-/V^:•'XS^itsv'^?SBffc>■!J)ffl.■!^'fwssli?t7WJ^.Rl;s^•'¥^5.'!:l;■!^^
HE FINDING OF THE CROSS
LOUIS DE COMBES
,< ' :.;;^■i^.:■l^'i::-,^;■ft;.;:>.-
Divisioa BSS-I-SS
Sectioa » I I.e. I
THE INTERNATIONAL CATHOLIC LIBRARY
Edited by Rev. J. Wilhelm, D.D., Ph.D.
VOL. X.
Nihil obstat
J. WILHELM, S.T.D.
Censor deputatus
Imprim i potest
►J. GULIELMUS
Epi Scopus Arindelensis
Vicarius Generalis
Westmonasterii
die II Mart a 1Q07
THE FINDING OF THE
CROSS
BY ,
LOUIS DE COMBES
AUTHORISED TRANSLATION
BY
LUIGI CAPPADELTA
NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO
BENZIGER BROTHERS
Printers to the Holy Apostolic See
1907
The rights of translation and reproduction are reserved
CONTENTS
PAGE
Author's Prefatory Note . . . . vii
Translator's Note ..... ix
CHAPTER
I. The Holy Places in the Year 33 . . 1
II. The Hiding of the Cross and of the Tomb . 39
III. St. Helena. The Labarum ... 90
IV. The Recovery of the True Cross . . 141
V. Helena Divides the Cross. Her Death . 159
VI. The Subsequent History of the Instruments of
THE Passion . . . . .167
VII. Objections against the Story of the Finding of
THE Cross ..... 223
VIII. The Legends of the Finding of the Cross . 254
Appendix ...... 267
Index ...... 279
PREFATORY NOTE OF THE AUTHOR
We quote the Fathers according to Migne's Patro-
logia ; P.L. stands for the Latin, P.G. for the Greek
Patrology ; in either case the figures following the
Roman numeral show the number of the column.
Acta SS. refers to the Acta Sanctorum of the
Bollandists. Eocuv. stands for Comte de Riant's
Exuvice Sacrce Constcmtinopolitanoe.
The ancient Palestine-Pilgrims' texts are quoted
from Tobler and Molinier's Itinera et desc7iptio7ies
Terrce Sanctoe, from Michelant and Raynaud's
Itineraires a Jerusalem, and from Mme. de Khit-
rowo's translation, Itineraires russes en Orient. All
three collections were published under the auspices
of the Societe de VOrient latin.
We have also made great use of Canon Ulysse
Chevalier's Repertoire des sources historiques du
moyen-dge, one of the most trustworthy sources of
information, and of Molinier and Kohler's Itinera
Hierosolymitana, in which much of our material is
classified chronologically.
We must also express our deep gratitude to the
Abbe Parayre, editor of the Revue de VUnivei^site
catholique, for having published some of our essays ;
viii PREFATORY NOTE
to M. Hugues Vaganay, the erudite librarian of the
Cathohc University, who furnished us with much
useful information, and also to Father Baudouy, the
Superior of the monastery of Notre-Dame-de-France
(Jerusalem), and to Father Leopold Dressaire, a
professor at the same establishment, who kindly
consented to correct our sketch of the Holy Places.
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
We have made full use of the permission given us
by the Author to incorporate in this work any addi-
tional notes we judged necessary, even where they
are at variance with the Author's own views ; these
notes are enclosed in square brackets. We have
also embodied in the translation a few emendations
suggested by the Author, and have been at pains to
verify as far as possible the references.
THE FINDING OF THE
CROSS
CHAPTER I
THE HOLY PLACES IN THE YEAR 33 1
Thirty-seven years after the Passion of Christ, the
Jerusalem which He had known was wiped out of
existence by the legionaries of Titus ; in the next
century Adrian had the ruins cleared, and buried
what remained of the Holy Places beneath the
foundations of a new city, to which he gave the name
of ^lia Capitolina ; Constantine's misdirected piety
pushed even further the work of destruction, for
^ See C. J. M. de Vogiie, Les Eglises de Terre Sainte. Paris,
I860. F. Caignart de Saulcy, Voyage en Terre Sainte, 2nd ed.
vol. ii. p. 39/! Paris: Didier, 1872. Victor Guerin, La Terre
Sainte et Jerusalem, p. 11 f. Paris: Plon, 1897. Zanecchia, La
Palestina d'oggi, studiata e descritta nei suoi santuari e nelle sue
localita bibliche e storiche. Translated into French as La Palestine
d'aujourd'hui, ses Sanctuaires, ses Localites bibliques et historiques by
H. Dorangeon. Paris : Lethielleux. Huit jours a Jerusalem, Maison
de la Bonne Presse, Paris. (This is a valuable work, written by an
Assumptionist, a member of the monastery of Notre-Dame-de-
France at Jerusalem.) Ollivier, La Passion, c. 1. Paris : Lethielleux,
1898. [English trans., The Passion, by Leahy. Boston, 19OI.]
F. Martin, Archeologie de la Passion (a French translation and
adaptation of J. H. Friedlieb's work). Paris: Lethielleux, 1897.
Lagrange, Topographic de Jerusalem in the Revue bihlique, 1892,
p. 17. [See also Fergusson, Essay on the Ancient Topography of
Jerusalem. London : Weale, 1847, and the authorities quoted in
the Encyclopaedia Biblica, art. Jerusalem. — Trans.^
2 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
after having brought to light Calvary and the Holy
Sepulchre, he had the ground levelled, so that there
remained above the surface only the tomb of Christ
and the block of granite which once had borne the
Cross. Since the time of Constantine matters have
gone steadily from bad to worse ; the Persians under
Chosroas,^ the workmen of the monk Modestus,^
Omar's Arabs, and Hakem's incendiaries, Constantine
Monomachus, later on the Crusaders, and lastly the
Turks, have all done their share towards obliterating
the remaining traces of antiquity. Where are the
places which have been sanctified by the blood of
Christ and the tears of the Blessed Virgin and of
the Holy A¥omen ? Where is the stone on which
the angel sat? Where was that last scene enacted
which re-opened to sinful humanity the gates of the
heaven it had lost? To reconstruct the scene, to
find the position of Golgotha and of the garden
belonging to Joseph of Arimatheea, to put together,
in a word, the local framework of the greatest
event in history, the Christian is reduced to grop-
ing among the works of Josephus and the few faint
vestiges of the past which casual excavations bring
to light ; the most he can do is to dream of things
which he can no longer see. This archaeological
raising up of that which is now no more would re-
quire a lengthier consideration and discussion than we
can well afford to give now, hence our readers must
pardon us if our description of the Holy Places is
very summary.^
^ See L. de Combes, De Finvetition a T exaltation de la S. Crobc, Paris,
1903, p. 238 //: 2 Jiyid^ p, 254 ff.
3 We shall follow, in our topographical description, the maps and
plans adopted by Zanecchia, op. cit. We hereinafter quote from
the French translation of this wi-iter's work.
CALVARY
1. CALVARY
"The city," says Josephus/ "is built upon two
hills which are opposite to one another and have a
valley to divide them asunder ; at which valley the
corresponding rows of houses on both hills end. Of
these hills, that which contains the upper city is much
higher, and in length more direct. Accordingly it
was called the ' Citadel ' by King David, who was
the father of that Solomon who built the Temple.""
Accordingly on modern plans the higher or western
city is styled Mount Sion, the lower or eastern city
is described as Ophel, and the valley lying between
the two quarters is called the Tyropoeon [or vale of
the Cheesemongers]. However, the learned monks
of the Dominican convent of St. Stephen and of
the monastery of Notre-Dame-de-France ^ now admit
that Josephus was in the wrong. Ophel, though
more than 150 feet below the higher city, was
in all probability the locality in which was situated
the fortress of the Jebusites and of David. Of
it alone can it be said, as we find it stated in
the Psalms, that it is surrounded by mountains ; *
it was only much later that the name of Sion,
which had been a synonym of Ophel, was given
to the higher city on account of the Christian
memories it contained.^ In his turn Solomon con-
'^ Wars of the Jervs, Whiston's trans., V. iv. 1.
2 Tacitus says (Hist. v. 11): " The walls enclosed two hills covered
by a multitude of dwellings."
3 As representing the Dominicans^ see Zanecchia, op. cit. vol. i.
p. 236, sq. ; representing the Assumptionists we have the work
alluded to above, Hiiit jours a Jerusalem, p. 29, sq.
4 Ps. cxxiv. 2. Montes in circuitu ejus.
6 This had occurred already in the fourth century, for the higher
city is thus described by the Bordeaux Pilgrim (333) and St. Jerome.
4 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
structed the Temple at the north - eastern ex-
tremity of the earhest walls of the city, on
Mount JNIoriah, which thus was incorporated with
Jerusalem.
From the east, south, and west the city was im-
pregnable, " being surrounded by deep valleys, and
by reason of the precipices to them belonging, on
both sides." ^ Its walls overlooked the ravine formed
by the Cedron, the field of Haceldama, and the
valleys of Gehenna and Hinnom. The existence
of these natural barriers also made impossible any
growth of the city in these directions ; but towards
the north it was otherwise, for here the mountain
gradually shelved towards Golgotha, Gareb, and
Bezetha. Hence it was here, especially on Acra,
that new quarters began to spring up, calling also
for the construction of new fortifications ; such was
the so-called second wall built by Ezechias, and
the third wall, raised by Herod Agrippa (of this
last we shall have no more to say, as it was
erected after the death of Christ) ; it was also this
side of the city which had to bear the onslaughts
of the enemies of Israel, whether Assyrians or
Romans.
In 33 the north-western angle of the first wall
(that of David and Solomon) was occupied by
Herod's palace, which was overtopped by the three
great towers, Hippicus," Phazaelus, and that of
Slariamne. The north wall ran directly east and
west. As Josephus says, it began at the Hippicus
and ended at the western cloister of the Temple.
The Temple itself, a huge equal-sided and strongly
^ Josephus, loc. cil.
2 Possibly what is now known as David's Tower, near the Jaffa
Gate.
CALVARY 5
fortified area, stretched towards the north, its north-
western angle being overlooked by the fortress of
Antonia, where the Romans kept their watch. The
north wall of the oldest city and the western wall
of the Temple area formed what was practically a
right angle. It was in this angle that, after the time
of Solomon, a new city began to rise, and it was
to protect this new quarter that Ezechias had to
commence the construction of a new line of ram-
parts, the same as enclosed the city in the time of
Christ.
No^t-heKn Walls of Je RUSAlEM , accoKcJioc] To
rriedlieb, Didoo & F Martin .
Sheep C^dte
ajL 'Golden QaPe
Temple I c^^e
liippiccis
Ophe:l
The second wall, that of Ezechias, took its be-
ginning at the Gennath Gate and reached as far as
the tower of Antonia ; so says Josephus, but his too
short description of its course has given rise to two
6 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
alternative hypotheses.^ According to some this wall
proceeded northward from about the middle of the
old north wall till it reached a point level with the
Antonia, to which it then proceeded in a direction
parallel to that of the earliest wall ; this course is
illustrated in the first sketch. Another hypothetical
course, which has the support of de Saulcy, de
Vogiie, Guerin, Ollivier, and Zanecchia, begins at
the western end of the old fortifications quite near
to Herod's palace (where the Gennath Gate may well
have been situated) ; thence the wall proceeds north-
ward for a distance equal to about a third of the total
length of the Temple area ; it then abruptly turns
eastward, running parallel with the older wall until
it reaches the Ephraim Gate, where it is again de-
flected in a northerly direction. On reaching the
Porta Antiqua it turns towards the east, and in a
slightly broken line proceeds in the direction of the
JMoriah, passing the Fish Gate, and terminating at
the Antonia.
These hypotheses, which both exclude Golgotha
from the precincts of the city, were for long hotly
contested by writers of the Protestant school, such as
the American Robinson, the Swiss Titus Tobler, and
the Englishman Fergusson - ; now, however, they are
in their general outlines admitted by all, especially
since the excavations conducted by Pierroti in 1859,
^ [There is also a third hypothesis, which would include within
the walls the traditional site of Golgotha, the principal argument
of its upholders being the impossibility of otherwise accounting
for the large population of Jerusalem at the time of the siege.
See Josephus, Wars of the Jews, II. xiv. 3 ; VI. ix, .'}. But we may
point out that the wall-protected area was enlarged by Agrippa.
Jos. Ant. XIX. vii. 2. — Trans^
See the bibliography of this question in Martin, oj). cit. p. 173,
note 1.
CALVARY 7
and by de Voglie in 1862, have brought to hght a
piece of ancient wall and a monumental gateway near
the present hostelry for noble Russians.^ Concerning
the precise character of these remains there is indeed
Novibeyn Walls of JERUSALEM accoKclina To
Zanecchia,de 5aulc^, de Voaue GaeKin c- OllivieK.
Q_
Hippicus
s^o/v
3 Horis Anr/^aa >.
^ ^o/on/a ^
5 Garden of Joseph of Af/mathae
6 Cafyaf^
7 //e*'oe/s P/aA
some controversy ; whilst de Voglie considered them
to be a fragment of the wall of Ezechias and of one
of its gates, a Dominican of the convent of St. Stephen
has since identified them, by means of a Cufic inscrip-
tion, with a portico of Constantine's basilica.^ But
one point is clear : M. de Vogue discovered among
1 Zanecchia, op. cit. vol. ii. p. 292.
2 Rexme hihliqiie , 1897, p. ()45.
8 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
the remains a quantity of ancient stone balls such as
were used by the Romans in their sieges.^ Their
presence has been taken as showing that the Romans
attacked this point with their siege machinery, and
that hence we are here on the site of a wall.
Though Jerusalem had been destroyed by Nabu-
chodonozor, yet in the year 33 it was still the custom
to speak of the wall of David and of the wall of
Ezechias, because in their veneration for the past the
Jews had rebuilt on their old foundation not only
Ezechias's, but also David's wall."
The little knoll of Calvary reared its head outside
the city walls, in a corner of which the angle was
occupied by the Ephraim Gate. The outer wall,
says Josephus, was 25 cubits high (37J feet), at
intervals of 200 cubits it was strengthened by bastions
20 cubits square (30 feet), and which rose 20 cubits
above the level of the walls. A flight of large stairs
led to the summit of each tower ; within there were
lodgings, and cisterns to contain rain-water,^ and at
the foot a deep ditch. The wall of Ezechias was de-
fended by fourteen such towers between the Gennath
Gate and the Antonia. There is, however, little
doubt that the description given by Josephus is exag-
gerated, and according to Father Zanecchia's plan
the length of the wall should be reduced by about
one-fourth.
The same writer computes that between the Pm^ta
Antiq7ia and the Ephraim Gate there was a distance
of about 450 feet.* If this be correct, then the walls
which bounded Golgotha on its southern and eastern
1 Victor Guerin, op. cit. p. 79. [See a description of these pro-
jectiles, each a talent in weight, in Jos. Wars, V. vi. 3. — Trans.^
^ 2 Esdras iii. ^ Jos. Wars, V. iv. 3.
* Op. cit. vol. i. pp. 2.50, 251.
CALVARY 9
side would have measured altogether about 900 feet.
On their other or north-western side the Holy Places
were enclosed by the rising ground of Gareb. So
near was Golgotha to the city walls that according
to the fourth Gospel the title on the cross was " read
by many of the Jews." ^ Father Didon is of opinion
that the cross was not more than twenty paces away
from the ditch which ran close under the ramparts.
Calvary was simply a little rocky eminence which
arose naked amidst the surrounding gardens. Its
name has been variously accounted for. Some think
that it originated in a resemblance between the naked
rock and the head of a bald man, calvus ; ^ others in
the fact that this was the spot used for capital punish-
ment ; ^ others explain the name by means of a Jewish
tradition, according to which in Solomon's time a
skull had been found in a cleft in the rock, and had,
on the strength of certain magic disclosures, been
described by Solomon as Adam's skull.* Hence the
name of Calvary, or in Hebrew Golgotha — i.e. the
place of the skull. ^
Fouard^ notes that, according to St. Jerome and
numerous other interpreters, the name arose through
1 Jn. xix. 20.
^ Thus Ollivier compares it to the name Chaumont, by which so
many hills in France are designated. Op. cit. p. 359, note 1.
^ e.g. Friedlieb-Martin, op. cit. p. 172.
* Basil of Seleucia, Orat. xxxviii. 3 {P.G. Ixxxv. 410). See the
legend more fully described in L. de Combes, De I'inv. a I'exalt.
p. 83.
^ ToTTos Tov KpavLov. [To pilgrims a cave in the rock of Calvary,
now within the Holy Sepulchre Church, is still pointed out as
"Adam's Grotto." For yet another view, identifying Golgotha
with the Goatha of Jeremias (xxxi. 39), see KrafFt, Topographic
Jerusalems, pp. 158-170. — Trans.^
c Vie de Jesus, 12th ed. vol. ii. p. 365, note 1. [English trans,
by Griffith, The Christ the Son of God. Longmans, 1891.]
10 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
the skulls of the condemned being left to bleach on
the spot where they had been done to death,^ but
were this the case the word ought to be in the plural
number; Golgotha means not "skulls," but "the
skull," or as Luke translates it, Kpavlov. It is also
incorrect to translate Golgotha as " the bald mount,"
for Calvary comes from the noun Calvaria, which
signifies a skull, and not from the adjective calvus,
meaning " bald."
De Vogiid^ has constructed a plan which is very
generally followed. According to him Calvary was a
kind of a double cliffy standing a few yards from the
wall of Ezechias, and with its crests pointing towards
the north. One of these hillocks, some fifteen feet
in height, was the scene of the crucifixion, the other
contained the garden and sepulchre of Joseph of
Arimath^ea.^
It is probable that a road led from the Gennath
Gate and, after winding between Calvary and the
Gareb quarter, went off in the direction of Samaria,^
and that this highway was to the north of Calvary
joined by other roads leading from the Ephraim Gate
and from the Porta Antiqua. In those days the un-
evenness of the ground was much more pronounced
than it is at present. Father Germer - Durand,
summing up the results of the latest excavations,
^ This view is incorrect ; the Jews were accustomed to bury the
bodies of the condemned together with the instruments of
death.
2 Op. cit. p. 126.
® Ibid. p. 25. Cp. Cabrol, Etude siir la pcregrinatio Silvia', p. 7,
and Plate 1 on p. 202.
* The crest of Calvary would thus rise to about half the height
of the neighbouring city wall.
" Didon, Jesus Christ, \o\. ii. p. 336, note 1. [English translation,
Jesus Christ, a Biography. Kegan Paul, 1891.]
CALVARY 11
says ^ : " Calvary is but one of a series of hills on
which Jerusalem is built, a slight elevation on a slope
rising gradually towards the west. This hill, which
was once abrupt and separated from the town by a
deep moat, now rises barely fifteen feet above the
present artificial level [i.e. the floor of the Holy
Sepulchre Church] ; to reach the old level we should
have to dig at least thirty feet into the accumulated
rubbish on which the surrounding buildings stand.
The depression in which Calvary was situated, and
which it is now so difficult for us to realise, was doubt-
less at the time of Christ even more accentuated than
it should have been naturally ; it had no doubt been
deepened in order to serve as a part of the moat
defending the second wall. But when Adrian rebuilt
Jerusalem he was led to level this spot in order to be
able to build thereon a pagan temple."
Calvary was surrounded by gardens, in which, in
accordance with Jewish custom, the inhabitants had
built their graves. Father Gargarin adds^: "A
screen of rocks some twenty feet high, of which the
crest now coincides with the surface of the ' Chris-
tians' Street ' in the immediate neighbourhood of the
Holy Sepulchre Church, contained many sepulchres
carved out of the rock, and evidently of Jewish origin.
One of these sepulchres is still in existence, and is
known as that of Joseph of Arimathsea.^ It is thus
"^ La Basilique du S. Sepulcre, in Revue hihlique, 1896, p, 322.
^LeS. Sepulcre et latopographie de Jerusalem, inthe Etudes, 1 868, p. 692.
3 Who apparently possessed two sepulchres. The first, which
was constructed to contain several bodies, must have been already
full when Joseph built the " new sepulchre " in which Christ was
buried. See Clerraont-Ganneau, L' authenticite du S. Sepulcre et le
tomheati de Joseph d' Arhnathee : Paris. Leroux, 1877. [The entrance
to the so-called Tomb of Joseph of Arimathasa is in the Holy
Sepulchre Church. — Trans.^
12 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
evident that just here there existed a cemetery, of which
the Holy Sepulchre, and probably also the tomb of
the priest John mentioned by Josephus, formed a part."
We must beware of thinking that, because it con-
tained tombs, this spot was as cheerless and forsaken
as are our modern graveyards ; the very ftict that
Calvary was chosen to be the place of Christ's death
proves it to have been a much frequented spot.^
Both Romans and Jews followed the custom described
by Quintilian : " Whenever we execute criminals we
select a spot to which people resort, in order that
many may witness, and be impressed by, the carrying
out of the sentence." This was the reason which
induced the ancients to choose the town gates as the
place of execution." The Damascus, Jaffa, and Gaza
roads began at the Porta Antiqua. Travellers, pil-
grims, tourists, and merchants constantly passed the
place on their way to or from the city, and the tents
pitched round about by the pilgrims at the time of
the festival must have added largely to the usual
activity of the neighbourhood.^ The road from Sion
to its suburbs also passed near this spot. From the
walls it was possible, through the cleft between
Calvary and the city ramparts, to catch a glimpse of
the new houses of Bezetha and of the villas and gardens
on Gareb, where there grew the vivid green, close-set
hedges of the Zizypkus spina Christi, the traditional
material out of which was made the crown of thorns.*
1 Friedlieb-Martin, op. ct he. cit.
2 Cicero, hi Verrem, vi. Q6 ; Plautus, Miles Gloriosus, 360 ;
Hebrews, xiii. 12.
3 Ollivier, op. cit. p. 368.
^ F. de Mely, La Couronne d'cpines (^Ilevue de I' art chrrlieii), IPOO,
p. 218. \T\\c zizyphns belongs to tlie buckthorn tribe; in ancient
times it probably served the purpose for which now the cactus
opuntia is used. — Trans.^
CALVARY 13
According to certain traditions collected by St.
Jerome, by Venerable Bede, and the pilgrim Ernoul ^
(a.d. 1231), Calvary was the spot where executions
commonly took place. St. Cyril, however, holds the
opposite view. Father Ollivier thus sums up the
reasons against the former opinion ^ : " Calvary does
not seem to have been the usual place of execution,
though the shape would have fitted it to serve as
such. The Jews were wont to lead the condemned
to a high cliff, from which they might be thrown.
The executioners stood below, and when the body
fell, if it still showed signs of life, they finished the
work by dashing rocks upon it.^ With regard to
those crucified, they were put to death by the way-
side, the main preoccupation of the authorities being
to make their death an example to others. But this
was more a Roman than a Jewish custom, so that the
Jews probably left the arrangements to the soldiers
of the Procurator." St. Stephen was probably stoned
elsewhere ; it is true that the Acts of the A2J0stles
does not describe the spot,^ but we know from the
Fathers that the basilica in his honour was erected on
the place of his martyrdom,'^ and from the pilgrim
Theodosius (sixth century) we learn that this spot was
some 300 yards to the north of the Galilean Gate.*^
^ Et pour 90U apele on eel mont Mont de Calvaire, e'on i faisoit
les iustices et 90U que li lois aportoit, et c'on i escauvoit les membres
e'on leur iugeoit a perdre (I'Estat de la citez de Jherusalein), in Miche-
lant and Raynaud, Itineraires a Jerusalem, Geneva : Fick, 1882, p. 37.
2 Op. cif. pp. 368-369.
^ Sanhedrim, iv. and v.; Stapfer, Palestine, p. 112.
* vii. 57 — viii. 2.
5 Basil of Seleucia {P.G. Ixxxv. 469); Evagrius (Migne, P.G.
Ixxxvi. col. 2483). [The new church of the Dominicans is stated
to occupy the site of the early basilica. — Trans. ^
'^ Sanctus Stephanus foris portam Galilasae lapidatus est. Ibi et
14 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
Perhaps it would be well to make a distinction
between the Jewish custom of stoning, for which no
special place was assigned, and the Roman custom of
crucifying, for which the usual spot may have been
Golgotha. The holes to contain the feet of the
crosses must have been chiselled out of the rock, and
it is scarcely likely that they were made anew for
each man condemned to die by crucifixion. If in the
case of Christ it had been necessary to make such a
hole, the Passion would have lasted much longer
than it did. If this view be correct, then the noble
Jews of knightly rank whom in 64 Florus scourged
and then condemned to death were probably crucified
on the same spot which had been chosen for Christ.^
2. THE VIA DOLOROSA
The Via Dolorosa is the road followed by Christ
when proceeding from Pilate's hall to Golgotha. St.
John is the only Evangelist who gives any details —
and such as they are they are insufficient — of the
building in which sentence was passed on Christ.
The chiefs of the Jews led Christ to the governor's
hall, but " they went not into the hall that they might
not be defiled, but might eat the Pasch."- A Jew
by entering a pagan house became unclean until the
evening.^ Pilate accordingly went out to them,^ and
asked them : " What accusation bring you against
this man ? " After hearing their complaints he left
them, and returning to the hall ^ he called Jesus before
ecclesia ejus est (De Terra Sancta ; Titus Tobler, Itinera el descrip-
tiones Teira; Snncla;, Geneva : Fick, 1877, p. 66).
1 Jos. fVars, II. xiv. f). ^ Jn. xviii. 28.
3 Martin, op. cit. p. 128. * Jn. xviii. 29.
'' Jn. xviii. '33.
THE VIA DOLOROSA 15
him. After having given utterance to his vi^ell-known
exclamation: "What is truth?" he left Jesus, and
again went out^ to ask the Jews whom they would
prefer, Jesus or Barabbas. On the crowd taking up
the cry " Barabbas " the governor re-entered the hall,
and after having scourged Christ went out a third
time " to tell the Jews that in his opinion the accused
man was innocent. At his heels there came Jesus
Himself, crowned with thorns, and wearing a purple
robe. Pilate pointed to his prisoner, and spoke the
words : " Behold the man," Ecce Homo ; but the Jews
were obdurate, and only cried : " Crucify him, crucify
him." Pilate, disquieted by their behaviour, again
returned to the hall,^ and questioned Jesus for the
last time ; outside the people were clamouring : " If
thou release this man, thou art not Caesar's friend."
Then the ambition of the magistrate getting the
better of his sense of justice,* he again " brought
Jesus forth, and sat down on the judgment-seat in
the place which is called Lithostrotos ^ in Greek, and
in Hebrew, Gabbatha."^
This narrative presupposes that the governor's hall
or praetorium opened on to a paved public place ;
Pilate is described as going in and out so frequently
that it seems he had only a few steps to take. The
spot where Pilate had the desk or pulpit, bema,^ set
^ .In. xviii. 38. ^ Jn. xix. 4.
3 Jn. xix. 9. ^ Jn. xix. 13.
^ This word signifies a pavement. It is composed of \i9os, a
stonCj and crTpoivwixi, to strew. Martin, op. cit. p. 131, note 6,
translates it by "mosaic."
6 Meaning a high place. [See Pilate's after-history in L. de
Combes, De tinv. a I' exalt, p. 175 Jf. The story goes that he com-
mitted suicide on the mountain near Lucern which bears his name. —
Trans. ^^
^ BrJ/Att. Ollivier, op. cit. p. 219; Martin, op. cit. p. 131.
16 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
up, in which, sitting on the sella^ or judgment-seat
he was to pass sentence, must have been an open
space of considerable size, since there was room in
it for the crowd of Jews, and also for a cohort of
soldiers.
The tradition commonly followed by pilgrims
locates the prietorium in the fortress of Antonia,
where the legionaries were quartered. Risings were
constantly taking place among the Jews, and it is
conceivable that the governor, realising the danger
of living in the city, had taken up his abode and
established his court inside the walls of the strong-
hold. According to this tradition the Antonia was
approached by the Scala Sancta, whilst some ninety
yards away was the arch in solid masonry, the Ecce
Homo arch, from which Pilate is supposed to have
exhibited to the mob the Son of Man.'^
The real starting-point of the Via Dolorosa is now
a subject of much discussion. The first to fall was the
authenticity of the arch. It is in disagreement with
the Gospel narrative ; according to St. John " Pilate
therefore went forth, and said to them, Behold I
bring him forth unto you that you may know that I
find no cause in hiin (Jesus therefore came forth
bearing his crown of thorns and the purple garment),
and he said to them, Behold your king."^ The
scene is here clearly described. Pilate goes out of
the hall on to the Lithostrotos, Jesus slowly follows
him, and as soon as He too has reached the open
space, the governor presents Him to the people.
Hence we should be flying in the face of the text
were we to locate the Eccc Homo scene ninety yards
farther off, on the summit of an arch — i.e. on a first
1 OUivier, ibid. - OUivier^ op. cil. p, 334.
"^ Jn. xix. 5.
THE VIA DOLOROSA 17
storey — when St. John simply records that " Pilate
went forth."
Worse still, we should be showing ourselves ignorant
of the details given by Josephus concerning the siege
in A.D. 70. Titus, first of all, gained possession of the
Antonia, and then razed it in order to make a ready
passage for his army to come up, and a platform on
which he might place his engines of war to hurl de-
struction at the Temple.^ It seems impossible that a
building such as this arch could have remained stand-
ing at this point after the levelling operations, and
the military works undertaken by Titus.
Archseology, finally, has ruined the basis of the
tradition. De Saulcy was one of the first to come to
the conclusion that the arch, though of Roman con-
struction, was put up after 33.^ De Voglie, however,
hesitated to pronounce any opinion until he was
forced to de Saulcy's conclusion by a new discovery.^
The edifice is now proved to be of more recent date
even than the second century ; it did not even form
a part of the original JElia Capitolma, for two stones
forming part of the vault were found to bear the
name of Aurelius, and Greek characters betraying a
third-century origin. George Langherrand, a mayor
of Mons, who made his pilgrimage about the year
of grace 1485, was not far wrong when he described
this construction as " a stone arch, crossing the street,
and built by St. Helena."*
De Vogiie, Guerin,^ and Ollivier ^ relinquished the
1 Jos. Wars, VI. ii. 1. 2 j)e Saulcy, op. cit. vol. i. p. 112.
^ De Vogiie, Le Temple de Jerusalem, p. 125.
* Una arcure de pierres qui traverse la rue, laquelle fict faire
saincte Helainne.
^ Guerin, op. cit. p. 115.
^ Ollivier, op. cit. p. 112 and p. 233.
B
18 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
tradition of the arch, but they still maintained the
exactitude of the tradition which makes the Via
Dolorosa to begin at the Antonia. According to de
Vogiie this tradition is correct in this sense, that the
Antonia being the abode of the Roman procurator,
the scourging at the pillar and the Eccc Homo scene
must have taken place in the vicinity, and possibly
on the very spots assigned to them by tradition.
Was the nature of the fortress such as to agree
with the data of the fourth Gospel ? The Antonia is
known to us by the description Josephus gives of it.
" The tower of Antonia was situated at the corner of
two cloisters of the court of the Temple, of that on
the west, and of that on the north ; it was erected
upon a rock fifty cubits in height, and was on a great
precipice ; it was the work of King Herod. ... In the
first place, the rock itself was covered over with
smooth pieces of stone from its foundation, both for
ornament and that anyone who would either try to
get up or to go down it might not be able to keep
his feet upon it." ^
These details spoil the argument adduced by the
latest defender of the identity of the prastorium with
the fortress, an argument which this able writer bases
on an incident in the siege of 70. The Romans were
being forced back into the Antonia by the Jews,
when Julian, a centurion of great strength and pluck,
put himself in a position to cover his comrades' re-
treat, but with unfortunate results for himself; "for
as he had shoes studded with thick nails, as had every
one of the other soldiers, when he ran on the pave-
ment of the Temple he slipped, and fell down on his
back, making a great clatter with his armour." - The
1 Jos. Wars, V. v. 8.
2 Jos. op. cit. VI. i. 8.
THE VIA DOLOROSA 19
Abbe Fouard ^ thus explains this passage of Josephus :
" The historian depicts a centurion rushing from the
Antonia to drive back the Jews towards the Temple
and slipping on the pavement of the Lithostrotos. It
follows then that this was an open space between the
fortress and the Temple." But this argument is based
on a false assumption. Josephus does not give us the
name of the place, nor was it on the stone pavement
of the Lithostrotos^ but rather on the smooth stones
which defended the approaches to the Antonia, that
the Roman officer slipped, and, in the event, found
his death.
The fortress was square in shape, each side being
about 300 feet long,^ and at each angle it was
strengthened by bastions, three of which were 50
cubits in height, whilst the fourth, that at the south-
eastern extremity, was higher (70 cubits), so that from
it the Roman sentinels enjoyed a view of the whole
Temple precincts. At the corner where it joined the
Temple, continues Josephus, it had passages, down
which on the Jewish festivals the guard could go
well armed right into the sacred enclosure, and so
keep an eye on the movements of the people lest they
should attempt any innovation. On its east, north,
and west sides the stronghold was encircled by a moat,
the Struthion, which was really a prolongation of the
pools outside. It could only be approached from the
south-west, probably by a drawbridge giving access
to the open space between the city walls and the
Temple.
Now just as we cannot by any possibility situate
St. John's Lithostrotos on the slippery, slanting,
marble approaches to the Antonia, so neither can
1 Fouardj Vie de Jesus Christ, 12th ed. vol. ii. p. 338, note 2.
2 Ollivier, op. cit. p. 214.
20 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
we admit that his allusion is to the open space just
mentioned ; for certainly the door of the judgment-
hall did not open directly on to this place, yet in
order to preserve the true sense of the words used by
St. John the judgment-hall must have communicated
directly with some large public place, otherwise we
cannot explain how Pilate repeatedly went and came.
Had the governor, each time he went out, to traverse
the castle court and the postern gate, St. John could
scarcely have avoided making some allusion to the
fortress.
Nor is it one whit better to say that the Lithost7'otos
was the inner court of the fortress, and that the
reddish tiles which have been brought to light in the
basement of the convent of Sion are its remains. In
the first instance, an ornamental staircase of twenty-
eight steps (the Scala Sancta now at Rome) would
have proved an incumbrance in such a court. ^
Again to enter the inner court, the Jews would have
had to cross the threshold of the building, an act which
would have made them as unclean ceremonially as if
they had actually entered the court of justice. Yet
again the governor would certainly have thought
twice before allowing the Jews to enter the fortress,
of which the garrison — six hundred men strong —
would easily have been surprised and overcome by
a crowd numbering probably several thousand.^
^ Zanecchia, op. rU. vol. i. pp. S\:5-'.V\^6; Ollivier, op. cil. pp. 217-
219. [There is, however, as Mgr. Ward remarks in T/ie Edinundian
(Supplement, July 1904, p. 29), " considerable reason for doubting
that the Scala Saticta is what it professes to be. No mention of
it can be found before the fifteenth century." — 7'ro«.v.]
- At Jerusalem there was only one cohort. A cohort consisted of
three maniples, and a maniple comprised two hundred men and two
centurions. We must make allowance too for a certain number of
sick and non-combatants.
THE VIA DOLOROSA 21
Struck by these difficulties, Friedlieb^ suggested
that Pilate, when at Jerusalem, lived in one of Herod's
palaces not far from the Antonia ; in this Friedlieb
adopts an opinion which was common from the time
of the Crusades to the Renaissance. An Assump-
tionist " writes as follows : — " From the end of the
twelfth century a persistent tradition located Pilate's
preetorium near the Antonia, on Bezetha ; but at
first, it did not identify the prastorium with the still
visible ^ ruins of the celebrated castle, but preferred
to locate the prsetorium and the Antonia on opposite
sides of the road/ As late as 1584- Adrichomius
still believed that the pr£etorium and the Antonia
were separate buildings. The former he located
north of the Ecce Homo arch, the latter south of
the same arch — i.e. near the Temple. Ultimately,
in the seventeenth century, the two were identified,
and now no pilgrim seeks for traces of the prsetorium
outside of the area now belonging to the Turkish
barracks."
Father Zanecchia^ goes still further, and proves
that even the tradition which locates the preetorium
in the neighbourhood of the Antonia is an innovation,
and that originally — i.e. before the Crusades — the tra-
ditional site of the praetorium was in the Tyropoeon
valley, below the Temple. The Bordeaux pilgrim
visited Jerusalem in 333.^ Starting from the Ccena-
^ Martin, op. cit. p. 124,
^ Huit jours a Jerusalem, p. 6l.
3Q). Theoderic, 1172.
* Cp. some of the good MSS. of the Estat de la cites de Jherusalem,
1187-1261. Marino Sanuto, 1309-1320; d'Anglure, 1395; and an
anonymous work of 1480 pubhshed by Schsefer.
s Op. cit. vol. i. p. 349.
" [See in L. de Combes (De Vinv. a V exalt, p. 205/1) how some of
the Fathers condemned pilgrimages as demoralising. — Trans. ^
22 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
culum in the south of the city he thus describes the
respective positions of the judgment-hall and of
Calvary : " From thence (the Coenaculum) whoso-
ever proceeds towards the Neapolitana Gate ^ per-
ceives, on his right hand, at the bottom of the valley,
the walls of the house, or prsetorium, of Pontius
Pilate, where our Lord was questioned before He
suffered ; and on the left hand Golgotha, where the
Lord was crucified."^
Father Zanecchia who, with this text in his hand,
has observed the locality, thus sets his view on
record ^ : " We may infer from this precious testi-
mony that in 333 there existed in Jerusalem a
tradition which fixed the prjetorium at the bottom
of the valley. It therefore was neither in the
Antonia, nor near the modern Ecce Homo church,
nor near the chapel which now commemorates the
scourging at the pillar, for all these edifices stand,
not in the valley, but on the brow of the Moriah. . . .
