CROSS, in antiquity, a species of punishment, or rather the instrument wherewith it was inflicted, consisting of two pieces of wood crossing each other.
This punishment was only inflicted on malefactors and slaves, and thence called servile supplicium. The most usual method was to nail the criminal's hands and feet to this machine, in an erect posture; though there are instances of criminals so nailed with their head downward.
Invention of the Cross, a festival observed on May 3, by the Latin church, in memory of the empress Helena's (the mother of Constantine) finding the true cross of Christ on mount Calvary, where she caused erect a church for the preservation of it.
Exaltation of the Cross, a grand festival solemnized on September 14, in commemoration of Heraclius's restoring to mount Calvary the true cross, that had been carried off by Cosroes king of Persia, upon taking the city of Jerusalem.
Order of the Cross, an order of ladies instituted in 1668, by the empress Eleanor de Gonzaga, wife of the emperor Leopold, on occasion of the miraculous recovery of a little golden cross, wherein were inclosed two pieces of the true cross, out of the ashes of a part of the palace that had been burnt down: though the fire burnt the case wherein it was enclosed, and melted the crystal, it appears that the wood had not received the least damage.