1 The original word in the New Testament, for the tree on which our Saviour suffered, is σravpós, and the action or crucifixion σταύρωσις, the active σταυροῦν, and the passive σταυροῦσθαι. Νοπ σταυρός, from which the rest mentioned are manifestly derived, hath of itself originally no other signification than of a stake. As we find it first used by Homer,

Σταυροὺς δ' ἐκτὸς, ἔλασσε διαμπερὲς ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα,

Πυκνοὺς καὶ θαμέας, τὸ μέλαν δρυὸς ἀμφικεάσσας.—Οδυσ. ξ. 11.

̓Αμφί δέ οἱ μεγάλην αὐλὴν ποίησαν ἄνακτι Σταυροῖσιν πυκινοῖσι. —Ἰλ. ω'. 452. These are the same which Homer elsewhere calls σκόλοπες, and the ancient grammarians render each by other. As Eustathius [Od. '. 11]: Σravpol ὀρθὰ καὶ ἀπωξυμμένα ξύλα.—οἱ δ ̓ αὐτοὶ καὶ σκόλοπες λέγονται, ἀφ ̓ ὧν τὸ ἀνασκολοπίζεσθαι, καὶ ἀνασταυροῦσθαι· 50 he, expounding araupós: and in the same manner expounding σκόλοπες λέγονται δὲ οἱ τοιοῦτοι σκόλοπες καὶ σταυροί—ἐκ δὲ τούτων τὸ ἀνασκολοπίζειν, καὶ ἀνασταυροῦν. [Π. ή. 441. See also Eust. Il. μ. 55.] As when Homer describes the Phæacian walls: Τείχεα μακρὰ

Υψηλὰ σκολόπεσσιν ἀρηρότα.

Odyss. n. 44. he gives this exposition: Zкóλomes dè καὶ νῦν ξύλα ὀρθά, οἱ καὶ σταυροί. In the same manner Hesychius: Zravpol, Oi KATαTETNYÓTES σKÓλOTES, Xáрakes and: Σκόλοπες, ὀρθέα (1. ὀρθὰ καὶ οξέα ξύλα, σταυροί, χάρακες and again: Χάραξι, φραγμοῖς, ὀξέσι ξύλοις· οἱ δέ, καλάμοις, οἱ δέ, σταυροῖς. Besides, they all agree in the same etymology, ȧÒ Tоû lσTασlai, and therefore always take it for a straight standing stake,

pale, or palisadoe. Thus keλéovtes in Antiphon are briefly rendered oplà ğuλa but more expressly thus by Etymologus: Κελέοντες, κυρίως οἱ ἱστόπου δες, καταχρηστικῶς δὲ καὶ τὰ καταπεπηγότα ξύλα, ἃ καὶ σταυροὺς καλοῦσι. This is the undoubted signification of σravpós, in vain denied by Salmasius, who will have it first to signify the same with furca, and then with crux; first the figure of T, and then of T. Whereas all antiquity renders it no other than as a straight and sharp stake in which signification it came at first to denote this punishment, the most simple and prime oraúpwois or ανασκολόπισις being upon a single piece of wood, a defixus et erectus stipes. And the Greeks which wrote the Roman history, used the word gravpós as well for their palus as their crux. As when Antony beheaded Antigonus the king of the Jews, Dion thus begins to describe his execution, Hist. Rom. 1. xlix. c. 22: ̓Αντίγονον ἐμαστίγωσε σταυρῷ Tроoonσas not that he crucified him, as Baronius mistakes: but that he put him to another death after the Roman custom, as those died in Livy, 1. xxviii. c. 29: 'Deligati ad palum, virgisque cæsi, et securi percussi.' So that σταυρῷ προσδεῖν is ad palum deligare. Thus were the heads of men said ἀνασταυρωθῆναι, as of Niger and Albinus in Dio, [1. lxxiv. c. 8. and 1. lxxv. c. 7.] and Herodian, [1. iii. c. 24]; which cannot be meant but of a single palus : and we read in Ctesias [§ 36.] how Amytis put Inarus to death, ἀνεσταύρωσε μὲν ἐπὶ τρισὶ σraupoîs, not that he crucified him upon three crosses, but pierced his body with three stakes fastened in the

