involved in obſcurity. It is generally poſſible to track moſt of the religious and popular folk tales and romances of the Middle Ages to their origin, which is frequently Oriental, but it is not eaſy to do ſo with the Legend of the Croſs. It would rather ſeem that it was made up by ſome romancer out of all kinds of pre-exiſting material, with no other object than to write a religious novel for pious readers, to diſplace the ſenſuous novels which were much in vogue. We know that this was largely done after the third century, and a number of martyr legends, ſuch as thoſe of S. Apollinaris Syncletica, SS. Cyprian and Juſtina, the ſtory of Duke Procopius, S. Euphroſyne, SS. Zoſimus and Mary, SS. Theophanes and Panſemne, and many others were compoſed with this object. The earlieſt of all is undoubtedly the Clementine Recognitions, which dates from a remotely early period, and carries us into the heart of Petrine Chriſtianity, and in which many a covert attack is made on S. Paul and his teaching. On the other hand, we know that an Asiatic prieſt, as Tertullian tells us, wrote a romance on “Paul and Thecla, out of love to Paul.” S. Jerome ſays that a Pauline zealot, when convicted before his biſhop of having written the romance, tried to exculpate himſelf by ſaying that he had done it out of admiration for S. Paul, but the Biſhop would not accept the excuſe, and deprived him. Unfortunately this romance has not come down to us, though we have another on S. Paul and his relations to Thecla, who is ſaid to have accompanied him on his apoſtolic rambles, diſguiſed in male attire. The Greek romance literature was not wholeſome reading for Chriſtians. Some of the writers of theſe tales became Chriſtian biſhops, and probably devoted their facile pens to more edifying ſubjects than the difficulties of parted lovers. Heliodorus, who wrote “Theagenes and Charicheia,” is ſaid to have become Biſhop of Tricca, in Theſſaly. Socrates, in the fifth century, in ſpeaking of clerical celibacy, mentions the ſeverity of the rule impoſed on his clergy by this Heliodorus, “under whoſe name there are love-books extant, called Ethiopica, which he compoſed in his youth.” Achilles Tatius, author of the “Loves of Clitophon and Leucippe,” is ſaid alſo to have become a biſhop. So alſo Euſtathius of Theſſalonica, author of the “Lives of Hyſemene and Hyſmenias,” but this is more than doubtful. Three things conduced to the production of a Chriſtian romance literature in the early ages of the Church:—(1) The neceſſity under which the Church lay of ſupplying a want in human nature; (2) The need there was for producing ſome light wholeſome literature to ſupply the place of the popular love-romances then largely read and circulated; (3) The fact that ſome biſhops and converts were experienced novel writers, and therefore ready to lend their hands to ſome better purpoſe than amuſing the leiſure and flattering the paſſions of the idle and young. Much the ſame conditions exiſted in the Middle Ages. There was an influx of ſenſuous literature from the Eaſt, through the Arabs of Spain and Sicily; Oriental tales eaſily took Weſtern garb, in which the caliphs became kings of Chriſtendom, and the fakirs and imauns were converted into monks and Catholic prieſts. To counteract theſe ſtories, collections of which may be found in Le Grand d’Auſſi and Von der Hagen, and in Boccaccio, the Geſta Romanorum was drawn up, a collection of moral tales, many of them of ſimilar Oriental parentage. But beſide theſe ſhort ſtories, or novels, were long romances, ſome heroic, and founded on early national traditions and ballads. To theſe belong the Niebelungen Lied and Noth, the Gudrun, the Heldenbuch, the cycles of Karlovingian and of Arthurian romance. As it happens, we have two authors in the Middle Ages, living much about the ſame time, one intenſely heathen in all his conceptions, the other as entirely Chriſtian, each dealing with ſubjects from the ſame cycle, and the one writing in avowed oppoſition to the tendency of the other’s book. I allude to Wolfram of Eschenbach and Gottfried of Straſſburg. The latter wrote the Triſtram, the former the Parzival. In Gottfried, the moral ſenſe ſeems to be abſolutely dead; there is no perception of the ſacredneſs of truth, of chaſtity, of honour, none of religion. Wolfram is his exact converſe. Wolfram gives us the hiſtory of the Grail, but he did not invent the myth of the Grail, he derived it from pre-exiſting material. The Grail myth is almoſt certainly heathen in its origin, but it has been entirely Chriſtianiſed. The holy baſin is that in which the Blood of Chriſt is preſerved, and only the pure of heart can ſee it; but the Grail was really the great cauldron of Nature, the baſin of Ceridwen, the earth goddeſs of the Kelts, or, among Teutonic nations, the ſacrificial cauldron of Odin, in which was brewed the ſpirit of poeſy, of the blood of Mimer. The remembrance of the myſterious veſſel remained after Kelt and Teuton had become Chriſtian, and the poets and romanciſts gave it a new ſpell of life by chriſtening it. It was much the ſame with the ſtory of the Croſs. In the Teutonic North, tree worſhip was widely ſpread; the tree was ſacred to Odin, who himſelf, according to the myſterious Havamal, hung nine nights wounded, as a ſacrifice to himſelf, a voluntary ſacrifice, in “the wind-rocked tree.” That tree was Yggdraſill, the world tree, whoſe roots extended to hell, and whoſe branches ſpread to heaven. Northern mythology is full of alluſion to this tree, but we have, unfortunately, little of the hiſtory of it preſerved to us; we know of it only through alluſions. The Chriſtmas tree is its repreſentative; it has been taken up out of paganiſm, and rooted in Chriſtian ſoil, where it flouriſhes to the annual delight of thouſands of children. Now the mediæval romanciſts laid hold of this tree, as they laid hold of the Grail baſin, and uſed it for Chriſtian purpoſes. The Grail cup became the chalice of the Blood of Chriſt, and the Tree of Odin became the Croſs of Calvary. They worked into the romance all kinds of material gathered from floating folk-tale of heathen anceſtry, and they pieced in with it every ſcrap of alluſion to a tree they could find in Scripture. It is built up of fragments taken from all kinds of old ſtructures, put together with ſome ſkill, and built into a goodly romance; but the tracing of every ſtone to its original quarry has not been done by anyone as yet. The Grail myth has had many ſtudents and interpreters, but not the Croſs myth. That remains to be examined, and it will doubtleſs prove a ſtudy rewarding the labour of inveſtigation. S. BARING-GOULD. [Illustration] [Illustration] _The Legendary Hiſtory of the Croſs._ [Sidenote: 1 _A.D. 326._] [Sidenote: _Rufinus on the Invention._] [Sidenote: 2 _Hadrian is ſaid to have done this._] THE Croſs on which our Lord and Saviour ſuffered, would, naturally, if properly authenticated, be an object of the deepeſt veneration to all Chriſtian men, be their creed, or ſhade of opinion what it might; but, for over 300 years it could not be found, and it was reſerved for the Empreſs Helena in her old age (for ſhe was 79 years old) to diſcover its place of concealment.[1] That this _Invention_, or finding of the Croſs was believed in, at the time, there can be no manner of doubt, for it is alluded to by St. Cyril, Patriarch of Jeruſalem (A.D. 350 to 386), and by St. Ambroſe. Rufinus of Aquila, a friend of St. Jerome, in his _Eccleſiaſtical Hiſtory_, gives an account of its finding, in the following words: “About the ſame time, Helena, the mother of Conſtantine, a woman of incomparable faith, whoſe ſincere piety was equalled by her rare munificence, warned by celeſtial viſions, went to Jeruſalem, and inquired of the inhabitants where was the place where the Divine Body had been affixed and hung on a gibbet. This place was difficult to find, for the perſecutors of old had raiſed a ſtatue to Venus,[2] in order that the Chriſtians who might wiſh to adore Chriſt in that place, ſhould appear to addreſs their homage to the goddeſs; and thus it was little frequented, and almoſt forgotten. After clearing away the profane objects which defiled it, and the rubbiſh that was there heaped up, ſhe found three croſſes placed in confuſion. But the joy which this diſcovery cauſed her was tempered by the impoſſibility of diſtinguiſhing to whom each of them had belonged. There, alſo, was found the title written by Pilate in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew characters; but ſtill there was nothing to indicate ſufficiently clearly the Croſs of our Lord. This uncertainty of man was ſettled by the teſtimoTny of heaven.” And then follows the ſtory of the dead woman being raiſed to life. [Sidenote: _Other Authorities._] Not only did Rufinus write thus, but Socrates, Theodoret, and Sozomen, all of whom lived within a century after the _Invention_, tell the ſame ſtory, ſo that it muſt have been of current belief. [Sidenote: _Puniſhment of the Croſs._] The puniſhment of the Croſs was a very ordinary one, and of far wider extent than many are aware. It was common among the Scythians, the Greeks, the Carthaginians, the Germans, and the Romans, who, however, principally applied it to their ſlaves, and rarely crucified free men, unleſs they were robbers or aſſasſins. Alexander the Great, after taking the city of Tyre, cauſed two thouſand inhabitants to be crucified. [Sidenote: _Puniſhment of the Croſs._] Flavius Joſephus relates, in his _Antiquities of the Jews_, that Alexander, the King of the Jews, on the capture of the town of Betoma, ordered eight hundred of the inhabitants to ſuffer the death of the Croſs, and their wives and children to be maſſacred before their eyes, whilſt they were ſtill alive. Auguſtus, after the Sicilian War, crucified ſix thouſand ſlaves who had not been claimed by their maſters. Tiberius crucified the prieſts of Isis, and deſtroyed their temple. Titus, during the ſiege of Jeruſalem, crucified all thoſe unfortunates who, to the number of five or ſix hundred daily, fled from the city to eſcape the famine; and ſo numerous were theſe executions, that croſſes were wanting, and the land all about ſeemed like a hideous foreſt. [Sidenote: _The different ſorts of Croſſes._] Theſe inſtances are ſufficient to ſhow that death by crucifixion was a common puniſhment; but, ſingularly enough, the ſhape of the Croſs has never been ſatiſfactorily ſettled; practically, the queſtion lies between the _Crux capitata_, or _immiſſa_, which is the ordinary form of the Latin Croſs, and the _Crux anſata_, or _commiſſa_, frequently called the _Tau_ Croſs, from the Greek letter T. The _Tau_-shaped Croſs is, undoubtedly, to be met with moſt frequently in the older repreſentations; and the more ancient authorities, ſuch as Tertullian, St. Jerome, St. Paulinus, Sozomen, and Rufinus, are of opinion that this was the ſhape of the Croſs. After the fifteenth century, our Lord is rarely depicted on the _Crux commiſſa_, it being reſerved for the two thieves. [Sidenote: _Antiquity of the Tau Croſs._] M. Adolphe Napoleon Didron, in his _Iconographie Chretienne_, gives a few illuſtrations of the antiquity of the _Tau_ Croſs: “The Croſs is our crucified Lord in perſon; ‘Where the Croſs is, there is the martyr,’ ſays St. Paulinus. Conſequently it works miracles, as does Jeſus Himſelf: and the liſt of wonders operated by its power is in truth immenſe. By the ſimple ſign of the Croſs traced upon the forehead or the breaſt, men have been delivered from the moſt imminent danger. It has conſtantly put demons to flight, protected the virginity of women, and the faith of believers; it has reſtored men to life, or health, inſpired them with hope or reſignation. “Such is the virtue of the Croſs, that a mere alluſion to that ſacred ſign, made even in the Old Teſtament, and long before the exiſtence of the Croſs, ſaved the youthful Isaac from death, redeemed from deſtruction an entire people whoſe houſes were marked by that ſymbol, healed the envenomed bites of thoſe who looked at the ſerpent raiſed in the form of a _Tau_ upon a pole. It called back the ſoul into the dead body of the ſon of that poor widow who had given bread to the prophet. [Sidenote: _The Tau Croſs._] “A beautiful painted window, belonging to the thirteenth century, in the Cathedral of Bourges, has a repreſentation of Isaac bearing on his ſhoulders the wood that was to be uſed in his ſacrifice, arranged in the form of a Croſs; the Hebrews, too, marked the lintel of their dwellings with the blood of the Paſchal lamb, in the form of a _Tau_ or Croſs without a ſummit. The widow of Sarepta picked up and held croſſwiſe two pieces of wood, with