Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894/The Jerusalem Cross

by Palestine Exploration Fund

 

THE JERUSALEM CROSS.

By Herr Baurath von Schick.

In the Quarterly Statement, 1893, p. 260, the Rev. Th. E. Bowling asks for reliable information as to the origin of the "Jerusalem Cross." "Four theories of the early history of this cross are current in Jerusalem. Can any date, prior to that of the Crusading Kingdom of Jerusalem, be assigned to it? "

This question is repeated in the Quarterly Statement, 1894, p. 3, to which Major C. E. Conder, E. E., remarks on p. 81 (1894): "The Jerusalem Cross which, with four crosslets, the Latin Kings of Jerusalem adopted as arms {or on argent), is heraldically a 'cross potent,' sometimes explained as 'croix potence' (gallows cross), from the gallows-like ends. I was struck in Moab by finding, at Hesban, a stone, apparently a lintel of the Byzantine age, with two designs, one of a St. Andrew's Cross, and another of a cross in a frame, with four crosslets, which might be an older form of the cross potent, the frame being afterwards broken at the corners."

These words and facts answer the questions of the Rev. Th. E. Dowling in some degree, but not fully, and so the field may be considered still open to bring in more details and facts on this matter, and I would humbly beg to be allowed to bring forward some of the results 1 obtained when studying the matter.

First, I wish to mention the four "Theories" which the Rev. T. E. Dowling states to be "current" in Jerusalem. As far as I know them, they are the following:—

1. The central and larger cross represents the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, whilst the four smaller ones (in the four corners) denote the four tributary principalities of Edessa, Antioch, Tripoli, and Kerak.

2. The five crosses represent the five principal nations who took part in the first Crusade: France, England, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

3. The five crosses are the sign and seal of the Franciscan Order, the traditional custodians of the holy places, and denote the five wounds of Christ and of St. Francis.

4. Though the Jerusalem Cross was used as their seal and arms by the Latin Jerusalem Kings, and is also found on Crusading and Cypriote coins, yet the emblem is more ancient than the Crusading time, and the Crusaders only adopted it, finding it in the country or neighbourhood and answering to their ideas and purposes.

That the form of the Jerusalem Cross, with four crosslets or some other marks or figures in the four corners, is much anterior to the Crusading time, is proved by the history of the cross in general, which begins in very ancient times. For instance, in Egyptian mythology the gods are constantly represented as holding the cross by a ring which served as a handle, , as the symbol of immortality and expressing eternity, which is a wonderful coincidence with the Christian Cross and its meaning. Later, in the Christian era, this idea mingled with pagan ideas is frequent in figures; especially the anchorets painted on the walls of their cells or caves such Christian emblems as are now found in catacombs; for instance, the following:—

At Beni Hassan—

The doves sitting on the crossbeam are symbolising the atoning sacrifice of Christ with the operation of the Holy Spirit,^[1] needful to give it effect upon the hearts of men.

On the first figure two other crosses are on the ground with the doves above, making up the five (as the Jerusalem Cross has and the wounds of Christ were). The middle figure has a threefold leaf (pointing to the Trinity) on the left side, and on the right alpha and omega in one letter, making so also the five. The last figure is simply a cross, the upright beam of which is shaped to a Greek R. It has the alpha on one side and the omega on the other.

At Philæ are—^[2]

It would be easy to explain the first, but I do not wish to speculate, and pass rather to the second. Here we have in the four corners round shaped points or knobs, indicating already the later Jerusalem Cross with its four crosslets. And so it is with the next, which at the four ends has half circles, and is in appearance not very different from the Jerusalem Cross with the gallows-shaped ends and the four crosslets.

Going over to Europe we find a similar development of the cross in the time before the Crusades.

In the catacombs at Rome and elsewhere were found lamps with the following figures:^[3]

Crosses of St. Andrew with a Greek R in the middle and on the sides, alpha and omega in the corners, in the one figure, and in the other two rings.

The Emperor Charlemagne (A.D. 768-814) put to his name and signature this sign:

and Charles the Bareheaded (A.D. 841-874) this:

In Southern Germany was found a coin struck in the time of Charlemagne, one side showing this:^[4]

again also the elements of the Jerusalem Cross.

I collected many others, found on sarcophagi, &c., but I do not know always their time, so I will pass them over. From all these figures and many more, one sees clearly, that in Christian times, when the Cross had become the symbol of man's Redemption and Christendom in general, there was an endeavour to add ornaments to the plain cross. Artists used it for their purposes, potentates and rulers adopted it for their arms, standards, and seals, and much more so the Church; and thus we have a long and almost endless series of variously shaped crosses, from among which the following may be mentioned:

This is called a Greek Cross, all arms being of equal length.

Latin Cross, one arm (the lower one) much longer than the others.

The St. Andrew's Cross, like the Roman numeral 10.

