Harvey, English Church Furniture (London, 1907); Binterim. Denkwurdigkeiten. IV, Part I. 496 sqq.; Martene, De Andquis Ecclesiæ Ritibus; Thiers. Dissertation sur les principaux autels el sur les jubès (Paris, 1688). HERBERT THURSTON.
Cross-Bearer, The cleric or minister who carries the processional cross, that is, a crucifix provided with a long staff or handle. An archbishop's cross is borne with the figure of the crucifix towards the prelate, but in all other cases the figure should be turned forward. The cross-bearer should, whenever possible, be a cleric (Council of Milan, seventeenth century), but in lay processions the most worthy of the laity should be selected for the office. In the more solemn processions such as those of the Blessed Sacrament, Palm Sunday, and Candlemas Day, the cross should be borne by a subdeacon vested in amice, alb, and tunic; on less solemn occasions by a clerk in surplice. The staff is held with both hands so that the figure is well above the head. The cross-bearer and the two acolytes by whom he is accompanied on the more solemn occasions should walk at the head of the procession, except when the thurifer is there, and should not make any reverences whilst engaged in this function.
Cæremoniale Episcoporum, passim; DE HERDT, Praxis Liturgiæ Sucræ (Louvain, 1904), III, 318; LE VAVASSEUR, Cérémonial Romain (Paris, 1876), I, 680.
Patrick Morrisroe.
Cross of Jesus, Brothers of the, a congregation founded in 1820 at Lyons, France, by Father C. M. Bochard, Doctor of the Sorbonne, Vicar-General of the Diocese of Lyons. Father Bochard was the first superior general (1820-34). He had as successors the Rev. Father Corsiain (1834-65) and the Rev. Father Bernard (1865-74). Until then the direction of the principal houses was entrusted to Fathers who were members of the congregation. In 1873 Bishop Richard of Belley, afterwards Cardinal and Arch-
bishop of Paris, employed the Fathers as parish priests and the congregation was henceforward com- posed of Brothers only. The superiors general, from this epoch, have been the Reverend Bros. Pierre-Joseph (1873-85), Lucien (1885-98), and Firmin (1898—). The name of the congregation indicates its dis- tinctive spirit. It grew during the nineteenth century
in eastern France and in Switzerland, until the perse-cution of 1903, which destroyed nearly all its estab-
lishments. Brother Firmin, Superior General, sent Brother Evariste with 32 religious to establish a prov-ince in North America, under the patronage of the Right Rev. A. A. Blais, Bishop of Rimouski, Canada. The institution, incorporated in Canada by a bill of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec (May, 1905), possesses at Rimoaski, a "house of formation" (novitiate and scholasticate), where the young mem- bers of the congregation are taught all the high- school branches and the commerical courses both English and French. At the request of the Most Rev. L. P. A. Langevin, Archbishop of St. Boniface, Manitoba, the institution has opened, since 1904, the colleges of St-Jean-Baptiste and of St-Pierre, Joly, Manitoba.
Brother Charles.
Crotus, Johann (properly Johannes Jager, hence often called Venator, "hunter", but more commonly, in grecized form, Crotus, "archer"), German Human-
ist, b. at Domheim, in Thuringia, c. 1480; d. probably
at Halle, c. 1539. From the name of his birthplace
he received the latinized appellation Rubianus and is
generally known as Crotus Rubianus. At the age of
eighteen he went to the L'niversity of Erfurt, then the
chief centre of German Humanism, where he obtained
his baccalaureate degree in 1500. Friendship with
Conrad Mutianus and T'lrich von Hutten led him from
being an upholder of Scholasticism to become an en-
thusiastic partisan of Humanism and a violent op-
ponent of the older learning. In 1505 he induced von
Hutten to leave the monastery of Fulda, but in 1506
came back with the latter from Cologne to Erfurt,
where in 1508 Crotus obtained the degree of Master
of Arts. After this he was absent from Erfurt for a
short time as tutor to Count von Henneberg, but by
1509 he had again returned to his studies and in 1510
was the head of the monasterj' school at Fulda. He
now formed close relations with Reuchlin and Reuch-
lin's supporters in Cologne; about 1514 he was for a
short time in Cologne but soon returned to Fulda
where he was ordained priest and obtained a small
benefice. About 1515 he wrote the larger part of the
"Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum"; the letters com-
po.sed by him are the most violent in character, full
of venom and stinging scorn against Scholasticism and
monasticism. In 1517 he settled in Bologna as tutor
of the Fuchs brothers, and during his stay at this city,
up to 1519, he studied successively jurisprudence and
theology. Before leaving Italy he went in company
with Eoban Hesse to Rome (1519) in order to observe
for himself the "see of corruption". While in Bo-
logna he had become acquainted with Luther's writ-
ings and actions, learned of the violent stand he had
taken and approved it as the beginning of a greatly
needed reform of the Church; apparently also he had
a share in the anonymous broadsides which appeared
in Germany. From 1.520 he was again in Erfurt
where he was made rector of the university, and here
in 1521 he gave Luther a warm greeting when the
latter passed through Erfurt on his way to Worms.
Soon after this Crotus returned to Fulda where Me-
lanchthon visited him in 1524. In the same year
Crotus entered the sersnce of Duke Albrecht of Prussia
at Konigsberg and endeavoured to justify the duke's
withdrawal from the old Faith in a pamphlet directed
against the new master of the Teutonic Order entitled
"Christliche Vermahnung" (1526).
Weary of his position at Konigsberg as early as
1529, he went first, in 1530, to Leipzig, and soon after-
wards to Halle; here Crotus accepted service imder
Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg as councillor and
received a canonry. As a genuine Humanist Crotus
had for a long time felt disgusted with the public dis-
turbance and the bitter polemics that resulted from
the Lutheran movement; he was still more dissatis-
fied with the grave disorder in morals and rehgion.
Thus in Halle, probably through the influence of its
canons, he positively returned to Catholicism, which
he seems, however, never to have abandoned con-
sciously. The first clear notice of this change of
views is the "Apologia, qua respondetur temeritati
caluraniatorum non verentium confictis criminibus in
populare odium protrahere reverendissimum in
Christo patrem et dominum Albertum" (Leipzig.
1531). The "Apologia" contained a po.sitive denial
of the accusations made by Alexander Crosner or
Luther that Cardinal Albrecht, in the persecution of
the new doctrine and in his opposition to granting the
cup to the laity, had acted with extreme cruelty and
lack of consideration. Crotus showed that the Ref-
ormation had resulted in the sanctioning of all kinds
of immorality and blasphemy, and that where the
" Antipopes" ruled, those of other beliefs were cruelly
oppressed, denounced by spies, and persecuted. Vari-
ous pamphlets, chiefly anonymous, were i.ssucd in
reply to the "Apologia" and tlie author was violently
attacked by Justus Jonas and other of his former
friends. AJfter this Luther always gave the name of
Dr. Krote (toad) to his one-time adherent, the dreaded
opponent in former days of Scholasticism and monas-
ticism. Suspicion was even thrown on the motives
for the inner change in Crotus. His connexion with
the Church was attributed to desire for princely favour
and greed of gain. But there can be no doubt that
his resolution was a deliberate one and that he be-
longed to Luther's party only so long as he hoped in
this way to attain a reform of the Church.