which ſhe intended to bake her bread. Theſe figures, to which others alſo may be added, ſerve to exalt the triumph of the Croſs, and ſeem to flow from a grand central picture which forms their ſource, and exhibits Jeſus expiring on the Croſs. It is from that real Croſs indeed, bearing the Saviour, that theſe ſubjects from the Old Teſtament derive all their virtue.” [Sidenote: _Wood of the Croſs._] [Sidenote: _Croſs made of pine._] The wood of which it was made is as unſettled as its ſhape. The Venerable Bede ſays that our Lord’s Croſs was made of four kinds of wood: the inſcription of box, the upright beam of cypreſs, the tranſverſe of cedar, and the lower part of pine. John Cantacuméne avers that only three woods were employed: the upright, cedar; the tranſverſe, pine; and the head in cypreſs. Others ſay that the upright was cypreſs, the tranſverſe in palm, and the head in olive; or cedar, cypreſs, and olive. Moſt authorities ſeem to concur that it was made of ſeveral woods, but there is a legend that it was made from the aſpen tree, whoſe leaves ſtill tremble at the awful uſe the tree was put to; whilſt that veritable traveller, Sir John Maundeville, ſays: “And alſo in Iheruſalem toward the Weaſt is a fayre church where the tree grew of the which the Croſſe was made.” Lipſius ſays that it was made of but one wood, and that was oak; but M. Rohault de Fleury (to whoſe wonderful and comprehenſive work, _Mémoire ſur les Inſtruments de la Paſſion de notre Sauveur Jeſus Chriſt_, I am deeply indebted, ſays, “M. Decaiſne, member of the Inſtitut, and M. Pietro Savi, profeſſor at the Univerſity of Piſa, have ſhewn me by the microſcope that the pieces in the Church of the Holy Croſs of Jeruſalem at Rome, in the Cathedral at Piſa, in the Duomo at Florence, and in Notre Dame at Paris, were of _pine_.” And he adds, in a footnote, “Independently of the experiments which M. Savi kindly made in my preſence, he wrote me the reſults of other obſervations, which tended to confirm.” Starting with the Invention of the Holy Croſs, the loving, but fervid, imaginations of the faithful ſoon wove round it a covering of imagery, as we have juſt ſeen in the caſe of the ſeveral woods of the Croſs, and the ſacred tree became the ſubject of a legend (for ſo it always was only meant to be), which was incorporated in the _Legenda Aurea Sanctorum_, or _Golden Legend of the Saints_, of Jacobus de Voragine, a collection of legends connected with the ſervices of the Church. This book was exceedingly popular, and, when Caxton ſet up his printing-preſs at Weſtminſter, he produced a tranſlation, the hiſtory of which he quaintly tells us in a preface.[A] [Sidenote: _Caxton’s Golden Legend_] As this Golden Legend is the ſtandard authority on the ſubject, and as it will much aſſiſt the intelligent appreciation of the wood-blocks, I reproduce it, premiſing that I have uſed throughout the firſt edition, 20 Nov., 1483:— [Sidenote: 3 _Page 39._] [Sidenote: 4 _Laughed or ſmiled._] [Sidenote: 5 _Obtained true mercy._] [3] But alle the dayes of adam lyvynge here in erthe amounte to the ſomme of +ixCxxx+[B] yere / And in thende of his lyf whan he ſhold dye / it is ſaid but of none auctoryte / that he ſente Seth his ſone in to paradys for to fetch the oyle of mercy / where he receyuyde certayn graynes of the fruyt of the tree of mercy by an angel / And whan he come agayn / he fonde his fader adam yet alyve and told hym what he had don. And thenne Adam lawhed[4] firſt / and then deyed / and thenne he leyed the greynes or kernellis under his faders tonge and buryed hym / in the vale of ebron / and out of his mouth grewe thre trees of the thre graynes / of which the croſſe that our lord ſuffred his paſſion on / was made by vertue of which he gate[5] very mercy and was brought out of darknes in to veray light of heven / to the whiche he brynge us that lyveth and regneth god world with oute ende. [Illustration: +Of thynuencyon of tholy croſſe / and firſt of thys woke Inuencion+] [Sidenote: 6 _Page 167._] [Sidenote: 7 _Of old._] THE[6] Invencion[C] of the holy croſſe is ſaid bycauſe that this day the holy croſſe was founden / for to fore[7] it was founden of ſeth in paradyſe tereſtre / lyke as hit ſhal be ſayd here after / and alſo it was founden of ſalamon in the mounte of lybane and of the quene of ſaba / in the temple of ſalamon / And of the Iewes in the water of pyſcyne[D] / And on thys day it was founden of Helayne in the mounte of Calvarye/. Of the Holy Croſſe. [Sidenote: 8 _Cured: French, guerir, to heal._] [Sidenote: 9 _Whole._] [Sidenote: 10 _Did ſo—cauſed to be: words of frequent occurrence._] [Sidenote: 11 _Kingdom: French, royaume._] [Sidenote: 12 _Ceaſe._] [Sidenote: 13 _Dug, p. part. of delve._] [Sidenote: 14 _Pond._] [Sidenote: 15 _The Lăbărum, or Sacred Banner of Conſtantine._] [Sidenote: 16 _Cauſed to be called together._] [Illustration] [Sidenote: 17 _Know._] [Sidenote: 18 _Grandfather._] The holy croſſe was founden two hondred yere after the reſurrexyon of our lord / It is redde in the goſpel of nychodemus[E] / that whan adam wexyd ſeck / Seth hys ſone wente to the gate of paradyſe tereſtre, for to gete the oyle of mercy for to enoynte wythal hys faders body / Thenne apperyd to hym ſaynt mychel thaungel and ſayd to hym / travayle not the in vayne / for thys oyle / for thou mayſt not have it till fyve thouſand and fyve hondred yere been paſſed / how be it that fro Adam unto the paſſyon of our lord were but fyve +MC+ and +xxxiii+ yere / In another place it is redde that the aungel broughte hym a braunche / and commaunded hym to plante it in the mounte of lybanye Yet fynde we in another place / that he gafe to hym of the tree that Adam ete of / And ſayd to hym that whan that bare fruyte he ſhould be guariſſhed[8] and alle hoole[9] /. whan ſeth came ageyn he founde his fader deed / and planted this tree upon his grave / And it endured there un to the tyme of Salomon / and bycauſe he ſawe that it was fayre, he dyd[10] doo hewe it doun / and ſette it in his hows named ſaltus / and whan the quene of ſaba came to vyſyte Salamon / She worſhypped this tre bycauſe ſhe ſayd the ſavyour of alle the world ſhold be hanged there on / by whome the royame[11] of the Iewes that be defaced and ſeace.[12] Salomon for this cauſe made hit to be taken up / & dolven[13] depe in the grounde. Now it happed after that they of Ieruſalem (dyd do make a grete pytte for a pyſcyne[14] / where at the mynyſters of the temple ſholde weſſhe theyre beſtys / that they ſhold ſacrefyſe / and there founde thys tre / and thys pyſcyne had ſuche vertue, that the aungels deſcended and mevyd the water / and the firſt ſeke man that deſcendyd in to the water after the mevyng / was made hole of what ſomever ſekeneſſe he was ſeek of. And whan the tyme approched of the paſſyon of our lord / thys tree aroos out of the water and floted above the water / And of this pyece of tymbre made the Iewes the croſſe of our lord / Thenne after this hyſtorye / the croſſe by which we been ſaved / came of the tree by whiche we were dampned. And the water of that pyſcyne had not his vertue onely of the aungel / but of the tre/. With this tre wherof the croſſe was maad / there was a tree that went over thwarte / on whiche the armes of our lord were nayled/. And another pyece above which was the table / wherin the tytle was wryten / and another pyece wherein the ſokette or mortys was maad that the body of the croſſe ſtood in ſoo that there were foure manere of trees / That is of palme of cypres / of cedre and of olyve. So eche of thyſe foure pyeces was of one of thoſe trees/. This bleſſed croſſe was put in the erthe and hyd by the ſpace of on hondred yere and more / But the moder of themperour which was named helayne[F] which founde it in thys manere / For Conſtantyn came wyth a grete multytude of barbaryns nygh unto the ryver of the dunoe / whyche wold have goon over for to have deſtroyed alle the contree / And whan conſtantyn had aſſembled his hooſt / He went and ſette them ageynſt that other partye / But as ſone as he began to paſſe the ryver / he was moche aferde / by cauſe he ſhold on the morne have batayle / and in the nyght as he ſlepte in his bedde / an aungel awoke hym / and ſhewed to hym the ſygne of the croſſe in heven / and ſayd to hym / Beholde on hye on heven/. Thanne ſawe he the croſſe made of ryght clere lyght / & was wryten there upon wyth lettres of golde / In this ſygne thou ſhalte over come the batayle/ Thenne was he alle comforted of thys vyſion / And on the morne / he put in his banere the Croſſe[15] / and made it to be borne tofore hym and his hooſt / And after ſmote in the hooſt of his enemyes / and ſlewe and chaced grete plente / After thys he dyd doo[16] calle the byſſhoppes of the ydolles / and demaunded them to what god the ſygne of the croſſe apperteyned. And whan they coude not anſwere / ſome criſten men that were there tolde to hym the myſterye of the croſſe / and enformed hym in the faythe of the trynyte / Thenne anone he bylevyd parfytly (in) god / and dyd do baptyſe hym / and after, it happed that conſtantyn his ſone remembred the vyctorye of his fader / Sente to helayn his modre for to fynde the holy croſſe / Thenne helayne wente in to Iheruſalem / and dyd doo aſſemble all the wyſe men of the contre / and whan they were aſſembled / they wold fayn knowe wherfore they were called / Thenne one Iudas ſayd to them / I wote[17] wel that ſhe wyl knowe of us where the croſſe of Iheſu criſte was leyed / but beware you al that none of you tell hyr / for I wote wel then ſhall our lawe be deſtroyed / For zacheus my olde[18] fader ſayde to ſymon my fader / And my fader ſayde to me at his dethe / be wel ware / that for no tormente that ye may ſuffre / telle not where the croſſe of Iheſu criſte was leyde / for after that hit ſhal be founden / the Iewes ſhal reygne no mour / But the criſten men that worſhypped the croſſe ſhal then reygne / And verayly this Iheſus was the ſone of god. Then demaunded I my fader / wherfore had they hanged hym on the croſſe ſythe it was knowen that he was the ſone of god / thenne he ſayd to me fayre ſone I never accorded thereto / But gayn ſaid it alwaye / But the Phariſees dyd it bycauſe he repreyvd theyr vyces / but he aroos on the thyrd day / and his dyſciples ſeeing / he aſcended in to heven / Thenne by cauſe that Stephen thy broder belevyd in him / the Iewes ſtoned hym to dethe. [Sidenote: 19 _Inform._] [Sidenote: 20 _Burn._] Then when Iudas had ſayd theyſe wordes to his ſelawes / they anſwerd we never herde of ſuche thynges / never the leſſe kepe the wel if the quene demaunde the therof / that thou ſay no thynge to hyr / Whan the quene had called them / and demaunded them the place where our lord Iheſu criſte had been crucefyed/ they wold never tell her nor enſygne[19] her /. Then commaunded ſhe to brenne[20] them alle/. But then they doubted and were aferde / & delyvered Iudas to hyr and ſayd / lady thys man is the ſone of a prophete and of a juſte man / and knoweth right wel the lawe / & can telle to you al thynge that ye ſhal demaunde hym/. [Sidenote: 21 _More ado._] Thenne the quene lete al the other goo, and reteyned Iudas without moo[21]/. Thenne ſhe ſhewed to hym his life & dethe & bade hym cheſe whyche he wold. Shewe to me ſayd ſhe the place named golgota where our lord was crucefyed / by cauſe and to the end that we may fynde the croſſe/. Thenne ſayd Iudas, it is two hondred yere paſſed & more / & I was not thenne yet borne. Thenne ſayd to hym the lady / by him that was crucyfyed / I ſhal make the periſſe for hungre/ yf thou telle not to me the trouthe. Thenne made ſhe hym to be caſte into a drye pytte / and there tormented hym by hungre / and evyl reſte / whan he had been ſeuen dayes in that pytte / thenne ſayd he yf I myght be drawen out / he ſhold ſay the trouthe / Thenne he was drawen out / and whan he came to the place / anone the erthe moevyd and a fume of grete ſwettneſſe was felte in ſuche wyſe that Iudas ſmote his hondes togyder for ioye / and ſayd / in trouthe Iheſu criſte thou art the ſavyour of the worlde. [Sidenote: 22 _Twenty Paces._] It was ſo that adryan the Emperour had doo make in the ſame place where the croſſe laye a temple of a goddeſſe by cauſe that all they that come in that place ſhold adoure that goddeſſe/. But the quene did doo deſtroy the temple / Thenne Iudas made hym redy and began to dygge / and whan he came to +xx+ paas[22] depe / he fonde three croſſes and broughte them to the quene / And bycauſe he knewe not whiche was the croſſe of our lord / he leyed them in the myddel of the cyte / and abode the demonſtraunce of god / and aboute the houre of none / there was the corps of a yonge man brought to be buryed / Iudas reteyned the byere / and layed upon hit one of the croſſes / and after the ſecond / and whan he leyed on hit the third / anone the body that was dede came ageyn to lyf/. [Sidenote: 23 _Everlaſting._] Thenne cryed the devyll in the eyre Iudas what haſt thou doon / thou haſt doon the contrarye that thother Iudas dyd/. For by hym I have wonne many ſowles / and by the I ſhal loſe many / by hym I reygned on the peple / And by the I have loſt my royame / never the leſſe I ſhal yelde to the this bountee/. For I ſhal ſend one that ſhal punyſſhe the / and that was accomplyſſhed by Iulian the apoſtata / which tormented hym afterward whan he was byſſhop of Iheruſalem / and whan Iudas herde hym he curſed the devyl and ſayd to hym / Iheſu cryſte dampne the in fyre pardurable[23]/. After this Iudas was baptyzed and was named quyryache[G]/. And after was made byſſhop of Iheruſalem/. Whan helayn had the croſſe of Iheſu criſte / and ſaw ſhe had not the nayles / Thenne he dyd dygge in therthe ſo longe / that he founde them ſhynyng as golde/. thenne bare he them to the quene / and anone as ſhe ſawe them ſhe worſhypped them wyth grete reverence/. Thenne gafe ſaynt helayn a part of the croſſe to hir ſone / And that other parte ſhe lefte in Iheruſalem cloſyd in golde / ſylver and precious ſtones/. [Sidenote: 24 _Euſebius, Biſhop of Ceſaræa._] [Sidenote: 25 _Killed._] And hyr ſone bare the nayles to themperour / And the emperour dyd do ſette them in hys brydel and in hys helme whan he wente to batayle/. This referreth Euſebe whiche was byſſhop of Cezayr[24]/ how be it that other ſay otherwyſe/. Now it happed that Iulyan the appoſtate dyd doo[25] ſlee quyriache that was byſſhop of Iheruſalem / by cauſe he had founde the croſſe / for he hated hit ſoo mooche / that where ſomever he founde the croſſe / he dyd hit to be deſtroyed / For whan he wente in batayle ageynſte them of perſe / he ſente and commaunded quyriache to make ſacrefyſe to thydolles / and whan he wold not doo hit / he dyd do ſmyte of his right honde / and ſayd wyth this honde haſt thou wryten many letters / by whyche thou repellyd moche folke fro doynge ſacrefyſe to our goddes/. [Sidenote: 26 _Mad dog._] [Sidenote: 27 _Since._] [Sidenote: 28 _Turn this evil_] Quyriache ſayd thou wood hounde[26] thou hiſt doon to me grete prouffyte / For thou haſt cut of the hande / wyth whiche I have many tymes wreton to the ſynagoges that they ſhold not byleve in Iheſu criſte / and now ſythe[27] I am criſten / thou haſt taken from me that whiche noyed me / thenne dyd Iulyan do melte leed, and caſte it in his mowthe / and after dyd doo brynge a bedde of yron / and made quyriache to be layed and ſtratched theron / and after leyed under brennyng cooles / and threwe therein grece and ſalte / for to torment hym the more / and whan quyriache moved not / Iulyan themperour ſaid to hym / outher thou ſhalt ſacrefyſe (to) our goddes / or thou ſhalt ſay at the leſte thou art not criſten/. And whan he ſawe he wolde not do never neyther / he dyd doo make a depe pytte ful of ſerpentes and venemous beſtys / and caſte hym therein / & whan he entred / anone the ſerpentes were al deed/. Thenne Iulyan put hym in a cawdron ful of boylyng oyle / and whan he ſhold entre in to hit / he bleſſyd it & ſayd / Fayre lord torne thys bane[28] to baptyſm of marterdom / Thenne was Iulyan moche angry / and commaunded that he ſhould be ryven thorough his herte with a ſwerde / and in this manere he fynyſſhed his lyff. The vertue of the croſſe is declared to us by many miracles / For it happed on a tyme that one enchantour had dyſceyved a notarye / and brought hym to a place / where he had aſſembled a grete companye of devylles / and promyſed to hym to have muche rycheſſe / and whan he came there / he ſaw one perſone blacke ſyttynge on a grete chayer / And all aboute hym al ful of horyble people and blacke whiche had ſperes and ſwerdes / Thenne demaunded thys grete devyll of the enchantour / who was that clerke / thenchantour ſayd to hym / Syr he is oures / thenne ſayd the devyl to hym yf thou wylte worſhyp me and be my ſervaunte / and denye Iheſu cryſte / thou ſhalt ſytte on my right ſyde / The clerke anone bleſſyd hym wyth the ſygne of the croſſe / and ſayd that he was the ſervaunte of Iheſu criſte / his ſavyour / And anone as he had made the croſſe / that grete multitude of devylles vanyſſhed aweye. It happed that this notarye after this on a tyme entryd with hys lord in the chyrche of ſaynt ſophye / & knelyd doun on his knees to fore the ymage of the crucyfyxe / the which crucifyxe as it ſemed loked moche openly and ſharpelye on hym/. Thenne his lord made hym to go aparte on another ſyde / and alleweye the crucifixe torned his eyen toward hym/. Thenne he made hym goo on the lefte ſyde / and yet the crucifixe loked on hym / Thenne was the lord moche admerveyled / and charged hym & commaunded hym that he ſhold telle hym wherof he had ſo deſerved that the crucifyxe ſo behelde and loked on hym / Thenne ſayde the notarye that he coude not remembre hym of no good thynge that he had doon / ſaufe that one tyme he wold not renye nor forſake the crucifixe tofore the devyl/. Thenne late us ſo bleſſe us with the ſygne of the bleſſyd croſſe that we may therby be kepte fro the power of our ghooſtly and dedely enemye the devyl / and by the glorious paſſyon that our ſaveour Iheſu cryſt ſuffred on the croſſe after this lyf we may come to his everlaſtyng blyſſe amen/. Thus endeth thynvencion of the holy croſſe. [Illustration] [Illustration: +Here foloweth the Exaltation of the holy Croſſe.+] [Sidenote: 29 _The Roman and Engliſh Churches celebrate this Feſtival on February 14._] [Sidenote: 30 _Carrion._] [Sidenote: 31 _Vileneſs._] [Sidenote: 32 _Reſourced or repleniſhed._] Exaltation of the holy Croſſe[29] is ſayd / bycauſe that on this daye the hooly croſſe & faythe were gretely enhaunced/. And it is to be underſtonden that tofore the paſſion of our lord Iheſu cryſte / the tree of the croſſe was a tree of fylthe / For the croſſes were made of vyle trees, & of trees without fruyte / For al that was planted on the Mount of Calvarye bare no fruyt. It was a fowle place / for hit was the place of torment of thevys / It was derke / for it was in a derke place and without any beaute / It was the tree of deth / for men were put there to dethe / It was alſo the tree of ſtenche / for it was planted amonge the caroynes[30] / & after the paſſyon the Croſſe was moche enhaunced / For the Vylte[31] was tranſported into preciouſyte / Of the whiche the bleſſyd ſaynt Andrewe ſayth / O precious holy Croſſe god ſave the / his bareynes was torned into fruyte / as it is ſayd in the Cantyques / I ſhall aſcende up in to a palme tree / et cetera / His ignobylyte or unworthynes was tourned into ſublymyte and heyght / The Croſſe that was tormente of thevys is now born in the front of themperours / his derkenes is torned into lyght and clereneſſe/ wherof Chryſoſtom ſayth the Croſſe and the Woundes ſhall be more ſhynyng than the rayes of the Sonne at the jugement / his deth is converted into perdurabylyte of lyf / whereof it is ſayd in the preface / that fro hens the lyf reſourded[32] / and the ſtenche is torned into ſwetenes / canticorum /. This exaltacion of the hooly croſſe is ſolempnyſed and halowed ſolempnly of the Chirche / For the faythe is in hit moche enhaunced /. [Sidenote: 33 _Choſroes II., who reigned in the ſeventh Century._] For the yere of oure lord five honderd & +xv+ / our lord ſuffred his people moche to be tormentyd by the cruelte of the paynyms / And Coſdroe[33] Kynge of the Perceens ſubdued to his empyre all the Royaumes of the world / And he cam into Iheruſalem and was aferd and a dred of the ſepulcre of our lord & retorned / but he bare with hym the parte of the hooly Croſſe / that ſaynte Helene had left ther. And then he wold be worſhiped of alle the peple / as a god / & dyd do make a tour of gold and of ſylver wherein precious ſtones ſhone / and made therein the ymages of the ſonne and of the mone and of the ſterres / and made that by ſubtyle conduytes water to be hydde / and to come doune in the maner of rayne / And in the laſte ſtage he made horſes to draw charyotes round aboute lyke as they had mevyd the toure / and made it to ſeme as it had thondred / and delyvered his Royaume to his ſone. And thus this curſyd man abode in this Temple / and dyd doo ſette the croſſe of our lord by hym and commaunded that he ſhold be callyd god of alle the peple / And as it is redde in libro de mitrali[H] officio the ſaid Coſdroe reſydent in his trone as a fader / ſette the tree of the Croſſe on his ryght ſyde in ſtede of the ſonne / and a cock in the lyft ſyde in ſtede of the hooly ghooſt / & commaunded / that he ſhold be called fader /. And then Heracle[I] themperour aſſembled a grete hooſt / and cam for to fyght wyth the ſonne of Coſdroe by the ryver of danubie / & thenne hit pleaſyd to eyther prynce / that eche of them ſhold fyght one ageynſte that other upon the brydge / & he that ſhold vaynquyſſhe & overcome his adverſarye ſholde be prynce of thempyre withoute hurtyng eyther of bothe hoſtes / & ſo hit was ordeyned & ſworn / & that who ſomever ſhold helpe his prynce ſhold have forthwith his legges & armes cut of / & to be plonged / & caſt in to the Ryver. [Sidenote: 34 _Throne, or ſeat; French, ſiège._] [Sidenote: 35 _Astoniſhed._] [Sidenote: 36 _Shoen—shoes._] [Sidenote: 37 _Beſprinkled._] [Sidenote: 38 _Invited._] [Sidenote: 39 _Pacified, appeaſed._] [Sidenote: 40 _Ampullæ, bottles or flaſks._] [Sidenote: 41 _Conſecrated._] And then Heracle commaunded hym all to god and to the hooly croſſe wyth all the devocion that he myght. And thenne they fought longe / And at the laſt our lord gaf the vyctory to Heracle and ſubdued hym to his empyre / The hooſt that was contrary / and alle the peple of Coſdroe obeyed them to the Cryſten faythe / and receyved the hooly baptyſme / And Coſdroe knew not the end of the batayll / For he was adoured and worſhiped of alle the peple as a god / ſo that no man durſt ſay nay to him / And thenne Heracle came to hym / and fonde hym ſyttinge in his ſyege[34] of golde / and ſayd to hym / For as moche as after the manere thou haſt honoured the Tree of the Croſſe / yf thou wyld receyve baptym and the faythe of Iheſu Cryſt / I ſhal gete it to the / and yet ſhalt thow holde thy crowne and Royamme with lytel hoſtages / And I ſhall lete the have thy lyf / and yf thou wylt not / I ſhall flee the wyth my ſwerde / and ſhalle ſmyte of thyne heed / and whanne he wold not accorde therto / he did anon do ſmyte of his hede / and commaunded that he ſhold be buryed / by cauſe he had be(en) a Kynge /. And he fonde with hym one his ſone of the age of ten yere / whome he dyd doo baptyſe and lyft hym fro the fonte / and left to hym the Royaume of his fader / and then he dyd doo breke that Toure / And gaf the ſylver to them of his hooſte / and gaf the gold and precious ſtones for to repayre the chirches that the tyraunt had deſtroyed / and tooke the hoole croſſe / and brought it ageyne to Ieruſalem / and as he deſcended from the mount of Olyvete / and wold have entryd by the gate by whiche our ſavyour wente to his paſſyon on horſbacke adourned as a Kynge / ſodenly the ſtones of the gates deſcended / and ioyned them togyder in the gate like a wall & all the peple was abaſhed[35] / and thenne the Aungel of oure lord appyeryd upon the gate holdyng the ſigne of the ſigne (_sic_) of the Croſſe in his honde / and ſayd / Whanne the Kynge of heven went to his paſſion by this gate / he was not arayed like a Kynge / ne on horſbake / but cam humbly upon an aſſe / in ſhewynge thexample of humylite which he left to them that honoure hym. And when this was ſayd / he departed and vanyſſhed aweye / Thenne th’emperour took of his hoſen and ſhone[36] himſelf in wepynge / and deſpollyed hymſelfe of alle his clothes in to his ſherte / and tooke the croſſe of oure lord / and bare it moche humbly into the gate / and anone the hardnes of the ſtones felte the celeſtyalle commaundement / and remeved anone / and opened and gaf entree unto them that entred / Thenne the ſweete odour that was felt that day whanne the hooly Croſſe was taken fro the Toure of Coſdroe / and was brought ageyne to Iheruſalem fro ſo ferre countre / and ſo grete ſpace of londe retourned in to Iheruſalem in that moment / and replenyſſhed it with al ſwetnes / Thenne the ryght devoute Kyng beganne to ſaye the prayſynges of the Croſſe in this wyſe / O Crux ſplendydior / et cetera / O Croſſe more ſhynynge than alle the Sterres / honoured of the world / right holy / and moche amyable to alle men / whiche only were worthy to bere the raunſon of the world Swete tree / Swete nayles / Swete