The same pilgrim attests that when coming down from
Sion by the street which leads to the Neapolitana — i.e.
Nablus or Damascus Gate — the traveller would reach
a certain spot whence he could perceive on the right
the pnetorium in a valley, and to the left the hill of
Calvary. Now if we follow the road pointed out,
when we have passed the Mooristan we find Calvary
[the Holy Sepulchre Church] to the left, and, to the
^ i.e. the Nablus or Damascus Gate in the north of the city.
2 Inde . . . eunti ad portam neapoHtanam ad partem dextram,
deor.Kum in valle, sunt parietes ubi domus fuit sive pretorium Pontii
Pilati. Ibi Dominus auditus est antequam pateretur. A sinistra
autem est monticulus Golgotha, ubi Dominus crucifixus est.
Itinerarium a Biirdigaln Hierusalcm usque, Tobler, p. 18. [For a
completely different, and not very probable, interpretation of this
text, see Fergusson op, cit. p. 92. — JVaraj.]
3 Op. cil. vol. i. p. 351.
THE VIA DOLOROSA 23
right, the Mehkemeh depression. It was conse-
quently here that Pilate had his prastorium." ^
Two centuries and a half after the visit of the
Bordeaux pilgrim, Antoninus of Piacenza- writes
as follows : — " We prayed in the prastorium where
the Lord was questioned. There stands the basilica
of St. Sophia in front of the ruins of Solomon's
Temple; under this place the water makes its
way to the spring of Siloe, near Solomon's porch.
In the basilica is the seat on which Pilate sat when
he interrogated the Lord, and also a square stone
which used to be in the middle of the prse-
torium. On it the Lord stood whilst being
questioned by Pilate, in order that He might be
heard and seen by all the people.^ This stone has
preserved the print of His feet."* Antoninus also
found here something still more valuable, a portrait
of Christ ; but instead of giving us a detailed de-
scription of this unique treasure, he contents him-
self with the baldest possible account of it : " The
painting depicts a man with a fine foot, both small
and narrow, of middle height, with a kindly face
^[i.e. somewhere in the neighbourhood of the present seraglio. —
Trans.^
2 Antoninus Martyr is a fictitious personage. The writer of this
itinerary is an unknown inhabitant of Piacenza. See Bellanger, In
Antonmi Placentini itinerariuni grammatica disquisitio. Paris : Fonte-
moing, 1902. Paul Lejay, Revue critique, 1904, i. p. 32. [Author's
rectification in list of errata, printed subsequently to his second
work de V invention a l' exaltation de la Sainte Croix, Paris, 1903. —
Trans.^
3 An error, as the people did not enter the judgment-hall.
^ Et oravimus in pretorio ubi auditus est Dominus, et modo est
basilica Sancte Sophie. Ante ruinas templi Salomonis, sub platea,
aqua decurrit ad fontem Siloam, secus porticum Salomonis. De
Locis Sanctis quce perambulavit Antoninus Martyr, xxiii. ; Tobler, op. cit,
p. 104.
24 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
and curled hair, with beautiful hands and slender
fingers."^
We may find that the portrait lacks detail ; but the
description of the church of St. Sophia," and especially
of the stream which runs down the slope towards the
pool of Siloe, is so clear as to enable us to dispense
entirely with the other arguments adduced by Father
Zanecchia in favour of the view which locates the
praitorium in the valley. This view still held its own
after the Arab invasion of Palestine.^ The Bre-
viarius de Hierosolyma likewise situates the prsetorium
on the spot occupied by the basilica of St. Sophia.^
Theodosius excludes the claim of the Antonia by
his statement that only 100 paces separate the
praitorium from the palace of Caiphas.^ A like state-
ment was made in 1106 by the Russian abbot Daniel,
who writes thus : " Close by this door is shown the
spot where St. Helena recognised the True Cross,
which was the means of restoring a deceased virgin
to life. A little way off, towards the east, is the
pra?torium where the soldiers led Jesus to Pilate."'''
1 Pedem pulchrum, modicum, subtilem, staturam communem,
faciem pulchram, capillos subanellatos, manum formosam, digitos
longos imago designate que^ illo vivente, picta et posita est in ipso
pretorio, ibid. [On the various so-called portraits of Christ which
were current in early ages, see L, de Combes, De I'inv. a I'exall.
p. 181 ff.\
2 Zanecchia, op. cit. vol. i. p. 353.
3 F. de Mely, la Sainte Lance, has proved that the Brexnarius de
Hierosolyma and the de Terra Sancta, both of Theodosius, belong
not to A.D. 530, as Tobler states, but to a period subsequent to
the Arab invasion. Revue de I' art chrelien, 1897.
4 Tobler, op. cit. p. 59.
^ De domo Caiphe usque ad pretorium Pilati passus numero C.
De Terra Sancta, vii ; Tobler op. cit. p. 65.
c Itineraircs russes en Orient, French trans, by Mme. de Khitrowo,
Geneva : Fick, 1889, p. 18.
THE VIA DOLOROSA 25
The opinion to which Zanecchia came, working at
the convent of St. Stephen, was favourably received
by archaeologists, and was adopted also in the neigh-
bouring monastery of Notre-Dame-de-France.^ At
the present day no Catholic scholar living in Jeru-
salem hesitates in dismissing the view that Pilate's
pra^torium was in the Antonia.^
We may mention that during the Crusades, in the
twelfth century, yet another tradition made its ap-
pearance. It is now impossible to say on what data
it was based, but one thing is certain, Fretellus,
archdeacon of Toulouse in 1148, John of Wiirz-
burg in 1165, Epiphanius in 1170, all located the
praetorium on Sion, near David's tower or the
Hippicus.^ But this tradition soon fell, and in the
following century. Christians having been banished
from the city, pilgrims, left to their own fancies,
gradually came to posite the prsetorium nearer and
nearer the Antonia * until finally the two sites were
confounded.
From the bottom of the valley a rugged but short
street led to the Ephraim Gate. It is this same
street which is associated with the Via Dolorosa even
by modern tradition.^ Concerning the right position
^ Huit jours a Jerusalem, p. 64.
2 [That the above reasons have not sufficed to convert all is
apparent from Coppens, The Palace of Caiphas. English translation
by Egan. London : Burns & Gates, 1904, p. 52 jf. — Trans.]
^ Huit jours, p. 64 ; Martin, op. cit. Appendix iii. p. 239.
* See the old French Itineraires a Jerusalem et descriptions tie la
Terre Sainte of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries,
edited by H, Michelant et Gaston Raynaud, 1882; p. 49, Ernoul
(a.d. 1231), Estat de la citez de Jherusalem, xxii. p. 114, P. Mousket
Description rimee des Lieux Saints, verses 10648^ ; and the anony-
mous continuation of William of Tyre's account, xxii. (a.d. 126i),
p. l6l.
^ Didon, Vie de Jesus, vol. ii. pp. 355-356.
26 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
of the first seven stations of the Cross there is no
certainty whatever. At the Ephraim Gate (eighth
station) Christ is said to have met the Daughters of
Jerusalem.^ A few paces farther ^ we reach Calvary.
The procession to the place of execution has been
admirably depicted by Father OUivier. At the head
of the band marched a herald sounding his trumpet
and proclaiming the guilt of the condemned ; then
came the centurion who was charged with the execu-
tion, exactor mortis as Tacitus ^ describes him. This
last had, so far as we know, no inkling of the testi-
mony he was so soon to give ^ to the Divinity of his
prisoner, nor any thought that he was later on to
shed his blood as a disciple of the man he had put
to death. The Church keeps his feast in March.^
Tradition assigns to him the name of Longinus,
which he shares in common with the soldier who
opened Christ's side with a spear. INIary of Agreda ^
opined that his name was really Quintus Cornelius.
Possibly he may be the real Petronius, whose name
has been preserved by the very ancient, though
apocryphal, Gospel of St. Peter. ^ The trophies of
1 Lk. xxiii. 28.
2 [The last five stations are within the Holy Sepulchre Church.
— Trans. '^
3 Annals, iii. 14.
4 "This man was indeed the Son of God" — Mk. xv. 39;
Mt. xxvii. 54.
^ Acta SS. l.Gth March. De S. Lonsino milite et S. Lonsmo
centurione.
c [The writer of the Mystic City of God. She died in 1675.
— Trans. ^
' Translated by Jacquier, Universite catfiolique de Lyon, 1 893, p. 1 1 .
The gospel in question states that a centurion, Petronius, was
deputed to guard the sepulchre (v, 31). But as the sepulchre was
sealed by the Jews, apparently without the help of the legionaries,
it seems more probable that Petronius had charge of the execution.
THE VIA DOLOROSA 27
the battalion were not, as was elsewhere usually the
case, carried in the procession ; out of regard for the
religious scruples of the Jews, who considered them
idolatrous,^ the Roman standards were never displayed
in Jerusalem."
Pilate's rank was not such as to permit him the
use of lictors ; his soldiers had to act as execu-
tioners.^ The half maniple, which served in the case
of Christ, must have belonged to the twelfth legion
{duodecima gemina), which was then garrisoned at
Csesarea, and which was later on to become the
famous Legio fulminata,^ and to shed its blood for
the sake of the very same man whom it had been
instrumental in crucifying. The soldiers wore the
iron breastplate and the chestnut-coloured tunic, by
which they were easily distinguishable from the
Hebrews in their white woollen clothing and dark
cloaks. At the heels of the centurion came a legionary
bearing on a pole a wooden tablet, with the cause of
the sentence inscribed in red on a white ground.^
Jesus came next; His purple robe had been re-
moved,*^ and He wore the white garment presented
Him by Herod,^ His black cloak and His leathern
girdle.^ The crown of thorns had been taken
^ The legions woi'shipped the imperial eagles as gods.
2 Jos. Wars, II. ix. 2.
3 A reason given by Tertullian why Christians should not be
soldiers (De Corona mil. 11).
'* [See Allard, English trans., Ten Lectures on the Martyrs, London :
Kegan Paul, p. 32. — TransJ\
^ Praecedente titulo qui causam poenae indicavit. Suetonius,
Caligula, 32.
6 Mt. xxvii. 31.
^ Lk. xxiii. 11.
8 This leather girdle is said to be preserved at Aachen. The
ends are sealed together with Constantine's seal. R. de Fleury,
Memoire sur les instruments de la Passion, p. 259t
28 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
off,^ and will only be replaced on His head when He is
being fixed to the cross. Possibly His head was
covered with the traditional cap and kufieh ' to ob-
viate the danger of sunstroke, which in His weak state
was much to be feared. In Veronica's picture He
is depicted with His eyes half closed, His face covered
with the vile spittle of the Jews, and with the blood
dripping from the wounds in His forehead on to His
seamless coat.^
Simon the Cyrenean, whose aid had doubtless been
sought after Jesus' first fall, carried the Cross be-
tween the two thieves, who having been less hardly
treated, were still strong enough to carry theirs.
The centurion, the title-bearer, Christ, Simon, and
the thieves walked between two files of legionaries,
lance on shoulder, whilst the rest of the half maniple
brought up the rear, the soldiers marching six to
the rank.*
The Sanhedrists too occupied their official positions.
It was to them that Pilate had delivered Jesus ; it
was they who, in theory at least, as the representa-
tives of the Hebrew judiciary, were leading their
victim to the place of slaughter.^ They were there,
writes Father Ollivier, because they wished to enjoy
their triumph to the fullest, cantering in front of the
^ According to the picture on Veronica's kerchief. Ollivier,
op. cit. pp. 356, 357. [For the subsequent history of the Crown
of Thorns, see L. de Combes, De I'inv. u F exalt, p. 138 ff'. — Trans.^
2 [A kind of kerchief worn about the head and face as a pro-
tection against the sun, dust, and flies. — Trans.'\
3 [The Veronica image is first recorded in the seventh century.
See L. de Combes, Dc I'inv. a l' exalt, pp. 1 85-1 8C. The name Veronica
seems to be a corruption of Berenice. See ibid. p. 182. — Trans.^
4 Jos. Wars, III. vi. 2; V. ii. 1.
s " And as they (the Jews) led him away . . ," — Lk. xxiii. 26.
" And they (the Jews) took Jesus and led him forth " — Jn. xix.
16.
THE VIA DOLOROSA 29
people on their richly comparisoned white mules,^
seeking and enjoying the acclamations of the populace.
In her vision Sister Emmerich thought she could
descry them following close in the wake of the
soldiers. Lastly came the rabble— a great multitude
of people^ — such a one as can always be brought
together by the tramp of soldiers marching through
a town.
From the Ephraim Gate to the Porta Antiqua,
respectively the southern and northern extremities
of the Holy Places, the distance was about 150
yards. The procession having passed through the
Ephraim Gate proceeded northward. On their
right there was the broad moat, and the city walls
rising 25 cubits, whilst on their left Calvary rose
some 15 feet above them.^ After having passed the
opening of the great cistern, which was soon to be-
come the depository of the True Cross, the procession,
according to a very recent tradition, made a first stop.
Here, it is said,Christ again began to carry His cross.
In 1395 a stone was pointed out to Baron d'Anglure
as marking the exact spot where Simon laid down
his load.* A few paces farther on they came to the
northernmost extremity of the escarpment ; here they
turned to the left, and halted whilst the soldiers made
ready for the execution. Near by there was a vaulted
chamber,^ and in it Jesus and the thieves were in-
1 The mule is, in the East, an animal reserved for great men,
whether civil or ecclesiastical, Ollivier, op. cit. pp. 347, 348 ;
2 Kings xviii. 9 ; 3 Kings i. 33, etc.
2 Lk. xxiii. 27.
^ See the section of Calvary in Rohault de Fleury, o/j. cit. p. 285.
[See a slightly different pictorial reconstruction of the site in La
Palestine, guide historiqiie et pratique, Paris, 1904, p. 67. — Trans.^
4 Ollivier, op. cit. p. 370, note 2.
Guerin, Jerusalem, p. 139.
30 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
terned. The Ambassador Deshaye thus describes it
in his report to Louis XIII. ^ : " Continuing our
stroll round the Holy Sepulchre Church we found
a little vaulted chapel, seven feet long by six feet
wide, which is sometimes called the Prison of Christ,
because He was put into it whilst waiting for a hole
to be made in which the foot of the cross might
be put.^ This chapel is exactly opposite Calvary,
so that the two places form, as it were, the transept
of the church, the Mount being to the south and
the chapel to the north." ^
At last the fatal moment came, and Christ was
drawn out of His dungeon, stripped of His vesture,
crowned with thorns, and again made to carry His
cross. The procession now entered the little ravine —
which was Joseph of Arimath^ea's garden, and lay
between the two horns of the JNIount — and marching
southward, it ascended Golgotha.
M. Rohault de Fleury,* making use of information
which he had obtained from Father Hornung, a priest
of Notre-Dame de Sion,'^ thus describes the road
followed : " On arriving at the foot of Calvary a turn
was made in the north, and then another to the
west ; then by proceeding southward they reached
the spot which is now the entrance of the Holy
Sepulchre Church, which, in order doubtless to ac-
commodate itself to a tradition, occupies the exact
1 This report is reprinted in Chateaubriand's famous Itineraire de
Paris a. Jcrusalcvi.
^ We have already stated that in our opinion the hole was
permanent.
3 [This chapel still exists in the Holy Sepulchre Church ; it,
however, receives little notice from the Latins. — Traiis.]
4 Mem. pp. 28.5, 286.
'' Conveyed in a letter dated 7th February 1 867, and printed in
de Fleury's Mem., p. 341.
THE VIA DOLOROSA 31
position where the procession stood on reaching the
top of Calvary. The crosses were no doubt laid on
the ground, with their heads pointing to the south,
so that they might be erected at the very edge
of the cliff. In this position they would be easily
seen from below, for though of no great length,
they were far above the level of the ground
below."
This little reconstruction of the scene is historically
highly probable, but we freely concede that several
points are not absolutely certain ; some, in fact, have
been very acutely criticised. Thus many fair-minded
archaeologists consider the Prison of Christ to be
fictitious. However this may be, three localisations
seem well-grounded — that of Calvary, that of the
sepulchre, and that of the cistern of the crosses.
Taking into consideration the old conformation of
the ground surface and the topography of Golgotha,
the route which we have sketched must necessarily
have been followed.^
1 As a curiosity, see the narrative of Catherine Emmerich, The
Dolorous Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. London : Burns & Oates,
1896. The soldiers who had crucified Christ and the thieves are
supposed to have been replaced by a fresh troop of fifty men.
" These were under the command of Abenadar, an Arab by birth,
baptised by the name of Ctesiphon. The second officer was called
Cassius, and afterwards received the name of Longinus. He fre-
quently acted as messenger to Pilate." These details would have
merely the value of any other vision were it not for one remarkable
point. In 1595 there was discovered at Granada an assortment
of relics, manuscripts, and leaden tablets, in which it was possible
to read the names of Ctesiphon and Hiscius, disciples of James
the Greater. The tablets stated that Ctesiphon had been called
Abenadar before his conversion, and that he had written a book in
Arabic. See the French translation of Catherine Emmerich, ed.
Retaux, p. 272, note. Our readers may accept what they please
in these documents, which, of course, have no pretence of being
historical.
32 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
3. THE HOLY SEPULCHRE
" Now there was in the place, where he was cruci-
fied, a garden ; and in the garden a new sepulchre
wherein no man as yet had been laid." ^ This garden
was the property of Joseph, a native of Arimathiea,
a member of the Sanhedrim, and a secret follower of
Christ ; ^ a man apparently held in universal esteem
on account of his kindness and the righteousness
of his life.^ From the Gospel's description of the
place it would seem that Joseph's property covered
the western side of Calvary, and that its palms
and olive-trees, its patches of flowering plants and
sweet herbs, reached the very top of the Mount.
At the bottom of the declivity, hidden in the shrub-
bery, was the tomb hewn in the rock, at a distance
of about 150 feet from the spot where the cross
had been erected.* Thither Joseph, Nicodemus, and
the disciples carried the body of Christ after having
embalmed it. "The tomb itself," writes Father
Didon,^ " comprised a double grotto ; in the first, a
kind of ante-chamber or mortuary chapel, the relatives
could come to weep for the departed ; in the second,
or inner chamber, was laid the corpse. The tomb,
properly so called, was a slightly hollowed-out bench
of stone covered by a kind of vault or arcosolium."
That the tomb was a double one of this kind is
averred by Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, whom we may
^ Jn. xix. 41.
2 "A disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews" —
Jn. xix. 38.
^ " A counsellor, a good and just man " — Lk. xxiii. ~>0.
^ R. de Fleury, op. cii. p. 286.
'' Fie de Jesus, vol. ii. p. 348 ; Zanecchia, op. cit. vol. i. p. 280 ;
Guerinj Jerusalem, p. 1 20.
THE HOLY SEPULCHRE 33
reckon as a contemporary of the finding of the Holy
Places, since he must have been already a youth in
327.^ Renan is therefore wrong in denying the exist-
ence of an ante-chamber.
Both grottoes were excavated in the side of the
hill, and were accessible from the level of the vale.
The sepulchre proper — i.e. the inner cave — measures
about six feet by five ; but it can hold only three or
four people on account of the cenotaph which occu-
pies, on the right-hand side, nearly the whole length
of the cave.^ It was commonly thought that the
actual tomb consisted of a solid block of stone, on
which our Saviour's body was laid. M. Guerin, how-
ever, had some doubt on the point, suggested by his
knowledge that the Jews regularly either enclosed
their dead in loculi in the walls of their rock-hewn
tombs,^ or in stone coffins or sarcophagi. Never had
he found an instance in which the corpse was un-
covered and visible.* His suspicion turned out to be
well founded, and he was able to verify its correct-
* Speluncara petrae dicit, earn quae tunc fuit ante Salvatoris
monumenti ostium speluncam ; ex eadem petra, sicut hie in foribus
monumentorum fieri solet, excisam. Cat. ix. De Christi Resurrec-
tione ; P.O. xxxiii. col. 834. [The whole passage should be read.
Cyril states that in his day the ante-chamber had already dis-
appeared, having been destroyed in the building operations. Yet
the sepulchre now shown at Jerusalem has an ante-chamber. —
Trans. 1^
2 Zanecchia, op. cit. vol. i. p. 282. [See, however, Fergusson, op.
cit. p. 152. If Adamnanus be right in his statement, Libelhis de
locis saiidis, that the sepulchre could hold "thrice three men,"
it may pertinently be asked whether his description is applicable
to the present sepulchre. Fergusson points out that it would
apply much more aptly to the cave in the Sakhra rock under the
dome of the Omar Mosque. — Trans.^
^ [i.e. as in the Roman Catacombs. — Trails.^
* Jerusalem, p. 147.
C
U THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
ness by a letter of Boniface of Ragusa, a sixteenth-
century custodian of the basilica,'^ and which is printed
among the works of Quaresmius.- Boniface, having
once been obhged to strip the tomb of the alabaster
slabs with which it had been encrusted by St. Helena
in order to transform it into an altar, had made the
discovery that the tomb was not solid, but hollow
like a coffin.^ On its sides he saw abundant and
indubitable traces of the blood of Christ, of the
spices, and of the hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes
brought by Nicodemus.^ From the bottom of the
sarcophagus he also took out a piece of the true cross,
covered with some precious material, which, however,
fell to pieces in his hand, leaving only a few golden
threads.^
We know, from the stone at the " Tombs of the
Kings " to the north-west of Jerusalem, how the
funeral chambers of the Jews were closed. " Its
form," says the Abbd Vigouroux,^ " is that of a mill-
stone, and it is moved by being rolled. To close the
tomb the stone is pushed along a groove cut in the
1 This friar afterwards became Bishop of Stagno ; he died in
1581.
2 Eliicidatio Terrce Sandce (Antwerpise, l639), V. xiii.
3 Cum lamina una albatri ex iis quibus sepulcrum operiebatur et
quas Helena Sancta ibi collocaverat, ut super iis sacrosanctum missa
mysterium celebraretur, necessitate urgente commovenda esset,
aparuit nobis apertus locus ille ineffabilis in quo triduo filius hominis
requievit.
* Erat locus sacrosancto Domini Jesu cruore, unguento illo, quo
ad sepulturam unctus fuerat permixto. . . .
'^ In medio sacrosancti loci lignum reperimus collocatum ac
sudario pretioso involutum, quod cum in manus reverenter suscepis-
semus deosculatique fuissemus, ubi primum illud aeri expositum
est, inter manus nostras sudarium in nihilum abiit, nonnullis aureis
filis ex illo solum manentibus.
^ Lc Nouveau Testament et les decouvertes modemes, p. 1 79-
THE HOLY SEPULCHRE 35
rock outside the tomb, in which it runs as on rails,
and which is sufficiently long to allow of the entrance
being completely uncovered." Such must have been
the stone on which the angel sat, and which served as
a door to the sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathaea. It
was in the form of a millstone, if we may trust
Antoninus of Piacenza, who saw it in 570/ Judging
by the remains of similar stones, it must have been
about five feet in diameter and about a foot thick.'
But I am informed that of the actual stone only a
small piece survives. The Angel's Stone at the so-
called palace of Caiphas agrees indeed with the
measurements just given, but it is highly probable
that, if it be a relic at all, it is a rock taken from the
spot of St. Stephen's martyrdom.^ The Synoptic
Gospels confirm this description of the stone. Ac-
cording to St. Matthew, when the Holy Women
reached the sepulchre "an angel of the Lord
descended from heaven, and coming, rolled back
the stone, and sat on it."* According to St. Mark
the women said one to another : " Who shall roll us
back the stone from the door of the sepulchre ? " ^ ;
whilst St. Luke states that : " They found the stone
rolled back from the sepulchre."'^
Lastly, St. Matthew says of Joseph of Arimatheea
that : " He rolled a great stone to the door of the
monument, and went his way."^
Twenty-five or thirty paces froin the sepulchre,
towards the north, there is a much-revered spot of
1 Petra vero monumenti veluti molaris. De locis sandis, 1 8 ;
Tobler, op. cit. p. 101.
- Zanecchia, op. cit. vol. i. p. 281.
^ [See La Palestine, guide historique et pratique (a work of the
Assumptionists), Paris, 1904, pp. 138-139. — Trans.^^
* Mt. xxviii. 2. ^ Mk. xvi. 3.
6 Lk. xxiv. 2. 7 Mt. xxvii. 60.
36 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
which the Gospels say nothing. " Some distance
beyond the place where Christ appeared to JNlagdalen,"
says Deshaye,^ " is shown the spot where Christ ap-
peared first to His mother."^ Christ, who shared the
fulness of human feelings, would naturally manifest
Himself in the first instance to His blessed mother.
Catherine Emmerich,^ whom we may quote, now that
we are not concerned with a question of history, gives
a striking account of this episode. She sees an angel
coming down to the Cwnaculum. The Blessed Virgin
on receiving his message springs up (it was nine o'clock
on the Sabbath evening), she throws her cloak about
her, and hastens to Joseph's garden by way of the Porta
Antiqua. There she follows a path now indicated by
a series of chapels ; she passes the Prison of Christ,
and directs her steps towards the sepulchre, but is
deterred by the sight of the sentinels, who are sleeping
cosily rolled up in their capes. She hesitates, and falls
back slightly to the north. Then the visionary sees a
light in the east ; it is the Saviour coming in glory
from Limbo, followed by the patriarchs and the just
of the olden Law. The heavenly procession descends
to earth near Mary, and without touching the ground
Jesus comes to kiss the forehead of His mother, whilst
all about the patriarchs are singing the praises of the
mother of their God. Then the vision fades,* and
Mary knows not whether it was dream or reality, but
imbued with a wonderful feeling of peace, she returns
1 See Chateaubriand's Ilineraire in the Pantheon Utlerairc edition
vol. ii. p. o^'S.
- Guerin, op. cit. p. 336 ; Zanecchia, op. cit. vol. i. p. 283.
' The Dolorous Passion, English trans., p. 330 f.
^ It is noteworthy that according to this tradition Christ must
have re-entered Limbo, since the next day He said to Mary
Magdalen: "I am not yet ascended to my Father" — Jn. xx.
17.
THE HOLY SEPULCHRE 37
to the Ccenaculum, where the Holy Women are getting
ready their ointments and spices.
And indeed, if events did not follow in the order
we have given, how can we explain why Mary, the
mother of Jesus, did not follow Mary Magdalen,
Mary the mother of James, and Salome, to the tomb
on the Sunday morning? Probably she watched
their departure with a smile : she knew that it was
useless to seek among the dead for one who was now
again alive/
The next day at about the dawn the Holy Women
came to Calvary loaded with spices. Their one
thought was how to circumvent the sentinels ; how
to open the tomb which had been sealed by the chief
priests. Then suddenly there came the earthquake,
and an angel brilliant with light and dressed in white
drops from heaven, rolls away the stone, and takes his
seat on it. The Temple soldiers are scared, and put
to flight ; the tomb is empty, and Christ has risen.
Peter and John on receiving news of the event run
to the garden, and Magdalen at a distance follows
them, muttering that someone must have stolen the
body of her Lord. She approached the sepulchre, and
peeping in, saw two angels, who said to her :
" Woman^ why weepest thou ? She saith to them, Because they
have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid
him. And when she had said this she turned herself back and
saw Jesus standing, and she knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus
said to her. Woman, why weepest thou } Whom seekest thou ?
She, thinking it was the gardener, saith to him, Sir, if thou hast
taken him hence tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take
him away. Jesus saith to her : Mary, She turning saith to him :
Rabboni (which is to say, Master). Jesus saith to her : Do not
touch me, for I am not yet ascended to my Father." -
This scene, one of the most touching of all the
1 Lk. xxiv. 5. 2 jn, xx. 13-17.
38 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
Gospel-scenes, took place near the stone which had
been rolled away — Deshaye says about twelve paces
to the north. The actual spot is a matter of doubt,
but at any rate it was somewhere in the garden.
It was long implicitly believed that the last scene
of this little drama was to be located in France. The
story was that Magdalen crossed the seas, and settled
in Provence. When in modern times her reputed
coffin was opened, people were surprised to find on
her skull, on the left temple, a piece of fresh trans-
parent flesh. The event was duly recorded by an
official deputation of the city of Aix, consisting of the
president, an attorney-general, and two councillors.^
It was inferred that when our I^ord said to Mary
" do not touch me," He Himself touched her with
His right hand, and that the spot which He touched
became forthwith incorruptible. Hence it was named
the Noli me t anger e, the Touch-me-not. " This
fragment of flesh," says Father Ollivier, '* came away
from the skull in 1780. Since that time it has been
religiously preserved in a crystal vase on the altar of
the crypt of the Holy Oil." ' Since then, however, an
eminent ecclesiastical historian, Mgr. Duchesne, has
come on the scene, and one of the results of his pains-
taking labours has been to throw grave doubt on a
matter which once seemed above suspicion. Alas
that the pretty flowers of vernal faith should be dried
up by the summer sun of science !
* Lacordaire, S. Marie-Madeleine, 2nd ed. pp. 199-201.
2 Les Amities de Jesus, p. 301, note 1.
CHAPTER II
THE HIDING OF THE CROSS AND OF THE TOMB
There is something surprising in the indifference
shown by ancient writers as to what became of the
instruments of the Passion after Christ was taken
down from the Cross ; still more surprising is the in-
difference shown by modern historians. However,
quite early, there were various stories afloat, and the
few who were inquisitive enough to concern them-
selves with such questions seem to have hesitated
between one or other of two opinions. Thus both
Eusebius and Constantine were persuaded that the
True Cross had been buried by the Christians to pre-
serve it from profanation ; on the other hand, Paulinus
of Nola, who was beholden for his information to
Rufinus and Melania, was convinced that it had been
hidden by the Jews. Then the curtain of silence
again fell on the subject, and it was soon altogether
forgotten.
Gretser, of all modern historians, was the first to
examine the matter,^ casting his vote for the second
opinion ; he was followed by Rohault de Fleury." M.
Amedee Thierry speaks ^ " of the cistern into which
the Jews had hurriedly thrown the cross at the
approach of the Sabbath." Sister Emmerich,^ speaking
1 De Cruce Christi, vol. i. p. 63.
2 Mem.
3 S. Jerome, 4th ed. p. 198.
4 The Dolorous Passioji (in French trans.^ Retaux, 1899)^ chap,
liii. p. 319. [The equivalent to this passage is not to be found in
the English translation. — Trans.^
39
40 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
as one who intuitively saw into the past, says : " As
the Blessed Virgin and her friends were returning
from Calvary, whither they again proceeded to weep
and pray, they saw coming towards them a band of
soldiers escorted by torchbearers, and to make them
room they scattered to right and left until the last of
the soldiers had passed. These men were on their
way to Calvary, doubtless in order to take down the
crosses and bury them before the Sabbath." No
historian could depict the probabilities of the scene
better than this visionary.
1. THE BURIAL OF THE CROSS
At the beginning of the Christian era the northern
suburbs of Jerusalem were well cultivated and densely
peopled. Five centuries of unceasing labour had
made the soil fertile ; everywhere there were groves
of olive-trees, fig-trees, and vines, which furnished the
theme for several of Christ's parables. Speaking of
the reconnoissance made by Titus before opening the
war of A.D. 70, Josephus states that hedges and ditches
and garden walls reached to the very ramparts of the
city.^ In Jerusalem there was only one spring, that
of Siloe ; but the toil of the inhabitants had made up
for the natural scarcity by digging under the slopes
of Gareb, and in the valleys of Hinnom and of the
Cedron, great cisterns to preserve the rain-water.^
Besides these great tanks there were other excavations
to be found under the rocks on which the wall of
Ezechias was grounded. One of these, '* at about the
flight of an arrow from the ramparts," was so large as
1 Jos. Wars, V. iii. 2 ; vi. 2 ; VI. i. 1.
2 Fons perennis aquse, cavati sub terra montes et piscina? cistern-
aeque servandis imbribus. Tacitus, Htstorice, V.
THE BURIAL OF THE CROSS 41
to have been used by the Persians in 614 as a prison
for their captives.^ Another such cavern, smaller than
the previous one, but nevertheless very large, had its
opening at the foot of Calvary, and extended beneath
the walls some distance under the city. This was the
cavern of which the Jews made use on the night of
the first Good Friday.
The distance between Golgotha, the sepulchre,
and the hole into which the crosses were thrown was
slight. Christ's death, though it had been decreed
by Hebrew magistrates, had received the approval
of Pilate, and, as a consequence, the execution was
carried out in accordance with Roman custom. Only
after the death of Christ do we find again the ob-
servance of Jewish usages in the burial of the sacred
body ^ and in the hiding of the instruments of death.
As a general rule, the Romans crucified, whereas
the Jews stoned, their malefactors. It must not,
however, be taken for granted that the Jews had no
knowledge of the cross as a punishment. When
David delivered to the Gabaonites seven descendants
of Saul in order to make an end to the famine which
was wasting Judea, he took
"the two sons of Respha the daughter of Aia whom she bore to
Saul, Armoni and Mephiboseth ; and the five sons of Michol the
daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Hadriel the son of Berzellai
that was of Molathi and he gave them into the hands of the
Gabaonites ; and they crucified them on a hill before the Lord ;
and these seven died together in the first days of the harvest,
when the barley began to be reaped. And Respha the daughter
of Aia took hair-cloth and spread it under her upon the rock from
the beginning of the harvest till water dropped upon them out of
^ See the narrative of an anonymous monk of St. Saba's, translated
from Arabic into French in Couret's la prise de Jerusalem par les
Perses en 6l4. Orleans: Herluison, 1896.
2 " As the manner of the Jews is to bury " — Jn. xix. 40.
42 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
heaven, and suffered neither the birds to tear them by day, nor the
beasts by night." ^
But the Jews had a different method. They some-
times used a cross to hang the dead bodies of notorious
criminals," as a gamekeeper would use a "gibbet."
But the word "cross" seems to have been almost
unknown to them ; they preferred to speak of the
" wood," the " tree." In Deuteronomy we read : ^
" When a man hath committed a crime for which he is to be
punished with death, and being condemned to die is hanged on a
gibbet ; his body shall not remain upon the tree but shall be buried
the same day ; for he is accursed of God that hangeth on a tree,
and thou shalt not defile thy land which the Lord thy God shall
give thee in possession." *
In order that the land might not be rendered un-
clean, both the coi-pse and the instrument of death
were buried in the night subsequent to the execution.^
The Romans, on the contrary, attached the con-
demned man, whilst yet alive, to the cross, sometimes
by means of ropes,*^ but more commonly by means
of nails, which were driven through his hands and
feet. Four seems to have been the number of nails
used, though there are not wanting certain anciisnt
chroniclers who contend that both Christ's feet were
fastened with a single nail. This contention is, how-
ever, equally alien to common-sense and to history.^
1 2 Kings xxi. 8-10.
2 Didon, Vie de Jesus, vol. ii. p. 334. ^ xxi. 22 s(j.
^ See some examples of how this law was carried out in Josue
viii. 29 ; x. 26.
^ Solemne erat patibulum una cum corpore defuncti sepultura
tradere. Habac. Sanhedrim in cap. xv. Quoted by Mgr. Gerbet,
Esquisse de Rome chretienne, 3rd ed. vol, ii. p. 266.
^ Justus Lipsius, De Crtice, Antwerpia*, l6l5, II. ix.
^ Fleury, op. oil. p. l67. In crucifying with three nails only,
bones would necessarily be broken.
THE BURIAL OF THE CROSS 43
Plautus makes one of his characters to say, as he was
sending a slave to death : "I will give a talent to
him who gets first up the cross, on condition that the
arms be pierced twice and the feet also twice." ^ In
the well-known caricature, the Palatine grajjito^- the
man with the ass's head, which is intended to repre-
sent Christ, has his feet nailed separately ; the youthful
draughtsman, in this particular, doubtless reproduced
a scene which he had often witnessed. Other authori-
ties are of opinion that the condemned was attached
by the wrists, as Plautus insinuates in the above,
and not by the hands, which would not be sufficiently
firm to bear, without tearing, the weight of the body.
But in this they are running counter to the Gospel,
for Jesus says to the unbelieving Thomas : " Behold
my hands." " The corpse of the condemned was, ac-
cording to the same Roman usage, deprived of burial,
and remained exposed until the birds had picked the
bones clean ; ^ a watchman stood guard near the
gibbet to prevent the body being carried away.^ Jesus
was accordingly crucified alive. As His agony might
have been protracted several days, and as, moreover,
the fact of His body and those of the thieves being
exposed would have profaned the Paschal solemnity,
the chief priests obtained of Pilate that the Roman
custom should be set aside for once, and that the
death of the condemned should be hastened by the
crurifragmm — i.e. by their legs being broken — so
that, agreeably with the Deuteronomic legislation, the
^ Ego dabo ei talentum^ primus qui in crucem excurserat sed ea
lege, ut affigantur bis pedes, bis brachia, Mostellar, Act ii. scene 1,
verses 12 and 13.
" Ga.Y\xcc\, 11 crocifisso graffito. Rome, 1857.
3 Lk. xxiv. 39 ; Jn. xx. 27.
* Non pasces in cruce eervos. Horace, Epistles, I. xvi. 48.
'-> Petronius, Satiricon, cxi. ; Plautus, Miles gloriosus, II. iv. 19.
44 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
bodies might be buried and the crosses hidden that
same evening.