ground, and sharpened at the upper end. As appears by the like Persian punishment inflicted by Parysatis on Mesabates, as delivered by Plutarch in Artaxerxe, c. 17: προσέταξεν ἐκδεῖραι ζῶντα, καὶ τὸ μὲν σῶμα πλάγιον διὰ τριῶν σταυρῶν ἀναπῆξαι, τὸ δὲ δέρμα χωρὶς διαπατταλεῦσαι· which the Latin translator renders in tres sustolli cruces (a thing impossible): whereas it was to be transversely fastened to three stakes, piercing the body lying, and thrust down upon them; which in the Excerpta of Ctesias is delivered only in the word ἀνεσταυρίσθη. [§ 59.] Zravpós therefore is no more originally than σkólo, a single stake, or an erect piece of wood upon which many suffered who were said ἀνασταυροῦσθαι and ανασκολοπίζεσθαι. And whenother transverse or prominent parts were added in a perfect cross, it retained still the original name, not only of σταυρός, but also of σκόλοψ as: Ὤφειλεν εἰς ἐπίδειξιν θεότητος ἀπὸ τοῦ σκόλοπος γοῦν εὐθὺς ἀφανὴς γενέσθαι, &c. —Τὴν ἐπὶ τοῦ σκόλοπος αὐτοῦ φωνὴν Ör' ȧTÉTVEL. Celsus apud Orig. lib. ii. [§ 68. 58. Vol. I. p. 438 в. p. 431 D.] Thus in that long, or rather too long, verse written by Audax to St Augustin, Epist. 139. [Ep. 260. Vol. ii. p. 887 c.]:

'Exspectat quos plena fides Christi de stipite pendens.'

1 That the figure and parts of a Roman cross, such as that was on which our Saviour suffered, may be known, we must begin with the first composition in the frame or structure

of it and that is the conjunction of the two beams, the one erect, the other transverse; the first to which the body was applied, the second to which the hands were fastened. These two, as the chief parts of the cross, are several ways expressed: first, by the Jews, who had no one word in their language particularly to express that punishment (as being not mentioned in the law, or at all in use among them), and therefore call it by a double name, expressing the conjunction of these beams nw, stamen et subtegmen, the warp and the woof. The Greeks express the same, by the letter Tau, as partly appears by what is already spoken of the number 300, and is yet more evident by the testimony of Lucian, who makes mankind complain of the letter Taû, because tyrants in imitation of that first made the cross: Τῷ γὰρ τούτου σώματί φασι τοὺς τυράν νους ἀκολουθήσαντας καὶ μιμησαμένους αὐτοῦ τὸ πλάσμα, ἔπειτα σχήματι τοιούτῳ ξύλα τεκτήναντας, ἀνθρώπους ἀνασκολοπίζειν ἐπ' αὐτά. Judicium Vocal. c. 12. 'Ipsa est enim littera Græcorum Tau, nostra autem T, species crucis.' Tertull. adv. Marc. 1. iii. c. 22. St Jerome affirms the same of the Samaritan Tau: but there is no similitude to be found in that which is now in use, or any other oriental, only in the Coptic alphabet Salebdi, that is the cross Di. These two parts of the cross are otherwise expressed by the mast and yard of a ship. So Justin Martyr: Θάλασσα μὲν γὰρ οὐ τέμνεται, ἢν μὴ τοῦτο τὸ τρόπαιον, ὃ

καλεῖται ἱστίον, ἐν τῇ νηῒ σῶον μείνῃ. [Apol. i. c. 55. p. 90.] And Tertullian Antenna quae crucis pars est.' Adv. Marcion. 1. iii. c. 18. And Minucius Felix: Signum sane crucis naturaliter visimus in navi, cum velis tumentibus vehitur.' c. 29. And Maximus Taurinensis: 'Cum a nautis scinditur mare, prius ab ipsis arbor erigitur, velum distenditur, ut cruce Domini facta aquarum fluenta rumpantur. De Cruce Dom. Homil. 2. [p. 154.] Now because the extremities of the antenna are a kind of κέρατα (as Virgil, that great master of proprieties, En. iii. 549,