yron / Swete ſpere berynge the ſwete burthens / Save thou this preſent company / that is this daye aſſembled in thy lawe and prayſynges /. And thus was the precious tree of the Croſſe re eſtablyſſhed in his place / and the auncient myracles renewed /. For a dede man was reyſed to lyf / and foure men taken with the palſey were cured and heled / +x+ lepres were made clene / and fyften blynde receyved theyr ſyghte ageyn / Devylles were put out of men / and moche peple / and many / were delyvered of dyverſe ſekenes and maladyes /. Thenne themperour dyd doo repayre the Chirches / and gaf to them grete geftes / And after retorned home to his Empyre / And hit is ſaid in the Cronycles that this was done otherwiſe / For they ſay that whanne Coſdroe hadde taken many Royammes / he took Iheruſalem / and Zacharye the patriarke / and bare aweye the tree of the Croſſe / And as Heracle wold make pees with hym / the Kyng Coſdroe ſwore a grete othe / that he wold never make pees with Cryſten men and Romayns / yf they denyed not hym that was crucyfyed / and adoured the ſonne /. And thenne Heracle / whiche was armed wythe faythe / brought his hooſte ageynſt hym / and deſtroyed and waſted the Perſyens with many batayles that he made to them / and made Coſdroe to flee unto the Cyte of thelyfonte /. And atte the laſte Coſdroe hadde the flyxe in his bely / And wolde therefore crowne his ſone Kynge / which was named Mendaſa /. And whenne Syroys his oldeſt ſone herde thereof he made alyance with Heracle / And purſewed his fader with his noble peple / and ſet hym in bondes / And ſuſteyned him with breede of trybulacion / and with water of anguyſſhe / And atte laſt he made to ſhote arowes at him bycauſe he wold not bileve in god & ſo deyde / & after this thynge he ſente to Heracle the patriarke the tree of the Croſſe and all the pryſoners / And Heracle bare into Iheruſalem the precious tree of the Croſſe /. And thus it is redde in many Cronycles alſo/. Sybyle ſayth thus of the tre of the Croſſe / that the bleſſyd tree of the Croſſe was thre tymes with the paynyms / as it is ſayd in thyſtorie trypertyte O thryſe bleſſyd tree on whiche god was ſtratched / This peradventure is ſayd for the lyf of Nature / of grace / and of glorye / which cam of the croſſe /. At Conſtantynople a Iewe entyred in to the chirche of ſeynt ſophye / and conſydered that he was there allone / and ſawe an ymage of Iheſu cryſte / and tooke his ſwerde and ſmote thymage in the throte / and anone the bloode guyſſhed oute / and ſprange in the face and on the hide of the Iewe / And he thenne was aferd and took thymage / and caſt it into a pytte / and anone fledde awey /. And it happed that a Cryſten man mett hym / and ſawe hym al blody / and ſayd to hym / fro whens comeſt thou / thou haſt ſlayne ſoume man / And he ſayd I have not / the cryſten man ſayd Veryly thou has commyſed ſomme homycyde / for thou art all beſprongen[37] with the blood. And the Jewe ſaid / Veryly the god of Cryſten men is grete and the faythe of hym is ferme and approved in all thynges / I have ſmyten no man / but I have ſmyten thymage of Iheſu Cryſte / and anone yſſued blood of his throte /. And thenne the Jewe brought the Cryſten man to the pytte / and then they drewe oute that hooly ymage /. And yet is ſene on this daye the wounde in the throte of thymage / And the Iewe anone bycam a good Cryſten man, & was baptyſed / In Syre in the cyte of baruth there was a criſten man / which had hyred an hous for a yere / & he had ſet thymage of the crucifixe by his bedde to whiche he made dayly his prayers and ſaid his devocions / & at the yeres ende he remeved and tooke another hous / & forgate & lefte thymage behynde hym / and it happed that a Iewe hyred that ſame hows / & on a daye he had another Iewe one of his neyghbours to dyne / & as they were at mete it happed hym that was boden[38] in lookyng on the walle to eſpye this ymage whiche was fyxed to the walle and beganne to grenne at it for deſpyte / and ageynſt hym that bad hym / & alſo thretned & menaced hym bycauſe he durſt kepe in his hous thymage of Iheſu of nazareth / & that other Iewe ſware as moche as he myght / that he had never ſene it / ne knewe not that it was there / & thenne the Iewe fayned as he had been peaſyd[39]. / & after went ſtrayt to the prynce of the Iewes / & accuſed that Iewe of that whiche he hadde ſene in his hous / thenne the Iewes aſſembleden & cam to the hous of hym / & ſawe thymage of Iheſu Cryſt / and they took that Iewe and bete hym / & did to hym many iniuryes / & caſte hym out half dede of their ſynagoge / & anone they defowled thymage with their feet / & renewed in it all the tormentes of the paſſion of oure lorde / & and when they perced his ſyde with the ſpere / blood and water yſſued haboundauntly / in ſo moche that they fylled a veſſel / whiche they ſet therunder / And thenne the Iewes were abaſſhhed & bare this blood in to theyr ſynagoge & and alle the ſeke men and malades that were enoynted therwyth / were anone guaryſſhed & made hool / & thenne the Iewes told & recounted al this thynge by ordre to the biſhop of the countre / & alle they with one wyll receyved baptyſm in the faythe of Iheſu Cryſt / & the biſſhop putt the blood in ampulles[40] of Cryſtalle & of glas for to be kepte / & thenne he called / the Cryſten man that had lefte it in the hows / & enquyred of hym / who had made ſo fayr an ymage / & he ſaid that Nychodemus had made it / And when he deyde / he lefte it to gamalyel / And Gamalyel to Zachee and Zachee to Iaques / and Iaques to Symon / and hadde ben thus in Ieruſalem unto the deſtruction of the Cyte / and fro thennes hit was borne in to the Royamme of Agryppe of Cryſten men / and fro thennes hit was brought ageyne into my countreye / & it was left to me by my parentes by rightful herytage / & this was done in y^e yere of our lord ſeven honderd and fifty / and thenne alle the Iewes halowed[41] their ſynagogues in to chirches and therof cometh the cuſtoume that Chirches ben hallowed / For tofore that tyme the aultres were but halowed only / and for this myracle the chirche hath ordeyned / that the fyfte Kalendar of december / or as it is redde in another place / the fyfthe ydus of Novembre ſhold be the memorye of the paſſyon of oure lord / wherfor at Rome the chirche is halowed in thonoure of our ſavyour whereas is kepte an ampulla with the ſame blood / And there a ſolempne feſte is kepte and done / and there is proved the ryght grete vertue of the croſſe unto the paynyms and to the myſbylevyd men in alle thynges /. [Sidenote: 42 _Fiend._] [Sidenote: 43 _Power._] [Sidenote: 44 _Each or every one._] [Sidenote: 45 _Attendants._] [Sidenote: 46 _Drew._] [Sidenote: 47 _Jeſt._] [Sidenote: 48 _Kiſs._] [Sidenote: 49 _In this wiſe._] And ſaynt Gregory recordeth in the thirdde booke of his dyalogues / that whanne andrewe Biſſhop of the Cyte of Fundane ſuffred an holy noune to dwelle with him / the fende[42] thenemy beganne temprynte in his herte the beaulte of her / in ſuch wiſe / that he thought in hys bedde wycked and curſyd thynges / and on a daye a Iewe cam to Rome / and whanne he ſawe / that the day fayled / and myghte fynde no lodgynge / he wente that nyght / and abode in the Temple of appolyn /. And bycauſe he doubted of the ſacrylege of the place / how be hit / that he hadde no faythe in the Croſſe / yet he markyd and garnyſſhed hym wyth the ſigne of the Croſſe / then at mydnyght whan he awoke / he ſawe a companye of evylle ſprytes / whiche went to fore one / like as he hadde ſomme auctoryte puyſiance[43] above thother by ſubiection / and thenne he ſawe hym ſytte in the myddes among the others / and beganne to enquyre the cauſes and dedes of everyche[44] of theſe evylle ſprytes / whyche obeyed hym / and he wold knowe / what evylle everyche had doo / But Gregory paſſyth the maner of this vyſyon / bycauſe of ſhortnes / But we fynde ſemblable in the lyf of faders / That as a man entryd in a Temple of thydolles / he ſawe the devylle ſyttynge / and all his meyny[45] aboute hym. And one of theſe wycked / ſprytes cam / and adouryd hym / and he demaunded of hym / Fro whens comeſt thow / and he ſayd / I have ben in ſuch a provynce / and have moeved grete warres / and made many trybulacions and have ſhedde moche blood / and am come to telle it to the / and Sathan ſayd to hym / in what tyme hath thow done this / and he ſayd in thyrtty dayes and Sathan ſayd / why haſt thow be ſoo longe there aboutes / and ſayd to them that ſtode by hym / goo ye and bete hym / and all to laſſhe hym / Thenne cam the ſecond and worſſhiped hym / & ſayde Syre I have ben in the ſee / and have moeved grete wyndes and tormentes / & drowned many ſhippes / & ſlayn many men / and Sathan ſayde how longe haſt thow ben aboute thys / & he ſayd +vvii+ dayes / & Sathan ſayd haſt thou done no more in this tyme / & commanded that he ſhold be beten / and the third cam / & ſaid / I have ben in a Cyte & have mevyd ſtryves and debate in a weddynge / and have ſhed moche blood / & have ſlayne the hoſbond / & am come to telle the / & ſathan ſayd / in what time haſt thou done this / & he ſaid in ten dayes / & he ſayd haſt thou done no more in that time / & commanded them that were aboute hym to bete hym alſo / Thenne cam the fourth & ſayd / I have ben in the wylderneſs fourty yere / and have laboured aboute a monke / & unnethe at the laſte I have throwen & made hym falle in the ſynne of the fleſſhe / & when ſatan herd that / he aroos fro his ſete / & kyſſed hym / & tooke hys crowne of his hede / & ſet it on his hede / & made hym to ſytte with hym / & ſayde / thou haſt done a grete thynge / & haſt laboured more / than all thother / and this may be the maner of the vyſyon / that ſaynt gregorye leveth / whan eche had ſayd / one ſterte up in the myddle of them alle / & ſeyd he hadde mevid Andrewe ageynſte the name / & had mevyd the fourth part of his fleſhe agenſt her in temptacion / & therto / y^t yeſterday he drough[46] ſo moche his mynde on her / that in the hour of evenſonge he gaf to her in Iapping[47] a buſſe[48] / & ſeid pleynly y^t ſhe muſt here it that he wold ſynne with her / thenne the mayſter commanded hym that he ſhold perform y^t he had begonne / & for to make hym to ſynne he ſhold have a ſyngular Vyctory and reward among alle the other /. And thenne commaunded he that they ſhold goo loke who that was that laye in the Temple / And they wente / & loked / And anone they were ware / that he was marked with the ſigne of the croſſe / And they levynge aferd eſcaped / and ſayd / veryly this is an empty veſſel / alas / alas / he is marked /. And with[49] thus wys alle the company of the wykked ſprytes vanyſſhed awaye / And thenne the Iewe al amoevyd cam to the biſſhop / and told to hym all by ordere what was happend / And whan the biſſhoppe herd this / he wept ſtrongly / and made to voyde all the wymmen oute of his hows / And thenne he baptyſed the Iewe. [Sidenote: 50 _Bit._] Seynt Gregory reherceth in his dyalogues that a nonne entryd into a gardyne / and ſawe a letuſe / and coveyted that / and forgate to make the ſigne of the Croſſe / and bote[50] it glotonouſly / And anone fylle doune and was ravyſſhed of a devylle / And ther cam to her ſaint Equycyon[J] / And the devylle beganne to crye and to ſaye / What have I doo / I ſatte uppon a lettuſe / and ſhe cam / and bote me / and anone the devylle yſſued oute by the commaundement of the holy man of god /. It is redde in thyſtorye Scolaſtyke / that the paynyms had peynted on a walle the armes of Serapis / And Theodoſyen dide doo putt them oute / and made to be paynted in the ſame place the ſigne of the Croſſe / And when the paynims & prieſtes of thydolles ſawe that / anone they dyde them to be baptyſed / ſayenge / that it was gyven them to underſtonde of their olders / that thoſe armes ſhold endure tyll / that ſuche a ſigne were made then / in whiche were lyf / And they have a lettre / of whiche they uſe / y^t they calle holy / & had a forme that they ſaid it expoſed and ſignyfyed lyf perdurable. Thus endeth the exaltacion of the holy Croſſe. * * * * * Having read theſe extracts from the Golden Legend, we ſhall be able to underſtand the accompanying illuſtrations, which repreſent ſome freſcos of the fifteenth century, which formerly adorned the walls of the / Chapel of the Gild of the Holy Croſs, at Stratford-upon-Avon; which ſtands cloſe by New Place, Shakeſpeare’s houſe. Theſe freſcos, alas! no longer exiſt, for, in 1804, the Chapel underwent conſiderable repair, during which, under the whitewaſh, were diſcovered traces of paint, and theſe, being ſcraped, a ſeries illuſtrating the legend of the Croſs was found in the chancel, which was built in 1450. In other parts of the Chapel were found