The Rabbis had summed up as follows the rules
to be observed : —
" Let none be hanged on a tree which is rooted in the ground,
for the wood must be buried with the condemned in order that
the latter may not leave in the world any memory of his shame,
and in order that no man may say : Behold the wood on which
so and so was hanged. VV^ith regard to the rock with which a
man was stoned, or the sword with which he was beheaded, or the
cord with which he was strangled, let all such objects be hidden
away, not indeed in the sepulchre but in the condemned man's
dungeon." ^
In the case of our Lord, the sepulchre was not large
enough to allow of the legal procedure being carried
out in its entirety. As we have already stated, the
sepulchre is only six feet by five, whereas our
Saviour's cross, according to what is antecedently
probable, and indeed true in the case of the good
thief's cross,' measured some fifteen feet by seven.^
Accordingly the historian Socrates is guilty of a
mistake when he states that the true cross was
found in the Holy Sepulchre.* St. John describes
the tomb as he found it after receiving the first news
of the Resurrection. His narrative ^ depicts a narrow
1 Nemo suspenditur ad arborem solo innatam, sed ad avulsam,
ne forte excisio ejus sit molesta ; quia lignum una cum suspen.so
sepeliendum est, ne relinquat turpem in mundo memoriam, aut
dieatur : ecce de hoc ligno pendebat iste vel iste. Sic et lapis
quo aliquis obrutus, gladio quo decapitatus, sive mantile quo aliquis
strangulatus, omnia ha'c sepeliuntur, in carcere tamen occisi, non
in ipso sepulcro. Maimon, Sanhedrim, xv. Quoted by K. de
Fleury, up. cit. p. 51.
- It is shown in Rome in the basilica of the Holy Cross.
3 R. de Fleury, op. cit. pp. 7^-74, and plates 2 and 3.
« Hist. Eccl. I. 17; r.G. Ixvii. 118-122.
^ Jn. XX. 6, 7.
THE BURIAL OF THE CROSS 45
cell which had contained a body and nothing more.
Peter could scarcely have entered and taken stock of
the place ^ had it been encumbered with the instru-
ments of the Passion.
But Jewish custom, as well as Roman usage, had
been to some extent set at naught in the burial of
Christ. The friends of the crucified lost all rights
over the condemned. But in this case the execution
had been sanctioned by Pilate, and he was a Roman.
Now the Roman law, as afterwards explained by
Ulpian, had it that " their bodies shall not be other-
wise buried, save this favour have been previously
sought and obtained." In certain circumstances this
favour was not to be granted. " And let no such
permission be given when the crime is particularly
grievous." ^ As soon as the Master had breathed
His last. His secret disciple, Joseph of Arimatheea,
making use of the power inherent in his position as
a Sanhedrist, went in to Pilate, and asked for the
requisite permission to bury the body.^ The governor,
tired as he was of being made the tool of Jewish
hatred, once again showed his belief in Christ's
innocence by granting the request. From this in-
stant the mortal remains of Christ belonged to His
mother. They were bathed in the tears of JNIary
Magdalen, and embalmed with the myrrh and aloes
brought by Nicodemus ; ^ and passers-by, seeing the
1 Lk. xxiv. 12.
- Corpora non aliter sepeliuntur, quam si fuerit petitum et
permissum . . . et nonnunquam non permittitur maxime majestatis
causa damnatorum. De cadaveribus punitorum, xlviii. 24', [Ulpian's
instance where the permission in question is to be refused seems
to be that of the criinen majestatis, not that of a "particularly
grievous crime." — Trails.^
3 Jn. xix. 38.
* Jn. xix. 39.
46 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
stone rolled in front of the sepulchre, might say :
" This is the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth, whom the
priests crucified." With respect to the crosses, they
disappeared together with the bodies of the two
thieves, Gesmas and Dismas ; doubtless carried away
by the Temple-guards as soon as the disciples, over-
taken by nightfall, had closed the sepulchre and
withdrawn to the Cicnaculum.
If we take our stand in the middle of the Holy
Sepulchre Church, facing southward, we shall have
the sepulchre to our right, Calvary in front of us,
and the chapel of St. Helena, below which later on
the crosses were to be discovered, far away to our
left — i.e. in the extreme east of the basilica. Concern-
ing the identity of the spots there is not much doubt ;
in J327 the Bishop Macarius consecrated them by
erecting altars, which have stood there for over fifteen
centuries, whilst different buildings have succeeded
each other above — first Constantine's basilica, then
that of Modestus, then that of Constantine-Mono-
machus, and lastly that of the Crusaders. The three
crosses, and probably also the bodies of the thieves
were taken down to the lowest part of the cavern,
which opened at the spot of Golgotha. Deshaye,
who was sent in 1621 by Louis XIII. to report on
the Holy Places, thus describes this cave : " On
coming out of this chapel ^ we find on our left a large
staircase, which descends through the walls of the
church down to a kind of cellar hewn out of the rock.
After having gone down some thirty steps we see
on the left a chapel which is commonly known as
the chapel of St. Helena, because here she prayed
whilst the Holy Cross was being sought for. We
^ The reference is to the chapel which commemorates the cast-
ing of lots on Christ's seamless tunic.
THE BURIAL OF THE CROSS 47
then descend another flight of eleven steps to the
spot where it was found." ^
The Holy Sepulchre Church was burnt down in
1808, but in the rebuilding no change was made in
the position of these various spots. Take, for instance,
Pierre Loti's vivid account of the same locality :
"In deep darkness we descend to the chapel of St.
Helena by a wide, much-used and broken, and
perilous staircase, itself scarcely more than a ruin.
. . . At the bottom we find the chapel, which after
the darkness of the staircase seems as bright as day.
Here we feel creeping over us that unspeakable feel-
ing of ages long passed away. Scarcely can we
catch the far-distant sound of the music and the
bells in the church above. But behind the altar
we find another staircase, which takes us down even
lower, into yet blacker darkness." ^ Father Zanecchia
states^ that the chapel is twenty-one feet below the
basilica, and that from it thirteen more steps lead
us to the place of the finding of the Cross — a room
about twenty-three feet long and about fifteen in
width and in height. In seeing it we are instantly
reminded of the caverns which the Persians trans-
formed into prisons, or of those in which, Sister
Emmerich tells us, the broken-hearted disciples hid
themselves during the dreadful night which followed
the Passion.
Whose were the hands that dragged the crosses to
the bottom of this abyss, where they lay forgotten
until A.D. 327 ? In his letter to Macarius, Con-
stantine takes it for granted that the Christians
had excavated this hole to screen the Cross from
^ See Chateaubriand's Itineraire.
2 Jerwsalem, p. 59.
^ La Palestine d' aujourd' hut, vol. i. p. 286.
48 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
evil.^ Evidently he was misled. The real authors of
the disappearance of the Cross were the Jews, who
after all were merely carrying out the instructions
of their law. All along they kept their eyes on the
doings of the disciples. On the Sabbath day — the
first Holy Saturday — they went to Pilate, and said : ^
" Sir, we have remembered that that seducer said^ while he was
yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore
the sepulchre to be guarded until the third day, lest perhaps his
disciples come and steal him away and say to the people : He is
risen from the dead, and the last error shall be worse than the first.
Pilate said to them. You have a guard, go, guard it as you know.
And they, departing, made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone
and setting guards."
Hence Calvary and the sepulchre were both guarded
by the soldiery, by the same fanatical servants of the
high priest who had dared to buffet Christ and spit in
His face. There was no longer any room for the
Blessed Virgin and the disciples, even had they elected
to remain. If we may believe the apocryphal Gospel
of Nicodemus, even Joseph of Arimatha^a was appre-
hended for his kindly intervention on behalf of Christ.
Hence the Temple-guards remained the masters of
the situation during the Good Friday night. The
chief priests being only too anxious to hide every-
thing reminiscent of the Passion, in order not to
provoke a new explosion of popular sympathy for
the Nazarene, took care that the Cross should dis-
appear. Moreover, in so doing they had tradition
on their side ; hence they had both the crosses and
the bodies of the thieves cast into the cistern. Here
they were safe from observation ; and the place being
^ Quod communi omnium hoste sublato. Eus. de vita Const. ;
P.G. XX. 1090.
2 Mt. xxvii. 6S sq. [Matthew is the only Evangelist who records
this mission of the priests and its sequel. — Trans.^
THE BURIAL OF THE CROSS 49
near one of the gates, it would soon be filled up with
the rubbish of the city, which would effectually bury
the instrument of the Passion.^
This conjecture is based on a juridical reason. The
execution of a condemned man in its every detail
belonged to the public authority. The hiding of the
crosses, of the stones, of the sword, or of the cord, in
Hebrew law, was a part of the execution. Hence
the Jews went by their law. As the cistern is at no
great distance from Calvary, we may say that the
instruments of the Passion were buried in the very
place of the execution. Moreover, it is easy to see
that, in fact, the Jews were the real actors in this
part of the play. Can we imagine the followers of
Christ throwing the Cross of Salvation, with the
crosses of two common rogues, one of whom had
died with a blasphemy on his lips, into a receptacle
of the city filth ? No ; the sacrilege is laid at the
door of the high priest. He and his satellites kept
their secret so well that the disciples never learnt
what had become of the sacred relics. The True
Cross, stained with the blood shed by Christ for
man's salvation, remained for nearly three centuries
hidden at the bottom of the pit, and above it the
deposit of dirt from the city each day grew larger.
2. THE CCENACULUM ^ AND THE FLIGHT TO PELLA
The fortieth day after His Resurrection, Christ
brought His disciples to the Mount of Olives, and
1 Carnifices cruces Christi et latronum in vallem monte Golgotheo
subjectam praecipitasse, terraque obruisse, deinde egestis ac
exoneratis super illas totius civitatis sordibus, vallem oppletam
fuisse, crucesque sub sordium acervo obrutas delituisse. Gretser,
De Cruce Christi, i. p. 63.
2 On the CoETiaculum, see Lagrange, La dormition de la sainte
50 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
after a last message to them ascended to heaven,
leaving on the ground where He had last stood the
imprint of His left foot.^ The disciples then re-
turned to Jerusalem.
" And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room
where abode Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and
Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James of Alpheus and
Simon Zelotes and Jude the brother of James. All these were
persevering with one mind in prayer with the women and Mary
the mother of Jesus and with his brethren." ^
The house, which St. Luke does not otherwise
describe, is the Ccenaciilum. St. Epiphanius, after
stating that this was its name, adds that it was
thither that the disciples betook themselves after the
Ascension.^ The Apostles seem to have gone there
so naturally that, in the absence of any text to
affirm the fact, we may infer that it was their
habitual residence. Here it is then that we must
locate three scenes which occurred after the Passion.
First, the appearance of Jesus on the evening of the
Resurrection to the Apostles and the disciples of
Emmaus, who had just returned with all haste to
give their good news to the rest. Christ said to
them : " Peace be with you." He showed them His
Vierge el la moison de Jean Marc, Revue biblique, 1899, p. ■''^^9 ,ff'. ;
Zahn, Die Domiilio Sandce Virginis und das Hans des Juhatuics
Marcus, Neue Kirchl. Zeiischrift. x. 5. The preceding article is a
criticism of the latter. 1 1 nil jours a Jerusalem, p. 111.
^ Zanecchia, op. cif. vol. i. pp. 4.'J3 and 4.34. [For a fuller
description of the story, and of the similar traces said to have been
left at Jerusalem by Mohamed, see De Combes, De I'inv. a I'exalf.
p. 172.]
2 Acts of the Apostles, i. 13 sq".
3 In quern discipuli, posteaquam Salvator in coelum ex Oliveti
subvectus est, sese recipientes, coenaculum conscenderunt. De
mensuris et ponderibus, 14 ; P.G. xliii. col. '15d, 262.
THE C(ENACULUM 51
hands and His side, and partook of a piece of roast
fish and of a Httle honey.^ Secondly, the appearance
a week later, when Thomas was permitted to put his
hands to the wounds of our Saviour.^ Thirdly, the
manifestation on the fortieth day, during the meal,
which took place a few hours previously to the
Ascension.^
The same walls, now long since crumbled away,
also witnessed the descent of the Holy Ghost on the
Apostles^ and the Last Supper. Certain modern
critics suppose that these last two events happened
in different places. They point out that the pilgrim
Theodosius — Ave are uncertain of the date of his visit
— locates the Last Supper near the Virgin's tomb
at Gethsemani,^ and that to find a decisive testimony
for identifying the locality of the Last Supper with
that of the descent of the Holy Ghost we must
wait till Hesychius of Jerusalem (a.d. 438) draws a
parallel between Bethlehem and the basilica of Sion.®
But we may well protest against Theodosius' slight
mistake being pitted against a tradition which is
based on very good arguments. Mark^ uses, in
order to describe the Coenaculum, words very similar
to those of which Luke makes use to describe the
lodging of the Apostles. St. Epiphanius, as we have
already said, states that the house in which the
Apostles received the Holy Ghost was called from
the very beginning the Coenacuhun — a word evidently
1 Lk. xxiv. 36-43 ; Jn. xx. 19-2S. 2 j^. xx. 24-31.
3 Mk. xvi. 14. *Actsii. 1-4.
^ Et ibi est basilica Sancte Marie, Matris Domini^ et ibi est
sepulcrum ejus. Et ibi est locus ubi Dominus cenavit cum
discipulis suis. De Terra Sancta, xi. ; Tobler, op. cit. p. 60.
6 Tu (Bethlehem) panem fermentasti, sed Sion coenam ostendit.
Sermones ; P.G. xciii. col. 1480.
^ Mk. xiv. 15.
52 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
reminiscent of Coena — the " dining-hall." Lastly, it
would be difficult to explain why in the fourth
century a large portion of the Maundy-Thursday
service took place in the church of Sion, if it was not
believed that the Holy Eucharist had been instituted
in this building. Were Theodosius correct in his
view, the ceremony should have taken place in St.
INIary's basilica. Arculfus in 670,^ Venerable Bede
about 720,' are witnesses to the constancy of the
tradition impugned by Theodosius.
It was to the house of a friend and disciple that on
Maundy-Thursday Christ directed His steps. This is
apparent from the tone of His injunction ^ : " Go ye
into the city to a certain man, and say to him, The
JNl aster saith. My time is near at hand, with thee I
make the pasch with my disciples." This friend it
was that furnished the first church for Christianity,
and a home for the Blessed Virgin and the Apostles.
" All they that believed were together, and had all
things in common."* According to Theodosius the
Coenaculum belonged to the mother of the Evangelist
Mark^; according to the pseudo- Antoninus (570) it
belonged to St. James "^ ; according to Abbot Daniel
(1102) it was the house of John the Theologian.^
None of these testimonies are decisive. The Apostles
John and James were with Christ on Maundy-Thurs-
day ; hence it would not have been necessary to send
1 Relalio de locis sanclis ab Adamnano scripla, xix. ; Tobler, op. cif.
p. l60. [It should be borne in mind that Sion is now often used
to designate merely the Ccmaculum. — Transl]
2 De Locis Sanctis, iii. ; Tobler, p. 218. [This account, there is
reason to believe, is based on the former. — Trans. ^
3 Mt. xxvi. 18. * Acts ii. 44.
^ De Terra Sancta, vi. ; Tobler, p. 65.
^ Perambulalio locorum sanctorum, xxii. ; Tobler, p. 103.
^ Jlincraircs russcs en Orient, p. 35.
THE C(ENACULUM 53
a messenger into the city had the house belonged to
them. With regard to the house of JNIary, the mother
of John Mark, it was not the Coenaculum ; it was to
the former house that Peter later on, after having
miraculously escaped from prison, went on an Easter
night, and there found the Christians gathered to-
gether ; ^ but that this was not the Coenaculum is
proved by the fact that James was not there. Ac-
cording to Venerable Bede^ and the monk Bernard,
who made his pilgrimage about the year 870,^ the
Blessed Virgin dwelt in the Coenaculum after the
Passion ; here also she died, if we may call an end
such as hers a death.* On the plan of Sion drawn
by Adamnanus from the description furnished by
Arculfus, we find in a corner, to the right on entering,
the words : " Here St. Mary died." ^
A few writers have been found to maintain that
owing to the Coenaculum proper having been trans-
formed into a church, Mary was obliged to migrate
to a little adjacent building.'^ Adrichomius, a Dutch
pilgrim of the sixteenth century,' informs us that he
saw the one remaining wall of this building.^ The
Abbe Durand ^ adds : " Adjoining this house was a
little chapel, with a cistern within. According to
^ Acts xii. 12 sq.
2 Ibique Sancta Maria obierat, loc. cit.
3 Itmerarmm Bernardi monachi Franci, xi. ; Tobler and Molinier,
p. 315.
* See a sermon of Modestus (seventh century) on the Assumption.
P.G. Ixxxvi. col. 3288-3300.
^ Hie Sancta Maria obiit. Tobler, p. l60. See the sketch below.
^ Hipplytus of Thebes (eighth century) states that the house
where Mary died had been bought by John. Lagrange, loc. cit.
p. 596.
7 He died in 1585.
^ In descriptions locorum montis Sion, No. 10.
^ L'£crin de la Sainte Vierge, vol. ii. pp. 479-4'80.
54 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
Quaresmius ^ it was called the chapel of St. John
the Evangelist, because, according to tradition, it was
here that the beloved disciple was accustomed to offer
up the unbloody sacrifice in Mary's presence. Boniface
of Ragusa also writes of this sanctuary ; in his time it
was still in existence, and still contained St. John's
altar. But the greater basilica, of which this chapel
had once formed a part, had already disappeared, so
that the chapel stood by itself.- Nothing whatever
now remains of any of these buildings."
There are, however, certain details in this last-
mentioned tradition which are very suspicious. The
Mass did not acquire its complete liturgical form
till a good many years after the death of Christ. It
would be an anachronism to picture the Apostle
John, served by an altar-boy, saying Mass for the
Blessed Virgin, whilst the other Apostles were wor-
shipping God in the Temple according to Jewish
rites.
It is possible to reconstruct fairly accurately the
Cceiiaculum by combining Arculfus's plan^ with
the very circumstantial description of the place in
1106 given by the Russian abbot Daniel.* It seems
to have consisted in a house having a ground floor
and one upper room, the direction of the house being
due east and west. The entrance was somewhat to
the east on the northern side. As is customary in
the Levant, whereas the lower room was partitioned
off into several chambers designed to serve the
purposes of the household, the upper room was
undivided, and served as a guest-chamber for the
1 Eliicidatio terrce sanctoe, bk. iv, chap. xvi.
2 De perenni cultu Terrce Sanctce, bk. ii.
3 Tobler, p. l60.
* In Mme. de Khitrowo's trans, p. 35.
THE C(ENACULUM 55
visitors.^ Arculfus's plan only shows a single floor ;
but this is evidently a mistake of Adamnanus, who
acted as his draughtsman, for that the building con-
tained an upper and a lower room can scarcely be
doubted in view of St. Cyril's statement. It must be
borne in mind that the latter had seen the house
before it was transformed into a basilica.
On the ground floor two small rooms were situated
against the western wall ; of the two, the one to the
north was the Virgin's cell, whilst in that to the south
the disciples were assembled when Christ appeared to
St. Thomas. At the other end of the ground floor —
i.e. to the east — was the room in which, according to a
tradition (which, by the way, seems scarcely consonant
with the Gospels), Christ washed His Apostles' feet.
The space between these different compartments was
soon transformed into a public oratory.^ Against the
southern wall there was a flight of stairs leading to
the first floor.
The single upper room had been honoured by the
celebration of the Last Supper, which is stated to
have taken place at its eastern end, whilst at the
western end was the sleeping apartment of the
Apostles ; here too it was that the Holy Ghost
descended on the Apostles in tongues, as it were,
of fire.^ This is how Arculfus also divides up the
1 Lagrange, Revue bibliqiie, 1899} p. 591.
^ Abbot Daniel's description is confirmed by the Pilgrimage of
the archimandrite Grethenios (circa 1 400). " Below, beneath the room
which witnessed the descent of the Holy Ghost, is the cell where
Christ appeared to His disciples after eight days, and there too it
was that Thomas touched the side of his Lord, and believed."
Mme, de Khitrowo, Itineraires russes, p. 176. Cp. in the same
collection the Pilgrimage of Ignatius of Smolensk, p. 154, and the
Life and Pilgrimage of the deacon Zosimus, p. 212.
2 Cjn-il, Catecheses.
56 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
room. The Apostles, doubtless through motives of
reverence, avoided religiously the place of the Last
Supper.
The texts from Epiphanius and Bede, to which we
have already made allusion, prove that the Coenaculum
had early become a church.^ Theodosius states that,
already in the sixth century, the Pillar of the Scourging
had been carried thither, and that, besides this relic,
there were venerated here the Crown of Thorns, which
was kept in the centre of the church, and the Holy
Lance, which stood in the sanctuary.^ Doubtless, so
long as it existed, this building, from the Passion
onward, never ceased being a resort of the faithful,
and the depository of their sacred relics, for we must
remember that it escaped destruction in the siege by
Titus,^ and that among the early Christians tradition
ranked above all else.
What must not have been the feehngs of the
Apostles, the witnesses of the great Sacrifice, when
they contemplated the Crown of Thorns — that only
crown whose kingdom knows no end — so near to the
sacred spot where the risen Master had greeted them
with the words " Peace be to you " ? Every human
heart experiences the need of treasuring up mementoes
of the dead it once loved ; famihes piously preserve
the uniforms or the medals and decorations of those
of their members who have fallen fighting for their
country ; even the most stern-hearted of Protestants
venerate at Geneva the pulpit used by Calvin. Is it
conceivable that the Blessed Virgin and Magdalen
1 Theodosius, loc. cit, calls the basilica of Sion [the Ccenaculum]
"mater omnium ecclesiarum."
2 Et est ibi in media basilica corona spinea. . . . Inde venis ad
Sacrarium, et ibi est lancea. Tobler, p. Q5.
3 Epiphanius, De mens, et pond. 14; P.G. xliii, 26 1.
THE CCENACULUM
57
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58 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
and the beloved disciple should not have gathered
together the instruments which had been used to
afflict their friend and their Saviour ? Some supposi-
tions are antecedently so probable that they scarcely
fall short of certainty.
The two relics which formed the earliest treasure of
Coenaculum are both mentioned in the Gospels.
Longinus — his name is probably only a nickname,
derived from a word meaning a spear ^ — had the
happiness of furnishing the first of the relics. It
is told of him that he suffered from weak sight,
and that he was instantaneously cured by some of the
blood and water, which gushed from Christ's side,
falling on his eyes. He collected the blood of the
Saviour in a phial, with which he would never part,
and which is said to have been found in his grave at
Mantua '" during the reign of Charlemagne (804).^
Christ was taken down from the Cross by soldiers
who from foes had been changed into friends. They
had abused Christ, believing Him to be guilty, but
they had since had occasion to change their minds.
Their centurion had been the first to betray this
alteration in their views when, pointing to Christ
hanging on the Cross, he had exclaimed * : " Indeed
this was the Son of God." The Blessed Virgin could
stand by, weeping in peace, for she had as her de-
fence against the fury of the Jews the respect of the
1 Aoyx^. [See the section on Longinus's lance in De Combes,
De I'inv. a I' exalt, pp. 144-156. — Tra7is.]
^ Acta SS. LGth March. De S. Longiuo militc et de S. Longino
centurione.
3 At the request of the emperor, the Pope went to Mantua to
examine the finds. He identified the Precious Blood by the
inscription on the phial, and also the tomb of Longinus. Egin-
hardus, Annals of France, a.d. 804. French trans, by Teulet, p. 1 14.
*Mt. xxvii. .54.
THE CCENACULUM 59
Roman guard. Doubtless the Crown of Thorns was
the first thing to be handed her. John had hastened
to remove this instrument of torture which disfigured
the inanimate body of his Master. Soon the nails
too had been extracted, one after the other, and
thrown on the ground.^ The body slipped down
the planed wood, and lay at the feet of His mother,
on whose lap His head rested ; the stains of blood
were wiped away, and the body was ready for burial.
But can we believe for a moment that the Crown
of Thorns, the nails, and the sponge with which the
body had been washed, were suffered to remain on
the spot ? Roman law handed over to the execu-
tioners the clothing and the ornaments of small value
which the condemned man had worn.^ The execu-
tioners in this case had shared the clothing, drawing
lots for the seamless coat ^ ; but can it be believed
that Joseph of Arimathsea and Nicodemus, both men
of wealth, should have allowed these relics to be
forgotten, or that they did not buy them back at
the soldiers' price ? As for the lance which had
pierced the side of Christ, whether it was the
property of the Roman State or a private belonging
of the soldier, it remained, at all events, in the hands
of the latter. Longinus was baptised, and left the
service ; it seems probable that he presented the
weapon to the community of his adoption. When
the news of the Resurrection spread, Peter and John
came running to the scene. Simon Peter forthwith
" went into the sepulchre, and saw the linen cloths
lying, and the napkin that had been about his head,
1 R. de Fleury, Mem. 169.
2 Ulpian, De panniculariis, i. 6 ; De bonis damnatorum, Digest,
xlviii. 20.
3 Mt. xxvii. 35 ; Jn. xix. 23-24.
60 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
not lying with the hnen cloths, but apart, wrapped up
into one place."^ Are we to believ^e that the disciples
treated these fabrics as things of no account ? All
that had belonged to the Son now belonged to the
Mother, and hence it is extremely likely that these
relics were removed to the Ccenaculujfi, where the
Blessed Virgin was to pass the last days of her
earthly exile.
The Coenaculum lay near the ramparts, to the
south of the Western Mount — a mount often called
the Christian Sion to distinguish it from the old Sion
of Judaism, which was on the opposite hill. Here
the Apostles dwelt in the "upper room,"- with the
door safely bolted "for fear of the Jews."^ Only
occasionally did they leave it to go up to the Temple,
where they were accustomed to worship among their
own countrymen,* or to visit the Holy Sepulchre,
which seems to have been even then an object of
veneration.^ The Scribes and Sadducees detested
them, but the common people heard them gladly, ^
and protected their dwelling-place.
Later on, when blood again began to flow, the
stones which had served to shatter the mortal frame
of the proto-martyr St. Stephen were also collected,
and afterwards kept company with the Crown of
Thorns and the Holy Lance in the Coenaculum.'^ The
1 Jn. XX. 6-7. 2 Acts i. 13.
3 Jn. XX. 19. ''Acts iii. 1.
^' Qui Christiani fidem sequebantur post mortem ejus, monu-
mentum istud magnopere coluerunt. Socrates, Hist. eccl. i. 17;
P.G. Ixvii. 118.
"Acts ii. 5-37; iv. 21.
' Theoder. § 6 ; Antoninus M. 22. According to the Itinerary of
Arculfus the block of stone kept at the Camaculioii was that on
which St. Stephen had been stoned, § 19. Bede, as might be
expected, follows Arculfus. See the texts in Tobler's Itinera.
THE C(ENACULUM 61
plan left by Arculfus shows that St. Stephen's relics
were housed in a kind of out - building to the
west.
Thirty years after these events there was much
commotion at Jerusalem. The Jews were convinced
that the time predicted by Daniel was at hand.
They persisted in denying the divine character of
Jesus, but being under the impression that the
JNIessiah would suddenly come, during a popular
upheaval, to lead them on to victory, they began
to plot the overthrow of Roman supremacy. The
Zealots were closing up their ranks ; the Sicarii, soon
to be headed by John of Gischala, were laying waste
the country, making no distinction between friend
and foe. Rumours of war occasionally reached the
disciples in the Coenaculum ; St. Epiphanius has it
that they were warned to fly by an angel from
heaven.^ But there was really no need of invoking
the Deus ex mackina. The Christians had not for-
gotten the parting words of Christ : " When you
shall see Jerusalem compassed about with an army,
then know that the desolation thereof is at hand.
Then let those who are in Judea flee to the moun-
tains, and those who are in the midst thereof depart
out, and those who are in the country not enter into
it, for these are the days of vengeance." ^ A similar
warning had been given by Peter and Paul not long
before their death (a.d. Q5 or 66), to wit : " That soon
God would send against the Jews a king who would
overcome them, and lay their cities level with the
ground, who by a siege would reduce them by hunger
[The later history of the Crown of Thorns is dealt with in L. de
Combes, De I'inv. a l' exalt, p. \SS ff. — Trans.^
^ De 7nens. et pond. 15 ; P.G. xliii. 262.
2Lk. xxi. 20-22 ; Mt. xxiv. 15-16.
62 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
and thirst to the last extreme. That then they would
take to eating human flesh, would rise one against
the other, that they would be taken captiv e by their
foes, and see their women tortured, their virgins
violated and put out to hire, their children enslaved,
their sucklings dashed on the ground, and everywhere
the reign of the all-destroying fire and iron, and
finally the disappearance of the entire race, carried
a prisoner to foreign climes."^
This awful prediction, which was verified to the
letter in the event, was alluded to by Phlegon, ^ a
pagan writer of the second century, whose works have,
unfortunately, perished. Our only knowledge of this
allusion of his is derived from Origen, who writes as
follows : — " Phlegon indeed, in the thirteenth or four-
teenth book of his Chronicles, ascribes to Christ the
foreknowledge of certain future events, though he
goes astray in putting Peter's name in the place of
that of Jesus, and he bears witness that the prediction
was fulfilled."^ The mistake, however, was not
Phlegon's, but Origen's. Phlegon in mentioning
Peter was merely speaking of the same tradition as
is vouched for by Lactantius.
The Christians had recognised the fulfilment of the
double sign in the passing triumph of the Zealots and
of the Sicarii,* and in the approach of the Roman
army to lay siege to the Holy City.^ They may also
have received a timely intimation of approaching dis-
aster from Peter at Rome, for Eusebius throws out a
hint that they had been warned by information sent
^Lactantius, Divinanim institntiotium, iv. 21 ; P.L. vi. .516-517.
- A freedman of Adrian's.
^ Origen, Contra Celsum, ii. 14, ; P.G. xi. col. 823^1
* Jos. Wars, II. xiii. 3.
^ Jos. Wars, II. xix.
THE CCENACULUM 63
by certain saintly persons.^ Their subsequent con-
duct had been dictated to them beforehand by Christ :
" He that is in the field let him not go back to take
his coat, and woe to them that are with child and
that give suck in those days. But pray that your
flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath." ^ The
Christians of Jerusalem obeyed the injunction. They
were not deceived by the retreat of Cestius. Had
they awaited the approach of Titus they would have
been forced by John of Gischala to live out the siege
in the city.^ They withdrew, headed by their bishop,
Simeon, the relative of Christ, afterwards martyred
under Trajan at the age of one hundred and twenty.
In leaving the Coenaculum they did not forget the
relics of the crucifixion. Seemingly these were shared
out among the brethren — a view which accounts for
the disappearance of certain items.
M. de Champagny^ is probably right in his con-
jecture that the departure of the Christians took place
soon after the retreat of Cestius Gallus — i.e. about the
beginning of the year G7. The Abbe Fouard ^ is of a
different opinion, and states that it occurred during
the siege : " In those days when Simon set his robbers
at John of Gischala, in the midst of these internal
troubles, the watch at the city gates must have been
laxer than was usual. Seemingly the retreat of the
Christians was effected during, or soon after, one
1 Ex oraculo quod viris quibusdam sanctissimis divinitus editum
fuerat. Hist. eccl. iii. 5. [More probably this refers to the angeUc
visitation mentioned by Epiphanius, and alluded to above. —
Trans. ^
2 Mt. xxiv. \S sq. 3 Jos, Wars, V. x.
^ Rome et Jiidee au temps de la chute de Nero7i. Paris : Bray, 1865.
5 Saint Paid et ses dernieres annees, 2nd ed. pp. 357-360. Paris,
1899. [English trans.. The last Years of St. Paul, by Griffith.
Longmans, 1901.]
64 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
of these storms." But this opinion of M. Foiiard's
scarcely agrees with the texts we possess. Had the
Christians fled during the siege their action would
have been entirely natural ; whereas chroniclers seem
agreed on this point at least, that the circumstances
at the time of the flight were not threatening — so
much so that some historians sought to explain the
Christians' departure by a warning given by an angel,
or by men prophetically inspired. Eusebius, too,
explicitly informs us that the flight took place before
hostilities began. ^ St. Athanasius, archbishop of
Alexandria, makes a like statement when, speaking
of the crucifix of Berythus, he says : " Two years
before Titus and Vespasian destroyed the city the
faithful and the disciples of Christ were warned to
flee to Agrippa's kingdom, he being an ally of the
Romans. . . . They then carried away with them the
ikon, with other church furniture." " The direction of
this retreat was not left to the faithful. The injunc-
tion given by certain holy men of God ^ was to the
effect that they should cross the Jordan, and passing
into Decapolis, settle down at Pella (Tabakat Fahil),
a mountain stronghold. *' The situation of this spot,"
writes M. Fouard, " is a splendid one. It stands on
a ledge 1000 feet above the Jordan valley, and it
^ Ante initium belli.
2 Sed biennium antequam Titus et Vespasianus eamdem sub-
verterint urbem, admoniti sunt a spiritu sancto fideles atque
discipuli Christi, ut relicta urbe, ad regnum se transferent Agrippae
regis, quia ipse tunc Agrippa Romanis fcederatus erat. . . . Quo
tempore etiam icona cum caeteris rebus ecclesiasticis deportata, etc.
Athanasius (Spuria), P.O. xxviii. col. 818.
^ Ex oraculo quod viris quibusdam sanctissimis divinitus editum
fuerat ante initium belli ex civitate migrare, et oppidum quoddam
trans Jordanem, Pellam nomine, incolere jussa fuisset. Eusebius,
II. E. iii. 5 ; P.G. xx. col. 222.
THE CCENACULUM 65
is plentifully supplied with water from the torrents
which dash down the ravines round about. The
natural beauty of the spot had already attracted
thither some of Alexander's veterans, who had be-
stowed on it the name of their leader's country,
Macedonia ; the town was a pagan rather than a
Jewish settlement."^ In this charming spot the
refugees found peace, nor were they molested by
the sceptical worshippers of Jupiter.
It is not my business to narrate the siege of Jeru-
salem (a.d. 70), nor to speak of Eleazar and his 2400
Zealots entrenched round the Holy of Holies ; of
John of Gischala and his 6000 robbers who occupied
the other portions of the Temple, nor of Simon, son
of Gioras, who with the priests and most of the
people had taken his stand in the higher city. The
three factions waged war unmercifully one with the
other, and this under the very noses of the enemy.
All we can say is that they one and all died the death
of heroes. But we cannot pass over in silence certain
details of the memorable siege. " His blood be upon
us and upon our children " had been the cry of the
Jewish rabble when it demanded the death of Christ.^
The wish expressed by that cry was fulfilled. The
Roman captives soon learnt to know the meaning
of torture. Josephus states that the hatred and the
anger of the Roman soldiery caused these unhappy
men to experience before dying every sort of torture
which brutal warriors might be expected to inflict.
When the besieged attempted a sortie for the sake
of foraging they were seized, and crucified in front of
the walls. Not less than five hundred wretches
1 Op. cit. p. 359, note 1. For a description of Pella see Guerin,
La Galilee, vol. i. p. 289 sq.
2 Mt. xxvii. 25.
66 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
perished daily after this fashion. As Josephus says :
" They nailed those that they caught to crosses, one
after one way and another after another, by way of
jest ; when their multitude was so great that room
was wanting for the crosses, and crosses wanting for
the bodies." ^ The ghastly forest of crosses, and the
crowds of carrion crows and vultures which hovered
around them, hid from each other the two opposing
armies.
After the siege was over there was left not an
inhabitant in the city. All those who bore weapons
were slain, with the exception of the finest men
among them, who were reserved to grace the victor's
triumph, and serve as meat for the beasts in the
newly erected Coliseum. The other people were
reduced to slavery. A few days before the Passion,
as Jesus was coming out of the Temple, " one of his
disciples saith to him, JMaster, behold what manner
of stones and what buildings are here. And Jesus
answered and said to him, Seest thou all these great
buildings ? There shall not be left a stone upon a
stone that shall not be thrown down." Titus, in
order to prevent any renewed hostilities, commanded
the tenth legion, Frctensis (from Sicily), to destroy the
city to its very foundations. His orders were fulfilled
to the letter, so much so that Josephus writes : " There
was nothing left to make those that came thither
believe it had ever been inhabited." ^ Later on, when
Titus again passed through the city on his way to
Egypt, he found the place a wilderness of ruins, amidst
which his soldiers were busily digging for the treasures
which, as they had been informed by their prisoners,
were buried there during the siege.^ At the foot of
1 Jos. Wars, V. xi. 1. - Mk. xiii. 1-2.
a Wars, VII. i. 1. * Wars, VII. v. 2.
THE CCENACULUM 67
the western hill, on which some buildings still reared
their heads, was to be seen nothing but tottering
walls, from the midst of which there came the
regular sound of the sappers' picks and occasion-
ally a call of the buccinuvi conveying the centurion's
orders.
Chateaubriand is of opinion that the siege of a.d.
70 had no effect on the appearance of the Holy
Places. In a.d. 33 Golgotha was, as we have said,
outside the town. In a.d. 42 Herod Agrippa erected
the third line of ramparts, by which Gareb, Bezetha,
or the new town,^ and consequently the Holy Places
also, were enclosed within the city limits.
On first reconnoitring the city Titus had proposed
to attack it on this side ; "- had he done so Calvary
would have been completely altered by his military
works. In the event, however, the third line of
ramparts was pierced near the Temple, upon which
Titus took up his position, in the camp of the Assyrians
and in the valley of the Cedron. He finally entered
the city by way of the Temple, so that the garden of
Joseph of Arimatha^a suffered nothing from the war.
When the time came for the destruction of the wall
of Ezechias, the soldiers simply overthrew the stones,
and left them piled in heaps. As the cavern con-
taining the crosses lay at the foot of, and underneath,
this wall, it was definitively covered by the broken-up
masonry. Calvary, lying as it did some little distance
from the wall, came out scathless, and the same is
true of the Holy Sepulchre, which lay still farther
back ; the stone which closed its entrance, and
which was found intact in 327, preserved it from
damage.