'Cornua velatarum obvertimus antennarum),' therefore in Greek κεραία is antenna: and from thence the Greek fathers applied the words of our Saviour, Matt. ν. 18, Ιῶτα ἓν ἢ μία κεραία οὐ μὴ παρέλθῃ ἀπὸ τοῦ νόμου, ἕως ἂν πάντα γένηται, to the cross of Christ; τοῦ γὰρ σταυροῦ Ἰωτά ἐστι τὸ ὀρθὸν ξύλον, καὶ κεραία τὸ πλάγιον. Because Ιώτα is like the straight piece or mast of the cross, and κεραία the yard or transverse part; therefore some of the ancients interpreted this place of the cross, says Theophylact on the place. [Vol. 1. p. 26.] And Gregory Nyssen, 1. ii. de Vita Mosis. [Vol. 1. p. 371 c.] ̓Αληθῶς γὰρ τοῖς καθορᾷν δυναμένοις ἐν τῷ νόμῳ μάλιστα τὸ κατὰ τὸν σταυρὸν θεωρεῖται μυστήριον. Διό φησί που τὸ Εὐαγγέλιον, ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ νόμου τὸ ἰῶτα καὶ ἡ κεραία οὐ παρέρχεται σημαῖνον, διὰ τῶν εἰρημένων, τήν τε ἐκ πλαγίου γραμμήν, καὶ τὴν κάθετον, δι ̓ ὧν τὸ σχῆμα τοῦ σταυροῦ καταγράφεται. Not that this is the true interpretation of that place (for κεραία signifes a part of a letter, as in Apollonius Syntax. 1. i. c. 7. τοῦ α τὴν κεραίαν ἀπήλειψε); but by that they testify their apprehension of the figure of a cross; which is well expressed by Eusebius, describing the form of the cross which appeared to Constantine: Υψηλὸν δόρυ χρυσῷ κατημφιεσμένον, κέρας εἶχεν ἐγκάρσιον, σταυροῦ σχήματι πεποιημέ

νον. De Vita Constant. 1. i. c. 31. And this similitude of the mast and yard leads to the consideration of that part of the erected pale which was eminent above the transverse beam. For as the καρχήσιον was above the κεραία, so the stipes did extend itself above the patibulum. And this is evident by those expressions which make the two beams have four sides, and four extremities, as two lines cutting each other at equal angles needs must have. These Theophanes, [Homil. 4. p. 19 c.] and Gregory Nyssen, [In Christi Resur. Orat. I. Vol. II. p. 622 D.] call τὰς ἀπὸ τοῦ μέσου τέσσαρας προβολάς. Damascen. [de Orth. Fid. 1. iv. c. 11.] τὰ τέσσαρα ἄκρα τοῦ σταυροῦ διὰ τοῦ μέσου κέντρου κρατούμενα καὶ συσφιγ γόμενα. Hence Nonnus calls the cross δόρυ τετράπλευρον. [Joh. xix. 91.] And of these four parts the fathers interpret the height, and breadth, and length, and depth, mentioned by St Paul, Eph. iii. 18. As Gregory Nyssen: Εφεσίοις τὴν τὸ πᾶν διακρατοῦσάν τε καὶ συνέχουσαν δύναμιν τῷ σχήματι τοῦ σταυροῦ καταγράφει—ὕψος καὶ βάθος καὶ πλάτος καὶ μῆκος κατονομάζων, ἑκάστην κεραίαν τῶν κατὰ τὸ σχῆμα τοῦ σταυροῦ θεωρουμένων, ἰδίοις προσαγορεύων ὀνόμασιν· ὡς, τὸ μὲν ἄνω μέρος ὕψος εἰπεῖν, βάθος δὲ τὸ μετὰ τὴν συμβολὴν ὑποκείμενον, τὴν δὲ ἐγκάρσιον καθ ̓ ἑκάτερον κεραίαν τῷ τοῦ μήκους τε καὶ πλάτους ὀνόματι διασημαίνων. Contra Eunom. Orat. v. [Vol. 11. p. 696 в.] et Idem Catech. Orat. c. 32. [Vol. II. p. 82 B.] et in Christi Resur. Orat. I. [Vol. III. p. 622 D.] And St Augustine makes the same interpretation: In hoc mysterio figura crucis ostenditur:' which he thus expresseth Latitudo est in eo ligno quod transversum desuper figitur,—longi. tudo in eo quod ab ipso ligno usque ad terram conspicuum est;-altitudo est in ea ligni parte, quæ ab illo quod transversum figitur sursum versus relinquitur, hoc est, ad caput cruci

fixi, &c.' Epist. 120. [Ep. 140 c. 26. § 64. Vol. I. p. 446 c.] et alibi sæpe. These four parts are severally expressed by the ancients, and particularly by the figure of a man with his hands stretched forth; which is the most proper similitude, because the cross was first made adapted to that figure. Quod caput emicat, quod spina dirigitur, quod humerorum obliquatio cornuat [al. excedit], si statueris hominem manibus expansis, imaginem crucis feceris.' Tertull. ad Nat. 1. i. c. 12.