repreſentations of the Reſſurection, and the day of Judgment, St. George and the Dragon, and the death of St. Thomas a Becket, beſides others. Luckily, a gentleman from London, a Mr. Fiſher, was then ſtaying at Stratford-on-Avon, and he drew, and painted them—afterwards, in 1807, publiſhing them—and it is from his ſketches that theſe illuſtrations are taken. The barbarians of Stratford hacked the plaſter on which the Holy Croſs ſeries was painted to bits, and whitewaſhed all the other paintings. It is preſumed they ſtill exiſt, for, when the Chapel was thoroughly reſtored in 1835, traces of the other pictures were viſible under the whitewaſh. Theſe pictures of the Invention, and Exaltation, of the Holy Croſs are eſpecially intereſting, not only on account of their age and artiſtic merit, but from the fact that they are of Engliſh work, and ſhow the Engliſh idea of treating the ſubject. I have reproduced them all but two; one, the fight on the bridge over the Danube between Heraclius and the ſon of Choſroes, and the other repreſenting Heraclius ſmiting off Choſroes’ head. [Illustration] [Illustration: A] Plate =A= repreſents the viſit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon. Her name was Balkis, and, in her legendary hiſtory, it is reported that Solomon, having heard of her riches and power, ſent her a peremptory meſſage to ſubmit herſelf to his rule. She, dreading war with ſo potent a ſovereign, ſent an embaſſy to try and find out whether Solomon was as wiſe as he was repreſented to be. With this object ſhe dreſſed five hundred boys as girls, and a like number of girls as boys, and, among other preſents, ſent a pearl, a diamond cut through in zigzags, and a cryſtal box; and ſhe ſhould be able to judge of his wiſdom and power, if he could tell the boys from the girls, pierce the pearl, thread the diamond, and fill the goblet with water that came neither from the earth nor the ſky. Needleſs to ſay, Solomon paſſed through the ordeal triumphantly. He ordered ſilver baſins to be brought, ſo that the ambaſſadors’ ſuite might waſh their hands after their long journey, and the boys were eaſily diſtinguiſhed from the girls, for they dipped their hands only in the water, whilſt the girls tucked up their ſleeves and waſhed their arms as well as their hands. Then he opened the box containing the pearl, diamond, and goblet, and, taking out the pearl, he applied his magic ſtone, Samur, or Schamir, which a raven had brought him, and which had the power of cleaving anything, and lo! the pearl was pierced; then he examined the diamond, which was ſo pierced that no thread could be paſſed through it; ſo he took a worm, and having placed a piece of ſilk in its mouth, it wriggled through, and the diamond was threaded. The next taſk was to fill the goblet, which he gave to a negro ſlave, and bade him mount a wild horſe and gallop it till it ſtreamed with ſweat, and then to fill the goblet with it, thus fulfilling the impoſed conditions. He then gave back theſe preſents to the ambaſſadors, who ſpeedily returned to Queen Balkis. She at once ſaw that it would be uſeleſs to oppoſe the powerful will of Solomon, and immediately ſet out on her journey to that monarch. It is here that her connection with the holy Croſs comes in, for its wood, which Solomon had cut down in order to incorporate it into his Temple, and which had the inconvenient property of fitting in nowhere, being either too long or too ſhort for any purpoſe, was in conſequence thrown aſide, and ultimately was uſed as a foot-bridge acroſs a brook. Acroſs this plank the Queen had to paſs, but ſhe, recogniſing its holy virtue, refuſed to walk acroſs it, preferring to wade the brook, which, having done, ſhe expounded its value to Solomon, and propheſied that out of it ſhould be made the Croſs on which Jeſus ſhould ſuffer. She afterwards became one of Solomon’s wives, and bore him a ſon, and then returned to her own land, and from this ſon are deſcended the kings of Abyſſynia. The legend on the label is, as far as is legible, REGINA SABA FAMA SALOMONIS (adduct) A VENIT (Iero)SOLUMA UBI LIGNUM IN ... ABATICA ... IT ... GENIS ... PERSOLVETUR. [Illustration: B] Plate =B= is, virtually, two; one ſhowing the angel appearing to Conſtantine when, early in the fourth century, he was advancing towards Rome againſt Maxentius; but the legend of the miraculous inſcription which appeared in the ſky, “IN HOC SIGNO VINCES,” does not appear. The other, and larger portion, repreſents his victory over Maxentius, and he is repreſented as ſpearing and killing that monarch; but this is not hiſtorically correct, for, after his defeat, as Maxentius fled towards Rome, eſſaying to croſs the Tiber over a rotten bridge, it gave way, and he was drowned. It is noticeable that the Chriſtian flag bears the Tau Croſs. [Illustration: C D] _The Plates_ =C= _and_ =D= _run into each other, although they portray different ſubjects,_ =C= _being the departure of St. Helena for Jeruſalem on her queſt of the holy Croſs. The label in this freſco is utterly illegible._ Plate =D= ſhows Judas (called Julius in the label) Cyryacus (the Quyryache of the Golden Legend) being releaſed, after having been forced, through impriſonment and ſtarvation, into confeſſing where the holy Croſs lay buried. In the upper part St. Helena is receiving the holy Croſs, whilſt labourers are uncovering the Tau Croſſes of the two thieves. The legend is mutilated, but enough remains to make its meaning clear: “HERE SEYNTE HELYNE EXAMY(neth) THE I(ews for) Y^E HOLY CROS.... IULIUS CYRYACUS (saith that he knew w)HERE HETE WAS.” [Illustration: E F] _The legend in Plate_ =E= _is nearly perfect, and accurately deſcribes the painting_, “HYT WAS PROVED EVIDENTLY BY MYRAKEL WHICH WAS Y^E VERY CROS THAT OURE SAVYOUR SUFFYRED.... IN RESYNGE A MADE FROM DETH TO LYFE.” Here all the Croſſes are of the Tau type, and the ſcene is laid in a foreſt, where an old labourer, and a bill-man, and the deer nibbling the trees, give a rural aſpect, inſtead of in the City of Jeruſalem, as ſaith the Golden Legend. Plate =F= evidently conſiſts of two ſeparate paintings—one, where St. Helena is reverently carrying the Croſs into Jeruſalem, whilſt the angels in heaven are diſcourſing celeſtial muſic; and the other, its reception either in Jeruſalem or Byzantium, whither St. Helena ſent a portion as a preſent to her ſon. And this latter ſeems the more probable, if we imagine the King, who, with St. Helena, is adoring the Crucifix, to be the emperor Conſtantine, a fact which might have been ſettled had the label been legible. The legend at the bottom is unfortunately mutilated, but that evidently relates to that portion of the Croſs which remained at Jeruſalem, becauſe it ſpeaks of Choſroes: “HERE THE HOLE CROS WAS BROUGHTE SOLEMLY YN TO THE ... IN Y^E BYSSHOPS HANDS EASILY AND (remaynyd) UN TO THE TYME OF (King Codſd)ROE. [Illustration: G H] Plates =G= and =H= repreſent the ſtory told in the Golden Legend, of Heraclius bearing the Croſs into Jeruſalem, how the gate miraculouſly cloſed, and an angel appeared in the heavens and reproved Heraclius for riding in ſtate on the very ſpot where Jeſus had gone in all meekneſs, and lowlineſs, to His paſſion. The legend is eraſed in parts, the unmutilated portion reading, “AS THE NOBUL KYNGE ERACLYUS COM RYDYNG TOWARDE Y^E CYTTE OF IERUSALEM BERYNG Y^E CROSSE SO GRETE PRYDE ... WHERE Y^E....” Naturally, the poſſesſion of a piece of the true Croſs would be eſteemed as a moſt precious property. No matter how ſmall, it would be reverentially encloſed in cryſtal and gold, and was more than a preſent fit for an emperor or king, and we cannot marvel that ſmall pieces were diſtributed all over Chriſtendom. Poſſibly ſome of the relics ſhown as pieces of the very Croſs might not have been what they were ſuppoſed to be, but it is hard to believe what John Calvin[K] wrote about it:— “And fyrſt of all let us begynne to ſpeake of his croſſe, whereupon he was hanged. I know that it is holden for a certaintie that it was founde of Heline the mother of Conſtantine the Romaine Emperour. I knowe alſo what certaine Doctours have written touching the approbation hereof, for to certifie that the croſſe which ſhe found was without doute the ſelfe ſame on the whiche Ieſus Chriſt was hanged. Touchynge all this I reporte me to the thynge it ſelfe, ſo much is there that it was but a foliſh curioſitie of her, or at the leaſt a foliſhe and unconſidered devotion. But yet put the caſe it had ben a worke worthy of prayſe to her, for to have taken paynes to fynde the trewe croſſe, and that our lord had then declared by myracle that it was his croſſe which ſhe found; Yet let us onely conſider that which is of our time. Every one doeth holde that this croſſe which Helene founde is yet at Ieruſalem, and none doeth doute thereof. Although the Eccleſiaſticall hiſtory againſt ſayeth the ſame notablye. For it is ther recited that Helene toke one part thereof to ſend to the Emperour her ſonne, who put the ſame at Conſtantinople upon a fyne pyller of Marble in the myddeſt of the market. Of the other part, it is ſayde that ſhe did locke the ſame in a copher of ſilver, and gave it to the Biſhop of Ieruſalem to kepe. So then eyther we ſhall augment the hiſtorie of a lie or els that which is holden at this daye of the true Croſſe, is but a vayne and triflyng opinion. [Sidenote: 51 _Blocks—billets_] “Let us conſider on the other part howe many peeces there are thereof throug out the worlde. Yf I would onely recite that whiche I coulde ſay there woulde be a regiſter ſufficient to fyl a whole boke. There is not ſo little a town where there is not ſome peece thereof, and that not onelye in cathedrall churches, but alſo in ſome pariſhes. Likewiſe ther is not ſo wicked an abbey where there is not of it to be ſhewed. And in ſome places ther are good great ſhydes:[51] as at the holye chappell of Paris, and at Poitiers & at Rome, where there is a great crucifix made thereof as men ſaye. To be ſhort, yf a man woulde gather together all that hath bene founde of this croſſe, there would be inough to fraighte a great ſhip. The Goſpell teſtifieth that the croſſe myght be caried of one man. What audacitie then was this to fyll the earth with pieces of wod in ſuche quantitie, that thre hundred men can not cary them,” &c. Calvin was full of zeal, and could not ſtoop to particulariſe. Witneſs his aſſertion that the Croſs would freight a ſhip, and yet that three hundred men could carry it. M. Rohault de Fleury has gone very minutely into this matter. Knowing, from microſcopical examination, that ſeveral of the relics of the Croſs were of pine, he accepts this wood as his baſis, and, from its probable ſize, he deduces a weight of 100 kilogrammes, equal to about 240 Engliſh lbs.; and, taking the average denſity of pine, he eſtimates that this would give 178 millions of cubic millimetres. He then deſcribes all the known pieces in Europe, Jeruſalem, and Mount Athos, with their meaſurements, and he puts the outcome at 3,941,975 cubic millimetres; thus, according to his ſhewing, there is but a very ſmall portion of the Holy Croſs in exiſtence. I ſubjoin his liſt of the places in which pieces of the Croſs are known to exiſt, as it is moſt intereſting, ſhowing the comparative bulk of the pieces, in cubic millimetres:— Aix la Chapelle 150 Amiens 4,500 Angers 2,640 Angleterre 30,516 Arles 8,000 Arras 10,314 Athos (le Mont) 878,360 Autun 50 Avignon 220 Baugé 104,000 Bernay 375 Beſançon 1,000 Bologne 15,000 Bonifacio 47,960 Bordeaux 3,420 Bourbon l’Archambault 29,275 Bourges 22,275 Bruxelles 516,090 Chalmarques “ Châlons 200 Chamirey 605 Chatillon ” Cheffes (Anjou) 100 Chelles “ Compiègne 1,896 Conques 108 Cortone 3,000 Courtrai 200 Dijon 33,091 Donawert 12,000 Faghine ” Florence 37,640 Fumes 5,250 Gand 436,450 Gênes 26,458 Gramont 5,000 Jancourt (Aube) 3,500 Jeruſalem 5,045 Langres 200 Laon “ Libourne 3,000 Lille 15,112 Limbourg 133,768 Longpont 1,136 Lorris ” Lyon 1,696 Mâcon 2,000 Maeſtricht 10,000 Marſeille 150 Milan 1,920 Montepulciano 500 Naples 10,000 Nevers 176 Nuremberg “ Padoue 64 Paris 237,731 Piſa 8,175 Poitiers 870 Pontigny 12,000 Raguſe 169,324 Riel les Eaux 671 Rome 537,587 Royaumont ” Saint Dié 99 Saint Florent 400 Saint Quentin 5,000 Saint Sepolcro 200 Sens 69,545 Sienne 1,680 Tournai 2,000 Trèves 18,000 Troyes 201 Turin 6,500 Venice 445,582 Venloo “ Walcourt 2,000 Wambach ” ———— TOTAL 3,941,975 According to this table we are credited in England with 30,516 cubic millimetres of the holy Croſs, and it is intereſting to know where they are ſituated. M. Rohault de Fleury, writing in 1870, ſays there were pieces at Isleworth; St. Gregory, Downſide, near Bath; in the poſſesſion