1 Jos. Ant. XIX. vii. 2.
2 Jos. Wars, V. ii.
68 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
3. THE BURIAL OF THE HOLY PLACES BENEATH
THE FOUNDATIONS OF ^LIA CAPITOLINA
Some few erections were spared by Titus from the
destruction which followed the siege of Jerusalem.
*' Ciesar gave orders that they should . . . leave as
many of the towers standing as were of greatest
eminence — that is, Phasaelus and Hippicus and Mari-
amne — and so much of the wall as enclosed the city
on the west side." ^ Herod's palace, which had not
been hurt by the siege, and the quarter round about
it, was made the camping-ground of the tenth legion.
But the army followers also required lodgings, and
these were found in the vicinity of the Coenaculum^
" The Coenaciilum" writes St. Epiphanius, " was built
in the higher portion of Sion, and was surrounded by
a few other buildings and seven synagogues, which
afterwards served as sheds. Of all these buildings it
alone was still standing at the time of Constantine,
like * a cottage in the vineyard,' to use the expression
of Scripture."^
The Jews, ousted from their city, made Ca?sarea
the centre of their religious life and of their rabbinical
schools, but the Christians, who had retired to Pella,
probably returned home as soon as the war was over.*
There was, at least, no difficulty in their way, for
1 Jos. Wars,\l\. i. 1.
- [It must be borne in mind that the Cccnaculuvi, though outside
the present walls of Jerusalem, lay at that time within them, at
their south-western angle. — Trans.'l
3 De metis, et poTid. 14; P.G. xliii. 259-262.
* Epiph : " Inde post eversam urbem regressi, ingentibus ..."
op. cit. 1.5 ; but a few lines above, when speaking of Adrian's visit,
the same writer says : " Jam enim ex urbe Pella reduces docere
cceperant."
THE BURIAL OF THE HOLY PLACES 69
they had behaved as loyal subjects of Rome in leav-
ing the rebellious city together with the family of
Agrippa, the ally of the Romans and ruler of Pella.
With them they brought back the Crown of Thorns
and the Holy Lance, but the vesture and the winding-
sheet of Christ had already gone astray.
The faithful of Jerusalem being Jews by birth
were outwardly little different from the other
Hebrews. Until the time of Adrian not one of their
bishops had been a Gentile.^ Their bishops practised
those customs of the older Law which had not been
forbidden by the new. Down to a.d. 137 they united
the rite of circumcision with that of baptism.^ Pos-
sibly on account of the confusion of these two sacra-
ments, possibly for some other reason, the Jewish
Church, among all the Christian Churches of the
^Empire, was the only one to be molested by Adrian.
When this emperor made his tour, " the city,"
writes Renan, " had been sitting in desolation for
already fifty-two years, presenting the spectacle of
a heap of huge stones all disjointed and strewn about.
The only habitations to be perceived were a few
wretched buildings on Mount Sion, mostly belonging
to Christians. The site of the Temple had become
a breeding-place for jackals. These ruins gave to
Adrian a thought, which all ruins seem to have
suggested to him — viz. the desire to rebuild and
colonise the city." ^
But the Jews were awaiting from year to year " the
star which was to rise out of Jacob and the sceptre
^ Quos omnes origine Hebraeos fuisse memorant. Eus. H.E.
iv. 5; P.G. XX. 310.
2 Proinde cum episcopi qui ex circumcisione erant per id
tempus defecerint. Eus. ibid.
3 Renan ; L'Eglise chretienne, 4th ed. chap. ii. p. 21 sq.
70 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
which was to spring from Israel."^ Hence the em-
peror considered that it would be wise to destroy
their JNIessianic hopes by wiping out the very name
of Jerusalem. The new city was to be exclusively
Roman, and to bear the name of jElia CapitoUmi, in
memory of its founder, i5^]lius Adrianus, and of Jupiter
Capitolinus.
The Fi^etensis legion, which was still quartered
amidst the ruins of the Temple, forthwith set to
work clearing the ground,^ and by the year 122
numbers of Latin colonists had already made their
appearance. The building and the populating of
^lia was largely left to veterans ; tiles and bricks
bearing the mark of the legion, L.X.F or LP2-X-FR
(Legio X Fretensis), are still frequently found round
about the city.^
At the spot where Herod's Temple had stood the
Romans erected a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus,
in front of which they placed a statue of Adrian, on
the very spot once occupied by the Holy of Holies.
Renan, who is unable to treat a serious subject with-
out sounding a note of good-humoured scepticism,
insinuates that Jupiter was, of all the gods, the
deity who in gravity and decorum came nearest to
Jehovah.*
But the Jews showed little appreciation for an act
which Renan would have us regard as one of extreme
graciousness. The measures decreed by Adrian ^ to
repress the custom of circumcision were made the
pretext of a general revolt. Akiba saw in Bar-
1 Numbers xxiv. 17.
2 Uuruy, Hist, des Romains, vol. v. p. 1 .'50.
^Complex rendus de I'Acadcmie des inscriptions, 1872, p. 1.08;
Zanecchia, La Palestine d'aujourd'Imi, vol. i. p. 188.
* Renan, up. cit. p. 27. " Spartian, Adrian.
THE BURIAL OF THE HOLY PLACES 71
Kokaba the star which was to rise out of Jacob ;
Judea was aroused ; and the danger seemed so great
that the emperor recalled from Britain Julius Severus,
his most trusted general. If the victory achieved
by Titus was the ruin of Jerusalem, that gained by
Severus was the ruin of Judea. Fifty strongholds
and nine hundred villages were razed to the ground.
Bar- Kokaba died fighting, and Akiba was taken, and
torn to pieces with a white-hot iron rake. Those that
survived were drafted off to serve as food for the
beasts in the circus.
This insurrection followed closely on the building
of the new city,^ and its result was that Judea be-
came a solitude,^ in which wolves and hyaenas could
multiply in peace, j^lia Capitolina, so far as the
surviving Jews were concerned, was a closed city.
Only once in the year were they allowed, condition-
ally on the payment of a certain tax, to come and
weep on the ruins of the Temple. During the rising
Bar-Kokaba had found time to kindle a persecution
against the Christians, and had caused all to perish
in torments who refused to blaspheme the name of
Christ.^
Renan writes : * ** iElia with its Roman colony was
strongly guarded. . . . Doubtless, too, the road be-
tween iElia and Cassarea — the real centre of Roman
supremacy — was never in danger. Thus during the
insurrection iElia was never cut off from the rest of
the Empire. Communication with the outer world
1 Dion Cassius, Hist. Ixix. 1 2.
2 Ita ut omnis pene Judaea relicta sit et deserta. Ibid. 14.
^ Justin, Ajiol. i. 31 ; P.G. vi. col. 375 ; Eus. Hist. eccl. iv. 6 ;
P.G. XX. ; Orosius, vii. 13 ; P.L. xxxi. 1093.
4 Renan, ibid. pp. 201, 202. See also Appendix I. (p. 541), where
he discusses the question whether Jerusalem [j5ilia] was besieged
under Adrian.
72 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
was preserved by means of the string of colonies
lying to the north and east of the city, especially by
means of the two strongholds, Nicopolis and Lydda,
where the Romans were firmly entrenched. It is
probable that the revolt on its way northward did
not reach beyond Bether, and that it never threatened
Jerusalem."
At the end of the war the building of the new
city was resumed. There being no longer any Jews
to persecute, Adrian turned his attention to the
Christians, though he did not put them to death
like Bar-Kokaba, the law of the time preventing any
governor from taking the initiative against Christians.*
The faithful held in veneration the Holy Sepulchre
and Calvary ; both these places were accordingly
desecrated and set aside for the worship of the gods
of Rome. The pagans built a twenty-foot wall round
Golgotha, and then filled in the space between with
masonry.^ They thus changed what had been a
valley [the vale between Golgotha and the Tomb]
into a high level platform some 300 feet in
length. On this platform gardens were laid out,
in the midst of which, immediately above the Holy
Sepulchre, stood a statue of Jupiter, whilst above
Calvary there was a marble statue of Venus and a
small temple.^ By so doing the builders actually
frustrated their own purposes, for they thus marked
for future generations the very spots of which they
wished the memory to perish. No idol was placed
^ See Adrian's letter to Minucius Fundanus. Eus. Hist. eccl. iv.
9. Also Trajan's rescript to Pliny. [See also Allard, Ten Lectures
on the Martyrs, London : Kegan Paul, 1907, p, 83 ff. — Trans.'\
2 Eus. Vita Const. ; P.G. xx. 1086.
3 Rufinus, Hist. eccl. i. 7 ; P.L. xxi. 476; Soer, Hist eccl. i. 17;
P.G. Ixvii. 118; Theophanes, Chronogr. (a.d. 317); P.G. cviii.
110/.
THE BURIAL OF THE HOLY PLACES 73
above the disused cistern, in which the crosses now
lay — a fact which tends to prove that the Christians
were ignorant of its position, and that it was the
object of no special veneration. Lastly, that nothing
might be left undone, Bethlehem was transformed
into a grove sacred to Adonis.
St. Jerome writing to St. Paulinus of Nola says ^ :
*' From the time of Adrian to that of Constantine
— i.e. for nearly two hundred years — an idol of Jupiter
was adored on the spot of the Resurrection, and a
marble statue of Venus in the place where the Cross
was raised. The persecutors thought that they
would destroy belief in the Resurrection and in the
Cross by defiling the Holy Places with the worship
of idols. Even our own Bethlehem, the most sacred
spot on earth, of which the prophet said : ' Truth is
come out of that land,' was made into a grove sacred
to Adonis, in which, in the very cave which had heard
the first cry of the God-made-Man, people mourned
the lover of Venus."
The pagans had acted perfidiously ; they wished to
make it appear that the Christians in venerating
Calvary were worshipping Venus. The faithful
soon deserted the unhallowed spot, and shut up their
worship within their own hearts.^ Still they did not
forget the Holy Places. The events of a.d. 137
resulted in great alterations in the Church of Jeru-
salem. The church of the circumcision perished with
the Roman victory, and the faithful being now all of
them Gentiles, at last selected an uncircumcised
bishop,^ Mark. The Latin colonists soon tired of
lEp. Iviii. ; P.L. xxii. 581.
2 Rufinus, Hist. eccl. i. 7.
3 Primus post episcopos ex circumcisione sacerdotium illius
civitatis suscepit Marcus. Eus. H.E, iv. 6 j P.G. xx. 31 6.
74 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
iElia, and went back to their homes, and the Chris-
tians were left in peace until the time of Diocletian.
The miracle of the oils at the Easter of 162, in the
reign of Aurelius, shows that worship was carried
out publicly/ The bishop Alexander was even able
to found a library, well known for its treasures, which
was still existing at the time of Eusebius of Caesarea.^
Here evidently the Church was very different from
the Church of the catacombs.
4. THE EARLY WORSHIP OF THE CROSS. THE
MONOGRAMS
The crosses on which malefactors were put to
death may be classed in three categories.^ There
was the Crux decussata, or cross in the form of the
letter X, also known as St. Andrew's cross. It was
composed of two beams crossed at an acute angle,
like the strokes in the Latin figure for ten ; the ends
of both beams, in this case, were buried in the ground.
Then there was the Crzix commissa, also called pati-
bulata (gallow-shaped), which consisted in a short
beam fastened to the top of a longer beam ; this
cross resembled the letter T. Lastly, there was the
Crux if/wdssa, or capitata f, also known as the Latin
cross. It was formed of a long vertical beam, which
was crossed at two-thirds of the height by another
and shorter beam, which was fastened in the centre.*
1 Eus. H.E. vi. 9. 2 Eus. H.E. vi. 20.
3 F. Martin, Archeologie de la Passion, Paris: Lethielleux,
p. l65 S(]. Justus Lipsius, De cruce. Antwerp, l6l7. Martigny,
Dictionnaire des antiquites chrctiennes (art. Croix). [Encj/cl. Bihl. art.
Cross. — Trans.^
■* [There was yet another cross, the Crux simplex, a single stake or
gigantic spit on which the criminal was impaled. See Cicero, Pro
Rabirio, 4.]
THE EARLY WORSHIP OF THE CROSS 75
As Christ's cross had not been described by the
Evangelists, and as it had been hidden as soon as the
Passion was over, the faithful soon forgot its shape.
It would seem that the cross used was the crux
immissa, as we are told that the soldiers placed the
title over Christ's head.^ Dom Calmet, however, has
invented a new theory : " The prolongation of the
cross, to which was fixed the title or sentence of con-
demnation, was merely a stake bearing a board, on
which the words were graved." In 1856 Garucci
found among the Palatine ruins a caricature, prob-
ably of the second century, drawn on the wall,
and depicting Christ nailed to the cross in the form
of a man with an ass's head. Dom Calmet is right
in his statement that this cross is in the form of
a T, and that from the middle of the transverse
beam there rises a little stake, no doubt designed to
carry the title."
But one document is not sufficient to establish a
thesis. The Latin cross, that form which has pre-
vailed in our crucifixes, has in its favour a long-
standing tradition.^ There are also two other note-
worthy testimonies in its favour. Firstly, that of
Justin Martyr, who was put to death in 168 under
the philosopher Marcus Aurelius, and who sees a
prophecy concerning the cross in the blessing pro-
nounced by Moses on the tribe of Joseph. " To
Joseph also he said. Of the blessing of the Lord be
his land, of the fruits of heaven, and of the dew, and
of the deep that lieth beneath. . . . His beauty as of
1 Mt. xxvii. 37 ; Lk. xxiii. 38.
2 The caricature may be found in Daremberg and Saglio's Diction-
ary (art. Crux). Duruy, Hist, des Romains, vol. vi. p. 208 ; Perate,
Archeologie chretienne, p. 141, etc.
^Aringhi, Roma subterranea. Martin, p. l68.
76 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
the firstling of a bullock, his horns as the horns of
a rhinoceros." ^ St. Justin conceives of this figure as
if the two horns of the bullock and the single horn of
the rhinoceros ^ were all on a single head. He goes on :
*' Nobody can explain nor show us a representation
of these horns of the unicorn elsewhere than in the
cross. As a matter of fact, the cross consists of a
perpendicular beam, of which the higher portion
stands out as a horn, whilst the other beam, which is
fastened to it, projects at either side, as it were two
horns attached to the single horn in the centre." ^
This text seems to agree thoroughly with the form
of the Latin cross. One of its ends being buried in
the ground, only the three horns — i.e. the upper ex-
tremities — of the cross remain in sight. We have,
secondly, the still more important testimony of St.
Irena?us (a.d 140-202), who succeeded St. Pothinus
as bishop of Lyons. His testimony is of even more
value than Justin's, for having been Polycarp's
1 Deuteronomy xxxiii. 13, 17. [From one point of view there
would be a certain advantage in reading *' unicorn " (as in the
Authorised Version) instead of " rhinoceros," the beauty of the
latter beast being a quality which very few are able to discern.
2 Fouard points out that the word "horn" has a symbolic
meaning. In his Fie de J^ms (vol i. p. 29) he thus translates
Zachary's canticle (Luke i. 68-69) : " He has raised up for us out
of the house of David, his child, a might unconquerable [a horn],
our salvation." In note 3 on the same page, following Winer
{Grammatik des N.T. Sprachidioms), he states that Kepas o-wrr/pias
is a genitive with oppositional force. Fillion, Les Saints pAmngiles,
translates the two Greek words in question by "a mighty Saviour."
3 Unicornis enim cornua nemo dicere aut demonstrare possit in
alia re aut figura inveniri, nisi in ea quae crucem exhibet. Rectum
enim unum lignum est, a quo summa pars in cornu attoUitur, cum
adaptatum fuerit aliud lignum et utrinque extrema, veluti cornua
uni adjuncta cornu apparuerint. Justin, Dialogus cum Tryphone
JudcBo, cap. 91 ; ^.G. vi. 69 1 and 694.
THE EAKLY WORSHIP OF THE CROSS 77
disciple, who himself was a hearer of St. John, his
testimony may be taken as the last echo of the
Beloved Disciple. According to St. Iremuus, '* the
cross had five extremities or summits, in length two,
in breadth two, and in its centre also one, to support
the body of the crucified." ^ This is an exact de-
scription of the traditional cross ; nothing is wanting,
not even the Hcdile.
With these texts to rely on we may safely dis-
miss as unnecessary the too recent testimonies of St.
Jerome, of St. Augustine, ^and of St. John Damascene.'
We may, however, allude to the upper portion of the
good thief's cross preserved at Rome in the basilica
of the Holy Cross ; it may not be the relic it pur-
ports to be, but it certainly is a very ancient article.
We may also ask how St. Peter could have been
crucified head downwards had his cross been in the
T form.^ Lastly, in the ruins of Pansa's house at
Pompeii, on a white stucco background, there was
found a cross in relief."' This cross is of the crux im-
missa type. It would seem that this is a Christian
monument, and if so, it is the most ancient known,
for it must have been wrought before a.d. 79.
A certain number, though a minority, of the
Fathers were of opinion that Christ died on the
three-armed gibbet known as the CriitV commissa or
patibulata. Their opinion was founded on the pro-
phecies of Ezechiel. The Jews were to be destroyed
by Divine Justice, but the Lord said to the Cherub :
MreniEUS, Contra Ilcvrcses, lib. ii. cap. iv ; P.G. vii. 794 and
795.
2 Et altitudo ab illo innixo ligno sursum quod eminet. In Psalm
ciii. ; P.L. xxxvii.
^ Dejide orl/wdoxa, iv. II ; P.G. xciv. 1129.
* Cf. R. de Fleury, op. cit. p. 66.
** Mazois, Les ruines de Pompci, vol, ii. p. 84.
78 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
" Go through the midst of the city, through the midst
of Jerusalem, and mark Thau upon the forehead of
the men that sigh and mourn for all the abominations
that are committed in the midst thereof" ^ Now the
sign Thau, of which the Bible here speaks, is un-
doubtedly the sign of the Redemption, and in its
Greek form as a capital it is written like the Latin T.
From this Tertullian hastens to infer that " the Greek
letter Thau and our own Latin T show the true form
of the cross which, according to the prophet, was to
be impressed on our foreheads in the true Jerusalem."^
Paulinus of Nola^ also adopted this alphabetical
answer to the question, and the mistaken view soon
gained a good number of adherents. Its traces are
to be found in the catacombs, notably in that of St.
Callixtus, in the third-century inscription ikeTne.
The size of the fourth letter of this inscription clearly
shows it to have a symbolic value.* All the emblems
dear to the early Christians reappear on a second-
century cornelian '" ; the anchor, the fish, the sheep,
the dove, the ship, the cross, the Good Shepherd,
are huddled together on the small face of the jewel.
Here the cross, in the form of a T, is put to figure
the Passion, and is actually repeated three times : in
the arms of the anchor ; in the cross surmounted by a
dove, which the sheep carries on its back ; and in the
mast of the ship.
St. Paulinus and Tertullian were led astray by their
^ Ezechiel ix. 4.
2 Contra Marcionem, iii. 22 ; P.L. ii. col. 353.
^ Cujus figura per litteram Graecam Tau numero trecentorum
exprimitur. Ep. 24 ad Sev. ; P.L. Ixi. 300. The Greek letter
than does, in fact, stand for 300.
* Northcote and Brownlow, Roma sotterranca, p. 230 ; Perate,
Archeologie chrel. p. 142.
* Northcote and Brownlow. (In Allard's French trans, p. 300.)
THE EARLY WORSHIP OF THE CROSS 79
ignorance of philology, and they it was that provoked
the mistaken designs of the early Christians. They
sought for the form of the sign Thau in Greece and
Rome, never adverting to the fact that Ezechiel,
being a Jewish prophet, wrote and spoke in Hebrew,
and that this being the case, the letters he mentioned
should be looked for in Palestine or in Phoenicea.
Now though it is true that the capital Thau in Greek
resembles the Crux commissa^ this is not at all true
of the Phoenicean Thau. The Phoenicean character
was written in two fashions — x or +^ — i.e. in the
form of St. Andrew's cross, crux decussata, or in that
of the Greek cross, which is only a variation of the
traditional cricx ijiimissa or capitata. Of the two
forms of this letter the latter must have been the
more frequently used, for dealing with this question,
St. Jerome remarks that '* among the ancient Hebrew
letters, of which the Samaritans still make use, the
Thau has the shape of a cross." ^ Hence the mark
Thau, which Ezechiel saw on the foreheads of the elect,
may well be none other than the sign of the traditional
cross with four ends.^
Another objection to the traditional view is more
recent. M. Cobet, a Dutch philologist, who was
followed by several German scholars,* laboured to
prove that the crosses used in executions consisted
^ Daremberg and Saglio^ Dictionary (art. Alphabetum).
" Antiquis Hebraeorum litteris quibus usque hodie Samaritae
utuntur, extrema Tau crucis habet similitudinem. In Ezech. cap.
ix.; P.L. XXV. See the note to col, 88.
3 Arch, de la Pass. pp. l66-l67.
* The bibliography of the question is thus given by Martin (op.
cit. p. 283) : Cobet, hi Chariton in the Zeitschrift Mnemosyne, Leyden,
viii. 275; Marquardt, Rom. Alterth'iim. VI. i. 194; Kipping, De
Cruce, p. 74 ; Jahn, Archdologie, II. i. 365 ; Kraus, Beitrdge sur
Trierschen Archdologie, Treves, 1868, p. 64.
80 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
of two pieces only, and this in order to facilitate the
then very frequent crucifixions — firstly, of an upright
beam permanently fixed in the ground, this portion
serving for all crucifixions ; secondly, of a movable
cross-beam, the crucile, which was made anew for
each execution. The arms of the condemned were
fixed beforehand to the two ends of the cross-beam,
and he was then marched off to the place of execu-
tion ; here the cross-beam was lifted into a groove in
the upright beam. A cross formed on this system
would be in the shape of the letter T.
But this hypothesis, invented two thousand years
after the event it has to explain, is anything but
probable. It has not even been proved^ that at
Rome the crux patibulata was exclusively used, and
a fortiori it would be more difficult to prove that the
Roman custom, if indeed it be such, was followed in
Jerusalem.
At Rome slaves only were crucified, and they
suffered on the Sestertium outside the Esquiline Gate^
and were executed by their own special executioner.^
Here the gibbets were so numerous as to constitute
a regular forest, their great number being the result
of the bodies being left exposed until they had been
devoured by the birds and beasts of prey.* In such
a place it is conceivable that from motives of ex-
pediency and economy the uprights were fixed and
permanent, and that the cross-beams only were re-
newed. But Jerusalem was the capital of a province
1 Martin names the following author as having already confuted
this view : — Zestermann, Die Bildliche Darstellung des Kreuzes nnd
der Kreuzigung Jem Christi in the Programm der Thomasschule.
Leipsig, 1867.
2 Tacitus, Annals, ii. 32.
3 Called the camifex.
* Loiseleur, Des peines, p. 91.
THE EARLY WORSHIP OF THE CROSS 81
in which slavery as commonly understood was un-
known, and where the punishment in vogue was not
crucifixion, but stoning. Here crucifixion, whether it
was inflicted by the caprice of the governor on people
of free condition, or, as in the case of Christ, in
order to ratify a sentence already passed by the
Sanhedrim, was an unusual punishment. Moreover,
even in the last case, though the sentence was carried
out by legionaries, Jewish usage again came to the
fore when once death had ensued. Now it will
be recollected that according to the Sanhedrim the
crucified was never to be hanged on a tree holding
to the ground by its roots, nor consequently on a
beam permanently fixed in position, because the
instrument of death was to be buried together with
the body on the night following the execution.^
Moreover, the terms used by the Evangelists tell
against the hypothesis just mentioned. Matthew
says ' : " And going out they found a man of Cyrene,
named Simon ; him they forced to take up the cross of
Jesus." Similar words are used by Mark,^ and Luke,*
and John also agrees in this, that the cross was carried.^
Now whoever uses the word cross means the cross
entire.'^ A criicUe is no more a cross than a flag-
staff, is a flag. What Christ carried was the whole
cross, and it was the cross whole and entire that was
buried on Good Friday. It was a crux immissa — i.e.
with four extremities — and the crucifix known to
^ See above, p. 44. 2 yn xxvii. 32.
3 Mk. XV, 21. * Lk. xxiii. 26.
^ Jn. xix. 17.
6 [In modern languages, especially in English, owing to the
influence of ecclesiastical terms, this may not be quite true. We
have expressions in which " cross " signifies properly the transverse —
e.g. "cross-beam" — or the adverb "across." But we must bear in
mind that this use of the word is comparatively modern. — Trans. ^
F
82 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
every Catholic is a form which agrees thoroughly
with the data of archaeology.
It is not difficult to account for the mistaken views
which at an early date prevailed among the Christians.
The Christians had to be careful even in the symbols
of which they made use. The pagans not only
tortured them, they also made use of calumny. One
great man, whose prejudice led him astray whenever
he ventured to discuss the Christians — Tacitus — was
early in the field to accuse them of infamous practices.^
Tertullian specifies some of the atrocities with which
the Christians were credited. " It is said that in our
mysteries we slay and eat a child, and that when this
horrid meal is over we proceed to treat abusively our
own sisters and mothers as soon as the dogs which
serve us in our iniquities have thrown down and
extinguished the torches, and by delivering us from
light have also freed us from shame." -
It can scarcely be maintained that Tacitus was in
good faith when he wrote of the Jews that during
their journey through the wilderness, when reduced
by thirst, they discovered water by following a herd of
wild asses, and that in memory of this event they
placed an image of the ass in their most holy place.^
But this calumny which had served for the Jews was
soon made to serve for Christians also. At the end
of the second or beginning of the third century a
caricature of Jesus bearing the legend " The God of
the Christians, the donkey tribe," was hawked about :
DEUS CIIRISTIANORUM ONOKOITHS.
1 Sed per urbem etiam, quo cuncta undique atrocia aut pudenda
confluunt celebranturque. Annals, xv. 44.
2 Apologeticus, vii. ; P.L. i. .307.
3 Effigiera animalis quo monstrante, errorem sitimque depulerant
penetrali sacravere. Hisl. v. 3, 4.
THE EARLY WORSHIP OF THE CROSS 83
" On it Christ is shown," writes Tertullian,^ "decor-
ated with a donkey's ears and hoofs, holding a book in
His hand, and dressed in a toga. We laughed at the
inscription and the figure, and so did others (the
Pagans), though it would have been more in accord-
ance with their practices had they bent the knee to
the monster, who after all was quite good enough to
be worshipped by people who do not scruple to adore
gods with a lion's or a dog's head, or with the horns of a
goat or ram, gods who are partly goats and partly ser-
pents, and who carry wings on their back orontheirfeet."^
Such being some of the calumnies to which the
Christians were exposed, it is not to be wondered at
if they endeavoured to screen from the vulgar certain
of their tenets, which otherwise would only have given
rise to new blasphemies. Through considerations of
prudence the Church abstained from depicting the
cross even in the catacombs, so much so that de
Rossi found only one instance of the use of the Greek
cross, the cross in question being engraved on a
memorial stone in the crypt of Lucina beneath the
inscription Rufma rest in peace.^
Nevertheless, the Christians were fond of represent-
ing the cross under various transparent disguises.
They saw a symbol of the cross in the four points of
the compass,* in the man who prays with arms out-
^ Apol. xvi. ; P.L. i. 366-374.
2 Archaeologists will find in the Luynes collection in the French
National Museum an image in baked clay which corresponds with
Tertullian's description, save that in addition the mannikin wears a
mitre. This piece of work hails from Syria. See the picture in
Duruy, Hist, dcs Romains, vol. v. p. 795.
•^ Roma Soli, vol. ii. pi. 18. Duruy, vol. vii. p. 39, note 1. North-
cote and Brownlow (in the French trans.), p. 298.
* Ipsa species crucis quid est nisi forma quadrata mundi .'' Jerome,
In Marcum, xv. ; P.L. xxx. 638.
84 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
stretched,^ in the swimmer,^ in the stock which crosses
the shank of the anchor, in the yard which crosses the
mast,^ in the bird flying heavenward with outstretched
wings, making in its flight a noise reminding one of a
whispered prayer/ The shaft of a cart, the crutched
handle of a spade ^ or the symbolic fish stuck on a
trident, all served to illustrate the cross. The
standards of the Roman regiments consisted in a
pole provided with a cross-bar, on which hung a
little red banner called the vexillum. At the top of
the pole was the eagle with outstretched wings, called
the signum. It would seem that the Christians actu-
ally saw in these idols of the legionaries reproductions
of the crux ixitibidata, or T-shaped cross. Thus
Tertullian exclaims : " By adoring the Victories you
adore the crosses which are in the midst of your
trophies. What would the legions not do for their
standards ? They even swear by these sacred ' signs,'
which they consider as deities, more bountiful than all
the other gods together. Those images with which
you crown your standards, the banners with which you
adorn them, are so many ornaments with which you de-
corate the Cross." ^
Not only had the Christians to fear pagan calumny,
there was also the danger of a misunderstanding aris-
ing. The Romans worshipped material gods — gods
^ Si statueris hominem manibus expansis, imaginem crucis feceris.
Tert. Ad naliones ; P.L. i. col, 578.
2 Homo natans per aquas . . . forma crucis vehitur. Jerome, In
Marc. XV.
' See above, p. 78.
* Tert. dc oratione, 29; P.L. i. 11 96.
^ Justus Lipsius, dc Cruce. See plate on p. 42 (1870 edition).
" Apolog. xvi. ; P.L. i. col. 366-368. Minutius Felix upholds the
same view in Octavius, xxix. : Nam et signa ipsa et cantabra et vexilla
castrorum, quid aliud quam inauratx cruces sunt et ornatae ^
THE EARLY WORSHIP OF THE CROSS 85
made of wood and metal. Now had the faithful
been allowed to worship the image of a cross, how
would it have been possible to convince the idolators
that the worship was not bestowed on the image, but
upon the crucified which the image symbolised ?
Tertullian is in such fear of an occasion being
furnished for such a confusion that he seems to
forbid altogether the use of crosses by Christians.^
He writes as follows : — " With regard to those who
imagine that we worship the cross, they share in our
idolatry when they venerate a piece of wood ; for what
difference does it make that the form be other if the
matter is the same, and if this matter be considered
as the body of a god ? And again, what difference is
there between a cross and the statue of the Athenian
Pallas, or of Ceres of Phares, which is nothing but a
huge shapeless hulk ? Every upright piece of wood
stands for a portion of the cross." ^
We may also believe that yet another feeling came
in to hinder the Christians from making figures of the
Cross. The Church sprang originally from the Syna-
gogue, and the faithful of the earliest period remained
steadfast in observing the customs of the Jews. The
Lord had said to Moses : " Thou shalt not make to
thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of anything
that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor
of those things that are in the waters under the earth.
Thou shalt not adore them nor serve them."^ Was
it lawful to shape or " grave " a cross, or to venerate,
or kneel before, it ? Had the old Law been abrogated
by the new, and if so, to what extent ? These were
1 Apolog. ; P.L. i. 366.
2 [The passage which follows is probably corrupt, and its meaning
is anything but evident.]
3 Exodus XX. 4, 5.
86 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
not questions to be answered ofF-hand ; and the
Christians' dislike for anything savouring ever so
little of idolatry is nowhere better seen than in the
Octavms of Minutius Felix. " So far as crosses are
concerned, we neither worship nor desire them, whereas
you who make wooden gods may sometimes adore as
a part of your gods the wood which has served for
making crosses." ^ Dom Le Nourry, one of the Bene-
dictine editors of the Ocfavius, pleads attenuating
circumstances on behalf of his author. According to
him Minutius Felix would not have spoken as he did
had he had before him a portion of the True Cross,
which was as yet hidden. He also strives to explain
away the force of the words ci'uces . . . ncc optaitnis,
which betakes as meaning: "We do not seek crucifixion,
but if we are crucified we suffer cheerfully." ^' But this
explanation seems to us ingenious rather than true.
Minutius Felix used expressions which are not in
agreement with the present practice of the Church,
but which are quite pardonable in an early Christian
writer, whose main object was to show how idealistic
our worship really is.
But in other directions the Christians considered
themselves more free. The Jews, in spite of their
rigorism, did not consider that the prohibition of
graven images extended to writing. They were
accustomed to tie against their forehead and on their
left arm little lockets containing phylacteries — i.e.
strips of parchment on which were written favourite
extracts from their sacred Scriptures. The Christians
followed them in making use of the pen for expressing
1 Cruces etiam nee colimus nee optamus. Vos plane qui ligneos
deos eonsecratis, cruees ligneas, ut deorum vestroruin partes forsitan
adoratis. Octavius, xxix. ; P.L. iii. col. 332.
2 P.L. iii. col. 532.
THE EARLY WORSHIP OF THE CROSS 87
externally the signs of their faith. For this purpose
they used monograms. One form, which seems to
have been a general favourite, was the combination
of the two Greek letters X and P, giving the mono-
gram J. The Abbe Martigny thus sums up its
history ^ : " St. Ephrem, who lived in the fourth
century, bears witness that this form of the mono-
gram was much used in the East. It also seems to
have been the only form known in Egypt." He adds
that the faithful adopted this sign from the pagans,
doubtless because, on the one hand, it contained the
first letters of Christ's name, and also because, being
a pagan sign, it would not serve to betray the
Christians.
However, M. Martigny seems to have made a
slight mistake in the above. The early Christians
imitated this pagan monogram, but, in the first
instance at least, they did not exactly copy it.
They sought a sign which should be peculiar to
themselves, and they found it by combining the letters
X and I. Consequently in their monogram we find
I in the place of P. The X was kept because it
showed the form of the crux decussata or St. Andrew's
cross. Thus in the monogram ]|l, Christ's two Greek
initials were expressed (IH20YC XPI2TOC). The
most ancient instance of this monogram occurs on a
tombstone belonging to a.d. 268 or 279.^
The so-called monogram of Constantine is the
second to appear, but in spite of the name by which
it is known, it goes far back ; in fact, it is merely a
restoration of the old pagan form mentioned by St.
Ephrem. As we said, it is composed of the Greek
letters X and P, forming J, a monogram which gives
^ Diet, des antiq. chret. (art. Monogramme du Christ), p. 476.
2 Northcote and Brownlow (in the French trans., p. 299).
88 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
the first two letters of the word Christ (XPI2T0C).
This monogram is usually found between the first
and last characters of the Greek alphabet, A and 0,
the alpha and omega which symbolise the beginning
and end of all things.
After having served on monuments, this monogram
entered the home, and soon became an equivalent of
the modern scapular. " There were pious people,"
writes Mgr. Gerbet, " who wore it round their necks. ^
Medals which have been worn are necessarily pierced
by a hole, through which the string or chain may be
passed. Such medals have been found ; that men-
tioned by Aringhi " is made of brass, and bears Christ's
monogram.^ Though it is circular in shape, the top
is shown by the head of the letter P. It is at this
spot that the medal is pierced. It was found in a
martyr's tomb, and appears to belong to an age not
later than that of Diocletian."
But though the monogram was in use at the end
of the third century, this is not true of the cross,
which was not to be publicly represented until after
the finding of the True Cross. How the change came
about we cannot say, nor at what date the cross began
to appear on the altars and on the front of the churches.
According to the popular view no one had any longer
any thought of the cross, when suddenly by a miracle
it made its appearance in the skies before the startled
eyes of Constantine and his army. As soon as its
shape was known Constantine, moved by grace, pro-
cured to be made a standard, called the Labarum,
which was in the form of the cross, and which hence-
forth was carried in front of the legions. With the
^ Esquisse de Rome chritienne, vol. ii. p. 21 6,
2 Roma subl. l)k. vi. cap. 23, vol. ii. p. 567.
2 i.e. the so-called monogram of Constantine.
THE EARLY WORSHIP OF THE CROSS 89
help of Providence he gained his victory, and assumed
the purple. In the meantime Helena, the mother of
Constantine, looking on the vision as a command to
restore the True Cross to light, and moved by divers
other divine admonitions, hastened to Jerusalem, had
a deep hole dug into the ground, and there had the
happiness of finding the long-forgotten Cross of Christ.
St. Helena's life is so closely bound up with the
worship of the cross that it will be necessary to cast
a glance at her history. We must clear away what
is legendary, and bring to light what is true among
the many interesting details which form, as it were,
the preface to the Finding of the Cross.
CHAPTER III
ST. HELENA. THE LABARUM
1. THE EARLIER PORTION OP^ HELEN a's LIFE
St. Helena was born in 248, the year in which Rome
kept the thousandth anniversary of its foundation.
Three cities fight for the glory of having furnished
her her birthplace.^ York and Colchester base their
claim on an obscure and dubious passage of a pane-
gyric preached before Constantine and JNlaximian by
an unknown orator ^ ; Treves relies on the anything
but reliable document which does service as the title
of the Holy Coat ; in point of fact, St. Helena was
born at Drepane, a little seaport near Nicomedia in
Bithynia, lying at the entrance of the Astacinus Gulf
opposite Byzantium. Procopius, writing in the fifth
century, states that "in Bithynia there is a town
which bears the name of Helena, the mother of the
Emperor Constantine. It is said that Helena was
born there at a time when the place was but a village,
and that Constantine, in memory of his mother's child-
hood, raised it to the rank of a city."^ Procopius
indeed forgets to name the city in question ; but
this point is cleared up by St. Jerome, who says :
" Constantine, when restoring Drepane, a city of
Bithynia, in honour of the martyr Lucian, who was
1 Seethe texts in Ada SS. 18th August. De S. Helena vidua
imperalrice.
