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 Saporos king of Persia, upon taking the city of Jerusalem.

Order of the Cross, an order of ladies instituted in 1668, by the empress Eleonora 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.

heraldry, an ordinary composed of fourfold lines, whereof two are perpendicular, and the other two transverse; for so we must conceive of them, though they are not drawn throughout, but meet, by couples, in four right angles, near about the fesse-point of the escutcheon. The content of a cross is not always the same; for when it is not charged, it has only the fifth part of the field; but if it be charged, then it must contain the third part thereof.

This bearing was bestowed on such as had performed, or at least undertaken some service for Christ and the Christian profession; and is therefore held by several authors the most honourable charge in all heraldry. What brought it into such frequent use was the ancient expeditions into the holy land, the cross being the ensigns of that war.

In these wars, the Scots carried St Andrew's cross; the French, a cross argent; the English, a cross or; the Germans, sable; the Italians, azure; the Spaniards, gules.

Cross-bar-shot, a bullet with an iron-bar passing through it, and standing six or eight inches out at both sides: it is used at sea, for destroying the enemy's rigging.

Cross-bill, in ornithology. See Loxia.

Cross-wort, in botany. See Valantia.

Crosselet, a little or diminutive cross, used in heraldry, where the shield is frequently seen covered with crosslets; also fetes and other honourable ordinaries, charged or accompanied with crosslets. Crosses frequently terminate in crosslets. See Plate LXVI. fig. 7.