of Lord Petre; at Bergholt Eaſt, in Suffolk; at Plowden; at the convent of St. Mary, York; at Weſt Grinſtead; at St. George’s, Southwark; and Slindon, Suſſex. Theſe pieces of the holy Croſs are not large, as the following table, in cubic millimetres, ſhows:— At Isleworth 1,000 “ College of St. Gregory 6,120 Lord Petre (two relics) 8,287 At St. Mary, Bergholt Eaſt 1,008 ” Plowden Hall, Salop 262 “ St. Mary, York (two relics) 5,600 ” Weſt Grinſtead “ 38 ” St. George’s, Southwark (four relics) 63 “ St. Richard, Slindon 8,100 —————— TOTAL 30,516 One relic at St. Mary’s Convent, York, is very fine; it is ornamented with ſcroll-work of the tenth century, and bears three impreſſions of the ſeal of the Vicar Capitular of the dioceſe of Saint Omer, 1657 to 1662. It is a pectoral croſs that is ſuppoſed to have belonged to the patriarch Arnulph, who was with Robert, Duke of Normandy. The other is ſuppoſed to have been attached to the above, and to have belonged equally to Arnulph, patriarch of Jeruſalem. This is kept in a ſilver reliquary, which alſo contains relics of SS. Ignatius Loyola and François Xavier. We ſee by the Golden Legend, that St. Helena, after finding the Croſs, feeling certain that the nails were not far off, proſecuted a further ſearch for them, and they were diſcovered “shynyng as gold.” As with the faſhion of the Croſs, whether it was _immiſſa_ or _commiſſa_, there is, and was, a controverſy with regard to the nails, whether three or four. Boſius in his learned and exhauſtive book, _Crux Triumphans et Glorioſa_,[L] gives ſeveral authorities for three nails only—foremoſt, Gregory Nazianzen; but he does not give the paſſage where it may be found; the quotation, however, is Γυμνὸν τρισήλῳ κείμενον ξύλῳ λαϐών, “having taken from the three-nailed wood the dead (or hanging) body.” Thus clearly ſhowing the number of nails he conſidered right. Boſius then goes on to quote Apollinaris Laodicenus, who, in his tragedy entitled _Chriſtus patiens_, called the holy Croſs by the ſame words, τσισηλον ξυλω, “three-nailed wood”; and he alſo quotes from the _Meditat. vitæ Chriſti_ of Bonaventura, “_Illi tres clavi ſuſtinent totius corporis pondus_.” Nonnus, the Greek poet, writing in the fifth century, alſo ſays that our Lord’s feet overlapped each other, and were faſtened by only one large nail. So that there is a very fair amount of antiquity in favour of three nails. Againſt this theory may be quoted the authority of St. Cyprian, St. Auguſtine, St. Gregory of Tours, Pope Innocent III., Rufinus, Theodoret, and others, who ſay four nails were uſed in the Crucifixion of our Saviour. The battle waged pictorially; but perhaps the earlieſt known repreſentation of the Crucifixion, that found in the Cemetery of St. Julian, Pope, or of St. Valentine in Via Flaminia at Rome, ought to bear moſt weight. Our Saviour is repreſented as being clothed in a long ſleeveleſs robe, which reaches to His ankles; the feet are ſeparate, and are each nailed. It is ſaid that Cimabue was the firſt to paint the feet overlapping, and one nail. His example, however, was much followed, and hence the controverſy. Of theſe nails, univerſal tradition ſays that St. Helena ſent two to her ſon Conſtantine, and, as the Golden Legend has it, “the emperour dyd do ſette them in hys brydel and in hys helme when he wente to batayle.” One can underſtand one of theſe ſacred nails being worn in the Emperour’s helmet as a preſage of victory and as a ſafeguard againſt danger, but the utility of incorporating one of ſuch priceleſs relics in a horſe’s bridle is not ſo eaſy to comprehend; but the fathers of the Church, St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Ambroſe, Theodoret, and St. Gregory of Tours, recogniſe in it the fulfilment of the prophecy of Zecharius, chap. xiv. 20: “In that day ſhall be upon the bridles of the horſes, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD.” This bridle, or rather bit, is now ſaid to be in exiſtence in France at Carpentras, department of Vaucluſe. How it got there is not clearly known, but probably it was taken at the time of the Cruſades—as leaden ſeals on which it is engraved exiſt, attached to parchments of the dates 1226 and 1250, and it was mentioned in an inventory of relics in the year 1322. [Illustration: ^1 The iron crown of Lombardy. ^2 The holy bridle at Carpentras. ^3 Nail at Venice. ^4 Nail at Rome in Sta. Maria in Campitelli. ^5 Nail at Arras. ^6 Nail at Colle. ^7 Nail in the Church of the Holy Croſs of Jeruſalem, at Rome. ^8 Portion of nail at Toul. ^9 Nail at Trèves.] I have reproduced it, as well as the Iron Crown of Lombardy and the nails, from M. Rohault de Fleury’s work, and, as will be ſeen, it is undoubtedly of great antiquity, cloſely reſembling the bits of the Romans. According to Boſius, who quotes Gregory Nazianzen, a third nail was thrown by St. Helena into the Adriatic Sea, in order to calm a tempeſt; and the ſame authority ſays that the fourth was depoſited in the head of a ſtatue of Conſtantine, but this militates much againſt the number of holy nails ſaid to be in exiſtence. Calvin notices this, and is down upon it with ſledge-hammer force:— “Yet there is a greater combat of the nayles. I wyll recite them only that are come to my knowledge. Thereupon there is not ſo lytle a childe but wyll judge that the Devyll hath to much deluded the worlde in takyng from it both underſtandyng and reaſon, that it coulde diſcerne nothynge in this matter. If the auncient writers ſaye trewe, and namely Theodorite Hiſtoriographer of the auncient churche, Helene cauſed one to be nayled on her ſonne’s helmet, the other two ſhe put in his horſe bitte. How be it Sainct Ambroſe ſayeth not fully ſo. For he ſayeth that one was put in Conſtantine’s crowne, of the other his horſebit was made, and the thirde Helene kept. Wee ſe y^t already more than twelve hundred yeres agone this hath bene in controverſie, to wit, what was become of the nayles. What certentie can be had of them then at this preſent time? “Now at Millan they boſte that thei have y nayle that was put in Conſtantine’s horſe bitte. To the whiche the towne of Carpentras oppoſeth herſelfe, ſayinge that it is ſhe that hath it. Nowe S. Ambroſe doth not ſaye that the nayle was knit to the bitte, but that the bitte was made thereof. Whiche thynge can in no wyſe be made to agre eyther w^t their ſaying of Milan or w^t theirs of Carpentras. “Moreover there is one in Rome at Sainct Helenes; another alſo at Sene, another at Veniſe. In Germany two: at Collyne one, at the three Maries: another at Triers, one in Fraunce at the holy chappell of Paris, another at y^e Carmes, one alſo at Sainct Denis in France: one at Burges: one at Tenaill, one at Draguine. “Beholde here fourteene, whereof account is made; in every place they alledge good approbation for themſelves, as they ſuppoſe. And ſo it is that everye one hath as good right as aunother. Wherefor there is no better way then to make them all paſſe under one fidelium. That is to ſaye, to repute all that they ſaye hereof to be but lyes, ſeying that otherwiſe a man ſhoulde never come to an ende.” What would Calvin have ſaid if he had ſeen the formidable liſt of holy nails enumerated by Guiſto (or Juſtus) Fontanini, Archbiſhop of Ancyra? which is as follows:— 1. Aix la Chapelle. 2. Ancona, in the Cathedral. 3. Bamberg. 4. In Bavaria, Convent of Audechſen. 5. Carpentras. The Holy Bit. 6. Catania, Sicily. 7. Colle, in Tuſcany. 8. Cologne. 9. The Escurial in Spain. 10. Milan. 11. Monza. The Iron Crown. 12. Naples. Monaſtery of S. Patricius. 13. Nuremberg. Church of the Holy Virgin. 14. Paris. 15. Rome. Two Nails. Church of the Holy Croſs of Jeruſalem; Church of Santa Maria in Campitelli. 16. Sienna. Hoſpital Sainte Marie de de l’Echelle. 17. Spoleto. 18. Torcello, near Venice. Church of S. Anthony. 19. Torno, on the Lake of Como. 20. Toul. 21. Trèves. 22. Venice. Three nails. 23. Vienna. But this liſt is further ſupplemented by M. Rohault de Fleury, who gives ſix more:— 1. Arras, according to M. le Chev. de Linas. 2. Compiègne. A point. 3. Cracow, in Poland, according to M. Goſſelin. 4. Florence. 5. Lagney. 6. Troyes. So that no leſs than twenty-nine towns claim the poſſesſion of thirty-two nails, all differing in form, the number of which can only be accounted for by the ſuppoſition that only a portion of the holy nails has been incorporated into each of them. [Illustration: _The Title of the Croſs._] One of the moſt intereſting relics in connection with the holy nails is the Iron Crown of Lombardy. This, as may be ſeen by reference to the illuſtration (Fig. 1), is a circlet of gold, ornamented with precious ſtones, and it is indebted for its name of “Iron” to a thin band (=A=) of that metal, which is inſide the gold circlet. The Crown itſelf is of very antique form, being even devoid of rays, and is too ſmall to go on the head. Charlemagne was crowned with it in 774, and Napoleon did not think himſelf King of Italy until he had placed this precious diadem on his head, in 1805. It is kept at Monza, nine miles from Milan, in the Cathedral, which is of great antiquity. There it repoſes in a huge croſs placed over the altar. Of the relics of the Croſs there now remains but two ſpecks of the title or inſcription thereon, and here, again, I am indebted to M. Rohault de Fleury for the illuſtration on page xciv., as it ſeems to me to be the beſt yet publiſhed. The Evangeliſts, although agreeing in the ſpirit of the inſcription, vary as to the letter. Says St. Matthew: “This is Jeſus the King of the Jews.” “ St. Mark: ”The King of the Jews.“ ” St. Luke: “This is the King of the Jews.” “ St. John: ”Jeſus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.“ Neither St. Matthew nor St. Mark note the tri-lingual character, and SS. Luke and John vary as to the order of the different languages; the former ſaying it was in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew—the latter that it was in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. The latter is the generally accepted form, and the reaſon given is, that Hebrew, being the common language, it would naturally come firſt, as we ſhould do in an Engliſh notice, firſt in Engliſh, then, ſay in French and German, for the benefit of foreigners, as were the Greeks and Romans in Jeruſalem. The tradition is that, along with the Croſs, St. Helena found the inſcription, and that ſhe ſent it, together with a piece of the Holy Croſs and a number of other ſacred relics, to Rome, where it was depoſited in the baſilica of Santa Croce. Here it remained until Valentinian, fearing that it might fall into the hands of the Goths and Huns, hid it in the wall of the building, until it was found in 1492. Valentinian died A.D. 375, and Antoninus Martyr, in his _De Locis Sanctis_ (sec. 20), written about A.D. 570, ſays he ſaw the inſcription which had been placed on the Croſs, and that the words were, “Ieſus Nazarenus Rex Iudæorum.” He ſays that he held it in his hand, and kiſſed it, in the Church of Conſtantine at _Jeruſalem_. Hence it is evident that either tradition is incorrect, or that Antoninus did not tell the truth. But the claim is that it is, and always has been, in Rome, and Boſius, in his _Crux Triumphans_ (p. 60), gives an account of its re-diſcovery. He ſays that in February, 1492, Monſeigneur Pedro Gonſalvo de Mendoza, Cardinal Sanctæ Crucis, was repairing and cleanſing his church, and on the firſt day of that month, when the workmen reached the top of the arch which was in the middle of the baſilica, and near the roof, they ſaw two ſmall columns; and finding a ſpace, they diſcovered a niche in which they found a leaden box, well cloſed, and on its lid was a tablet of marble, on which were engraved theſe words: HIC EST TITVLVS VERÆ CRUCIS. In this box was found a little board, about a hand’s breadth and a half, much corroded on one ſide by time, and bearing, in grooved, engraved characters, which were coloured red, the following inſcription: IESVS NAZARENVS REX IVDÆORVM. But the word IVDÆORVM was not entire, the laſt two letters VM having crumbled to pieces by reaſon of old age. The firſt line was written in Latin characters, the ſecond in Greek, and the third in Hebrew. All the city went to ſee it; and three days afterwards, Pope Innocent went alſo, and ordered the relic to be preſerved in its box, and covered with a ſheet of glaſs. Every one was convinced that they had before their eyes the inſcription which Pilate placed upon the Croſs over our Saviour’s head, and which Saint Helena had depoſited in the church at the time of its building. The relic, as now ſeen, is very worm-eaten, but the letters are ſtill viſible, and have been cut with a ſmall gouge. They read from right to left, as Hebrew does, thus lending great plauſibility to the idea that it was done by ſome Jewiſh artificers; and it ſeems to be of ſome cloſe-grained wood. Taking the piece now at Santa Croce, the whole inſcription, if reſtored, would be thus: [Illustration: _The Inſcription at Santa Croce, reſtored._] [Illustration] [Illustration] [Illustration] _Notes on the Woodcuts._ [Illustration] THE Hiſtory of the Legend of the Holy Croſs which is here reproduced, is ſomewhat fuller than the Golden Legend of Caxton, there being particulars about Moſes, David, and Solomon not to be found therein; but they may be found in other verſions of the Legend, ſome in the Latin of Jacobus de Voragine, others in two MSS. in the Britiſh Muſeum.