Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894/Notes on Herr von Schick’s paper on the Jerusalem Cross
NOTES ON HERR VON SCHICK'S PAPER ON THE JERUSALEM CROSS.
By Major C. E. Conder, R.E.
The representation of the Jerusalem Cross is not correct. The crosslets are plain, and the crutches of the central cross are much longer.
It is not improbable that this cross was older than the Crusades, for it has the Greek not the Latin form.
A number of crosses of all forms will be found in the "Survey Memoirs," chiefly Greek, and taken from lintel stones in monasteries and chapels; but none of them have the crutch form. The Calvary Cross (see Deir ul Kal'ah) is not noticed by Mr. Schick, and I only found it once.
If the so-called Crux Ansata of Egypt (the Ankh or symbol of life held in the hand of deities) be really a cross, it should not be forgotten that the Maltese cross 
is found hung, with other charms, to the neck of Assyrian Kings, whose statues are in the British Museum. The Anchorites' crosses from Egypt have not the Jerusalem form. Of the other crosses given, specimens will be found in each case in the "Memoirs."
The explanation of Constantine's Cross or Labarum 
is not that usually accepted. The ordinary explanation of this emblem, which is common in Syria, from the fourth century downwards, is that it betokens the name of Christ XP. It is remarkable, however, that this sign is also older than Christianity, and appears on a coin of Herod the Great. Mr. Schick has not given us any specimen of a Jerusalem Cross in Palestine earlier than the Crusades.
It seems to me unproven that this form of cross was "first used" by the Armenians. Supposing that the date of the monastery in question is as old as the ninth century, it does not follow that the crosses in question are. One of them resembles the Maltese cross—that of the Knights of St. John; the other has the Latin form. The Crusaders were allied to the Armenians in the twelfth century, though the history of the Frank families in Syria shows that it is an over-estimate to say that "most of them" married Armenians. Some did, but most of the nobles brought wives from Europe, and some married Greeks. The offspring of such semi-oriental marriages were never highly esteemed.
In the thirteenth century the Templars and Hospitallers were established in Armenia, the court of the Kings of Armenia adopted Frank fashions, and some of the Armenian ecclesiastics followed the King in professing obedience to the Pope. The Legate was received for a time, but a reaction afterwards set in, and the Templars, the Legate, and the Roman Catholic priests, were expelled from Armenia. It was probably during this period—the middle of the thirteenth century—that the Jerusalem and Maltese crosses were adopted in Armenia. The Templar's cross was the red Latin Cross on a white field. The Hospitallers wore black (the Domenican colour) with the white Maltese Cross. The Jerusalem Arms (or on Argent) were false heraldry according to later rules, which indicates the antiquity of this coat. The fylfot 
is a widely spread emblem. It occurs on a statue from Troy, 1500 B.C. In India it is the Buddhist Swastica or "wheel of the law." It is found in the catacombs very early. It occurs on dolmens in Cornwall, and on bells in Yorkshire—as a charm against thunder. It is "Thor's Hammer" among the Norse; but that it is a cross seems doubtful.