'^ Incerti panegyr. ; P.L. viii. This view lias been ably refuted by
Toupin, Hist, de S. Heli-ne, p. 309.
3 Procopius, de Mdi/iciis, v. 2.
90
THE EARLIER LIFE OF HELENA 91
buried there, gave it his mother's name, and called it
Helenopolis,"^ Cassiodorus confirms the testimony
of Procopius and St. Jerome.^
The child received the names of Flavia, Julia,
Helena.^ We can afford to smile when Baronius*
and certain English authors make her out to be a
descendant of the British king Coel,^ or when Valois
states that she belonged to the gens Julia founded
by iEneas.*^ On the contrary, she seems to have been
of humble stock ; in fact, to have been the daughter
of an innkeeper at Drepane.^ St. Ambrose, who
was well acquainted with the imperial family, thrice
describes the empress thus : " The good hostess,
stabularia, who at such great pain seeks the stable of
the Lord. The good hostess, who preferred to be
despised that she might gain Christ. That is why
God drew her from her low position and raised her
to the empire."^
At the age of twenty-five she was still looking
after her father's business.^ We still have some
knowledge of her appearance about this period. As a
frontispiece to his work, M. Lucot ^° gives an illustra-
tion of a splendid medal, which is now in the British
Museum. Here Helena, though already Augusta^ is
represented with the features of a woman about thirty
^ Jerome, Chronicon, an. 330 ; P.L. xxvii. col. 675.
^ Cassiod. Historia, ii. 18 ; P.L. Ixix. col. 936.
^ According to the bronze coins studied by de Witte. Revue
numismatique, 1843, p. 101.
* Annals, anno 306.
■'' Acta SS. loc. cit.
^ Duruy, Hist, des Romains, vol. i. p. 60.
7 Ambrose, De obitu Theodosii; P.L. xvi. col. 1399.
8 Loc. cit.
^ Nicephorus Callistus, H.E. viii. ; P.G. cxlvi. 11; Ambrose,
loc. cit.
10 Sainte Helene mere de I'empereur Constantin, Paris: Plon, 1873.
92 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
years old. This might lead one to suppose that the
head is a fancy one, but when we note the curious
resemblance between her features as shown here, and
those of Constantine as shown in his statues and
medals, we can see that the artist confined himself
to making his model appear younger than she was.
The profile belongs to a very pure Greek type.
The head, which is encircled by a band, is elegant,
intelligent, and refined. In her eyes we see firmness,
quietude, and energy. M. Lucot especially admires
her thin, tightened lips, which show that she was
accustomed to make herself obeyed. The obverse
depicts Helena with an infant on her left arm, whilst
with her right hand she is giving a fruit to a naked
boy.^ Though rather short in stature, she appears
well built. Looking at her portrait we can under-
stand that a woman of such a stamp, though doubt-
less flattered and sought after by men, cared but
little for the vain pleasures commonly desired by
her sex.
The saint's chaste romance began in 273. Helena
was twenty-five when there came to Drepane a young
commanding officer, who was two years her junior,
Constantius, surnamed Chlorus — i.e. the pale-faced.^
Constantius was born in 250, and was the son of the
Dardanian Eutropius and of Claudia, niece of the
Emperor Claudius II., the Gothic. He was made
an officer of the praetorian guards, and rapidly rose
to a higher rank. When he came to Drepane he had
just finished a war against Zenobia, queen of Palmyra.
He was known to be somewhat fastidious, but well
educated, and amiable in his ways.^ His small fortune
1 The superscription is Pietas Augusta.
2 "Yellow" would be a more correct, if less elegant, rendering
of Chlorus. ^ Duruy, vol. vi. p. 543.
THE EARLIER LIFE OF HELENA 93
had earned him the nickname of the Pauper.^ At a
time when Hcence reigned everywhere supreme, his
chastity was considered so remarkable that the un-
known author of the panegyric, read before Constantine
and Maximian, set him up as an example on which it
would not be possible to improve.^ His understanding
was in no way overclouded by passions, but hung in
that intermediate region between naturalism and
faith which has been called spiritualism. Eusebius of
Cfesarea states that " he admitted the existence of one
sole God, and loathed the impiety of those who wor-
shipped idols." ^ Had he espoused a believer he would
probably have become a convert to Christianity.
Nicephorus Callistus states that Constantius Chlorus
came to Drepane at the head of a brilliant embassy ;
that Diocletian had sent him to make a treaty of
peace with the barbarians of anterior Asia ; * that
both Helena and her father were as dazzled by the
splendour of his retinue as Constantius by the beauty
of Helena ; that Constantius assured the father of
his safety, gave the young woman an embroidered
robe edged with the imperial purple, and that
immediately the girl was his.^
With a little criticism Nicephorus, a Byzantine
monk of the fourteenth century, might have saved
himself from writing such a farrago of nonsense as the
above. In 273 Aurelian, not Diocletian, was emperor.
Helena was then a woman, not a girl, as she is here
represented. Constantius was an officer, not a diplo-
matist, and his business was to fight, not to make
1 A. de Broglie, Constmitin, vol. i. p. 188, This writer gives as
his references Claud, cap. iii. ; — Suidas, voce Travirep.
2 Incerti panegyricus ', P.L. viii, 6lOff.
^ Eus. de Vita Constantini, i. 17 ; P.G. xx. 933.
* Nic. Cal. H.E. viii. 2; P.G. cxlvi. 11.
' Ibid.
94 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
treaties. In other words, we must strike out from
the above account the embassy, the retinue, and
consequently also the mutual surprise of the parties ;
in other words, the whole account may be dismissed
as worthless.
Another monk, Berengosus, tells us that Helena
and Constantius first met at the inn. With charming
naivete he adds : " Constantius loved the blessed
virgin Helena on account of her very great beauty." ^
But it is scarcely probable that the two, whose
prudence and high-mindedness we know, should have
thus struck up their acquaintance.
We may now state our own hypothesis, taking
into account all the data we have at our disposal :
the campaign of 273, Constantius staying at a poor
inn, his chastity, and the beauty and dignity of the
woman. Drepane, in a sense, might be said to lie
on the road from Palmyra to Rome, though really its
only attraction is that of any little seaside bathing
resort. It may be assumed that Constantius, on his
way back from the expedition against Zenobia, came
to the inn at Drepane to restore his health, which had
suffered either from wounds or from the fatigues of
the journey. Here he felt the charm of the bodily
beauty and of the pure soul of Helena. Considering
that he could never be happy apart from this young
woman he, like any man of honour, offered the poor
provincial girl his hand and a share in the fortune to
which, as an emperor's nephew, he had a claim.
We now reach a certain hotly contested question.
Roman matrimonial custom sanctioned two usages :
there was, of course, the jiistcc nnptuc or real legal
marriage ; but besides this there was an inferior state,
the marriage according to the natural law, then
^ Berengosus, De Inventione Crucis, iii. 1 ; P.L. clx. 965.
THE EARLIER LIFE OF HELENA 95
commonly called concubinage, but in reality cor-
responding with that we now term a morganatic
marriage ; marriage relations between unmarried folk
went by the name of stupruni. A woman united to
a man by the second species of union was described
as concubina, arnica, convictrix ; she did not bear the
name of matron, nor did she share her husband's titles ;
he was hers only quoad mensam et tliorum} There
was no settlement to protect the fortune of the
woman, nor was there any written agreement. The
child of such a union, nothus, was a natural child, and
though his father was known, he had no right of
succession. This concubinage was recognised and
tolerated by the law, and implied no slur on a woman's
character."^
The law of the Twelve Tables forbade marriage
between patricians and plebeians. This prohibition
had indeed fallen by the Canuleia enactment ; but
public feeling was stronger than the letter of the law,
and allowed of no infringements. Hence concubinage
was popular. It was in the interests of plebeian women
that they should accept this modus vivendi, which
allowed of their being united with the noblemen they
loved.
Had Roman law forbidden divorce, then indeed
between the state of legal marriage and concubinage
there would have been a vast difference ; but we must
remember that separation of the spouses could occur
in both states, and that the only distinction made
between the two forms of union was that, whilst a
matron could only be dismissed by the presentation
of the Uhellum repudii, duly registered by the public
^ Troplong, Injluences de christianisme sur le droit romain, pp. 238-
240.
"^ Paul, i, 144. De verb, signific.
96 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
notary, a simple concubine could be dismissed with-
out any such formality.
As a matter of fact, legal concubinage was a better
institution than its name, which now bears an odious
meaning, would imply ; and the Church, who scorned
legal subtleties, treated concubinage as real marriage
when cases of conscience arose. " He who has no
wife but a concubine whom he treats as a wife shall
not be excluded from communion," so runs a canon
enacted by the Council of Toledo, a.d. 400,^ and re-
enacted by the Councils of Mainz (851) and of Tibur
(895).-
It was to this inferior sort of union that Helena
resigned herself.^ Zosimus states that " Constantine
was born of a woman of humble estate who had not
been j oined in wedlock with the Emperor Constantius. " *
He says again of Constantine that " he was brought
into the world by a ivoman, not by a matron."^
M. Toupin ^ waxes wroth with what he terms an
infamous insinuation concocted by a pagan ; but we
must bear in mind that Zosimus wrote in the fifth
century, and that in his eyes the inferior married
state was not immoral ; moreover, he does no more
than repeat what other good chroniclers had said
before. Eusebius, for instance, who died in 338, and
^ Council of Toledo, canon xviii. Cp. Capilulare Pippini, an. 793,
cap .34 (Baluze, i. 540); Capitulariiim, lib. vii. 59; Bal. i. 1039-
Concubinage in the Theodosian Code is described as cotijugium
imvqualc ; in the Justinian Code as licita cojtsuefiido. [See a curious
instance in AUard, Te7i Lectures on the Martyrs, London : Kegan
Paul, 1907, p. 191 ff.— Trans.']
- Duruy, op. cif. vol. vi. p. 544, note.
2 De Broglie, Constantin, vol. i. p. 189, note 1.
* Zosimus, Hist, ii, 8.
^Zosimus, Hist. ii. 9.
^ Hist, de sainte Helcne, note c, p. 319.
THE EARLIER LIFE OF HELENA 97
was a contemporary, in fact a friend, of the emperor,
states frankly that " Constantine was brought forth
by the concubine Helena." ^ Eutropius, a former
secretary of Constantine, speaks likewise of " Con-
stantine, whom Constantius had begotten in an inferior
union." ^ St. Ambrose, with greater delicacy, says that
St. Helena "still kept the inn when she first had
relations with Constantius, her master.''' ^ The Bishop
of Milan avoids making use of the words " marriage "
and "husband," for which reason the Benedictine
fathers, who edited his works, came to the decision
that Helena and Constantius were not joined in
lawful wedlock.* Lastly, the Alexandrian Chronicle
describes Constantine as a natural child.
In spite of these decisive texts the Bollandists and
M. Toupin will have it that there was a legal marriage.
They point to the words used by Julian the Apostate
(in the Acts of the martyr Artemius) : " We it was
that should have ascended the throne. My father
was the son of Constantius Chlorus and Theodora,
whereas Constantine was the child of a previous
marriage with Helena, a woman of low condition,
scarcely more than a harlot."^ But this text goes
against those who use it, for Julian claims his right
of succession against the descendants of his grand-
father's first marriage. In other words, he implicitly
states that the children of this first marriage had no
legal standing, because it was not a marriage at all
in the legal sense.
1 Constantinus ex concubina Helena procreatus. Quoted in
Acta SS. 18th August. De S. Helena.
2 Brev. Hist. Rom. x. 2.
3 Stabulariam banc primo fuisse asserunt sic cognitam Constantio
seniori. De Obitu Theodosii; P.L. xvi. 1399-
* Op. S. Ambrosii, vol. ii. p. 1210.
5 Vix non scorto. Acta SS. 20th October. De S. Artemio Martyre.
08 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
Those who defend Helena's marriage also bring
forward a panegyric in which Eumenius speaks of
Constantine as "his father's lawful successor,"^ and
an inscription on a monument at Naples, which is
dedicated to " Our right pious and most clement
sovereign Helena, Augusta . . . spouse of the divine
Constantius."^
But such pieces of official adulation are worthless
for our purpose. Who would have been so im-
pertinent as to parade before the world the private
scandals of the imperial family, or have the boldness
to inscribe them on a public monument, or to speak
of them in a panegyric ?
On the authority of the preface to the Arabic
canons of the Nicene Council, some historians ^ have
seen fit to state of Helena that she was born a
Christian. Theodoretus* likewise praises her for
having worshipped God all her life ; but Eusebius,
who knew the emperor so well, ascribes to Con-
stantine the conversion of his mother in her old age.^
The Bollandists on this point agree with Eusebius.
Had Helena been a Christian in 273 she would not
have consented to being united with Constantius
in the inferior married state,*^ nor would she have
allowed her children to be brought up as pagans.
1 Panegi/ricus ; P.L. viii. 625.
2 Gruterus, Inscriptiones atitiqiice, p. 1086. It may also be found
in the Acta SS. 18th August.
^ Darras, Hist, gcncrale de VEglise, vol. ix. p. 1 ; Toupin, op. cit.
p. 311.
^H.EA.ll; P.G. Ixxxii. 957.
^ Eus. de Vita Constantini, iii. ; P.G. xx. 1108.
" [This, as it stands, is incorrect. See Allard, Ten Lectures on the
Mar(yr^ (English trans,), p. 191 ff. She would, however, have been
hindered from marrying Constantius by the law then in force
against mixed marriages.]
THE EARLIER LIFE OF HELENA 99
Had she been a Christian she would, almost certainly,
have effected the conversion of Constantius, having
regard to the sterling qualities of the latter. No,
the probabilities stand for the contrary supposition.
In all likelihood it was Constantius who began in her
the work which finally led to her conversion. From
him she may have learnt that the gods of her fathers
only stood for symbols of nature, and sometimes too
of human vices ; that the real Ruler of the world
was an invisible Spirit, which pervades the whole
universe. Little by little, in this wise, we can con-
ceive of her being led to know that Unknown God
whom St. Paul had preached at Athens.
Constantius seems to have taken Helena with him
to Naissus in Dardania or Troad, where was his family
seat, and there Constantine was born on 18th February
274.^ Possibly he was not with the young woman
at the time of her confinement,^ for we find him in
that same year leading the Roman armies to their
victory at Windisch over the AUemani, who had
invaded the empire and pushed their way as far as
Umbria. For eighteen years he lived faithful to the
feelings of a husband and a father. He alone re-
mained true to his love, whilst all around him legally
contracted patrician marriages were being dissolved.
He had become known as one of Rome's best
generals ; and had his character been less noble he
would certainly have set about contracting a marriage
in law with some patrician heiress ; but such was his
stamp of mind that he preferred to all others the
poor girl he had first loved, and in whose society
alone he found happiness. Diocletian had given him
1 De Broglie, Constantin, vol, i. p. 188.
2 See in Nicephor. Callist. H.E. viii. 2, the tale he tells of
a wonder which attended Constantine's conception.
100 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
orders to repel the Sarmatians, who were laying
waste the Chersonesus. He carried out these in-
structions, and had just returned as a conqueror to
his home, when there came an imperial message, which,
with all its munificence, spelt the ruin of the homely
life which he had lived so long.
2. THE YOUTH OF CONSTANTINE
Diodes, the son of a former slave, and himself a
mere adventurer, but for all that a man of great
power of will, when he had assumed the purple under
the name of Diocletian understood plainly that he
would not be able to govern all by himself the great
Roman world. Accordingly (1st May 286), he
associated to himself Maximian, another soldier, such
as he had been ; but to show that he intended being
the predominant partner, and by way of proving his
devotion to Jupiter, he took the name of Jovian,
whilst to Maximian he gave that of Hercules. In
the event, the burden of the empire proved too great
even for two, and the sovereigns were later on driven
to establish what has since been called the tetrachy.
They assumed the title of Augusti, Diodes keeping
for himself the East, and settling at Nicomedia ;
Maximian Hercules taking charge of the West, with
Milan as his headquarters ; but each one chose an
associate as his lieutenant, the latter bearing the title
of Caesar, and possessing the right of succeeding the
Augustus to whom he acted as subordinate. Heredi-
tary succession was abolished, and Rome having be-
come too hot for its rulers, remained the capital of
the empire only in name. The new constitution was
proclaimed on 1st March 292. Diodes appointed
Galerius as Caesar, whilst Constantius Chlorus was
THE YOUTH OF CONSTANTINE 101
notified of his nomination as Ctesar to Maximian ;
he was to take up his residence at Treves, and to see
to the administration of Gaul and Great Britain.
His post was, therefore, the frontier post, the place of
danger and of honour, for it was the northern frontiers
particularly that were threatened by the rising-
tide of the barbarians issuing from the depths of
Germany.
But at this period political promotions required
certain precautionary measures, which it was usual
to disguise under the pretence of friendship. Diodes,
knowing the great love of Constantius for his son,
gave out that he himself would undertake the boy's
education ; in other words, that he intended keeping
the youngster as a hostage at Nicomedia. Nor was
this Diocletian's only measure : he also insisted that
the two Ca3sars should dismiss their wives, in order
that Galerius might espouse his (Diocletian's) daughter
Valeria, and that Constantius Chlorus might marry
Flavia Maxima Theodora, Maximian's daughter-in-
law.^ His hope was that the Caesars by thus becoming
sons-in-law to the Augusti would respect the crown
and the lives of their wives' fathers. The offer was
made in so imperative a tone ^ that there would have
been danger in refusing it, so there being nothing
else to do, Constantius Chlorus was compelled to put
away the woman of his heart and be wedded to
Theodora.
St. Helena concealed her grief and disgrace so well,
and her retreat from the scene was so dignified and
complete, that historians are driven to all kinds of
expedients to account for her disappearance. Nearly
all the suggestions which they have made are open to
^ Aurelius Victor, de Cces. in Diocletian.
2 Eutropius, Hist. Rom. ix.
102 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
criticism. The BoUandists speak of a tradition,^ ac-
cording to which she went to hve in the Belgian
province. We are told that Hesdin owes its name
to her.- In the seventeenth century some ruins at
Bonn were still pointed out as those of her castle.
An English historian ^ surmises that she actually went
to Treves, where Constantius built her a palace. Had
he done so, by bringing his divorced wife into his
province he would have laid himself open to the
suspicion of adultery. Nicephorus Callistus seems
better inspired when he states that Constantius merely
saw that the position of his first wife was made
secure, and then left her where she would not have
to fear the jealousy of his second wife, nor suffer
from any want.* As Constantine was a ward of
Diocletian's it seems probable that Helena stayed
near him, he being the only creature whom she was
still allowed to love. A mother would not willingly
leave a child who is being kept as a hostage.
According to Lactantius, Diocletian had a mania
for building, and sought to make of Nicomedia a rival
of Rome.^ The emperor, when he had conceived
the wish of constructing a palace, a circus, a mint,
an arsenal, and houses for his wife and daughter,
proceeded to expel the people out of entire districts
of the city, the result being that the place, all deserted
and demolished, soon put on the appearance of a city
which had been taken by storm. At the beginning
of his reign he was tolerant enough, and gave complete
freedom to the Christians. " The emperors," writes
1 Ada SS. 18th August. 5. Helena, cap. iv.
2 Helense dunum.
3 Alford, Brit, illust. an. 292.
4 Niceph. Call. H.E. viii. 2; P.G. cxlvi. 14.
^ De morte persecutorum vii. ; P.L. vii. 205.
THE YOUTH OF CONSTANTINE 103
Eusebius of Cassarea, " gave to several of the faithful
the post of provincial governors, without demanding
of them that they should sacrifice to the gods. They
allowed officers to worship publicly with their wives
and children and slaves, even when the princes them-
selves were present ; bishops were in honour, and
churches were rising in every town. " ^
About the year 290 a university was founded at
Nicomedia, and here Lactantius taught Latin elo-
quence. Constantine, who was then about eighteen
years of age, probably attended his lectures ; ^ at any-
rate he must have struck up an acquaintance with
him, since later on, in 317, he appointed Lactantius
tutor to his son. As Lactantius soon after became
a convert to Christianity, it is probable that the
atmosphere in which Constantine and his mother
lived was, to say the least, not antagonistic to
Christianity. A church had been erected near the
palace,^ and who knows whether Helena did not
occasionally enter it when returning from a visit to
her son, whether she did not recognise in the teaching
she there heard the fulfilment of her husband's dreams,
and whether her suffering heart did not glean con-
solation when she heard those words, so painful to
the pagan : " Blessed are they that mourn, for they
shall be comforted " ?
Diodes soon became fond of Caesar's son, and took
him with him to the wars. When on an expedition
to Egypt against Achilleus, a.d. 296, he passed
through Palestine, Eusebius, who saw Constantine
riding at his side, was much impressed by the good
bearing of the youth, by his beauty, by his shapely
1 Eus. H.E. viii. 6.
2 Eus. de Vita Const. ; P.G. xx. or P.L. viii. 19-
2 Lactantius, xii. ; P.L. vii. 213.
104 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
body, and his strength/ In every way his was a
superior mind. Issued from a Hne of soldiers, he
instinctively understood the business of war; it is
not surprising, under the circumstances, that Diodes
made him, even before 305, a tribune of the first class ;
the legionaries adored their young general, who besides
being brave, was always affable and kind.^
Other good qualities of Constantius reappeared in
Constantine as time went on, especially the virtue of
chastity,^ then so unusual a quality that Lactantius
describes him as a very pure young man. Under
the circumstances it was easy to foresee the future.
Maximian being desirous of getting the power into
his family, betrothed him to his daughter Fausta, a
girl of exceptional beauty.^ A picture of the period,
which was exhibited at the palace of Aquileia, depicted
the lady offering him a golden helmet adorned with
diamonds.^ But Diodes opposed the projected
marriage, fearing, no doubt, that the double alliance
of Constantius and of Constantine with a daughter-
in-law and a daughter of the Milanese Augustus
would lead to the breaking away of the western
empire.
Ambitious dreams then gave way for prosaic reality.
Constantine had to resign himself to entering the
inferior state of wedlock with a poor girl of humble
birth named Minervina,^ who presented him with a
boy, Crispus, born about the year 296 according to
1 Eus. Fita Cons. ; P.L. viii, 19.
2 Lact. xviii. ; P.L. vii. 223.
3 Incerti panegifricus, iv. ; P.L. viii. 657.
^ So Julian the Apostate, Disc. i. 6. Quoted by Duruy, vol. vii.
p. 12, note 1.
s Pan. Vet. vi. ; P.L. viii. 6 13.
6 Zonaras, Annals, xiii. 2; P.G. cxxxiv, 1105; Zosimus, Hist,
ii. 20.
THE YOUTH OF CONSTANTINE 105
Ducange, about 298 according to Godescard, about
300 according to Tillemont.
The object of this early marriage was the preserva-
tion of the husband's morality. It was felt that the
discipline of married life would save him from experi-
encing the vague desires of the flesh.^ Such a pre-
occupation, it seems, only befits a mother who is
anxious for the future and for the dignity of her son.
Helena probably sought for one who should be at
once beautiful and chaste and faithful, and such
could be found only among the humble. Certainly
no one could need a wife of this character more than
Constantine, for was he not a hostage surrounded by
prying, jealous eyes, and reduced by necessity to
a reserve which his panegyrists mistook of inborn
prudence ? ^
Everyone knows how Diocletian finally gave way
to Galerius in the matter of religious tolerance, and
started, by a decree of the 24th February 303, the era
of the martyrs. This persecution raged more especi-
ally at Nicomedia ; from the windows of the palace
Constantine may have witnessed the destruction of
the church, and the massacres. Boiling with indigna-
tion, he was imprudent enough to exclaim publicly:
" What folly, what utter blindness, for men to declare
war on God." ^ Forthwith he became a marked man.
Only the fact of his being the son of Constantius and
a favourite of the emperor saved him from death,
and the favour of the latter he was soon to lose.
In 305 Diocletian and Maximian Hercules, in order
to prevent civil war, both abdicated,^ and the two
^ Incerti panegyricus, 4.; P.L. viii. 6l2.
2 Eus. de Vita Const. ; P.G. xx. or P.L. viii. 19.
^ Constantini oratio ad sanctorum coetiim, xxv. ; P.L. viii. 473.
* Lact, de morte pers. xviii.
106 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
Cassars, Galerius and Constantius, became Augusti.
Constantius being far away was not consulted as to
the measures to be taken. Galerius, in order to retain
for himself the highest place in the tetrarchy, appointed
two of his tools, who like him were bitterly opposed
to the Christians, to be Cassars : Flavius Severus, a
debauched dancer and drunkard, who used to turn
night into day,^ and Maximin Daia, his sister's son,
a young semi-barbarian, who had left his native woods
and his flocks to join the army.^ To the wonder of
all, especially of the soldiers, he gave no appointment
to Constantine, because he was his rival's son and a
scorner of his cruelties.
It was now Constantine's turn to be threatened,
and Helena and Minervina could only wait in fear
and trembling. Aurelius Victor states explicitly that
Galerius treated him as a hostage on religious grounds.^
It seems that it entered into God's mysterious plans
that the pagan whose heart had melted at the sight
of the sufferings of His saints should be himself
treated as a Christian, so that the distance which
separated him from them might be easier to cross
when the hour of resolution struck.
Galerius was a man of dreadful cruelty. According
to Lactantius " everything seemed to him fit to be
burnt, to be crucified, to be thrown to the beasts.
His officers and his servants he chastised with the
spear. He considered it a gracious act to allow of a
man being beheaded, and many and great were the
past services required to obtain for one the privilege
of such a death."* Though he was bound to be
^ Lact. de morte pers. xviii.
2 Ibid. xix.
3 Aurelius Victor, de Cces. (Constant.).
* Lact. de morte pers. xxii.
THE YOUTH OF CONSTANTINE 107
careful with his colleague's son, who was the soldiers'
idol, yet he was continually attempting to ensnare
him. Sometimes, by praising his strength and agility,
he would get him to descend into the arena to fight
the beasts ;^ at other times he would compliment him
on his bravery, and so induce him to fight in single
combat with some gigantic Sarmatian ; or again, when
hunting, he would make him walk first into a morass
to locate the chase.^ But Providence watched over
the young tribune, and he came scathless out of his
many trials.
Constantius Chlorus acted very differently, and
was eminently tolerant. He pretended not to notice
that at Treves there were Christians among the magis-
trates and among his own courtiers.^ Certain priests
whose presence he tolerated openly prayed for his
safety, and celebrated Mass in his palace.^ Being a
subordinate, he had been obliged to execute to some
extent, and even to countersign the decrees of his
colleagues in the tetrarchy. Lactantius, with some
irony, writes of him that " for fear of seeming to dis-
obey the orders of those above him, he suffered a few
meeting-places to be pulled down — that is, he allowed
this to be done to those walls which might be easily
rebuilt, but he preserved intact the real temple which
is in men."^
Constantius was a man of gentle habits, who had
at least some idea of God, so that it is not surprising
if in after times he has come to be considered as a
Christian. Eusebius thus describes his state of mind "' :
1 Lact. de morte pers, ; xxiv. P.L. vii. 233.
2 De Broglie, Constantin, vol. i. p. 191.
3 Eus. de Vita Const. ; P.G. xx. 927. * Op. cit.
^' De morte pers. xv. ; P.L. vii. 217.
« De Vita Constantini; P.G. xx, 931-934.
108 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
" During his whole reign, being a just and tolerant
sovereign, he consecrated to God, the sovereign of all,
his family, his spouse, his children, and all his servants,
so much so that those who dwelt in his palace scarcely
differed from the Church of God." But between
Natural and Revealed Religion there is a gulf, and
Constantius never crossed it. He never would allow
the name of Christ to be mentioned in his hearing.
Even when he had assumed the purple he still had
a claim to his old title of the Pauper, which we can
afford to render as the Upright. Never did he put
his hand to the public treasury, of which he considered
himself as the guardian.^ According to Eutropius
"so humble was his daily life that on the occasion
of feasts, when he had to entertain an unusually large
number of guests, he was forced to beg from door to
door of his acquaintances the silver plate for use on
his table. The Gauls not merely loved, but actually
idolised him, for he had saved them for the savagery
of Maximian."
When he had reached the age of fifty-five his health
commenced to fail, and he began to think of the in-
evitable. Six children had been born to him by
Theodora. The eldest of these children was only ten
years of age. The power for which he had sacrificed
all would at his death depart from his family. He
also thought of the hatred of Galerius, of his son
Constantine, who was now at the tyrant's mercy, but
who, if he could only be brought to Treves, might
save the whole situation. He accordingly sent letters
to Nicomedia imploring his colleague to send him his
son that he might embrace him once again before
dying.-
1 Eutrop. Breviarium historian Romana', x. 1.
2 Lact. de vwrte pers. xxiv.
THE YOUTH OF CONSTANTINE 109
Galerius, who had an inkhng of Constantine's
ambitions, ^ much dishked the idea of his departure ; ^
in fact, he had disregarded previous letters of Con-
stantius to the same effect ; but this time Galerius
gave way. His doing so was a matter of surprise to
everyone ; and some chroniclers are of opinion that he
only yielded before Constantine's threat to free him-
self forcibly by the aid of his army. It must not be
forgotten that Galerius was ailing, and that he could
have defended himself only with difficulty. At any-
rate he outwardly gave his consent to his ward's
departure, and handed him a brief empowering him to
requisition horses on the road, strictly cautioning him,
however, not to leave before the morrow, when he would
receive his final instructions. Galerius hoped that
during the night he would succeed in finding some
pretext for detaining the youth, and that in the delay
he would have time to send a special courier to
Severus, the Caesar of Milan.^ It would have been
dangerous to attack Constantine so long as he was
surrounded by his own troops, but Severus was to be
advised to fall upon him at one of his resting-places
beyond the Alps.
Night was falling. Galerius, excusing himself on
the score of his poor health, retired to his sleeping
apartment. Constantine whilst supping recalled the
different incidents of the day ; instinctively he felt
that the least delay would compromise his freedom,
and possibly result in the loss of his life.^ He accord-
ingly resolved on immediate action. Taking advan-
tage of the emperor's absence he hurriedly finished his
supper, embraced Minervina, and took his departure.^
^ Lact. de morte pers. xxiv. ^ Zosimus, Hist. ii. 8.
3 Lact. de morte pers. xxiv. * Eus. de vita Const, i. 20.
° Lact. xxiv.
no THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
He crossed the Bosphorus in a boat, and then, to
prevent pursuit, according to Lactantius, he requisi-
tioned all the horses available, or, as Zosimus has it,*
mutilated all the horses he did not require. The
next morning Galerius pretended to awake later than
usual, and the first thing he did was to send for
Constantine. Soon news was brought of the hurried
departure and of the injury done to the horses, and
Galerius, in his vexation at being outdone, could
scarcely restrain his tears.^
Duruy informs us that he disbelieves the tale of
this flight, which it would have been so easy to pre-
vent, and of this expectation of Galerius that Severus
would shut the Alpine passes, whereas it would have
been so much easier for Galerius himself to have shut
the gates of Nicomedia.^ But Duruy forgets that
any attempt on Constantine by Galerius would have
fired the troops. It is no paradox to say that it was
an easier matter to shut the far-off passes than the
gates of Nicomedia. Personally, I believe the story
of this flight, for it is testified to not only by Eusebius
and Lactantius, but also by Zosimus, who certainly
was not over-sympathetic to Constantine. The very
fact that Galerius wished to smother his dangerous
young rival confirms the story of the escape.
Constantine hurried at all speed from Byzantium
to the borders of Gaul.^ All along his road, in
Thracia, in Noricum, in the higher regions of the
Danube, crosses stood, and piles flared away — in a
word, every torture was being applied to the Chris-
tians. In many places the villages were deserted,
^ Hist. ii. 8.
2 Vix lacrymas tenebat. Lact. de morte pers. xxiv.
^ Duruy, Hist, des Romams, vol. vii. p. 6.
* At ille incredibili celeritate usus. Lact. ib.
THE YOUTH OF CONSTANTINE 111
and the survivors were hiding among the mountains
and in caves.^ Not until he arrived in Gaul could
he find a trace of peace.^
Constantius was at Gessoricum (Boulogne), engaged
in embarking an army for Great Britain, when Con-
stantine arrived. The expedition against the Picts
was successful, and Constantine, who accompanied
his father as his lieutenant, made himself known and
loved by the legionaries. This had been precisely
the object which Constantius wished to attain. He
died at Eboracum (York), 25th July 306, commending
Constantine to the care of his soldiers, and Theodora
and his children to that of Constantine. Nicomedia
was at the other end of the known world. Con-
stantine, who, though young, had already made him-
self a name, had taken his father's place at the head
of the army ; can we wonder, then, that the soldiers
proclaimed him Augustus ? ^ But as in the tetrarchy
the son had no right to succeed to his father, this
proclamation was an infringement of the law, and, in
in fact, a coup d'etat. In accordance with Roman
custom,* Constantine beforehand had promised his
soldiers magnificent presents.^
3. St. Helena's Conversion
Constantine proved to be inclined to moderation.
1 Acta S. Floriani. Acta SS. 4th May. De S. Floriano prmcipe
officii, etc.; De Broglie, Constantin, vol. i. p. 193.
2 According to Lactantius, Constantine found his father at the
last extremity. Constantius died peacefully, commending his son
to the soldiers^ and leaving him all his power.
2 Eus. Vita Const.; P.G. xx. 938.
* Zosimus, ii. 9.
5 The military revolution spoils the argument of Gibbon, who
proved Helena's marriage by the fact of Constantine succeeding
Constantius.
112 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
Instead of breaking loose from the tetrarchy he
pohtely notified Galerius of his election, and in ac-
cordance with the usual custom sent him his image
crowned with laurel, also begging that his legions
might be pardoned for their hurry in nominating him
their emperor/ This was a capital way of forcing
his claim, and Galerius had at least the grace to
pretend that he willingly ratified the soldiers' choice.
But in his reply he carefully avoided bestowing on
Constantine the title of Augustus, and merely styled
him Caesar, thus putting him in the fourth rank, below
Maximin Daia, and under the orders of Severus."
Constantine was far-sighted enough to accept this
arrangement. He settled at Treves, which was the
headquarters of the Prefect of Gaul and of his
own governing staff. Helena, Crispus, and possibly
INIinervina too, soon joined him. Being, even more
than his father, favourably disposed to the Christians,
he issued a decree establishing freedom of conscience
and of worship.^ By so doing he practically cut him-
self adrift from the tetrarchy, and put himself above
the decrees which had been countersigned by his
father.
In 306 death claimed many victims in his family.
Theodora, the widow of Constantius, who, judging
by her medals, was a frail and weakly creature, did
not long survive her husband. Minervina disappears
from the scene of history so early that we may
surmise that she died in Nicomedia. Helena became
passionately attached to Crispus, Minervina's child.
Evidently she had not yet received the grace of
faith, for as yet she would not pardon Theodora and
^ Eumenius, Panegyr. Vet. ; vii. P.L. viii. 628.
2 Lact. de niorle pers. xxv, ; P.L. vii. 235.
3 Lact, xxiv.
ST. HELENA'S CONVERSION 113
her children for having been the occasion of her long
separation from Constantius. The children of Con-
stantius, whom Constantine had promised to pro-
tect, were sent away to Toulouse and confided to the
care of rhetors.^
In money matters Constantine was less scrupulous
than his father. He looked upon the treasury as
his own property. Though he was the son of a
barmaid and of an emperor who all his life had
been poor, he succeeded in amassing immense wealth,
and gave his mother a palace at Treves and lands
in every part of his empire.^
Treves had been evangelised by Eucharius, Valerius
and Maternus. As the Church had adopted for her
purposes the civil division of the provinces, the
Bishop of Treves was primate of Gaul. He is said
to have possessed St. Peter's pastoral staff, which
had been despatched by the prince of the Apostles
that Eucharius might by means of it raise Maternus
to life.^ However, faith had here grown cold, and
paganism was regaining lost ground.*
At Treves Helena and Constantine were far away
from the good influence of Lactantius, and for a time
the new Ceesar made no spiritual progress. Helena,
now that her affliction had been removed, had op-
portunity to reflect on the mysterious plans of that
God who puts down the mighty from their seat and
exalts the humble. Grace, helped no doubt by her
austerities, was rapidly making progress in her heart.
At this same time grave events were taking place
^ De Broglie, Constantin, vol. ii. p. 98.
2 Le Nain de Tillement, Memoires, vol. vii. p. 2.
' Willems, Der HI. Rock zu Trier, p. 158.
^ Acta SS. De S. Agricio sive Agrcecio episcopo Trevirensi. Jan.
xiii.
114 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
beyond the Alps. Maxentius, the son-in-law of
Galerius, got himself proclaimed Augustus in a
praetorian revolution on October 28th, 306, and as
his partner he chose his father, JNIaximian Hercules,
who since his abdication had been living a retired
life in the country. Severus had been sent by
Galerius to punish the usurper, but having been first
betrayed and abandoned by his own army and then
attacked by the enemy, he opened his veins, and died
at Ravenna.^
JNIaximian, fearing that Galerius might again take
the offensive, set about finding friends and allies.
He strengthened the defences of Rome, and went
to Gaul to offer to Constantine the hand of his
daughter Fausta, to whom he had been already once
affianced." The wedding took place at Aries, the
Gallic Rome, where Constantine reassumed on the
31st March 307 the title of Augustus. Maximian
returned to Italy without having obtained the help
he had hoped for. Galerius now marched against
him, but with no better success than Severus, and
was obHged to return to Nicomedia.
Helena, who had never overcome her dislike for
Theodora, was not at all pleased to see her rival's
sister united in marriage to her son. " It is highly
probable," Avrites M. de Broglie,^ " that Fausta with
her family and Helena with Crispus formed two
hostile groups at the court, both striving to obtain
the upper place in the sovereign's heart and mind."