[M] The engravings are taken from a very rare book, of which, as far as is known, there are but three copies in exiſtence: one is in the Royal Library at Bruſſels, another at the Hague, in the collection of Mr. Schinkel, and the third is in the poſſesſion of Lord Spencer at Althorp. It is from this book that theſe fac-similes (made by M. J. Ph. Berjeau) were taken. The book itſelf has one woodcut on each page, with a verſe in Dutch, at the bottom, explanatory of each engraving. It is called indifferently _Hiſtoria Sanctæ Crucis_ or _Boec van den houte_ (Book of the wood or tree). It was printed at Kuilenburg on March 6th, 1483, by John Veldener,[N] who had juſt removed from Louvain. Theſe ſixty-four engravings were originally on thirty-two blocks,[O] and evidently belonged to ſome much older block book, now loſt. Theſe, Veldener cut in half, as he had already treated a _Speculum_, and brought them out as a freſh book. The Legend as told by theſe engravings is as follows:— [Sidenote: _Woodcut No. 1._] [Sidenote: _No. 2._] [Sidenote: _No. 3._] [Sidenote: _No. 4._] [Sidenote: _No. 5._] [Sidenote: _No. 6._] [Sidenote: _Nos. 7, 8._] Adam, feeling himſelf about to die, ſent Seth to Paradiſe to beg for ſome of the oil of mercy,[1] which, however, the Archangel Michael refuſed to give him, but, inſtead, preſented him with three ſeeds of the tree of life.[2] On his return, he found Adam dead, and, being unable to adminiſter theſe ſeeds to his father in any other manner, he put them under his tongue, and then buried him.[3] Preſently theſe ſeeds germinated and ſhot through the ground, and are traditionally ſaid to have been a cedar, a cypreſs, and a pine.[4] They grew until Moſes had led the Israelites out of Egypt, when he found them in the Valley of Hebron, and he recognized them as typifying the Trinity. He removed them, and they were his conſtant companions.[5] With them he ſmote the rock, and the waters guſhed out,[6] and the bitter waters of Marah became ſweet.[7, 8] [Sidenote: _Woodcut No. 9._] [Sidenote: _No. 10._] [Sidenote: _No. 11._] [Sidenote: _No. 12._] [Sidenote: _No. 13._] He then planted them in the land of Moab,[9] and there they remained, until an angelic viſion appeared unto David, and commanded him to go, and take them up, and bring them to Jeruſalem.[10] On his return the three rods worked miracles, healing the ſick,[11] and the leprous, with a touch;[12] nay, more, on being applied to three black men, they inſtantly became white.[13] [Sidenote: _Woodcut No. 14._] [Sidenote: _No. 15._] [Sidenote: _No. 16._] [Sidenote: _No. 17._] Arrived at Jeruſalem, they wiſhed to plant them, but for the night they left them in a ciſtern, by the Tower of David,[14] and lo! during the night, they ſtruck root, and, entwining themſelves, became but one ſtem,[15] which, when David ſaw, he had a wall built round it.[16] And the tree grew for thirty years, David ornamenting it with rings of ſapphire and other precious ſtones, adding one for every year, and under this tree he compoſed the Psalms, and praiſed God exceedingly.[17] [Sidenote: _Woodcut No. 18._] [Sidenote: _No. 19._] [Sidenote: _No. 20._] [Sidenote: _No. 21._] [Sidenote: _No. 22._] [Sidenote: _No. 23._] But Solomon, who muſt needs have all that was rare and coſtly to adorn his temple, caſt his eyes upon this precious tree, and ordered it to be cut down.[18] It was duly felled, and ſquared, and trimmed, and it meaſured thirty cubits in length.[19] But when the carpenters came to put it into a place of that length, it was a cubit too ſhort, and when it was fitted into a place of twenty-nine cubits, lo! it meaſured thirty, and the carpenters marvelled much, and were greatly aſtoniſhed, and ſo, being uſeleſs, it was laid aſide.[20] Yet the people came to ſee this wonderful tree, and amongſt them was a maid named Maximilla, who ſat down upon it, and inſtantly her clothes were in a blaze.[21] Then ſhe began to lift up her voice, and propheſy, crying, “My God, and my Lord Jeſu Chriſt.”[22] Then the Jews took her, and ſcourged her to death.[23] [Sidenote: _Woodcut No. 24._] [Sidenote: _No. 25._] [Sidenote: _No. 26._] [Sidenote: _No. 27._] [Sidenote: _No. 28._] [Sidenote: _No. 29._] [Sidenote: _No. 30._] The Jews, not knowing what to do with this miraculous tree, laid it acroſs a brook,[24] and, when the Queen of Sheba came to viſit Solomon, ſhe recognized the virtue of the wood; and, refuſing to defile it with her feet, ſhe diſmounted, and adored it, and waded through the brook.[25] Then, when ſhe met Solomon, ſhe reproved him, and told him that on that tree would the Saviour of the world ſuffer death.[26] And Solomon commanded the holy wood to be taken up,[27] and cauſed it to be carried into the Temple, there to be placed over the door, ſo that all men might bleſs, and adore it, and he coated it over with gold and ſilver.[28] There it remained until Abias ſtripped it of its coſtly coverings,[29] and the Jews buried it deep in the earth.[30] [Sidenote: _Woodcut No. 31._] [Sidenote: _No. 32._] There it remained for many years, until the Jews wiſhed to make a pool, where the prieſts might waſh the beaſts, to purify them, previous to ſacrificing them, and, unknowingly, they dug over the burial-place of the Holy Croſs.[31] This imparted ſuch a virtue to the water of that pool, which was called Betheſda, that the ſick were healed thereat, and an angel at times deſcended from heaven, and ſtirred the waters, and then whoever could get firſt into the waters was ſtraightway healed of any infirmity he might have.[32] [Sidenote: _Woodcut No. 33._] [Sidenote: _No. 34._] [Sidenote: _No. 35._] [Sidenote: _No. 36._] We now come to the Crucifixion, and there was a lack of wood to make Chriſt’s croſs—when, ſuddenly, from the depths of Betheſda, leaped up the tree of the Croſs, and floated gently to land. One ran to the High Prieſt,[33] and told him of the timely find of ſuitable wood, and he at once gave orders for it to be faſhioned into a Croſs.[34] Then comes the mournful proceſſion to Calvary, with our Saviour fainting under the weight of the Croſs, and Simon the Cyrenean is preſſed into the ſervice to help Jeſus.[35] And then the Crucifixion.[36] [Sidenote: _Woodcut No. 37._] [Sidenote: _No. 38._] [Sidenote: _No. 39._] [Sidenote: _No. 40._] [Sidenote: _No. 41._] [Sidenote: _No. 42._] [Sidenote: _No. 43._] [Sidenote: _No. 44._] And whilſt the croſſes were ſtill ſtanding, the diſciples came to them and prayed, and many were healed of their infirmities, and many devils were caſt out.[37] This ſo angered the Jews that they took the croſſes down, and buried them,[38] and there they remained until their invention by St. Helena, A.D. 326. On her arrival at Jeruſalem,[39] ſhe convened a meeting of the principal Jews, and they denied all knowledge of it, but, on threat of being burnt, they ſaid that one of their number, named Judas, knew where the croſſes were buried.[40] Judas, however, refuſed to tell, and, to compel him to impart his knowledge, St. Helena had him lowered into a dry well, “and there tormented hym by hongre and evyl reſte.”[41] Seven days of this treatment made him ſubmiſſive, and at the end of that time he capitulated. He was then drawn up,[42] and prayed to God to direct him to the right ſpot.[43] His prayer was heard, and after ſome digging, the croſſes were diſcovered.[44] [Sidenote: _Woodcut No. 45._] [Sidenote: _No. 46._] [Sidenote: _No. 47._] [Sidenote: _No. 48._] [Sidenote: _No. 49._] [Sidenote: _No. 50._] The news was brought to St. Helena, who viſited the ſpot,[45] but although there were certainly three croſſes, no one knew which was the one upon which Jeſus ſuffered. A teſt, however, was applied, which proved to be ſatiſfactory. The body of a maid was being borne on a bier for burial, but the funeral proceſſion was ſtopped, and the body was touched by the different croſſes. The two firſt produced no effect,[46] but when the third touched the dead maiden, ſhe was at once reſtored to life.[47] Here, then, was proof poſitive; this was the very Croſs; and St. Helena, mindful of her ſon Conſtantine, divided the ſacred wood; part ſhe encloſed in a caſe of precious metal, and kept at Jeruſalem;[48] and part ſhe ſent to her ſon, at Byzantium, who received it with due reverence,[49] and depoſited it in the church, with great ceremony.[50] [Sidenote: _Woodcut No. 51._] Here it remained, until it was taken away, with other ſpoil, by Choſroes, the King of Perſia, who, aware of the ſanctity of the relic, had it placed on the right hand of his throne. He was ſo puffed up with pride, that he ordered himſelf to be adored. His people, hitherto, had worſhipped the ſun, but now he ordained that henceforth he was to be conſidered the principal Perſon in the Trinity (the Father), and that the relic of the Croſs was to be looked upon as the Son, whilſt a golden cock which he had made was to repreſent the Holy Ghoſt.[51] [Sidenote: _Woodcut No. 52._] [Sidenote: _No. 53._] [Sidenote: _No. 54._] Then Heraclius made war againſt Choſroes, and meeting with a Perſian army under one of the ſons of that monarch, it was agreed that, in order to prevent a uſeleſs effuſion of blood, the two commanders ſhould fight it out between them, and whoever was vanquiſhed ſhould ſubmit.[52] The duel was fought on a bridge over the Danube, and Heraclius vanquiſhed and killed the ſon of Choſroes.[53] The Perſian army then made their ſubmiſſion,[54] and the penance impoſed upon them by the conqueror was that they ſhould all be baptized, which was duly done. [Sidenote: _Woodcut No. 55._] [Sidenote: _No. 56._] [Sidenote: _No. 57._] [Sidenote: _No. 58._] [Sidenote: _No. 59._] [Sidenote: _No. 60._] [Sidenote: _No. 61._] [Sidenote: _No. 62._] Heraclius then went to Choſroes, and told him what he had done, offering him his life if he too would embrace Chriſtianity,[55] but the Perſian monarch refuſed, and Heraclius ſmote off his head.[56] He then crowned a ſon of Choſroes, and cauſed him to be baptized,[57] himſelf ſtanding ſponſor, and buried the ſlain king with befitting honours.[58] Then, taking poſſesſion of the holy relic,[59] he ſet out with it for Jeruſalem. But, as he was bearing it in great ſtate, he came to that gate of the City through which Jeſus went to His paſſion, worn, buffeted, ſcorned, and weary, carrying the heavy burden of His croſs. And ſuddenly the gateway became ſolid maſonry, ſo that he could not paſs through, and an angel appeared in the heavens, and reproved him for his oſtentatious diſplay in a place which his Saviour had previouſly trodden in ſuch deep humility.[60] Heraclius diſmounted from his horſe, and, ſtripping himſelf of all the trappings of royalty, barefoot, and in his ſhirt,[61] he meekly bore the Croſs to its appointed place,[62] the maſonry diſappearing as ſoon as he had humbled himſelf. [Sidenote: _Woodcut No. 63._] [Sidenote: _No. 64._] A piece of the Croſs was afterwards ſent to Rome, where it duly arrived after a very ſtormy voyage,[63] and it was there preſerved for the adoration of the faithful.