1 Beside the direct and transverse parts of the cross, with their four extremities, which only usually are considered, and represented in the figures, we must find yet another part, and a fifth extremity. Irenæus giving seve ral examples of the number five, delivers it plainly thus, 1. ii. c. 42. [c. 24. § 4. p. 152.] 'Ipse habitus crucis fines et summitates habet quinque, duos in longitudine, et duos in latitudine, et unum in medio, in quo requiescit qui clavis affigitur.' Beside therefore the four extremities of the direct and transverse beams, there was a fifth aκpov in medio, (viz. of the erected palus), on which the crucified body rested. This fifth part of the cross fastened to the arrectarius stipes was, before Irenæus, acknowledged and described by Justin Martyr under the notion of the horn of the rhinoceros, taken to be a figure or type of the cross : Μονοκέρωτος γὰρ κέρατα οὐδενὸς ἄλλου πράγματος ἢ σχήματος ἔχοι ἄν τις εἰπεῖν καὶ ἀποδεῖξαι, εἰ μὴ τοῦ τύπου ὃς τὸν σταυρὸν δείκνυσιν. ὄρθιον γὰρ τὸ ἕν ἐστι ξύλον, ἀφ' ου ἐστι τὸ ἀνώτατον μέρος εἰς κέρας ὑπερῃρμένον, ὅταν τὸ ἄλλο ξύλον προσαρμοσθῇ, καὶ ἑκατέρωθεν ὡς κέρατα τῷ ἑνὶ κέρατι παρεξευγ μένα τὰ ἄκρα φαίνηται· καὶ τὸ ἐν τῷ μέσῳ πηγνύμενον ὡς κέρας καὶ αὐτὸ ἐξέχον ἐστὶν, ἐφ ̓ ᾧ ἐποχοῦνται οἱ σταυρούμενοι· καὶ βλέπεται ὡς κέρας καὶ αὐτὸ σὺν τοῖς ἄλλοις κέρασι συνεσχηματισμέ vov kai mennyμévov. Dial. cum Try

phone, [c. 91. p. 318.] Where beside the ὄρθιον ξύλον, or arrectarius stipes, and the άλλο ξύλον, or transversarium lignum, there is a third, rò év μéow πηγνύμενον fastened in the middle; ἐφ ̓ ᾧ ἐποχοῦνται οἱ σταυρούμενοι, says he in quo requiescit qui clavis affigitur,' says Irenæus. So Tertullian, ad Nationes, 1. i. c. 12. 'Pars crucis et quidem majus est omne robur quod de recta statione defigitur. Sed nobis tota crux imputatur, cum antenna scilicet sua, et cum illo sedilis excessu.' Where the excessus is the τὸ ἐξέχον, signifying the nature, as the sedile signifieth the use of the part. Which in another place, in imitation of Justin, he refers unto the typical unicorn: Nam et in antenna, quæ crucis pars est, extremitates cornua vocantur: Unicornis autem medius stipitis palus.' Adv. Marcion. 1. iii, c. 18. et adv. Jud. c. 11. To this sedile in the cross, Mæcenas seemeth to allude in those words in Seneca :

'Hanc mihi, vel acuta

Si sedeam cruce, sustine.'

And Seneca himself does expound him: Suffigas licet, et acutam sessuro crucem subdas, est tanti vulnus suum premere, et patibulo pendere destrictum. Epist. 101. § 12. Of this Innocentius the Third also speaks, Serm. 1. de uno Mart. [Vol. iv. p. 612 B.] 'Fuerunt in cruce Dominica ligna quatuor; stipes erectus, et lignum transversum, truncus suppositus, et titulus superpositus.' This Gregorius Turonensis, after the use of the cross was long omitted, interpreted of suppedaneum, a piece of wood fastened under the feet of him that suffered, De Glor. Martyr. c. 6. 'Clavorum ergo Dominicorum gratia, quod quatuor fuerint, hæc est ratio. Duo sunt affixi in palmis, et duo in plantis: et quæritur cur plantæ affixæ sint quæ in cruce sancta dependere visæ sunt potius quam stare? Sed in stipite erecto foramen factum mani