Constantine had long appeared to value above all
his mother's and his eldest boy's affection, but youth
and beauty will tell even against love for a mother.
Fausta was a thorough pagan, and the daughter
1 Lact. dc viorle pers. xxvi. ^ Lact. ib. xxvii.
^ Constanlifi, vol. i. p. 99-
ST. HELENA'S CONVEHSION 115
of a persecutor, and as such she was firmly attached
to the gods, those protectors of pleasure and of the
easy life. Helena, on the contrary, grew ever more
enamoured of the spiritual God of Constantius
Chlorus. Zonaras thus describes the state of mind
of the emperor : " Belonging to the religion of the
Gentiles, and, for all that, cherished by the Christians,
he was urged to idolatry by his spouse." ^
Two voices were entreating him, but he preferred
to listen to the one which spoke to the more sensual
side of his nature. He may have been tolerant to-
wards the Christians, but he was exceptionally pro-
pitious to the pagans, doubtless to humour the whims
of his wife. Eumenius was able to say to him :
" Every temple has its attractions for thee, but
especially that of Apollo. . . . By thy liberality the
temples have been beautifully restored. . . . All
around, cities and temples are rising from their
ruins." ^ The head of his family, Claudius II., had
dedicated his house to the Sun, symbolised by the
fair-haired Phoebus ; and Eumenius, when addressing
Constantine in 310, was still so sure of that emperor's
fidelity to the worship of his great-uncle that he
ventures to speak of his "own cherished Apollo."^
The Augustus of Treves was farther off from the
True God than had been the tribune of Nicomedia.
The last of the persecutors were a strange set of
men. They were ferocious towards the Christians,
they had no pity for mankind, they betrayed their
own families, their only thought was of self, their
only motive for acting, their own brutal appetites.
1 Zonaras, Annals, xiii. 1 ; P.G. cxxxiv. 1098.
2 Eumenius, Paneg. Vet. 21, 22 ; P.L. viii. 637/.
3 Apollinem tuum. See Duruy, Hist, des Romains, vol. vii.
p. 51 sq.
116 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
After the retreat of Galerius, Maximian began to
think that he might as well reign alone ; he accordingly
plotted to overthrow and slay his own son Maxentius,
who had so generously given him a portion of the
empire. But no sooner had the legionaries been
made acquainted with these dastardly designs than
they rose as a man, and put the traitor JNIaximian
to flight.^ JNIaxentius, unwilling to compass the death
of his own father, banished him from Italy, where-
upon JNIaximian went to live in Treves with Con-
stantine, his son-in-law.
But no sooner had he settled in Gaul than he again
began scheming. Constantius had embarked on a
war against the Franks ; as soon as Maximian deemed
him at a safe distance he proceeded to Aries, took
possession of the war-chest, and with the money thus
obtained bought over to his side the soldiery of the
depot. Constantine, who had received information
of these doings, probably from his mother, hastened
back by forced marches, and captured Maximian at
Marseilles (a.d. 308). Constantine on this occasion
took no extreme measures against INIaximian ; he
merely reproached him for his treachery, and deprived
him of the purple, incidentally pushing his contempt
so far as to allow Maximian to dwell in his portion
of the empire.^
In 310 the aged plotter again organised a con-
spiracy, this time with the avowed object of slaying
his son-in-law during the night. He was indiscreet
enough to take into his confidence Fausta, to whom
he promised a better husband. Fausta, of course,
betrayed the secret to Constantine, who on the
night appointed made a eunuch sleep in his bed.
JNIaximian entered the imperial bedroom, slew the
^ Lact. de morte pers. xxviii. ^ Lact. ib.
ST. HELENA'S CONVERSION 117
slave, and under the impression that he had killed
the emperor, went forth filled with joy {gloriahundus).
But outside he was met by Constantine and his guard,
who promptly arrested him/ This time Maximian
had gone too far, and it was decided that an end
must be put to his villainous life.
Eusebius in his Church History, and Eumenius in
his panegyric, suggest that Maximian committed
suicide. On the other hand, Aurelius Victor states
that he was formally condemned to death. ^ Lactan-
tius furnishes us with the means of reconciling
these two versions. " As a last favour he was left to
choose the kind of death he preferred, and he hanged
himself."^ It was as good as a custom among the
Romans that high dignitaries should, if condemned,
have the privilege of what was called a good death.
In other words, they were left to kill themselves.
Duruy ^ shows himself quite unusually well disposed
towards the persecutor ; he writes : " We shall not
be far off from the truth if we surmise that this
narrative was composed to hide the wickedness of
the murder of an old man, who, being abandoned by
all, was a danger to nobody, and whose grey hairs
and long services should have been respected by his
daughter's husband."
But what if his long services consisted in feeding
the Coliseum beasts on the flesh of the Christians ?
His life had indeed been long, far too long if we
measure it by the number of the martyrs whom he
put to death. He had conspired against his son, and
had twice plotted the overthrow of his son-in-law.
He could not expect respect of those whom he had
^ Lact. XXX. 2 Jure interierat,
3 Lact. XXX. Zosimus, ii, 11, states that he died "morbo."
^ Hist, des Romains, vol. vii. p. l6.
118 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
been ever ready to betray. At the period high
treason was not a crime subject to ordinary judicial
procedure ; its punishment depended on the emperor.
It seems a dreadful thing that a man should con-
demn his wife's father to death ; but there can be no
doubt that the pagan, Aurelius Victor, was right in
saying that Maximian was executed in accordance
with the law.
It was now the turn of Maxentius. Affecting to
be horrified by his father's death, he declared war
against his brother-in-law (a.d. 312),^ Constantine
retorted by overthrowing Maximian's statues.^ Critics
are at variance as to the real cause of this war.
Some have thought that the Christians of Rome
had summoned Constantine to their aid. This sup-
position is a mistaken one. The persecution was
evidently nearing its end. The emperors were just
beginning, now that it was too late, to realise the
wrongness of their tactics. Galerius on his death-bed
had published (30th April 312) an edict of toleration,
in which we find expressions which are in strange
contrast to what we know of his life. "Our clemency
should animate the Christians to pray to their God
for our health, and for the prosperity of the State as
well as for their own preservation."^ Maxentius, on
the whole, was not intolerant in matters of conscience.*
Christians and pagans indiscriminately had had to
suffer for his vices, but their rights were safeguarded
by the public authority. Pope Miltiades was allowed
to put in his claim for the Church property that had
been confiscated in 304, and also to bring back to
1 Lact. xliii. ; P.L. vii. 259.
2 Lact. xlii.
3 Lact. xxxiv.
4 Eus. Hist. Eccl. viii, 14; P.G. xx. 781.
ST. HELENA'S CONVERSION 119
Rome the remains of his predecessor, who had died
in Sicily.^
Lactantius gives a better explanation of the war.
After the death of Severus, Galerius had promoted
Licinius to be Augustus ; Constantine, whose eyes
were open, thereupon betrothed to Licinius his half-
sister Constantia. Maximin Daia "immediately took
alarm, and thinking that the two emperors were
about to unite against him, he made friends with
Maxentius, and roused him up to attack Constantine." ^
In the tetrarchy the several emperors suspected
and feared each other. Although they were all
related either by consanguinity or affinity yet some
evil genius was always there to incite them against
each other. Maxentius thought the opportunity a
good one to crush Constantine ; his was the better
army, for it comprised the praetorian guards, all picked
men, the army of Severus which, as we saw above,
had deserted and gone over to Maxentius, and also
a large part of the army of Galerius, which had acted
likewise. He could also count on the help of many
contingents recruited in Africa and in Italy.^ The
force at his disposal numbered about 170,000 infantry
and 18,000 cavalry, all of them regular, well-trained
soldiers.*
Constantine had altogether only eight legions, of
which four were required for the defence of the
Rhine. Besides the four legions (30,000 men) which
he could safely bring to the front, he had a number of
irregulars from Gaul, Britain, and Germany. At the
1 Allard, Le Christianisme et V Empire romai?i, pp. 146-147.
2 Lact. de morte pers. xliii.
3 Some critics are of opinion that instead of "Africa" we should
here read " Getulia."
* Zosimus, ii. 1 5.
120 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
most he may have had 90,000 infantry and 8,000
cavalry, for the most part untrained men.
The two emperors paused before entering on their
struggle. Both being pagans, both were to be
reckoned among those who looked for prognostics in
the food eaten by the sacred fowls. Maxentius had
recourse to the most abominable forms of witchcraft.
He had pregnant women dissected, and new-born
children opened that their insides might be inspected ;
he launched lions against each other, and watched the
result, and held consultations with the spirits of the
nether world. In each and every case the result was
lucky, and his victory was foretold.^
The echo of all this devilry soon reached Treves,
and great indeed was the perturbation it aroused in
Constantine,^ whose credulity has been so well demon-
strated by M. Boissier.^ " The very harshness with
which he treated the practice of the black art shows
that he was afraid of it. He firmly believed in the
power of incantation and in the evil eye. When he
ordered the severe punishment of fortune-tellers and
of those who gave love-potions, he was careful to
make an exception for those who made use of charms
for restoring the sick to health or for driving away
storms of rain and hail.* He probably looked on
these impostors as the benefactors of mankind. In
321, nine years after the defeat of Maxentius, he en-
acted that ' when a thunderbolt falls on a public
monument, the aruspice shall be consulted in ac-
cordance with ancient custom, and that his reply
1 Eus. de Vita Const, i. 36; P.G. xx ; Cp. Cedrenus ; P.G. cxxi.
518.
2 Alexander monachus, de inventione Crucis. P.G. Ixxxvii. 4054.
2 La fin du paganisme, vol. i. p. 29.
4 Theodosian Code, XVI. 10, 1.
ST. HELENA'S CONVERSION 121
shall be transmitted to the emperor.' This law
puzzled Baronius, who could only explain it by
supposing that Constantine reverted to paganism.
Baronius was wrong ; after his conversion Constantine
remained firm, and never gave up his new faith, but
both as a Christian and as a pagan he was always
superstitious."
He too, accordingly, consulted the aruspices about
his future, and ordered an examination of the bowels
of the beasts sacrificed to the gods. The priests'
answers were unsatisfactory : they could only predict
disaster. Yet in spite of all these ill-omens he
resolved on war.^ What exactly was it that led
him to this resolution ? Whence came his courage ?
What induced him first to seek and then afterwards
to despise the predictions of the pagans ? This
leads us to consider the question of St. Helena's
conversion.
Hagiographical writers usually state that her con-
version took place late in her life. This statement
they make on the authority of Eusebius.^ " Con-
stantine merits to be proclaimed blessed on account
of the great prosperity of his reign, and especially on
account of his filial piety, for he made his mother,
who until then had been a pagan, to be so pious and
so well informed on matters of religion that she
seemed to have been instructed by our Saviour Him-
self." The BoUandists infer from this that the con-
version of the mother took place shortly after that of
the son, which was effected in 312 by the apparition
in the skies. At this time the empress would have
been about sixty-five years of age.^
1 EumeniuSj Paneg. x.
2 Eus. de Vita Const, iii. 47.
^ Acta SS. 18th August. S. Helena, iv. Sainte Helme, ly.
122 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
On the contrary, Willems ^ is of opinion that
Helena was really baptised at Treves, and that her
conversion was the motive of Constantine's. This
opinion seems much the more probable, and as the
whole question is one of probabilities it may fairly be
described as true.
In the first instance, Eusebius's text is full of the
adulation we may expect from a courtier. Surely,
for instance, his comparison of a mere man, even were
he Constantine the Great, to our Saviour is the merest
flattery. It is probable that through their intercourse
with Constantius Chlorus, Constantine and Helena
both became imbued with the tenets of theism,
and that their later faith was built up on this ground ;
that Helena when she had lived down her earthly
love was the first to ask for baptism, but that
Constantine, whose only concern was his empire,
hesitated as long as he could before adopting the
austere practices of the Christian religion. A man
who preferred to delay his baptism until he was on
his death-bed, and then to receive it at the hands of
an Arian bishop,^ can surely not be described as an
apostle of the faith.
Moreover, we must set against Eusebius the testi-
mony of other contemporary writers who ascribe
1 C. Willems, Der HI Rock zu Trier, p. 52.
2 [ Philpin de Riviere, Constantin le Grand, son haptcme el sa vie
chrelietine (Paris, 1907), endeavours to prove that Constantine was
not baptised by Eusebius, but by Pope Silvester, The censure of
the Migne edition of the works of St. Ambrose {P.L. xvi. col.
1399) may be quoted in this connection. It points out that the
view according to which Constantine was baptised by Silvester is
rejected by Eusebius, Jerome, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, and
others, so much so " ut mirum videatur adhue exstare qui Con-
stantinum a Silvestro papa baptizatus ex Actis apocryphis . . .
obstinatius defendant." — Trans.]
ST. HELENA'S CONVERSION 123
Constantine's conversion to Helena. What is the
meaning of the following passage from St. Paulinus
of Nola ? — " Constantine owed it as much to the faith
of his mother as to his own that he was the first of
Christian princes."^ Does not St. Ambrose, too, pre-
suppose Helena's influence when he exclaims ^ : " O
woman above all others, who found and brought to
the emperor far more than she had received from
him." It is hopeless for the Bollandists to argue
that the Bishop of Milan is contrasting the importance
of the relics to the gold which was spent in securing
them. M. Toupin rightly observes that St. Ambrose
would not speak thus had Helena received from her
son the faith — i.e. the most priceless of gifts. This
opinion also agrees with the earliest tradition, which
is thus voiced by Theodoretus : " The emperor's
mother cast the brilliant light of faith over the world,
and also led the soul of her son to piety." ^
If we locate Helena's conversion in 313, the history
of the fourth century becomes inexplicable, but if we
suppose that she became a convert at Treves, then all
the after events are clear. We may hypothetically
reconstruct the dramatic scene when Constantine
resolved, against all advice, on war. He stood
between Fausta and Helena, between the old world
which was crumbling away, and the new world then
just coming into being — Fausta clasping his hands,
those hands which had shed her father's blood, and
which were anxious to shed also that of her brother,
and beseeching him whom she loved in spite of all
not to disregard the evil spells that had been cast
by Maxentius, nor the bad omens descried by the
1 Paulinus, ep. xxxi. ad. Sev. cap. iv. ; P.L. Ixi. 327,
2 De obitu Theodosii ; P.L. xvi. 1399.
3 Theod. H.E. i. 17 ; P.G. Ixxxii. 957.
124 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
heathen priests of Treves. On the other side Helena,
standing erect, and smiling at the notion that aruspices
could discern the future in the bowels of women and
children, and exclaiming that one sign of the cross
would be sufficient to put all the demons to flight,
and then handing as a keepsake to Constantine a
medal, on which was engraved the monogram of
Christ. " Forward, and fear not," she cried. " Carry
this in thy bosom, hung about thy neck ; in this sign
thou shalt be victorious " — tovtw vUa. Constantine
paused, he looked at the precious talisman, and quickly
weighed the pi'os and cons, the relative power of God
and of the gods, and then, giving way to the authority
of his mother, and fired with some of her enthusiasm,
he vows to wear the medal, and hurries off to mobilise
his troops. This is the only natural and logical
sequence of events.
Fausta doubtless made her way to the temple of
Apollo to make an offering to the gods, whilst Helena
followed slowly in the steps of her beloved son. With
moistened eyes she gazed at the standards of the legions
— they at least bore the semblance of the Cross — at
the vcxilla floating in the breeze, at the eagles, and
the trophies of the maniples. Hugo of Flavigny
in his chronicle ^ narrates of her that she rested at
Besan^on, and with her court attended the little
church of St. Stephen to pray for Constantine's
success.^ "Everyone," writes Willems, "witnessed
her tears and her fasts. She made a vow to rebuild
the chapel, and afterwards did so." To say the
least, Eusebius disregards several important points
of the question.
^ Monumenta germ. vol. viii. p. 298. Quoted by Willems, op. cit.
p. 174.
2 Ada SS. 18th August. § 10.
THE LABARUM 125
4. THE LABARUM
History has naught to recount of the march of
Constantine's army from Treves to the Segusio Pass,
near the Mont Cenis, and where history is silent fancy
is free to build. M. Desroches believes that the
various troops mustered at Autun, which was the
point of juncture of the Roman roads in Gaul. He
forgets that the legions were quartered along the
northern frontiers, in the Belgian and Germanic
provinces. In all probability the four legions and
the German irregulars came together at Treves,
their nearest centre, whilst the troops raised in Gaul
hastened to effect a junction with them near the
Italian frontier.
Let us, however, admit that Constantine started
from Autun, and give a summary of the generally
credited tradition. The emperor had arrived at a
certain spot identical, so we are told, with the hamlet
of Labare in the parish of Sainte- Croix (department
of Saone-et-Loire).^ Eusebius does not describe the
place, but he depicts the emperor on horseback
moodily brooding over Maxentius's spells. The
usages of the time were cruel in the extreme.
Constantius and he himself had not scrupled to
throw to the beasts in the amphitheatre of Treves
those of the barbarian kings whom they had succeeded
in capturing ; Vce victis, woe to the vanquished ; the
most magnanimous of conquerors rarely gave his
prisoner anything more than the choice of the death
by which he should die. Either Maxentius or he
himself was doomed. At such times even the most
^ Leon Robin, Croix lumineuse et sacre Cceur. Lons-le-Saunier :
Maret, 1876.
126 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
courageous warrior tries to see into the future. Con-
stantine ruminated on what had become of those
members of the tetrarchy who had remained beUevers
in the plurahty of gods. Most of them had perished
miserably. Severus had opened his veins, Maximian
had hanged himself, Galerius had just died of a dread-
ful malady, his body even when alive falling into
decomposition, and pierced in all directions by myriads
of worms.^ Of them all, his father alone, the wor-
shipper of one only God, had expired in peace and
honour in the heyday of his triumph. " He came to
the conclusion," writes Eusebius,^ " that these useless
gods were an imposture, and he began to call upon
the God of Constantius, praying Him to lend a
helping hand."
Thereupon a sign was seen in heaven. Noon had
passed, and the sun was slowly nearing the horizon,
when above the orb of day there appeared a fiery
cross, before the brilliancy of which every other light
paled, and on which was inscribed the Greek words
TovTip viKu : In this sign thou shalt conquer. The
soldiers too witnessed the cross, and were astounded.^
The next night Christ revealed Himself to the
emperor during his slumber. He brought with Him
the sign which had been seen in heaven, and enjoined
on Constantine that he should have made a standard
of the same shape, which might serve as a rallying-
point in battle, and would be a pledge of certain
victory.
Constantine sent for jewellers, described to them
what he had seen, and ordered them to reproduce it
in the shape of a trophy, which should be adorned
^ Lact. de morle pers. xxxiii.
2 Eus. de vita Coml. ; P.G. xx. 942.
3 lb. i. 28 ; r.G. XX. 9*4.
THE LABARUM 127
with gold and precious stones/ This trophy received
the name of the Labarum, a word which appears for
the first time seventy years later in Sozomen," and
which M. Duruy derives from the Chaldean word
Labar, meaning eternity.^
Eusebius describes at length the Laharum. It
comprised a very high staff {hasta), the top of which
was crossed by a bar {antennum) ; this, of course, re-
sulted in a T-shaped cross. Above the junction of
the cross-bar, in the place where the eagle should
have been, was a crown encrusted with gold and rare
pebbles, in the centre of which might be read the
first two letters of Christ's name X.P. — in other
words, the monogram. From the cross-bar hung a
kind of square-shaped banner of purple stuff. Precious
stones, set off by the golden embroidery of the fabric,
sparkled in the sunlight. In the upper quarters of
the banner were portraits (variis colof^ibus depicti) of
the emperor and his children.
The expressions used by Eusebius would lead us
to suppose that there was never more than one
Labaruvi. At the time of the historian Socrates the
sacred banner was preserved in the imperial Buccoleon
palace at Constantinople.* Nicholas Soemundarson
too saw it there in 1157.^ Nicephorus Callistus, in
the fourteenth century, is the last to record its pres-
ence.^ It must have disappeared when Mohamed II.
gained possession of the capital of the eastern empire.
With regard to the locality where the miracle
^ Eus. Fita Const, i. 30; P.G. xx. 944.
2 Sozomen, H.E. i. 4; P.G. Ixvii. 867.
^ Hist, des Romains, vol. vii, p. 42.
4 Socrates, H.E. i. 2; P.G. Ixvii. 38.
^ Riant, ExiwicE sacrev Constant, vol, ii. p. 215.
« Nic. Cal. H.E. vii. 29; P.G. cxlv. 1274.
128 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
occurred, its identification with the hamlet of Labare,
defended by Robin,^ and still more by M. Desroches,^
but opposed by M. Ravel Chapuis,^ has given rise to
a heated controversy/ At somewhat less than a mile
from the village of Sainte-Croix (Saone-et-Loire) is
to be found a little collection of dwellings, near which
stands a modern stone cross, erected on the spot
where a more ancient one had stood : this is the
village of La Barre or Labare. The proximity of
the two places, and the fact of their names being so
suggestive, induced Robin and Desroches to infer
that the parish owes its name to the apparition,
whilst that of the hamlet is due to the sacred standard
or Liobarum.
But there are many reasons against such an argu-
ment. Formerly the neighbourhood of La Barre was
largely covered with ponds, of which the traces still
remain. As one of the archaeologists who took part
in the discussion remarks, it is natural to believe
that at the spot where the hamlet of La Barre now
stands there was once a dam or barrage, from which
the hamlet derived its name.^ The same writer also
points out that in 853 " there existed quite close to
the walls of Autun a basilica which, even then, was
considered ancient,^ and which was dedicated to the
Holy Cross. Not far from it is now found a hamlet
called La Barre, and remains of Roman roads are not
1 Op. cit.
2 J. Desroches, Le Laharum. Paris : Champion, 1 891,
3 In a pamphlet, Un point, d'kistoirc locale. Dissertatioti sur le
Labarum. Fragny-pr6s- Autun, 1899.
* See J. B. Martin in l' Universitc catholiquc de Lyon, 15th July
1894- (vol. ii.) ; Etudes, 31st May 1895, pp. 354, 355 ; Revue du clerge
Jrarigais, 1st December 1897.
^ Ravel Chapuis, p. 33.
® Olim fundata.
THE LABARUM 129
wanting all around."^ What reason is there then
for preferring Sainte-Croix to Autun ? M. Ravel
Chapuis's philological argument also has a value of its
own. Labaruni cannot have produced Labare, be-
cause in the former name, the accent being on the
antepenultimate syllable " la," this syllable should
have remained, but the other two should have been
contracted. . . . For instance, the Latin word dura-
bills in French becomes durable^ not " durabile " ; like-
wise pertica resulted in per die ^ not in " pertiche," etc.^
For our own part we may add that the Labarum can
scarcely have given its name to the hamlet, because
the very name Labaj'U7n was unknown even to Euse-
bius, the only contemporary who mentions the miracle,
and is not found before Sozomen, in the fifth century.
Moreover, for the argument in favour of La Barre
in the parish of Sainte-Croix to be at all conclusive,
the name should be found in use only here ; but, as a
matter of fact, France simply swarms with localities
of which the name has been derived from the Low
Latin word BarrcE or BaiTum, meaning a mound.
Barrce has given rise to La Barre (Var, Tarn, etc.),
Les Barres (Loiret), Les Barret (Gard), La Barrete
(Somme). Barrum produced Bar-sur-Aube, Bar-sur-
Saone, Bar-le-Duc. In the French Postal Directory
we find that there are post-offices at Barre-de-Mont
(Vendee), Barre-des-Cevennes (Lozere), Barret-le-Bas
(Hautes Alpes), Barre-en-Ouch (Eure), Les Barres
(Vienne). The situation and the lie of the ground of
the hamlet of Sainte-Croix are quite sufficient to ex-
plain its name without having recourse to fanciful
hypotheses.^
1 Ravel Chapuis, p. 34. 2 /^ p^ 33^
^ Hippolyte Cocheris, Origine et formation des noms de lieux,
Paris: Delagrave, 1885^ p. 118,
I
130 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
Nor does Sainte-Croix even lie on the probable
route followed by Constantine's army. Setting out
from Treves, with the Segusio Pass, near Mont Cenis,
as his objective, he must have taken the shortest
road — i.e. through Besan^on (where St. Helena is said
to have rested), and the valleys of the Doubs and
the Saone, passing Chalons {castrum Cabilonensc),
Macon {Matascense oppidum, Matisco), Lyons {Lug-
dunuvi)^ Vienne, and so across the Alpes Cotticu. He
would not have been likely to go out of his way by
deviating to the right in the direction of Autun, or
to the left in that of Sainte-Croix.
Eusebius's Church History gives us to understand
that immediately after his vision Constantine took by
storm, one after the other, the fortresses of Segusio
or Susa, Turin, Vercelli, Brescia, Verona, and Milan.
It was, therefore, after having left Vienne, and some-
where in the vicinity of the Alps, that the event took
place which proved the turning-point of history. . . .
But a question remains : Did the event ever really
occur ?
The vision of the fiery cross is not an article of
faith, consequently I may be allowed to make use of
the freedom which the Church leaves us in such
matters, and expose, I trust with all the respect due
to a hoary tradition, the reasons for which I am
inclined to consider it apocryphal. Firstly, it is
difficult to understand how a general, who had just
arrived at one of the most forsaken spots in Gaul,
could procure jewellers to design and execute in a
single night a work of art of which both the em-
broidery and the jewellery would have required long
and patient toil. We should understand the matter
better if Helena had had the trophy made at Treves,
and if Constantine had taken it with him in his
THE LABARUM 131
luggage, and then, at the psychological moment, pre-
sented it as a sacred sign to his troops.
Again in 312 the emperor had only one child,
Crispus. Fausta bore no children until 317. If,
then, her children's portraits were painted on the
vexillum^ the vexiltum described by Eusebius must
have been a new trophy, or at any rate, as Gretser
admits,^ it must have been subjected to certain
alterations.
Yet again the only early testimonies to the miracle
are those of Eusebius and of the Acts of the martyr
Artemius. How can we explain the absence of any
reference to it among the many panegyrics spoken
before the emperor and printed in Volume viii. of
Migne's Latin Patrology ? The other chroniclers,
Socrates,^ Zonaras,^ Philostorgius,* Cedrenus,^ and
Nicephorus Callistus^ do no more than reproduce
Eusebius's account with faulty additions of their own.
According to M. de Broglie, who sums up their
testimonies,^ they do not even agree as to the place
where the miracle occurred. Philostorgius states
" that at the height of the battle against Maxentius
the sign of the cross was seen stretching far in the
direction of the east, and formed by a wondrous light,
with stars ranged round about it in the shape of a
rainbow, and tracing certain characters." As regards
the various apocryphal writers whom we shall quote
when studying the legends of the Finding of the
^ Jacobus Gretser, De cruce Christi (^Ingoldstadt, I6OO), vol, i. lib.
ii. c. 37-39; Toupin, Hist, de S. Helene, p, 58, note 1.
^ H.E. i. 2; P.G. Ixvii. 38.
3 Annul, xiii. 1 ; P.G. cxxxiv. 1097.
4 H.E. i. 6 (epitome in P.G. Ixv. 463).
^ Hist. Co7np.; P.G. cxxi, 518.
6 viii. 3; P.G. cxlvi. I6.
'^ Consiantin, vol. i. pp. 458-459.
132 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
Cross, they locate the miracle in even more unex-
pected places.
The martyr Artemius, who had fought with Con-
stantine, in the well-known oration which preceded
his martyrdom, thus replies to Julian the Apostate ^ :
" Thou dost object that Constantine allowed himself
to be drawn over to Christianity by a ridiculous piece
of superstition. Now I was in the ranks of his army
at the time of his expedition against JVIaxentius. I
saw with my own eyes a cross, more dazzling even
than the sun, appear in mid-air about the middle of
the day. I, and likewise the whole army, saw the
Greek inscription in letters of fire which foretold our
victory {tovtco vIku, hoc vince). ... If thou believest
me not there remain plenty other eye-witnesses ;
ask them."
Is this document authentic ? The best Catholic
writers are of opinion that it is not. JNl. de Broglie,
whose orthodoxy and learning are certainly above sus-
picion, writes ^ : " We shall not dwell on the oration
of the Duke Artemius to Julian, which was copied by
Baronius from Surius. The acts of Surius are of a
far too untrustworthy character."
Man's eyes cannot bear to gaze at the sun ; how
then can we explain that the soldiers without a new
and unwarrantable miracle — since it would have to
be repeated in some 90,000 instances — were able,
without being blinded, to read a text of which the
characters were " more dazzling than the sun " ?
It is true that Eusebius, who saw nothing, adds :
" Had a stranger recounted this wonder the hearer
would have been allowed to question his veracity ;
but it was our own invincible emperor who told us
^ Ada SS. 20th October. Fita S. Artemii, 45.
2 Conslantin, vol. i. p. 458.
THE LABARUM 133
of it, who told us who are now writing this history
long after, at a time when we had the favour of his
acquaintance and friendship, and who also confirmed
the exactness of his narrative by a solemn oath.
Who then can dare to doubt ? " ^
But the worthy Bishop of Csesarea has told so
many tales of Constantine that even the most credu-
lous historian is bound to discount much of what he
says. Was Eusebius not found to state that, after
the battle of the Milvian Bridge, God, not content
with inspiring Constantine by dreams, actually mani-
fested Himself to him in bodily form, and instructed
him as to his future conduct ? ^ As the result was a
series of summary executions, this strange piece of
flattery on the part of Eusebius scarcely falls short
of blasphemy. If Constantine really told him such
tales as these, then it must have been through a wish
of spreading, on his own behalf, fables similar to
those concerning Numa Pompilius and the nymph
Egeria.
Exaggeration was the prevailing spirit of the time.
Pagans and Christians vied with each other in in-
venting new wonders. The sovereign, doubtless,
smiled at all this well-meant flattery. He had not a
word of reproach to say when a pagan orator in his
presence declared that Constantius Chlorus had risen
from the grave, and hovering in the sky, had led the
troops to conquest.^ After a time Constantine grew
weary of being compared to the poor heroes of the
Iliad and of the ^Eneid ; he wished to be made equal
to the prophets of Israel.
1 Eus. de Vita Const. ; P.G. xx. 943.
2 Eus. de Vita Const. ; P.G. xx. 963.
3 Ducebat hos (credo) Constantius pater, qui terrarum triumphis
altiori tibi cesserat. Nazarius, Pan. Const. 14 {P.L. viii. col. 593).
134 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
The legend given by Eusebius is all the more sus-
picious because it disagrees with other contemporary
records. Lactantius, the tutor of Crispus, and a
familiar figure at the court, but a man who through-
out preserved a moderation and dignity of which the
Bishop of CiEsarea was quite incapable, has nothing to
say of the appearance of a cross in the skies. His
silence gives the death-blow to the miracle of La
Barre, for it must be recollected that he too believed
in a divine intervention, but with this difference that
it occurred in the night before the battle, and amidst
other circumstances, of which we shall speak im-
mediately.
Some good people, as we have already hinted,
believe that the object of the miracle was to teach
the Christians the real form of the Cross, which had
been forgotten. Public opinion, we are told, wavered
between the four-branched cross — the true one — and
the T-shaped, three-branched cross. The latter was
well known in Rome, where it stood as a threat in the
dormitories of the slaves. When the page-boy at the
Palatine amused himself by scratching on the wall a
caricature of Christ, the cross he chose to figure was
the T-shaped crux patibulata. Now this is all very
well, but the argument is based on a mistake. Surely
God Himself did not share in the common error!
Yet the Labarum which was made to the image of
the supposed vision was simply the old T-shaped
cross, and not the cross of Golgotha.
Eusebius depicts Constantine seated in the midst
of his jewellers and describing to them the mysterious
sign which is supposed to have been shown from
heaven. But, alas ! history gives the lie to the picture.
The old standard of the legions ^ was in the shape of
1 Guhl & Koner, La vie antique. Trawinski's trans, p. 470.
THE LABARUM 135
a T, and was crowned by the eagle, and on the cross-
beam there hung a square purple bannerette. When
they saw it pass, Tertullian and Minutius Felix were
able to exclaim : " Your trophies are the image of the
Cross. All unknowingly you adore the Cross which
you persecute." Now the frame of the Labarum
differed in nothing from the older standard, saving in
its larger size. There was therefore no need for Con-
stantine to take the trouble of explaining to his
artisans something which everyone already knew.
The eagles, the signuvi of the trophy, were con-
sidered as the watch-gods of the legions.^ In the
camps they were shut up in an improvised sanctuary,
which thus became a sort of sacred temple and refuge.^
Constantine was indeed instrumental in supplanting
these eagles by the monogram of Christ, but did his
vision furnish the prototype of the monogram ? No,
for as we have already seen ^ the monogram is found
on a tombstone of a.d. 268. Diocletian's martyrs
may have worn it round their necks when being
driven to the Coliseum.
Hence the vision resulted in not one single real
innovation ; or, to sum up, the Labarum consists
merely of a juxtaposition of elements, which were
already public property. If its preparing required
care and patient work, then we are justified in con-
sidering that it was put together at Treves in the
quiet which preceded the war, and that it was made,
not by the yet pagan Constantine, but by his mother.
Was it Fausta who prevented this standard being
displayed at the departure from Treves, and did her
evil influence grow less and less as Constantine neared
1 Numina legionis (Herod, iv. 4).
2 Tacitus, Annals, i. 39.
^ See above, p. 88.
136 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
Italy ? And did a day come at last when, moved by
grace and the counsels of his mother, Constantine
finally resolved to unfurl the ensign and set it in front
of his army ? 1 believe this is really what occurred ;
but, of course, at this distance of time, and in the
absence of testimonies, it does not admit of proof.
Christian France was to be born of an act of faith
made by Clovis in the God of Clotilda on the battle-
field of Tolbiac. Is it not antecedently probable
that the Christian empire of Rome was born of an act
of faith made by Constantine, in the supreme moment
before the opening of the campaign, in the God of his
mother Helena ? If so, then God's intervention, though
less dramatic, would not be less wonderful, for the
most touching of all miracles are those which hide
themselves under the form of grace.
TovTw viKa, these are the words which, we are told,
were seen in the skies. Is it not somewhat strange that
Providence should thus have addressed in Greek the
Latin legionaries and the Britons, Gauls, and Franks
who formed their auxiliaries ? Greek was the daily
language of Helena and Constantine, and my impres-
sion is that the words were spoken not by the skies,
but by the angel, still clad in mortal flesh, who was
soon to be the means of unearthing the Cross of
Christ.
Whichever opinion we prefer, there is no doubt
that Constantine's army entered Italy marching be-
hind a standard capped with Christ's initials in place
of the olden eagle.
Constantine had staked his all on our Saviour's
side, nor can there be any doubt that this change in
his mind was in no sense determined by worldly
motives. Persecution had drummed all Christians out
of the army. The majority of the Roman population
THE LAB ARUM 137
was pagan, and remained pagan until the barbarian
invasions. The countrysides remained so staunch to
the gods of their fathers that even Charlemagne will
be hard put to convert them.^ M. Beugnot estimates
that at the time Christians formed only a twentieth
part of the population of the empire.^ Hence Con-
stantine in siding with them was disregarding the
rules of human prudence,^ compromising his popularity
and putting himself in opposition with the majority.
But Helena's God was merciful, and made him vic-
torious both over men and human logic.
After a succession of battles the little army arrived
at the gates of Rome. So far the monogram had
proved luckier than all Maxentius's spells. But there
remained now the most difficult part of the business,
a task which the trained legions of Severus and
Galerius had refused to undertake, and which every
pagan soldier considered as nothing short of sacrilege —
the assault of the Eternal City and of its sacred Capitol.
But the legions were intoxicated with their recent
victories, and would stop at nothing.
Const ant ine was approaching Rome through
Etruria by the Via Flaminia, and was yet some
distance from the Milvian Bridge, which spans the
Tiber. To gain their ends, Maxentius's 180,000
soldiers had only to oppose the passage over the
Tiber, and if beaten then retire on Rome, in which
stronghold they could affiard to laugh at their
enemies. But in the event Maxentius was not
1 Baluze, Capit. reg. Franc, passim.
2 [This seems a low estimate, but it must be borne in mind that
many of the pagans were only nominally such ; probably the
number of formal pagans was not very much greater than the
number of formal Christians. — Trans.'\
^ Boissier, La Fin du paganisme, vol. i. pp. 27-28.
138 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
merely forced to retreat ; he was utterly vanquished.
Constantine, who could hardly believe his goodfortune,
saw with astonishment his enemy doing all that was
possible to facilitate the northerners' victory. He
saw him build a bridge parallel with that of Milvius,
cross it with his whole army, and then by an astound-
ing reversal of all classic strategy, give battle with his
back to the river.
" Constantine," writes M. de Broglie,^ " met the
advanced posts of the enemy at a little place called
Saxa rubra, about nine miles from Rome and six
from the Milvian Bridge. . . . From the heights
which here rise about the Via Flaminia we can see
the whole plain of Latium, the theatre of those bitter
conflicts which laid the foundation of Roman great-
ness. At the foot of an amphitheatre of mountains
the great city rears its head, casting the reflections of
its buildings into the yellow flood of the Tiber.
Never did Providence prepare a more fitting frame-
work for so solemn a combat. On the summits of
those seven hills, loaded with temples, palaces,
memories, and years, all the gods of the ancient
world seemed to be looking in awe and expectation
for the first appearance in the distance of the Standard
of the Cross."
Constantine during that night between the 27th
and 28th of October which preceded the renewal of
the face of the earth was slumbering peacefully,
when the God of Helena made His presence felt.