[64] JOHN ASHTON. [Illustration] FOOTNOTES: [A] “And for as moche as this ſayd worke was grete & over chargeable to me taccompliſſhe, I feryd me in the begynnynge of the tranſlacion to have contynued it / bycauſe of the longe tyme of the tranſlacion / & alſo in thenpryntyng of y^e ſame and in maner halfe deſperate to have accompliſſd it / was in purpoſe to have lefte it / after that I had begonne to tranſlate it / & to have layed it aparte ne had it be(en) at thynſtance & requeſte of the puyſſant noble & vertuous erle my lord wyllyam erle of arondel / whych deſyred me to procede & contynue the ſaid werke / & promyſed me to take a reſonable quantyte of them when they were acheyeued & accompliſſhed / and ſente to me a worſhypful gentylman a ſervaunt of his named John Stanney which ſolycyted me in my Lordes name that I ſhold in no wyſe leve it but accompliſſhe it promyſyng that my ſayd lord ſhold duringe my lyf geve & graunt to me a yerely fee / that is to wete a bucke in ſommer / & a doo in Wynter / with whiche fee I holde me wel contente,” &c. [B] [Sidenote: _Length of Adam’s life._] This apparently long life of Adam is admitted on all hands, even in the Reviſed Verſion of the Bible. The Talmud ſays that God promiſed him one thouſand years of life, and it is recorded that he begat Seth when he was a hundred and thirty years old. On this the Talmud (_Eruvin_, fol. 18, col. 2) has the following comment: “Rav Yirmyah ben Elazer ſaid: All thoſe years, which Adam ſpent in alienation from God, he begat evil ſpirits, demons, and fairies; for it is ſaid, ‘And Adam was an hundred and thirty years, and begat a ſon in his own likeneſs, after his image’; conſequently, before that time, he begat after another image.” This term of one hundred and thirty years ſeems to have been a period in Adam’s exiſtence, for we again find (_Eruvin_, fol. 18 b.): “Adam was a Chaſid, or great ſaint, when he obſerved that the decree of death was occaſioned by him; he _faſted_ a hundred and thirty years, and all this time he abſtained from intercourſe with his wife.” [Sidenote: _Talmud legends reſpecting Adam’s length of life._] There is a Talmudical tradition that God ſhowed the future to Adam (Avoth d’Rab. Nathan, chap. 31): “The Holy One—bleſſed be He!—shewed unto Adam each generation, and its preachers, its guardians, its leaders, its prophets, its heroes, its ſinners, and its ſaints, ſaying, ‘In ſuch and ſuch a generation ſuch and ſuch a _King_ ſhall reign, in ſuch and ſuch a generation ſuch and ſuch a wife man ſhall teach.’” This is amplified in Midraſh Yalkut (fol. 12), where it is ſaid that God ſhowed Adam all future generations of men, with their leaders, learned and literary men, and there he obſerved that David was credited with only three hours of life, and he ſaid, “Lord and Creator of the world, is this unalterable?” “Such was my firſt intention,” was the reply. “How many years have I to live?” aſked Adam. “One thouſand.” Then Adam ſaid, “I will lend him ſome of my years.” And a document was drawn up whereby Adam tranſferred ſeventy years of his life to David. S. Baring-Gould, in his legends of _Old Teſtament Characters_, vol i. p. 77, referring to a Muſſulman legend, ſays: “Finally, when Adam reached his nine hundred and thirtieth year, the Angel of Death appeared under the form of a goat, and ran between his legs. “Adam recoiled with horror, and exclaimed, ‘God has given me one thouſand years; wherefore comeſt thou now?’ “‘What!’ exclaimed the Angel of Death, ‘haſt thou not given ſeventy years of thy life to the prophet David?’ “Adam ſtoutly denied that he had done ſo. Then the Angel of Death drew the document of tranſfer from out of his beard, and preſented it to Adam, who could no longer refuſe to go.” [C] The Feſtival of the Invention, or finding of the Croſs, is kept in the Roman and Engliſh Churches on May 3. [D] Piſcina, a fiſh-pond: _Lat_. In this inſtance it is ſuppoſed to be the Pool of Betheſda. [E] Nicodemus, chap. 14:— [Sidenote: _v._ 1.] But when the firſt man our father Adam heard theſe things, that Jeſus was baptized in Jordan, he called out to his ſon Seth, and ſaid, [Sidenote: _v._ 2.] Declare to your ſons, the patriarchs and prophets, all thoſe things which thou didſt hear from Michael the Archangel, when I ſent thee to the gates of Paradiſe to entreat God that he would anoint my head when I was ſick. [Sidenote: _v._ 3] Then Seth, coming near to the patriarchs and prophets, ſaid: I, Seth, when I was praying to God at the gates of Paradiſe, beheld the angel of the Lord, Michael, appear unto me, ſaying, I am ſent unto thee from the Lord; I am appointed to preſide over human bodies. [Sidenote: _v._ 4.] I tell thee, Seth, do not pray to God in tears, and entreat him for the oil of the tree of mercy, wherewith to anoint thy father Adam for his headach; [Sidenote: _v._ 5.] Becauſe thou canſt not by any means obtain it till the laſt day and times, namely, till five thouſand and five hundred years be paſt. [Sidenote: _v._ 6.] Then will Chriſt, the moſt merciful Son of God, come on earth to raiſe again the human body of Adam, and at the ſame time to raiſe the bodies of the dead, and when he cometh he will be baptized in Jordan; [Sidenote: _v._ 7.] Then with the oil of his mercy he will anoint all thoſe that believe on him; and the oil of his mercy will continue to future generations, for thoſe who ſhall be born of the water and the Holy Ghoſt unto eternal life. [Sidenote: _v._ 8.] And when at that time the moſt merciful Son of God, Chriſt Jeſus, ſhall come down on earth, he will introduce our father Adam into Paradiſe, to the tree of mercy. [Sidenote: _v._ 9.] When all the patriarchs and prophets heard all theſe things from Seth, they rejoiced more. [F] Alban Butler, in _The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and other Principal Saints_, denies that St. Helena was an Innholder (_Stabularia_) in Bithynia, when Conſtantius married her, and ſays: “We are aſſured by the unanimous tradition of our Engliſh hiſtorians that this holy empreſs was a native of our iſland. William of Malmeſbury, the principal hiſtorian of the ancient ſtate of our country after Bede, and before him, the Saxon author of the life of St. Helen, in 970, quoted by Usher, expreſſly ſay that Conſtantine was a Briton by birth.” Leland, in his _Commentarii de Scriptoribus Britannicis_, ſays that St. Helena was the only daughter of King Coilus, the King Cöol who firſt built walls round Colcheſter, and the Engliſh Church has generally recogniſed her Britiſh origin. Her feſtival is kept on Auguſt 18. When her huſband, Conſtantine Chlorus, entered into an arrangement with Diocletian, by which he had the countries this ſide the Alps, namely, Gaul and Britain, he was obliged, as part of the bargain, to divorce St. Helena, and marry Theodora, the daughter-in-law of Maximinianus. According to Euſebius, ſhe was not converted to Chriſtianity at the ſame time as her ſon Conſtantine, who, when he came to the throne, paid her the greateſt deference, and gave her the title of Auguſta, or empreſs. After the Council of Nice, in 325, he wrote to Macarius, Biſhop of Jeruſalem, concerning the building of a ſplendid church upon Mount Calvary, and St. Helena, although ſhe was then 79 years of age, undertook to ſee it carried out. It was then that the reputed Invention of the Croſs, together with the nails, took place, and ſhe ſoon afterwards died, but the exact year is uncertain, ſome authorities giving A.D. 326, others 328. [G] Other accounts ſay the Croſſes were found by Macarius, then Biſhop of Jeruſalem. [H] The book of the office of Mithras or Mithra, the Sun, worſhipped by the Perſians. [I] Heraclius, Emperor of the Eaſt, who from A.D. 622 to 627 fought Choſroes II., defeated him, and concluded peace. [J] St. Equitius was a hermit, and looked after the welfare of other hermits and monks. He took a ſpecial intereſt in a convent of young virgins; died about A.D. 540. [K] I quote from the tranſlation by Steven Withers, 1561. [L] From this book I have taken the head and tail piece here given.—J. A. [M] Arundel, No. 507, and Add. MSS. 6524. [N] His life and labours may be read in Mr. Hottrop’s _Monuments Typographiques des Pays-bas_—. [O] See _The Woodcutters of the Netherlands in the 15th Century_, by W. M. Conway, and an article by him in the _Bibliographer_ of May, 1883, p. 32. * * * * * [Illustration: 1 _Adam ſends Seth to Paradiſe for ſome of the Oil of Mercy._] [Illustration: 2 _The Archangel Michael gives Seth three ſeeds of the Tree of Life._] [Illustration: 3 _Seth buries Adam and puts the three ſeeds of the Tree of Life under his tongue._] [Illustration: 4 _The three ſeeds ſpring up._] [Illustration: 5 _Moſes always has the three rods with him._] [Illustration: 6 _With them he makes water flow from the Rock._] [Illustration: 7 _An Angel tells Moſes how to ſweeten the bitter waters._] [Illustration: 8 _Moſes, by dipping the rods in the waters of Marah, ſweetens them._] [Illustration: 9 _Moſes plants the rods in the land of Moab._] [Illustration: 10 _An Angel appears to David and tells him to bring the rods to Jeruſalem._] [Illustration: 11 _The rods heal the ſick._] [Illustration: 12 _The rods heal a leper._] [Illustration: 13 _The rods turn three black men white._] [Illustration: 14 _David leaves the rods for the night._] [Illustration: 15 _In the morning he finds the rods have taken root and have become one tree._] [Illustration: 16 _David builds a wall round the miraculous tree._] [Illustration: 17 _David compoſes the Pſalms and praiſes God, under the ſhadow of the tree._] [Illustration: 18 Solomon orders the tree to be cut down and uſed in the Temple.] [Illustration: 19 _Artificers faſhion the tree._] [Illustration: 20 _The holy wood will fit nowhere._] [Illustration: 21 _St. Maximilla ſitting on the wood, her clothes catch alight._] [Illustration: 22 _St. Maximilla propheſies concerning the wood._] [Illustration: 23 _St. Maximilla ſcourged to death._] [Illustration: 24 _The wood uſed as a foot-bridge over a brook._] [Illustration: 25 _The Queen of Sheba prefers wading through the brook, to walking over the holy wood._] [Illustration: 26 _The Queen of Sheba tells Solomon of the holy nature of the wood._] [Illustration: 27 _The holy wood is taken up._] [Illustration: 28 _The holy wood is carried into the Temple._] [Illustration: 29 _Abias deſpoils the holy wood of its precious covering._] [Illustration: 30 _The Jews bury the holy wood._] [Illustration: 31 _Digging the Pool of Betheſda._] [Illustration: 32 _The ſick being healed at the Pool of Betheſda._] [Illustration: 33 _The High Prieſt told of the diſcovery of the holy wood._] [Illustration: 34 _The holy wood is made into the Croſs._] [Illustration: 35 _Chriſt bearing the Croſs._] [Illustration: 36 _The Crucifixion._] [Illustration: 37 _Diſciples adore the Croſs, the ſick are healed, and devils caſt out._] [Illustration: 38 _The Jews bury the Croſſes._] [Illustration: 39 _St. Helena comes to Jeruſalem._] [Illustration: 40 _St. Helena calls together the Chief Jews._] [Illustration: 41 _Judas is put into a dry well._] [Illustration: 42 _Judas is liberated from confinement._] [Illustration: 43 _Judas prays for Divine direction._] [Illustration: 44 _The Croſſes are diſcovered._] [Illustration: 45 _St. Helena views the Croſſes._] [Illustration: 46 _Trial of the true Croſs._] [Illustration: 47 _A dead maiden raiſed to life by being touched by the true Croſs._] [Illustration: 48 _St. Helena depoſits a portion of the Croſs in Jeruſalem._] [Illustration: 49 _St. Helena gives a portion of the Croſs to Conſtantine._] [Illustration: 50 _Conſtantine depoſits his portion of the Croſs in Byzantium._] [Illustration: 51 _Choſroes commands his people to adore him._] [Illustration: 52 _Meeting of Heraclius and Choſroes’ ſon._] [Illustration: 53 _Heraclius fights the ſon of Choſroes and kills him._] [Illustration: 54 _The Perſian army ſubmit to Heraclius._] [Illustration: 55 _Heraclius viſits Choſroes._] [Illustration: 56 _Heraclius kills Choſroes._] [Illustration: 57 _Heraclius crowns and baptizes the ſon of Choſroes._] [Illustration: 58 _Burial of Choſroes._] [Illustration: 59 _Heraclius takes poſſesſion of the relic of the Croſs._] [Illustration: 60 _Heraclius, attempting to enter Jeruſalem, is miraculouſly prevented, and is reproved by an angel._] [Illustration: 61 _Heraclius diveſts himſelf of ſtate._] [Illustration: 62 _Heraclius places the relic of the Croſs in its appointed place._] [Illustration: 63 _A portion of the Croſs is ſent to Rome, the veſſel bearing it meeting with a ſtorm._] [Illustration: 64 _The relic of the Croſs expoſed for adoration._] * * * * * Transcriber's Notes: Edits made: Page ix, number added to sidenote (2 _Hadrian is said to_) Page xxii, number added to sidenote (7 _Of old._) Page xxxvii, anchor for sidenote [28] added to text (torne thys bane[28]) Page lii, anchor for sidenote [39] added to text. (had been peasyd[39]) Page lxxvii and following, the totals were removed until the final one. Each page ended with a total, such as: Chalmarques " ------- Carried forward 1,674,145 The following page began with something similar to: Brought forward 1,674,145 Châlons 200 Page cii and following, the sidenotes listing the woodcut numbers were originally formed with the first sidenote of each page including the word _Woodcut_. As this sometimes landed in the middle of paragraphs and the notes were moved to the start of paragraphs, the form was changed to listing the word _Woodcut_ in the first sidenote of each paragraph instead of each page. 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