EXALTATION of the Cross is a feast of the Romish church, held on the 14th of September; in memory, as is generally supposed, of this, that the emperor Heraclius brought back the true cross of Jesus Christ on his shoulders, to the place on Mount Calvary from which it had been carried away 14 years before by Cosroes king of Persia, at his taking of Jerusalem, under the reign of the emperor Phocas. The cross was delivered up by a treaty of peace made with Siroe, Cosroes's son. The institution of this treaty is commonly said to have been signalized by a miracle; in that Heraclius could not stir out of Jerusalem with the cross while he had the imperial vestments on enriched with gold and precious stones, but bore it with ease in a common dress.

But long before the reign of Heraclius there had been a feast of the same denomination observed both in the Greek and Latin churches, on occasion of what our Saviour said in St John xiii. 32. And I, if I be exalted, or lifted up, will draw all men unto me. And again, in chap. viii. ver. 28. When you have exalted, or lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am he.

The feast of the dedication of the temple built by Constantine was held, says Nicephorus, on the 14th of September, Exaltation September, the day on which the temple had been consecrated, in the year 335; and this feast was also called the exaltation of the cross, because it was a ceremony therein, for the bishop of Jerusalem to ascend a high place, built by Constantine for that purpose, in manner of a pulpit, called by the Greeks the sacred mysteries of God, or the holiness of God, and there hoist up the cross for all the people to see it.

Physics, denotes the act, or operation, of elevating, purifying, sublimizing, or perfecting any natural body, its principles and parts; also the quality or disposition which bodies acquire by such operation. The term exaltation has been peculiarly affected by the chemists and alchemists; who imagining it to have some extraordinary emphasis, are employing it on every occasion.

Astrology, is a dignity which a planet acquires in certain signs or parts of the zodiac; which dignity is supposed to give it an extraordinary virtue, efficacy, and influence. The opposite sign, or part of the zodiac, is called the dejection of the planet. Thus the 1st degree of Cancer is the exaltation of Jupiter, according to Albumazar, because it was the ascendant of that planet at the time of the creation; that of the sun is in the 19th degree of Aries, and its dejection in Libra; that of the moon is in Taurus, &c. Ptolemy gives the reason of this in his first book De Quadrup.