He heard in his dream a voice commanding liim to
paint the sign of the cross on his soldiers' shields, and
then to start the battle. He awoke with a start, and
as soon as day broke '^ he had the mystic sign X
^ Op. cit. vol. i. pp. 228-229.
^Lact, de morte pers. xliv. ; P.L. vii. 26 1.
THE LABARUM 139
engraved on all the bucklers. Then the clarions gave
the signal to attack. The bloody gods of Rome could
now see the sign of the Crucified, with its diamonds
blazing in the light of the rising sun, on the dark back-
ground formed by the dense mass of advancing men.
The pagan army was routed, and perished in crowds
in the flooded Tiber. The Christians could only
compare the disaster with that of the Egyptians
drowned in the Red Sea. Maxentius, now that he
could no longer gratify his passions, drowned himself ;
his head was stuck on a lance, and carried in front of
his brother-in-law to Rome. The Senate and the
populace, as was usual, acclaimed the victor, and
erected a triumphal arch in his honour.
Constantine had his mother brought to Rome, and
out of the treasury bought her the Sessorian palace
near the gardens of Heliogabalus. On the Forum,
in front of the Capitol, he had his own statue erected,
in which he is represented holding in his right hand
a lance in the form of a cross. On the pedestal was
inscribed : *' By this salutary sign of true courage
1 delivered your city from the yoke of tyranny,
and restored to the Senate and the liberated Roman
people the splendour of their ancient fame."^ The
statue was overthrown by the barbarians, but it was
recovered in the pontificate of Clement XI., and
placed at the entrance to the Lateran basilica." The
next year (313) the edict of Milan proclaimed freedom
of conscience in words, in comparison with which the
" Declaration of the Rights of Man " seems feeble.
The Beast was vanquished, and the Triumphant
Cross made its entry into public life, and took
possession of the buildings and basilicas.
1 Eus. de Vita Const, i. 40 ; P.L. viii. 27.
- Toupin^ op. cit. p. 62,
140 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
Being more of a man of the world, Constantine did
not, like Clovis, immediately solicit baptism ; he feared
that by so doing he might curtail his freedom. So
long as his mother lived his sympathies were with
the Orthodox, but after her death he turned to the
Arians. He never yielded up his heart to God, but
strove to repay the debt he owed Him, by his munifi-
cence towards the Church ; he lived to learn to what
end a catechumen, who resists the call of grace, must
inevitably come ; he never was a great Christian, but
he remained to the end a careful politician and a
patron of religion.
CHAPTER IV
THE RECOVERY OF THE TRUE CROSS
INIacarius, whose name in Greek ^ is the equivalent
of the Latin name Fortunatus, and who, under
Constantine, was bishop of the Church of Jerusalem,
seems to have been the real instigator of the enter-
prise which resulted in the discovery of the True
Cross. Among the clergy his virtues had earned
him an esteem which bordered on veneration.'
St. Athanasius reckoned him among apostolic
men.^
He attended the opening sessions of the Nicene
Council (5th or 6th July 325*). Jerusalem, his see,
was but a city of the province of Palestine, of which
the capital was Csesarea. As the Church had adopted
the civil territorial divisions, the bishop of Jerusalem
was only reckoned as a suffragan of the metropolitan
bishop of Csesarea. Macarius, considering that this
secondary position was a slight on the see which
Christ had rendered famous by His death, requested
that he should be declared independent, and possibly
also laid claim to the patriarchate.
The Council could not, however, be brought to
see things in this light, and answered his request by
its eighth canon : " The bishop of JElia, Capitolina
retains the honour which he has by ancient tradition,
^ MaKaptos.
2 Theodoret, H.E. i. 17 ; P.G. Ixxxii. 96o.
^ Athan. Ep. ad episc. Mgypti et Libyce', P.G. xxv.
* Duruy, Hist, des Romains, vol. vii. p. 114.
141
142 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
but without prejudice, to the supremacy of the
metropolitan."^
It is generally thought that Helena followed her
son to Nica^a, that JNlacarius spoke to them of the
permanent sacrilege constituted by the temples of
Jupiter and Venus established over the Holy Places,
and that the sovereigns were moved by the bishop's
eloquence. In effect, Constantine gave him orders to
seek out, as soon as he should have returned, the spots
sanctified by the Resurrection and Passion." He also
expressed a wish that, in memory of the peace he had
given to the Church, a grand basilica should be built. ^
By so doing, he added, he would merely be fulfilling
a duty which he had imposed on himself^ In taking
leave of the bishop he gave him a pallium in cloth of
gold as a testimonial of his exceptional esteem.^ This
was a sort of imperial ratification of the privilege
accorded to Macarius by the Council ; for the pallium,
a kind of collar to which were suspended two bands,
one in front and one behind, was a priestly ornament
worn only by archbishops and certain privileged
bishops.*^
Constantine returned to Rome to celebrate his
vicennalia. He arrived about the month of July 326.
The populace, which had remained faithful to its
ancient deities, and had been vexed by the favours
which he had just bestowed on the Christians, gave
him a hostile reception, and stoned his statues. Fausta
^ Rufinus, H.E. i. 6, The see of Jerusalem finally secured its
rights at the Council of Chalcedonia,
- Theoph. Chronogr. ; P.G. cviii. 103.
3 Sozomen, H.E. ii. 1 ; P.G. Ixvii.
* Eus. de Vila Const, iii. 25.
^ Theodoret, H.E. ii. 27. This pallium was afterwards sold by
Cyril, the successor of Macarius, to help the needy during a famine.
" Martigny, Diet, des antiquitcs chret. (art. Pallium).
RECOVERY OF THE TRUE CROSS 143
too, his second wife and his evil genius, had been
playing the part of the traitress. Since the birth of
her first child she had begun to be jealous of Crispus,
the son of her husband's first union. He was brilliant,
young, and handsome, beloved of the people, success-
ful in the wars, and, moreover, he was heir-presumptive
to the throne. She obtained the aid of several high-
placed functionaries, and proceeded to cajole Con-
stantine, who was then alone, as his mother had not
yet returned. Of what crime she accused Crispus
we have no means of telling. Did she pretend that
he had been guilty of high treason ? Or did she
repeat the odious calumny of Potiphar's wife ? ^ At
any rate the upshot of her interview was that Crispus
was, without any reason being given, arrested, and
imprisoned at Paula in Istria. Soon after it trans-
pired that he had died, either by poison or by the
sword.
Strictly and legally speaking, Constantine did not
thereby commit a crime. He had simply made use
of the powers which were his by custom. " From the
very beginning of the empire," wi'ites M. Laboulaye,
" we find princes performing the office of judges — and
this without consulting the Senate — on all those who
had been unfortunate enough to prove themselves
displeasing. Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius,
Nero, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Adrian,
had a speedy way of ridding themselves of those
whom they disliked."-^ This was a fortiori the usage
when the crime was one of Use ma jest e. It was an
institution that in such cases the plaintiff should be
also the judge. If in the case of Crispus there was a
question of the empress's or the emperor's honour, we
1 Zosimus, ii. 29-30; Philost. U.E. ii. 4; Epitome, P.G. Ixv, 467.
2 I^ssai sur les his criminelles des RomainSy p. 430.
144 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
can well understand the secrecy of the proceedings,
which were equivalent to a court sitting with closed
doors.
No sooner had the tragedy been enacted than
Helena arrived. She had been detained in the East,
probably by the preparations for her approaching
journey to Jerusalem. She had always idolised
Crispus, and with all the authority of an outraged
mother she required of her son an account of her
grandchild's blood. Her words brought bitter re-
morse to the heart of the still pagan emperor. JNlatters
were again gone into, and though, alas, too late,
Crispus's innocence was established, and doubtless
too Fausta's plot then came to light. Constantine,
mad with rage and sorrow, resolved on immediate
revenge, and this time with some justification.
Several of his counsellors paid for their false testi-
mony with their heads ; and as for Fausta, she perished,
strangled in a bath of boiling water.
These horrors seemed to have happened in the
months of July and August 326.^ The Christians
were terrified, but the pagans, who affected to scorn
the emperor, were filled with joy. Some unknown
hand wrote on the palace-gate the sarcastic lines :
" Why tell of the golden age ? 'tis now the age of
pearls — Nero's pearls.'"'
Constantine could now no longer venture out of
doors without being subjected to glances of con-
tempt and hatred. At every step too he foimd
memories of his child and of his wife rising up like
spirits to reproach him. He suddenly resolved to
flee from Rome, and carry his government with him,
1 De Broglie, Constantin, 7th ed. vol. ii. p. 113.
2 Saturni aurea secla quis requiret
Sunt haec gemmae, sed Neroniana.
RECOVERY OF THE TRUE CROSS 145
to Nicomedia, and there to stay till Constantinople
had been built. To the Pope of Rome^ he made
over as a gift the palace of the unfortunate Fausta,
on which the church of St. John in the Lateran was
afterwards built. We know that on the 7th July
326 he was still in Rome, for he there promulgated
a law." From the Theodosian Code we gather that
he was at Spoleto at the beginning of October.^ At
that time the crossing of the Mediterranean was a
lengthy business ; probably he did not arrive at
Nicomedia before the end of 326 or the beginning
of 327.
St. Helena carried her troubles to the foot of the
altars. So as to avoid dwelling on Crispus, she con-
stantly allowed her thoughts to drift to the con-
versations she had had with Macarius, and to her
projected visit to the Holy Land ; in the ardour of
her faith she dreamed of overthrowing the walls of
the pagan ^Elia Capitolina, and restoring to the
light Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre ; still more, she
wished to find the True Cross, which had disappeared
so mysteriously and completely that no man had
ever seen it or knew where it lay.^
The Fathers of the Church had no hesitation in
declaring that this besetting thought of hers was
due to inspiration.^ Then later on came dreams ;
now the early Church was very prone to take seriously
the dreams of aged people. The general belief was
that in the night, when the body is plunged in sleep,
^ The title of pope was at the time common to many.
2 De infirmandis his quae sub tyrannis aut Barbaris gesta sunt.
P.L. viii. 315.
3 Theodosian Code, XVI. v. 1 ; 1 and 2.
* Sozomen, H.E. ii. 1.
^ Paulinas of Nola, ep. ad Sev. 31.
K
146 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
the soul is more ready to hear freely the voice of
God. The Apostle Peter speaking to the Jews says :
" And it shall come to pass in the last days, I will
pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons
and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young
men shall see visions, and you7' old men shall dream
dreams." ^ It was in her dreams that St. Helena re-
ceived orders to depart,^ and the visions she had
were so precise in their detail that she could point out
the very spot where the diggers should commence.^
Constantine dearly loved his mother ; he had as-
sociated her with himself as Augusta. He was wont
to follow her counsels, and he not only willingly gave
her leave to embark on her expedition, but also con-
tributed a great sum out of the public treasury *
towards defraying her expenses, and furnished her
with a rescript empowering her to remove the
esplanade at ^lia.^
In the meantime the Jews, taking advantage of
the quiet times which had followed the fall of
Maximin and Licinius, were coming back one by
one to the old centre of their race. They hoped to
rebuild their Temple in the shadow of the future
basilica.*^ Constantine may possibly have feared an
attack from them ; at any rate he gave Helena an
escort, which in the event turned out very useful.
" The legionaries had conquered the world by the
pick as much as by the sword." ^ With the help
1 Actsii. 17.
^Theoph. Chronogr. a.d. 317.
^ Ad locum coelesti sibi indicio designatum (Rufinus, H.E.
I. vii. ; P.L. xxi. 476).
* Paulinus of Nola {ep. ad Sev. 31).
^ Paulinus, ib.
•^ Dom Marie Bernard, L'Eglise devant les Barbares, vol. i. p 40.
'' Duruy.
RECOVERY OF THE TRUE CROSS 147
of their picks they were now about to crown their
conquest of the world by finding the rehcs of Christ.
We have no means of deciding whether Helena's
starting-point for her pilgrimage was Rome or Nico-
media, or whether she travelled alone, or in the
company of her son when he transferred his capital
to the East. But it seems more probable that, in
order to take on board her escort, to obtain the
papers authorising her to take possession of the land
she required, and also the vast sums of money
necessary for the work, she must have first paid a
visit to Nicomedia. Hence the date of her voyage
to the East was not much later, if at all, than the
voyage of Constantine alluded to above.
De Vogiie, Guerin, Toupin,^ Rohault de Fleury,
and Couret^ believe that she reached Jerusalem in
December 326. De Broglie and Duruy contend
that this happened in January 327. In spite of her
great age — she was then in her eightieth year — the
empress performed the journey without difficulty,^
escorted by the soldiers, and followed by waggons
loaded with coined silver.^
As soon as Macarius heard of her arrival he con-
voked all the bishops of the province,^ and went to
meet her, receiving her with all due honours ; ^ in fact,
with a pomp entirely without precedent, especially
then, when the era of the martyrs had only just
finished. The preparations made by the officials were
nothing in comparison with the imposing procession
1 Hist, de S. Helene, Tours : Cattier, p. 325.
2 Les legendes du S. Sepulcre, Paris, 1 894, p. 2.
^ Paulinus, ad Sev. 31.
* Theoph. Chron. an. 317 ; P.G. cviii. 109.
° Georgius Harmatolus, Chro?i.; P.G. ex. 620.
•* Theophanes, ib.
148 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
of ecclesiastics and virgins which JNIacarius had
marshalled to meet the empress mother.
M. Couret ^ has given a striking description of the
meeting : " AVherefore all this stir in Jerusalem, why
this commotion under the sombre vaults of the
bazaar, why do some look sad, and why do the
Christians — Greeks and Syrians — all wear a look of
joy ; what is there to frighten the little colony of
Jews established outside the walls in the dirty Galilean
quarter ? What cause brings out the Roman tribune,
at the head of his horsemen and of the Palestine
garrison, and the curator reipublicce preceded by his
ushers, and wherefore do they all hasten towards the
Damascus Gate ? " And why does the bishop JNIacarius,
wearing the pallium which Constantine had given
him, and followed by his clergy and the bishops of
the province, direct his steps by a different road
towards the same point?
" Hear you not, in the direction of the same
Damascus Gate, where the Roman road with its
slippery stones descends through the midst of the
broken vale which divides Scopus from the Mount of
Olives, hear you not the clear and joyful note of the
silver trumpets sounding forth their arrival ? Already
through the clouds of dust we can catch a glimpse
of the gilt and silver breastplates of the imperial
guards escorting an ivory litter hung round with
purple curtains. Before this litter even the tribune
lets fall the point of his sword, and bends his knee,
whilst, on the other side, the golden cross is lowered,
the thuribles belch forth their fragrant fumes, the
choir-boys scatter handfuls of flowers, and the bishops
^ Les legendes du S. Sepulcre, pp. 3-5.
2 What is now the Damascus Gate appears of old to have been
styled the Nablus or Neapolitan Gate.
RECOVERY OF THE TRUE CROSS 149
with their deep musical voices intone the Alleluia of
the days of gladness.
" At last the procession comes to a standstill, the
eunuchs draw back the purple curtains and open the
door, and a woman steps out ; she is aged, pale,
dressed in mourning, and her face, which once had
been beautiful, shows traces of great sorrow. She
kneels before the bishop of Jerusalem and begs his
blessing. This is the Augusta."
After exchanging a few words, in spite of her great
fatigue she begged Macarius to lead her to the
terrace above the Holy Places. Then the procession
resumed its way, entered the city, and proceeded
along the long, cold, classical colonnade of the pagan
city built by Adrian ; soon they reached the plat-
form. " There," writes M. Couret, " stood a sacred
grove stocked with dark-hued trees, with its tall
cypresses and umbrella-shaped cedars, with pointed
firs, and fragrant acacias covering with their accursed
shade the two pagan chapels dedicated to Jupiter
and Venus." ^
Helena alighted from her litter at the sight ^ of the
goddess of love displaying her naked charms to the
eyes of all. Her only thought was of the sacred
treasures buried far beneath. Instinctively she felt
that she was called to play a high part, and, as if
inspired, she spoke the words of which Ambrose has
preserved the memory^: " Here indeed is the battle-
field, but where are the trophies of victory ? I seek
the Standard of Salvation, and I find it not. Shall I
then reign whilst the Saviour's Cross lies in the dust ?
Shall I be glorious whilst the sign of Christ's victory
1 Op. cit. p. 6.
2 Paulinus, ep. ad Sev. 31.
3 De obitu Theod.; P.L. xvi. 1400.
150 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
is buried in the earth ? . . . Demon, wherefore didst
thou hide this wood, save to be vanquished once
again ? Yea, thou shalt be made to bite the dust,
and to-day a woman will bring thy tricks to naught.
As Mary bore the Lord, so I shall discover His Cross.
She manifested her child by giving him to the world ;
I, for my part, shall teach His resurrection."
According to tradition Helena forsook the sumptu-
ous apartments prepared for her, and went to shut
herself in a convent of nuns, in a bare-walled cell,
whose only furniture was a wooden pallet, doubtless
somewhere on the Sion hill, for there it was that
monasteries were first established.^ Now that she had
at last reached M\my whose foundation was laid on
Holy Jerusalem, she and the bishop proceeded to
make themselves ready for their mission by retire-
ment, by fasting, and by ardent prayer,- for it must
not be forgotten that Helena and Macarius had
pledged themselves to perform a work in which they
could expect no human aid. Calvary and the sepulchre
were indeed not difficult to find, for their position
was known by all, but where was the Cross ?
Some secret presentiment led Macarius to seek for
it near the spot covered by the temple of Venus ;
moreover, he felt that, in spite of all the precautions
taken by Annas and Caiphas, the Jews who had
helped to bury the crosses could not have failed to
leave behind them some record of their act. Hence
when he called a council he invited to it not only all
those Christians who were esteemed for their learning
and sanctity, but also a few well-known Jews. The
Hebrews being by nature wily, gladly accepted his
1 Eucherius, Epit. de locis aliquibus Sanctis, ii, ; Tobler, Itinera,
52.
2 Theoph. Chron. an. 317 ; P.G. cviii. 109.
RECOVERY OF THE TRUE CROSS 151
invitation, and they brought with them a rabbi
haihng from the far East, who had among his family
papers the very information which was sought.^ Ac-
cording to Gregory of Tours his name was Jude or
Judas, and he afterwards became a convert, receiving
at his baptism the name of Quiriacus." This same
Cyriacus or Quiriacus soon became the hero of a
marvellous legend, of which more anon. The faithful
also did their best to ensure God's help, by which man's
work might be supplemented ; they sought for signs
from heaven and scanned their dreams for revelations.
Then the real work was started, the inhabitants of
the city lending a helping hand to the legionaries.^
Meanwhile the empress stayed near the works, usually
sitting on a marble chair, which was for long after-
wards shown at Jerusalem.* Other pilgrims, however,
consider this chair as that of St. James.^ Occasionally
the workmen grew weary, and complained of the fruit-
lessness of their efforts, but as soon as they saw the
empress throwing herself on her knees in the dust
they would resume their labour with new zesf
Day and night the work went on. The removal
of a mass of masonry 20 feet deep by 300 feet
long is not the work of a single day. Instead of
starting from the east, where the grotto of Joseph of
^ Sozomen, H.E. ii. 1.
^ Greg. Turon. H.E. Francorum, i. 34-; P.L. Ixxi. 179-
^ Paulinus, ep. ad Sev. 31.
* Couret, op. cit. p. 128, quotes as his references for this state-
ment the Evagatormm, Fratris Felicis Fabri, i. 295, and Castela,
le sainct Voyage de Hierusalem et mont Sinay faicl en Van l600.
Bourdeaux, mdciii. 233.
^ Ludulphus Sudheim, He itinere Terre Satwle, in the Archives de
I' Orient Latin (ii. No. iii. Voyages, 353). Paris: Leroux, 1884. [A
chair of this description is still shown in the Armenian Church of
St. James at Jerusalem. — Trans.^
® Paulinus, ib.
152 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
Arimathaa lay hid, the workmen, following either the
instructions of Judas or the rev^elations of Helena and
Macarius, sought at the western end of the platform
for the opening of the cistern, which finally they
found. ^
Only a few men could now work at once, but with-
out intermission they laboured at the task of extracting
the rubbish and the stones which filled the narrow
neck. Lower and lower went the diggers, with no
result. At a depth of some twenty feet the tunnel
widened out." The workmen now found themselves in
a spacious cave ; but was this all ? Was this then
the bottom, and had all hope been lost ? Would the
dreams of Helena and Macarius and the documents
of Judas all prove false ? By sounding the walls of
the cave a passage was at last found leading even
lower, and work began anew. According to tradition ^
the empress now took up her abode in the first cave,
and there continued to pray amidst the rubbish. In
remembrance of this the chapel now bears her name.
At last the picks struck on wood, and soon three
crosses were brought to light, and also a tablet bearing
on it the inscription recorded in the Gospels.
From this point onward we are confronted by a
double tradition. According to St. Ambrose the true
cross was distinguished from the crosses of the thieves
by its title. Helena sat herself down before the three
crosses, and opened the Gospels. One of the crosses
bore a script nailed to it, on which was written : " Jesus
of Nazareth, King of the Jews." The chief priests
had said to Pilate: "Write not 'The King of the
Jews,' but that he said ' I am the King of the Jews,'
1 Paulinus, ep. ad Sev.
2 Into what is now called St. Helena's Chapel.
^ See above, p. 46.
RECOVERY OF THE TRUE CROSS 153
and Pilate answering had said, ' What I have written,
I have written.'" St. Ambrose considers Pilate's
reply as a real inspiration, for it means : "I have
written not what pleases you, but what future ages
will wish to know. I wrote, not for you, but for
posterity ; as if he had written this expressly that
Helena might read and recognise the cross of her
Saviour." ^ We must remember that Theodosius
had taken Ambrose into his confidence, and that no
one was better placed for ascertaining the truth.^
St. John Chrysostom gives a similar version : " It
was to come to pass that the True Cross should be
sought for, that the three crosses should be confused,
and that the Cross of Christ should be recognised first
by its being in the centre, and secondly by its bearing
a title. "^
If it were true, as some others of the Fathers relate,
that Christ alone was nailed to His cross, whereas
the thieves were only tied to theirs, then the choice
would have been easier. The True Cross would then
have been recognised by the holes made in it by the
nails.
The BoUandists and the majority of early
chroniclers hold that the Cross was identified by
means of a miracle. According to Sozomen it was
at first impossible to tell which of the three crosses
was the true ; the title was indeed in the cavern
with the crosses, but it had been detached. Now
at that time a certain high-placed lady of ^Elia was
lying at death's door.* She was a widow, Libania
1 Ambros. De obitu Theod. ; P.L. xvi. 1399 and 1402.
2 Ambrose's opinion is accepted as probable by Mgr. Gerbet,
Esquisse de Rome chretienne, vol. ii. p. 270.
3 Horn. 85 (alias 84), in Joan, i. ; P.G. lix. 46l.
4 Rufinus, H.E. i. 7.
154 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
by name, who had been born a Jewess, but who after
the death of her husband Isachar had forsaken the
Synagogue.^ Macarius on seeing the general anxiety
exclaimed : " Bring away all the crosses, and let God
show that of the Saviour." Followed by Helena and
the crowd, he proceeded to the house of the dying
lady, fell on his knees, and prayed as follows : — " O
Lord, who by the Passion of Thine only Son on the
cross, didst deign to restore salvation to mankind,
and who even now hast inspired thy handmaid Helena
to seek for the blessed wood to which the author of
our salvation was nailed, show clearly which it was,
among the three crosses, that was raised for Thy
glory. Distinguish it from those which only served
for a common execution. Let this woman who is
now expiring return from death's door as soon as she
is touched by the wood of salvation." '^
She was touched with one and then with another
cross, but to no avail, but as soon as the third was
presented she opened her eyes, and arose, and feeling
herself even more alive and vigorous than when she
had been in health, she began to run about the house
glorifying God's almighty power.^
We now return to the cave. Helena, the true
cross being now revealed, fell on her knees, but felt
drawn between two — hesitating between her desire
to kiss the holy relic and her fear of committing a
sacrilege in touching it with her lips. At last she
* Acta SS. 18th August. Fita S. Helence, auctore Almanno
Altivillarensi, §. 27. Molinier and Kohler, Itinera Hierosolymitana,
47. Geneva: Pick, 1885.
2 Rufinus, H.E. i. 8 ; P.L. xxi. 476.
3 Rufinus, ih. This account agrees with those of Theodoret,
Sozomen, and Theophanes. Almannus, on the other hand, has it
that Libania's cure was effected not at her house, but in the Holy
Places, to which she had been carried.
RECOVERY OF THE TRUE CROSS 155
embraced it, and the sweetness of grace entered the
innermost parts of her soul/
Soon the news spread, and then the multitude
came flocking together with joy and impatience.
Held back, no doubt by the legionaries, they loudly
clamoured to be allowed to see and worship.
Macarius yielded, and as soon as the holy Cross
appeared in sight it was acclaimed with shouts of
joy, whilst every throat vociferated the ancient Greek
chant Kyrie eleisonr When night fell Macarius and
Helena had the Cross carried in triumph by torchlight
and with much chanting of hymns to the oratory of
the Coenaculum.^
Most saints' lives either add to, or substitute for
the miracle we have spoken of, the raising of a dead
man to life. Macarius had the crosses brought to an
open space. About the hour of noon there came by
the funeral procession of a young man who had died
the day before. The bishop resolved to put the
crosses to the proof, and the crowd fell back in amaze-
ment on beholding the corpse returning to life and
rising to its feet. This event, in this form, is re-
corded by no Greek writer, nor by the Acta Sanctorum.
I consider it apocryphal. The legend probably arose
in the western portion of the empire, and with the
help of a little fancy the cure became a resurrection.
Paulinus of Nola is the earliest writer to testify to a
transformation of the miracle.* Sulpicius Severus
takes the account as given him by his friend ^
^ Ambrose, De ob. Theod; P.L. xvi. 1401.
2 Menol. Grcec. ; P.G. cxvii. 47.
3 Toupin {Hist, de S. Helene, p. 1 46) gives as his reference for this
detail Oratio incerti in exaltatione venerandce et vivificce Crucis. Gretser,
de Cruce Christi, v. ii. p, 185.
* Paulinus, ep. ad Sev. 31 ; P.L. Ixi. 325^.
5 Sulpicius, Hist. Sacra, ii, 34; P.L. xx. 148.
156 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
From the West the fame of the new miracle made its
way to the East, where we find Sozomen, evidently
somewhat taken aback by the change, writing : " //
is said that in like manner even a dead man was
raised."
Rufinus, Theodoretus, and Sozomen speak of the
nails without, however, informing us when and where
they had been found. St. Cyril of Alexandria speaks
of a rumour to the effect that they were found in
the wood itself, into which the executioners had again
nailed them.^ Socrates distinctly says that they were
found in the Holy Sepulchre ; however, as he also
states that the crosses were found there, his text proves
nothing. Theophanes is ambiguous, he writes : " The
Holy Sepulchre and Calvary were found, and near
them, towards the east, three crosses. A still more
attentive search resulted in the nails also being dis-
covered." Gregory of Tours speaks for a different
tradition, according to which they were found by
Helena, but after the finding of the Cross. ^ M.
Rohault de Fleury ^ suggests that the empress may
possibly have bought them. The general impression
we obtain from all this is that the nails, like the
crosses, had been buried, and that they came to light
about the same time. The nails were not with the
crosses — i.e. in the cavern ; we may suppose that after
the crucifixion they fell into the hands of the disciples,
and were deposited in the second century in the
Holy Sepulchre, which, like the Coejiaculum, had
become a place of prayer. Adrian's reason for erect-
ing the temple esplanade above the sepulchre had
been precisely to prevent the Christians from visiting
1 Cyril, Comment, in Zach. proph. ; P.G. Ixxii. 271.
2 Greg. Tur. de gloria martyrmn, i. 6 ; P.L. Ixxi. 710.
^ Mem. 169.
RECOVERY OF THE TRUE CROSS 157
the tomb. Probably in order to avoid the danger
of a sedition the Romans had hurried the building
of this platform ; this would account for the Christians,
taken by surprise, not having had time to withdraw
these relics, which were thus buried under the founda-
tions of ^lia. Of course, we merely throw this out
as a suggestion.
The finding of the Cross was signalised by great
festivities. Helena invited to a banquet all the con-
secrated virgins of the city. She made herself the
servant of the servants of God, and with her imperial
hands she served them at table and poured out their
drink. ^ The unfortunate especially found reasons
for rejoicing, for great alms were distributed, and
many condemned prisoners were released from their
bonds.^
As to the date of the finding, we are told that it
occurred on the 13th September 327, the anniversary
day of the consecration of Solomon's Temple.^ That
being the case, we can only wonder why the Church
keeps the feast on the 8th of May.
One question yet remains to be answered. We
have seen that chroniclers disagree, some preferring
the human and others the miraculous proof Must
we not, then, choose between the two ? The Abbe
Gosselin rightly observes : " It is true that the writers
who recount in detail the story of the finding of the
Cross are not in agreement as to certain circum-
stances amidst which it occurred. Some say that
Christ's Cross was recognised by its title, others by
1 Rufinus, H.E. i. 8.
2 Sozomen, H.E. ii. 2.
3 Peregrinatio Silvice, p. 108 ; Theodosius, De Terra Sanda, v.
(Tobler, 64) ; Menolog. Grcec. ; Tixerontj Origines de I'Eglisc d'Ephese,
p. 175 ; Acta SS. May, vol. i. 365.
158 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
the cure of a sick woman. . . . Nothing is more
common than to find even the most trustworthy
historians giving different accounts of the circum-
stances which accompany the same fact."^ Without
there being any real contradiction in the testimonies,
each one takes the fact which strikes him most, and
neglects the rest. Truth will possibly be found in a
combination of whatever has the appearance of being
true in the different series of accounts. Helena's
inspiration and dreams did not prevent Macarius from
assembling in council the notabilities of iElia, nor
from accepting the information which Judas was
ready to impart. So likewise the fact of the title
being still fixed to the Cross does not exclude the
possibility of a miracle having occurred.
It may be that Rufinus gives us the key to the
problem when he writes : " The title, written by
Pilate in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew letters, was
there, but it did not show clearly enough which was
the Saviour's gibbet."^ From this it would seem
that the title did to some extent point to one of
the crosses rather than to the others. Helena and
JNlacarius may well have had good antecedent reasons
for believing, without having had that certainty to
which no merely human proof can pretend, llufinus
is right ; the reasons, such as they had, were in-
sufficient to allow of their placing the wood on the
altar and demanding that men should give it honour.
Helena and INIacarius prayed, and God's power, by
effecting a creature's cure, came to supplement such
proofs as they already possessed.
^ Gosselin, Notice sur la Couronne d'epines, pp. 11-12.
2 Sed nee ipse satis evidenter Dominici prodebat signa patibuli.
CHAPTER V
HELENA DIVIDES THE CROSS. HER DEATH
We left Helena with the True Cross, with the title,
and the nails ; what will she do with the relics she
has sought and found ?
It is said that, being anxious to visit Pope Sil-
vester and do him homage, she crossed the seas, and
hastened to hand over to him the larger portion of
her find. But it must be pointed out that this
tradition makes her follow a strange route. " At the
time when Constantine lived," writes Gregory of
Tours,^ " the Adriatic Sea was so tempestuous, ship-
wrecks were so frequent, and so many men perished
by them, that it acquired the name of the sailors'
death-trap.^ The queen, anxious to relieve so many
miseries, had one of the four nails of the cross thrown
into the sea, hoping that by God's mercy this would
be sufficient to allay the furious motion of the waves.
And, in fact, no sooner had she done so than the
Adriatic grew calm, and ever since it has been blest
with favourable winds. Even to-day seamen venerate
the sea which was thus hallowed, and when they
reach it they fast, and pray, and join in hymns."
As soon as she reached Rome, Helena, so we are
told, wishing to take revenge for the sacrilege com-
mitted by Adrian in building a temple of Venus over
^ De gloria martynmi, i. 6; P.L. Ixxi. 710.
2 [For Adriatic we should probably read Ionian Sea. The dis-
tinction between the two seas is not very marked, and navigators
even to-day often speak of the Ionian Sea as the Adriatic. — Traits.^
159
ICO THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
Calvary, pulled down an ancient temple of Venus,
and with the material thus obtained built the
basilica of the Holy- Cross-in- Jerusalem on the same
site.^ To the new basilica was given a large piece of
the True Cross, the title, one nail, the cross-beam of
the good thief's cross, and the finger which St.
Thomas had placed in our Saviour's side. To Treves
the empress presented Christ's seamless coat, a nail,
and the knife which had been used at the Last
Supper ; neither did she forget the city of Besan^on.
But from beginning to end this story is the merest
fiction. The tale of the casting of a nail into the
Adriatic to quiet the sea is so absurd that hagio-
graphical writers endeavour to deny it. In 1617
Bosio, following Gretser, says that " the empress
withdrew the holy nail from the sea after having
immersed it."' M. Gosselin adopts this version, and
adds ^ : " Helena's deep respect for so precious a relic
does not allow us to think for a moment that she
deprived herself and the Church of such a treasure."*
Yet Gregory of Tours categorically states that she
cast the nail into the sea. On the whole, it is better
to reject the story altogether.
Moreover Helena, even if we allow that she re-
turned to Rome, would not have crossed the Adriatic.^
Ships coming from Judea made for Puteoli, some few
miles from Naples,^ or Ostia, the port of Rome.
Nor, again, can her erecting the new basilica have
been due to any desire to spite her ancient gods, for
^ Baronius, Annals, an. 324j no. 105.
^ Bosius, Crux triumphans et gloriosa, I. xv. 101-102.
^ Notice sur la Couronne d'cpines, 137.
* Cp. R. de Fleury, Man. (170), and Besozzi in his history of the
church of Santa-Croce-in-Gerusalemme.
^ [See, however, the translator's note, p. 1.57.]
* The modern Puzzuoli. Acts xxviii. 13.
HELENA DIVIDES THE CROSS 161
no temple of Venus ever seems to have existed on
that site.^
Let us then return again to St. Helena at Jerusalem
in 327. The empress kept for herself that portion of
the wood of the Cross which had touched our Saviour's
shoulders,' giving the rest — i.e. the larger portion — to
the church of Jerusalem,^ after first enclosing it in a
superb reliquary.* The Title got broken ; Jerusalem
retained, apparently, the higher portion, which seems
to have been seen by pilgrims in the fourth ^ and in
the sixth century.*^ The empress kept all the nails
for herself, and either sent, or carried them herself, to
Constantine.^ The latter had one of these mounted
so as to be able to use it as an ornament, now for his
crown, now for his helmet.^ Out of another nail he
had a bit made for his war-horse,'^ and it is supposed
that out of some filings from this latter nail, mixed
with molten metal, he made twelve new relics of an
inferior class. ^°
^ Ph. Gerbet^ Esquisse de Rome chretienne, vol. ii. p. 247.
2 R, de Fleury (op. cit. 110-111) writes: "In 1241 Baldwin gave
St. Louis a large part of the Holy Cross. The Cross which had got
into the possession of the Doge of Venice had been taken by
Helena's command from that part of the True Cross which was
behind our Lord's shoulders, and which was called the Cross of
Victories, because it had been carried by the armies of Constantine
and his successors,"
^ Sozomen, H.E. ii. 1 ; Rufinus, H.E. i. 8 ; Theodoretus, H.E.
i. 17.
4 Rufinus, H.E. i. 8 ; P.L. xxi. 476.
^ Peregrinatio Silvice, p 96.
^ Antoninus M., Peravihiilatio locorum sanctorum, § xx. (Tobler,
102).
"^ Rufinus, H.E. i. 8. Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret, loc. cit.
8 Riant, Exuviae, ii. 270.
^ Rufinus, i. 8 ; Socrates, i. 17.
1*^ A nail kept at a convent in Florence is enclosed in a reliquary,
on which is inscribed : " Unus ex xii. clavis " (R. de Fleury, 171).
L
162 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
St. Helena did not leave Jerusalem till the next
year, when satisfactory progress had been made with
the basilicas of the Holy Sepulchre, of the Mount of
Olives, and of Bethlehem. When she did, she pro-
ceeded forthwith to Constantine at Nicomedia, and
died soon after her arrival, her last recommendation
to him being to lead a Christian life.^ Her grand-
children knelt about her death-bed, kissing the hand
which she had raised to bless them." It is thus that
events succeed each other in Eusebius's account.
Hence it is idle to talk of Helena having returned
to Rome, a journey which would indeed, apart from
its uselessness, have been one of great difficulty to a
woman now eighty years of age.^
Constantine had her body taken to Byzantium,
which just then he was transforming into Constan-
tinople. The army ^ acted as escort, and the remains
were finally laid to rest in the basilica of the Apostles,^
which the emperor had just built, with vaults to re-
ceive the princes of his family.^ He himself had his
tomb prepared in the same place, that he might sleep
his last sleep near one that he had so dearly loved. ^
This mausoleum, which Eusebius calls the royal
monument,'' still contained in the thirteenth century
the remains of both mother and son. It was seen in
1150 by the anonymous author of the Reliquioc Con-
1 Theoph. Chro77. ; P.G. cviii. 114.
- Eus. dc Fita Const, iii. \6.
^ Theoph.
* Eus. de Vita Const, iii. 47.
^ The church of the Apostles afterwards became the Sultan-
Mehemet-Fatih Mosque. Mordtmann, Esquissc lopographique dc
Constantinople, Revue dc I' art chrcticn, 1891, 28, 467-478.
6 Theoph. Chro7i. an. 317; P.G. cviii. 113.
^ In eodem sepulcro. Scemundai'son in Riant, Exuviae ii. 215.