Is tailed Thieves' or Malefactors' Cross.

The Egyptian, or St. Antonius Cross. Four such crosses put together to one centre made the so-called Crutch Cross, thus:

(This is the Jerusalem Cross without the crosslets). We find further the form:

a repeated cross, as each arm of the chief cross forms also a cross, hence one may count five crosses, as in the Jerusalem Cross. Another form is thus:

in which one centre cross and four angle arms are five;

^[5] and yet another, the double cross, thus: in which to a Latin or Greek cross is added a St. Andrew's Cross. The cross for an archbishop had two crossbeams, thus:^[6] and that for the Pope three, thus:

In all these figures I have shown the beams of equal thickness, and most of them with plain ends. But many crosses were distinguished or ornamented with figures of some kind, and the ends decorated. Of the latter I mention lilies. clover, or , arrow, anchor, balls or apples, swallow-tail, &c. In regard of arms, if they were not plain and of equal thickness, in most cases they became broader towards the outer end, as there was more room there (the further from the centre the more), and just this, I think, gave the idea of filling up the corners with something. Examples of such one can best collect by going to the Armenian Convent in Jerusalem, where there are a great many variously shaped crosses engraved in the walls of the building, where apparently such stones were used the second, and perhaps even the third time, and as they had a cross on them they were in the new building put with their faces outwards. This I think accounts for the great number one can find on examining the walls. As I did so one day a priest of a higher rank called me into his room and showed me a book, and in it the drawings (plan, view, &c.) of a rock-cut church, or rather chapel, in the Convent "Anee," near Kars, in the Caucasus, built in the ninth century, in which is engraved more than once the Jerusalem Cross. Hence, therefore, the Armenians appear to be the designers and first users of the Jerusalem Cross, and as the Crusaders were on friendly terms with them and found their cross so convenient for their own purposes and so nicely expressing their ideas, they adopted it from them. I may mention that William of Tyre says in his history of the Crusaders, cap. 21, 28—" At this died the noble Armenian King, of whom I have in my tale hitherto repeatedly spoken," by which we see that the Crusaders were on good terms with them. In W. Besant and E. Palmer's "Jerusalem," London, 1888, p. 289, it is said: When "Jocelyn" had died, "there was no one left of the old Crusading chiefs, and their spirit was dead. Most of them had married Armenians." Even the name Jocelyn seems to be Armenian, as well as Lusignan (the last reigning king), which means in the Armenian

language, "moon." The Armenian priest told me that the cross with the four crosslets was originally theirs, and that the Crusaders simply adopted it. From the many crosses with four crosslets which I observed on the walls of the convent I copied only two, which copies I enclose here. The priest showed me also an ancient cross, which they have kept carefully in their church for several hundred years as a relic of great value, which was bestowed upon them by a king. It is a plain cross cut out of one piece of wood, about 5 inches long and 312 inches wide, and has this shape:

On the long arm is a deepening or excavation of 14 inch wide and 112 inch long, now empty, but he said a fraction of the real cross of Christ was once there.

In heraldry, numismatics, &c., the cross was used in many and various ways, and of innumerable forms, but all this is rather after the Crusading time, so I have not to speak of it, but wish only to remark that on the sign or emblem of the Order of Stanislaus, 2nd class, with which the Emperor of Russia honoured me, there are in the four corners of the cross, instead of crosslets, four small Russian double eagles, imitating in some degree the Jerusalem Cross; further, that in Germany at the time when not every one could read and write, one who could not write might make his signature to any document with three crosses, thus: [[File:|15px]] and attested by the scribe that the very man has with his own hand put these crosses in his presence. Such a document was legal, as good as if he would have put his name.^[7]

 

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1. Luke iii, 22; Matt, iii,16; Mark i, 10; John i, 32.
2. Manning, "The Land of the Pharaohs," pp. 103 and 157.
3. "Lübke Kunstgeschichte," I, p. 251. (Stuttgart, 1876.)
4. "Geschichte Wurttenberg, Stuttgart, 1891," p. 72.
5.  Note by Professor Hayter Lewis:—The is a well known as the sign (the Labarum) which Constantine saw in the sky, and is composed of the two first Greek letters, X and P of the name of Our Lord (Χριστος).
   As to this there is no doubt whatever. The was, most probably, composed of the same letters, differently arranged, and referring more particularly to the crucifixion.
   The is an Eastern symbol of the sun, but used also in early times by the Christians.
   There is a well-known example of it in one of the Roman catacombs.
6. Such a cross is engraved on the rock scarp at (or near) the entrance to the rock-cut tomb called "General Gordon's," outside Jerusalem, to the north.
7. Note by Professor Hayter Lewis:—The Hospitallers and Templars are so connected with Jerusalem that I think Mr. Schick should give examples of their eight pointed crosses.