* Vita Const, ib.
HELENA DIVIDES THE CROSS 163
stantinopolitancc ; Mn 1167 by Nicholas Soemundarson,
abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Thingeyrar in
Iceland^; in 1200 by Anthony, archbishop of Nov-
gorod,=^ and in 1203 by Robert of Clari/
Certain chroniclers contend that in 1211 Aycard, a
regular canon of Constantinople and a Venetian by
birth, obtained by a trick the saint's body, and brought
it to Venice, where he hid it in his monastery/ The
Venetians kept two feasts commemorating the trans-
lation of St. Helena's relics — one on the 21st of May
and the other three days after Pentecost.*^
French and Italian writers mostly follow a different
tradition which is well expounded by the Abbe Lucot.^
The body of St. Helena was carried not to Constan-
tinople, but to Rome. According to the Liber Pontifi-
calis " Constantine Augustus (in the reign of Pope
Silvester) built a basilica in honour of the blessed
martyrs, Marcellinus the priest and Peter the exorcist,
in the spot called ' Two Laurels.' Adjoining it he
built a mausoleum, in which, in a porphyry sarcophagus,
reposes the body of his blessed mother, Helena
Augusta. The monument is on the Via Labicana,
three miles from Rome."^ The altar was of massive
1 Exuviae, ii. 212. - lb. ii. 215. ^ 7/,^^^
* lb. ii. 232. Li estoires de chiaus qui conquisent Constantinoble.
° Andreas Dandulus^ Chronicon Venehmi in the Exuviw, ii. 262. If
this account be right, St. Helena's body was transferred to the
monastery of St. Helena after the taking of Constantinople by the
Crusaders in 1204.
^ Exuvice, ii. 294 and 302.
'' Saiiite Helene. Paris: Plon, 1896; Toupin, Hist, de S. Hclcne,
Tours : Cattier, 1888, p. 238 sq. In his Repertoire des sources
historiques du moyen-dge, U. Chevalier quotes La vie et miracles de
saincte Helene mere de I'empereur Constantin dont le saint corps repose
a. Veglise d'Hautvilliers, diocese de Reims, pres d'Ay, Troyez, l634, in
8vo; ib. I66O, in 12mo; 7th ed. Chalons, l687, in 12mo.
^ Anastasius, Sanctus Silvester j 44 ; P.L. cxxvii. 1523.
164 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
gold, and before the tomb stood twenty silver lamps,
weighing each one twenty lb., and supported on
stands of richly decorated porphyry.^ But this
account presents a difficulty. Why did Constantine
prefer a wayside basilica some miles from the city to
the church of the Holy-Cross-in-Jerusalem ?
To return, about a.d. 840 Teutsige, or Tergisus, a
monk of the Hautvillers monastery,^ eluding the
sacristan, managed one evening to conceal himself
in the sanctuary, and during the night contrived to
make off with a reliquary containing the embalmed
corpse of the empress.^ Quitting Rome without
arousing any suspicion, he in due time reached
Hautvillers. But here his story found no credence,
and Teutsige, to prove to his brethren that what he
had brought, concealed under his habit, was really all
that remained of the finder of the Cross, had to fast
three days and undergo the trial by water {aqucc
indicio). Lucot and Toupin believed that this was
really a case of the trial by boiling water, and that
the monk had to enter a cauldron bodily. Flodoardus
is not clear ; moreover, the trial by boiling water
usually consisted in the accused having simply to
withdraw a ring from the bottom of the cauldron.*
It is possible too that the monks were satisfied with
the cold-water trial, which was sometimes used when
the matter in hand was not criminal. Whatever the
trial precisely was, the monks do not appear to have
been quite convinced, for they despatched two of
their brethren to Rome to make inquiries, and re-
^ Anastasius, Sanctus Silvester, it; P.L. cxxvii. 1523.
- Altum Villare. It was founded in the seventh century by St,
Nivard, archbishop of Rheims.
3 Flodoardus, I list, ecclesia; Hetnensis, ii. 8 ; P.L. cxxxv. 108.
■^ [Not a very difficult or dangerous matter if the performer was
careful to damp his hand and arm beforehand. — Tratis.]
HELENA DIVIDES THE CROSS 165
frained from expressing any opinion until these two
came back bringing confirmation of the news, and in
addition the body of St. Polycarp.^
The worship of St. Helena flourished at Hautvillers
until the Revolution. In 1791 Dom Grossard hid
these pretended relics at Rheims and at Epernay, and
before his arrest saw that they were made over to
the parish priest of CefFonds. After many adven-
tures, Avhich it would take too long to recount, they
came into the possession of the church of St. Leu
in Paris, where in 1871 they were saved from injury
by the unexpected intervention of a federate sergeant.
At some unknown date, whatever remained in Rome
of the supposed body of the saint was divided among
several churches. In the left transept of S. Maria-in-
Ara-Coeli, under the altar dedicated to St. Helena,
there is an urn which is said to contain the relics
of St. Helena and of the martyrs Artemius, Abundius,
and Abundantius.- The abbey of Der, in Cham-
pagne, formerly possessed what was said to be St.
Helena's head.^ Whence it came no one knows, but
it afterwards passed to the church of Montier-en-Der,
with a document of 1342 duly witnessing to the
translation.* Lastly, writes M. Lucot,^ " there is
still shown at Rome, so M. de Rossi informs me,
the remains of the round mausoleum, and in the
Vatican museum may still be seen the huge sarco-
phagus of richly sculptured porphyry in which Con-
^ Lucot and Toupin state that the trial by water took place by
command of Charles the Bald, and was presided over by Hincmar of
Rheims ; but they give no references.
2 Lucot, p. 36. 3 11^ p. 37.
^ See this document in Lucot, p. 13. There was formerly at
Corbeil a finger of St. Helena's which had been presented by
Robert of Clari after the sack of Constantinople in 1204. Exuvice,
ii. 199. ^Ib. p. 34.
166 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
stantine had laid his mother. Bottari and Aringhi
have described this sarcophagus in their works.^ So
far as I know, the monument shows no trace of
Christianity. On the cover naked children disport
themselves among garlands of leaves ; on the sides
are depicted scenes from military life." ^
The reader has now before him all the details of
the problem. Unfortunately, they are all contra-
dictory. What became of the remains of that
woman so humble in her birth and yet so great in
her mission ? Shall we seek them at Rome, or at
Constantinople, or at Venice, or in Paris? Personally,
we incline to favour Constantinople.
St. Helena had much property in different parts of
the empire ; this she divided among her heirs by a
will made shortly before her death.^ No doubt she
directed Constantine, as her executor, to see that
Rome, Treves, and Besan^on each received some
portion of the relics of the Passion. We shall treat in
succession of these three cities.
1 Bottari, Roma Sotterranea, iii. pi. 196 ; Aringhi, Roma Subterranea,
ii. p. 22.
2 Toupin (p. 239) gives some interesting details about this
sarcophagus.
^ Eus. Fita Const, iii. 46.
CHAPTER VI
THE SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF THE
INSTRUMENTS OF THE PASSION
1. Rome's portion
the relics preserved at santa-croce-in-
gerusalemme
The first of Helena's wishes which Constantine im-
mediately set about fulfilling was the erection of the
basilica of Santa-Croce-in-Gerusalemme at Rome.
This was to serve as the resting-place for a piece
of the True Cross. The basilica consists of an upper
church and of a crypt named after St. Helena. An
inscription, near the passage leading down to the
crypt, gives us the tradition, which, however, stands
in need of some rectification.^
It tells us how the basilica was built by Helena
after her return from Jerusalem ; the foundations
were laid in earth brought, by way of the sea, from
Calvary, in order that the new church might be called
the New Jerusalem.^ It was consecrated by Pope
Silvester I. in the calends of April, in the thirteenth
year of his pontificate — i.e. in 327 or 328. Whoever
composed this inscription preserves a discreet silence
on doubtful points ; it will be observed that he has
nothing to say of Helena's return to Rome, nor of
1 The text of the inscription is given by Nicquet, Titulus Sanclcv
Crucis, Antwerpiae, l670, p. 152, and by Fleury, Mem. p. 367.
2 [This furnishes an explanation why this Roman church should
be called the church of the " Holy-Cvoss-in-Jenisalem." — 7'rans.^
167
168 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
the relics which she is supposed to have given to the
new sanctuary.
Anastasius, a ninth - century Vatican Hbrarian,^
enters more into the details, and in his Life of Pope
Silvester I. he informs us that the monument was
built by Constantine. " At this same time," he
writes, " Constantine Augustus built a basilica in
his mother's palace, in which he placed even the
wood of the Holy Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
enclosed in a golden casket adorned with stones. He
it was who gave its name to this church, called even
to-day ' Jerusalem '." -
This writer gives a grand account of the munificent
donations made by the sovereign. There was the
massive golden altar weighing 250 lb. ; four candle-
sticks (to denote the four Evangelists) in gold and
silver, each weighing 30 lb., and designed to burn
before the Holy Wood ; fifty silver lamps of 15 lb.
each ; a cup of pure gold weighing 10 lb. ; five
chalices for use at the Mass, all of them in gold,
weighing each 1 lb. ; three silver cups each of
8 lb. ; ten silver chalices of 2 lb. each ; a golden
paten of |10 lb. ; a silver one, edged with gold
and adorned with stones, of 50 lb., and silver cruets
of 20 lb. Much landed property was also pre-
sented to the sanctuary to defray the costs of
worship.^
This great treasure, which Cacioni values at 143,000
pieces of gold,* must have contained many articles
which were merely ornamental. We cannot well
fancy a priest handling a paten four stone in weight,
' He attended the Council of Constantinople in 869.
2 Anastasius, Sanctus Silvester ; P.L. cxxvii, 1521.
2 Et omnia agrorum circa palatium ecclesia^ dono dedit. Ibid.
* Gerbet, Esquisse dc Rome chrclienne, vol. ii. p. 276".
ROME'S PORTION 169
or altar-boys presenting him with cruets which would
turn the scale at twenty Ib.^
Anastasius drew his information from the pontifical
archives, which were then still intact, and his in-
formation is correct. That Constantine in doing
what he did was acting as his mother's executor
is seen by the fact that he erected the building on
property which had belonged to her near the Lateran
palace, and on the spot formerly covered by the
gardens of Heliogabalus.'^ Hence it is that " Jeru-
salem" was called Helena's basilica in the Acts of
the Council held at Rome in 433 under Sixtus 1 11.^
In the beginning, on account of the relic of the
True Cross, this basilica ranked as one of the first
among the churches of Rome. This has been proved
by Gerbet.* " In the Middle Ages," he writes, " the
Pope did not sing the Good Friday Mass in the
Lateran basilica, though indeed this was his own
church and stood close to his palace. On that day
Mass was said there by one of the cardinals. The
Pope merely entered that church to vest. He then
went in procession barefooted to St. Helena's basilica,
where he celebrated the mystery of the Passion
before the Cross." ^ Hence after the ninth century
^ Bonneau says of Constantine that the wealth he bestowed on
the churches built by him is almost incredible — in the stead
of lead or iron he used gold and silver^ and paved the floor
with precious stones (L« Donation de Co7ista?iti?i, xx, Lisieux,
1879).
2 Gerbet^ vol. ii. pp. 273-274.
2 Sederunt in uno conflictu in basilica Heleniana quae dicitur
Sessorianum atrium. (See the Acts of this Council.)
* Op. cit. vol. ii. pp. 278-279.
5 Discalceatus pergit [Papa] cum processione et omnes cum eo
cantando psalterium usque ad sanctam crucem. (Benedictus can.
S. Petri, in Marten, iii. de Antiq. eccles. ritibiis, lib. iv. xxiii.) See
also Mabillon, Mus. Italic. 1 1 .
170 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
the church came to be called that of the Hohj-Cross-
in-Jerusalevi.
The relic still exists, and R. de Fleury describes
it with his usual exactitude.^ " I had been led to
suppose that the relic of the Holy Cross kept at
the basilica . . . was very large. To my surprise,
I found only three bits of about the size of my finger.
. . . The reliquary formerly contained four pieces ; this
is seen by the empty space. At some far-off period
a Pope desirous of repairing the losses in the relic
at St. Peter's, most of which had been given away by
his predecessors, abstracted one of the pieces from
the reliquary at Santa Croce. Of the three remain-
ing, the longest, that which forms the upright of the
little cross, is 160 mm. in length, and varies from 6 to
II mm. in thickness; the next has a length of 120
and a thickness of 9 mm. ; the third a length of 90
and a thickness of 9 mm. On this last one it is easy
to make out the vein of the wood, which evidently
belongs to the coniferce ; the colour is the same as
that of the wood commonly used in pencils ; the
broad and narrow veins alternate ; all three are
irregular in shape, and their total volume is 35*320 c."
Yet this it is which in ancient works is described
as The Cross. When relics are in question we must
allow for all kinds of exaggerations. But at any rate
the very tinyness of the royal gift to the head of
the Church shows how greatly the Wood of the
Cross was esteemed.
(1) The Title of the Cross
Had the Title been left to Rome by St. Helena,
it would certainly have been mentioned by Anastasius
1 Mt'vi. 80.
ROME'S PORTION 171
when he speaks of the Holy Cross ; and Constantine,
who was so prodigal with precious metals, would
certainly have made for it a gold or silver case, the
more so because by its very nature the Title was
something absolutely unique, and as such merited
special veneration. Who then presented it ? An
unknown person ? This is hardly likely, for the
Eastern emperors were too jealous of their treasure
to part with it without good reasons.
The history of the Title from 327 to the reign of
Valentinian 1 1 1, is an utter blank. Hence it is the Title
itself we must examine for proof of its authenticity.
In every age capital punishment has been sur-
rounded by a certain glamour, in order that the public
may be made aware of the nature of the crime
punished. According to Roman custom the name
and misdeeds of the criminal were inscribed on a
title ( Tabula, Isabella, Titulus, Litteixie)} This title
was carried before the condemned on his way to the
place of execution,^ and then hung above his head
if he was crucified, or else placed near him if he
perished by some other death. ^
The title was prepared by painting white a piece
of board, which in this state was termed an album.
*' This word, which in general means anything white
or whitened, was especially used to signify tablets,
notice-boards, and the whitewashed wall spaces on
which it was customary to write in red or black letters *
all sorts of advertisements and public notices."^
^ Justus Lipsius, De Cruce, p. 101.
2 Suetonius^ Caligula, c. 32 ; Eus. H.E. V. i. 19.
2 Suetonius, In Domitian. c. 10.
^ Quintilian, Inst. or. xii. 3 ; Ovid, Fast, i.-ii. ; Martial, xi. 5, 5 ;
xii. 26, 5.
s Daremberg and Saglio, Diet, ties antiquites grecques et romaines
(art. Album).
172 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
In the course of time the word album came to mean
an official deed or document. Among the best known
pubhc records are the Albitm pontijids, a Hst of great
events, and the Albuvi pi^cctoris, or edict annually
placarded in the Forum by the prastor.
As Christ was executed according to Roman law,
He too must have had His title inscribed in red or
black characters on a white background. We are
told that Pilate chose the text, which, however, is not
given in quite the same words in the four Gospels.
St. John has " Pilate wrote a title also, and he put
it on the cross." ^ As, according to St. John, Pilate
certainly did not attend in person the crucifixion, nor
fix the inscription to the Cross, we must understand
the Evangelist as meaning that both the fixing and
the writing of the Title was deputed by Pilate to his
satellites." The wording of the tablet is given as
follows : —
By Matthew : " This is Jesus, the King of the
Jews." ^ By Mark : " The King of the Jews." ' By
Luke : " This is the King of the Jews."^ By John :
" Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." ^
The variants are slight, and we may explain them
by recollecting that Matthew, Mark, and Luke were
not present at the Passion, nor did they ever see the
Title, which disappeared with the Cross on the night
after the crucifixion. They merely aimed at giving
what they had gathered had been the principal accusa-
tion brought against Christ. Thus Matthew writes :
1 .In. xix. 19.
2 [It is, however, right to point out that, given a theory, before
mentioned (p. 75) — viz. that the " cross " consisted merely of the
cross-beam — Pilate may well have done in person what John
describes as having been done by him. — Trans.^
3 Mt. xxvii. 37. * Mk. xv. 26.
6 Lk. xxiii. 38. c Jn. xix. 19,
ROME'S PORTION 173
" They put over his head his cause " ; Mark : " The
inscription of his cause was written over " ; John
alone, who had not left his Master's side, could write
with any accurate knowledge.
From Luke we learn that the superscription was
written " in Greek, in Latin, and in Hebrew " ; ^ from
John that it was written " in Hebrew, in Greek, and
in Latin." "^ Here again, as we shall see, the order
given by the latter is correct.^ Such was the Title
buried in the cavern below St. Helena's chapel. Does
it agree with that found in 327 ?
There are only two ancient writers who speak on
the subject. Sozomen writes : " There was found,
apart, a tablet inscribed with the words Jesus of
Nazareth, King of the Jews, the language and letters
being Hebrew, Greek, and Latin." ^ We almost seem
to be reading the Gospel of St. John. Rufinus, less
well informed, makes a mistake in the order in which
he enumerates the languages. " Near by," he writes,
*' was the title itself, on which Pilate had written in
Greek, Latin, and Hebrew letters." ^
Hence there is good reason for believing that the
title found was identical with the Title hid away with
the Cross. But is this Title the same as the one now
kept at Santa Croce ? The latter is thus described
by R. de Fleury "^ : " The fragment of the Title, which
1 Lk. xxiii. 38. 2 jn. xix. 20.
3 It must be here pointed out that the Vulgate [of which, of
course, the Rheims version is a translation] differs from the Greek
text in Lk. xxiii. 38. The Greek makes no mention of the languages
in which the title was written, it runs : rjv 81 Kal eTrtypac^i) iir' avno'
6 (Saa-tXevs twv 'lov8aio}v ovtos. Hence verse 38 should be read :
''There was written over him. This is the King of the Jews " The
Vulgate, however, renders correctly the parallel text in St, John.
4 Sozomen, H.E. ii. 1. ° Rufinus, H.E. i. 7.
^ Mem. 186.
174 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
is kept under glass, in a rather mean silver case, is a
little board 235 mm. in width by 130 mm. in height;
it is all worm-eaten, and looks as if it were crumbling
away. On it the remains of two inscriptions, one
Greek and the other Latin, may be quite clearly
made out, and above them we can see the lower ends
of what appears to have been the topmost inscription.
The second inscription reads NAZAPENHC, the
third NAZARINVS RE.^ The letters are slightly
indented, as if they had been inscribed with a kind of
chisel, such as carpenters use even now;'" each letter
measures from 28 to 30 mm. in height. ... If they
were painted red on a white background — I could,
however, see no trace of this — they would have been
readily seen when on the Cross. The words are
written from right to left, following doubtless the
direction of the Hebrew inscription, and the letters
are turned the wrong way round, as if they were seen
in a looking-glass."
Some points lacking in this description must be
filled in by reference to older writers. In the first
instance, on what kind of wood is the Title engraved ?
It would be diverting but utterly useless to follow
ancient authors in their disquisitions as to whether
the title was written on parchment, or on oak, or
sycamore, or poplar wood.^ St. Augustine opines
that both the Cross and the Title were made of
^ Bosio and Gosselin give it as NAZARENVS. R. de Fleury
was the first to rectify this error.
2 This proves that, as we said before, Pilate himself did not write
the title, but had it inscribed, probably by some Jewish workman
of the city. [The direction of the writing, and the fact of the letters
being indented, would almost suggest that the title had been made
to serve as a mould for striking facsimiles. — Trn7is.]
3 Nicquet, op. cit. i. 3 ; Qua: materia Tituli, sen ex quo ligno fuerit,
Antw. 1670, p. 32.
ROME'S PORTION 175
sycamore wood,^ because it was up a sycamore that
Zacchaeus climbed to see Christ pass.
Again, as we have seen, the Hebrew text is wanting,
though a few strokes remain. These were submitted,
in 1838 or 1839, by Cardinal Caparelli to B. Drach,
the Propaganda librarian, who had been a rabbi before
his conversion to Catholicism. This expert replied
by a letter which was afterwards published." Therein
he states that " the inscription which stands first has
been much injured by time. . . . There remains, of
the letters which it comprised, only a few shapeless
strokes, but these are still distinct enough to enable
us to seek the words and the letters of which the
writer made use. We must do so speedily, for the
time is not far distant when even these slight traces
will disappear from the sacred tablet. . . .
" I recognise in the remnants of the letters the writing
commonly in use in our nation before the destruction
of the second Temple, the same writing, in fact, as we
find on the Machabean medals ; in other words,
numismatic writing. By measuring the distance
between the strokes on the tablet, I saw instantly
that the Hebrew title was written not in the classical
but in the common language such as was spoken at
Jerusalem."
After two months' study Drach was able to suggest
a text in the Hebrew idiom of the first century,
rendering the words Jesus of Nazareth, King of the
Jews, of which the lower strokes coincided with the
strokes still to be seen on the tablet.^
1 Sermo clxxiv. ; P.L. xxxviii, 941.
- See Annales de Philosophie chretienne, xviii. 1839^ pp- 291-308
and 341-352.
^ [For a reproduction of Drach's reconstituted text, see the
Compte rendu of the International Catholic Sclent. Congress of
176 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
Other older visitors tell of certain details now no
longer visible. Thus Lselius Petronius, in a MS. seen
by Bosio, says that he saw the Title in 1492, and at
that time the red colour of the letters was still dis-
tinctly visible.^ M. Gosselin found another witness
to the same. " An antiquarian who visited Rome
during the French Revolution, and who carefully
examined the relic, assures us that the white and the
red colours have entirely disappeared from the Title,
but that the red has given way, as usual, to a dull
leaden colour."^ Lastly, Gerbet states : " The white
colour, remarked by Sozomen, has gone. The wood
is brown, but here and there are dark grey patches.
Now we know that white lead takes this hue when
discoloured by time."^
To sum up : the Title preserved in Santa Croce is
a rotten piece of wood, undeniably ancient. It has
all the qualities of an album, on which the letters
were scooped out with a chisel and then coloured red.
Although it has been reduced to a third of its original
size, it still contains the most characteristic part of
the Greek and Latin inscriptions described by St.
John for the year 33, and by Sozomen for the year
327. It is now our purpose to seek out its history
from the latter date downwards.
We hear of it for the first time in the first half of
the fifth century. Placidius Valentinian III., emperor
of the west from 424 to 455, embellished the sanctuary
Fribourg, 1897, p. 76, plate 3, or Vigouroux' Manuel bihlique, vol. iii.
1894 edition, p. 577. It is quite fanciful. — Tratis.]
^ Nicquet, op. cit. 162.
2 Notice sur la Couronne d'cpines, p. 45.
3 Ollivier (La Passion, p. 330, note 3) is wrong when he states
that the ground on which the inscription was written was white-
wash. Lime would not leave such traces as these here spoken
of.
ROME'S PORTION 177
of Santa Croce, and adorned it with mosaics in fulfil-
ment of a vow which he, together with his mother
Placidia and his sister Honoria, had made/ At the
same time the clergy had a cavity made at the sum-
mit of the arch in the middle of the basilica, near the
roof, and between two small columns. Therein was
deposited the relic in a leaden casket two hands in
length ^ The cavity was then closed by a tablet in
baked clay, on which was inscribed Titulus Crucis,
the Title of the Cross. ^ According to tradition
Valentinian paid for this tablet as well as for the
mosaics. The inscription last spoken of seems to
belong to the very end of the empire.*
What was the reason of this removal of the relic ?
Was it for fear of its being outraged by the bar-
barians ? No ; for the tablet covering the cavity re-
mained well in sight. Rome had just before been
sacked by Alaric's Visigoths (24th August 410).
These invaders were Arians, but as Christians they
respected the churches. St. Augustine writes : "I
could mention the martyrs' sepulchres and the
apostles' basilicas which in that awful disaster opened
their doors both to Christians and to pagans. There
the fury of murderers was quenched, thither did they
also lead those whom they desired to save, that they
might not suffer violence from those [of the bar-
barians] who were less pitiful."^ The title would
1 Inde centum fere labentis annis, Placidius Valentianus III.
Imperator ... in solutionem voti sui, ac matris Placidiae et
Honorise sororis, opera vermiculato earn exornavit. (Excerpt from
the inscription.)
2 Una capsula plumbea duarum palmarum, Nicquet^ op. cit. l62.
The Roman "hand" measured slightly over eight inches.
3 See a picture of it in R. de Fleury, pi. xix. p, I90.
^ R. de Fleury, ib. pp. 186, 188.
^ De Civ. Dei, i. 1 ; P.L. xli. We know from St. Jerome's letters
M
178 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
have been perfectly safe, and for like reasons, in the
later incursions of the Vandals under Genseric in 455,
and of the Suevi under Ricimer in 472.
The real danger was the ill-advised piety of the
faithful. The common people considered the saints
as powerful protectors, and they desired, above all, to
secure possession of their relics, which they looked
on as a guarantee of safety and good luck.
Ceste grant garantisson,
as the biographer of St. Germer puts it.^ Such feelings
as this account for the robbery of the bodies of SS.
Marcellinus and Peter by the men of Hilduin, abbot
of Mulinheim," and the many other deeds of a like
kind, such as happened after the taking of Con-
stantinople in 1204.^ It was not an unknown thing
for people, under pretence of kissing it, to bite off a
piece of the True Cross in order to appropriate it for
themselves.^
The Church, naturally desirous of discouraging such
deeds, from the fifth century onwards was accustomed
to secrete the relics in the walls of her sacred edifices.^
Soon another feeling had to be guarded against.
St. Gregory the Great, writing to Constantina, em-
press of Constantinople, says : " In Latin countries,
that Marcella and her daughter Principia found safety in the
basilica of St. Paul, whither they had been taken by some Visigoths,
■who had been struck by their appearance. Jerome, Ep. cxxvii. ad
Principiavi ; P.L. xxii. 1095.
^ Petit de JuUeville, Hist, dc la langiic el dc la lill. fratigaises,
vol, i. p. 11.
2 Eginhardus, Hisl. Translationis martyrum Marcellini et Petri, cap.
iii. ; P.L. civ.
2 Cf. Riant, E.vuviw ; Achille Luchaire, Lc Cullc dcs reliques
(Revue de Paris, July 1900, p. 189).
* Peregrinalio Silvia', Rome, 18cS7, p. 96.
^ Paulinus of Nola, Ep. .S2 ad Sev.; P.L. Ixi. cols. 335-336;
Poemala, xxvi. vers. 103 Jf'. col. 641.
ROME'S PORTION 179
and in fact throughout the West, it is considered un-
lucky, and indeed sacrilegious, to touch the bodies of
the saints. The rash man who would dare to do
such a thing would not long go unpunished."^ To
take one instance, the gifts of St. Helena to the
church at Treves remained for nearly four centuries
without a bishop daring to open the chest in which
they lay. In fact, the result was that nobody knew
what it contained.'
These reasons explain why the title of the cross
was taken from the altar and mounted high up beyond
the reach of thieves. But though in this position it
was safe from all attempts, there was another danger
to be feared. With time the tablet became the same
colour as the walls, and the words Titulus Crucis
being no longer visible from the nave of the church,
the title was forgotten, and men's only thought was
for those relics of the Cross which they could still see.
As no one knew the whereabouts of the Title, it was
commonly considered to have perished.
It is easy to explain how it slipped people's memory.
In 1143 Rome was in revolt; in the following year
Arnold of Brescia strove to re-establish the Republic.
In 1145 Pope Lucius II. was summoned to renounce
his rights as king ; he refused, and was expelled. In
1146 another Pope, Eugenius III., was forced to fly
to France. After many troubles the Popes took
refuge at Avignon. In such times, when blood is
shed in every direction, and when three Popes are all
claiming their right to the tiara, people would have
small thought for the relics of the Passion, especially
for those hermetically sealed and hidden away.
'X' ^ -3V- '/? 'A*
^ Ep. bk. iv. 30 ; P.L. Ixxvii. 702.
2 Acta SS. 13th January. De S. Agricio.
180 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
On 1st February 1492 Rome received the news
that Ferdinand the CathoHc had taken Granada.
That same day the Title unexpectedly came to light.
Gonzalez de Mendoza, titular cardinal of Santa Croce,
was just then repairing the roof of his basilica above
the apex of the arch in which was the tablet before
spoken of. A hammer missed its mark, and striking
the tablet, split it, the two pieces falling into the
cavity behind. The workmen examined the hiding-
place thus disclosed, and took out the two fragments
of the broken tablet and the leaden chest which they
found within.
Then the cardinal was apprised of the find, and to
his great astonishment read the words IHtidus Crncis,
and found on the reliquary the seal of Cardinal Gerard
Caccianemici,^ corresponding with the year 1143.^
Of course, the find was hailed with joy. No one
doubted the identity of the find with the Title in-
scribed by Pilate, but as usual, popular fancy magnify-
ing the event, it was soon noised abroad that the
whole Title had been discovered. Cardinal de
Mendoza ordered the relic to be solemnly shown to
the people, and all Rome went to kneel before it.
Innocent A^III.^ went to see it, and directed that it
should be shown under glass from the altar.*
1 This fact, says R. de Fleury (p, 186, note 1), is borne out by
the investigations made by de Corrieris, Dc Scssorianis relujuiis,
1829, p. 89. Gerbet, who derives his information from the same
source, says : " A titular cardinal of this church, who afterwards
became Pope under the title of Lucius II., had sealed the casket
and inscribed his name on it. The seals and the inscription were
recovered with the relic" {Rome chn'ticnnc, vol. ii. p. 280).
2 This was our reason for not dealing with the period anterior to
1143.
3 Lselius Petronius, quoted by Bosio, Crux tmimphaus, L, i. c. xi.
* Bosio, ib.
ROME'S PORTION 181
From all this it would seem that the authenticity
of the Title is well established. At first the property
of Helena, it was transported to Constantinople to be
kept in the treasury of the emperors of the East.
Less than a century later we find a portion of it at
Santa Croce. If then it was not given by Con-
stantine himself, it must have been the gift of one of
his immediate successors. At any rate the donor
must have been known. And since the time of
Valentinian surely no relic has been more carefully
preserved. At the summit of an arch, it was in a
place never touched save on the occasion of repairs,
which are not often needed in the course of centuries.
Nevertheless, the authenticity of the Title has been
called into question on philological grounds.
Some have pointed to the direction of the writing.
The Hebrew, Greek, and Latin are all written from
right to left — i.e. in Semitic fashion — and, moreover,
the letters are all turned the wrong way round. This,
it is argued, betrays the hand of a forger.
Gretser ^ and Nicquet^ have carefully hunted out
Latin and Greek inscriptions written backwards.
In Pausanias, in connection with the statue of
Agamemnon, they found a proof that the Greeks
sometimes wrote from right to left. They also found
coins inscribed in like fashion. R. de Fleury also
discovered such inscriptions in the Pisa Campanile, on
certain vases in the Uffizii museum at Florence, and in
the note-books belonging to Leonardo da Vinci, and
now kept at the library of the Paris Institut.^
But it is needless to follow these writers in their
appeal to such anomalies. The writing on the Title
1 De Cruce Christi, i. c. xxviii.
2 Titulus S. Criicis, L. i. c. xii. p. 86 sq.
3 Mem. p. 192.
182 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
must be judged not by modern standards, but by
those of the time it dates from. We must not forget
that in a.d. 33 at Jerusalem ordinary writing went
from right to left, that in the surrounding countries
— e.g. in Phoenicea this direction was likewise a
characteristic. The Greeks, who borrowed their
alphabet from the Phoenicean, began by writing from
right to left.^ So true is this, that when Fr. Lenor-
mant prepared a table of the intermediate writing
of the Greeks to compare it with the Phoenicean
characters, he was compelled to put the Greek Cad-
mean letters in two columns, according as they ap-
peared when written from left to right, and vice versa.^
Then after some time the Greeks learnt to change
the direction. This is described by P. Berger.^
" Quite early the Greeks modified the writing they had
adopted and changed its direction. This, however, did
not come about without some confusion, of which we
find the traces in the inscriptions of Thera. Here we
find inscriptions starting from the right, and after wind-
ing about over the monument, returning to their start-
ing-point. Later on it became customary to write on
parallel lines, in which the left-to-right and right-to-
left directions alternated. As this fashion of writing
imitated the course of the plough, it acquired the name
of Boustrophcdon.^ This transition form lingered long,
but at last made way for the uniform left-to-right
direction, which is now used all over Europe."^
1 Lecoy de la Marche, Les Manuscrits et la miniature, 52.
' Daremberg and Saglio, Diet. cit. (art. Alphabetum).
^ Hist, de r Ecriture dans I' antiquitc, Paris: Hachette, 1892, p. 131.
* f3ovu-Tpo(l)-))86v — from ftovs (an ox) and o-t/dc^w (I turn). Pesson-
neaux, Diet. gree-fran<^ais.
5 The law of Gortyna, found in 1 863 by the Abbe Thenon, and
edited by Br^al, is a good instance of Boustrophedon writing {Revue
archeol. December 1878, pp. 134-356).
ROME'S PORTION 183
Now Jesus was condemned on account of a crime
which was of more concern to the Jews than to the
Romans. Pilate's reply to the crowd was : " What
evil hath he done ? . . . I am innocent of the blood
of this just man, look ye to it." ^ When he dictated
the inscription which should be placed above the
Cross, his desire was that this inscription should be read
and understood by the Jewish crowd, in which there
was a large Greek element, but nearly all of whom
knew some Latin. Hence by his orders the Title was
written, for the various sorts of Jews, in Hebrew,
Greek, and Latin. Probably he committed the
making of the final inscription to some Jewish artisan,
and naturally enough the latter, being accustomed
to write from right to left, reversed the Greek and
Latin words. A forger would not have done so, but
would have been more careful. Such a solecism
must emanate from a Hebrew ; it is as good as a
trade-mark. Hence the direction of the inscription
does not furnish any argument against its authen-
ticity. But another objection has been raised.
The fragment of the Title at Santa- Croce gives
NAZAPEN8C for Nazarenus of Nazareth. This
containing, as it does, several blunders has shocked
grammarians, but in reality there is here nothing
very remarkable. It proves that the workman knew
little of Greek, but it does not prove that it is the
work of a forger. When St. Paul came back to
Jerusalem, the tribune whom he wished to see asked
him : " Canst thou speak Greek ? " ^ If then even a
Rabbi could be ignorant of the language, surely a
fortioji a poor workman.
The title, or more correctly the Greek word
Nazarenus, contains three slips. E has been placed
1 Mt. xxvii. 23, 24. 2 Acts xxi. 37.
184 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
for H. NAZAPEN8C for NAZAPHN8C. It
may be allowed that this is a barbarism, but a mis-
take in spelling does not deprive a text of its value.
Moreover, this identical mistake occurs frequently
in authentic epigraphs ; a fact which has been shown
by Nicquet.^
A more serious slip occurs in the penultimate letter
of the word : instead of the letters ov the engraver has
used the late abbreviation 8. Gosselin disposes of
the objection based on this mistake as follows- : — " It
is only necessary to remark that we cannot say exactly
when the abbreviation 8 first came into use. Father
Montfaucon in the preface to his Paleographie
grecque (No. IX.) instances several third-century
medals on which it is used, and there is nothing to
make us believe that it was not used long before.
The learned religious had himself seen such medals
in the cabinets of a certain Foucault, who was well
known at the beginning of the eighteenth century
as a collector of antiques." ^
Again, a slip has been made in both the number
and case of the word. NAZAPEN8C is apparently
a Greek accusative plural, and, besides this, we
may question whether it is a Greek word at all.
" Of Nazareth " in Greek should be rendered as
N AZOF A IOC — i.e. as it is rendered in the Greek
text of the fourth Gospel. In fact, the so-called
Greek word in the Santa-Croce Title is nothing but
a Latin word spelt in Greek characters.
1 Til. S. Crucis, L. i. c. xvi. pp. 118-119.
- Notice sur la couronne d'epines, p. 48, note.
3 R. de Fleury discovered and described three such medals.
Op. cit. pp. 93, 94. [It is perhaps necessary to point out that
this objection is far more serious than our author supposes. Labour-
saving abbreviations such as that in question are usually invented
by learned scribes, not by obscure illiterate workmen. — Trans.^
ROME'S PORTION 185
Let us, however, revert to the last scene at the
governor's hall. When Pilate dictated tlie text of
the inscription he spoke in Latin, using the vi^ords
Jesus Nazarinus, and gave orders that these Latin
words should be translated into Hebrew and Greek.
Now the Latin letter u was pronounced as ou [oo in
dooni]. Accordingly the translator, knowing little
of Greek, confined himself to transliterating the name,
but being aware that the Greek letter v is pronounced
as 1/ ^ he determined to use the abbreviation for the
Greek letters ov. This explanation is Nicquet's. It
follows that the name under discussion is not, as has
been supposed, in the accusative plural, but in the
nominative singular.
It may also be pointed out that the impression we
derive from the Gospels is that the text was written
merely in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek letters. St.
John speaks of the title as being written Hebraice ^
— i.e. literally "in Hebrew fashion." St. Luke in the
Vulgate speaks of the inscription being in letters
of Greek and Latin and Hebrew.^ It is true that
the equivalent of these words in italics is not found
in most Greek texts of the Gospel, but St. Jerome's
version gives us at least the Church's tradition on
the matter.
We will now bid adieu to these objections, which
are already too hackneyed,* and betake ourselves to
1 [For instance, the Greek 'YMHN transliterated into Latin gives
Hymen, not Humen ; similarly with Latin names rendered into
Greek. — Trans.^
2 KoX rjv ytypafXfx.kvov 'E^patcrTi, 'EAAr^vto-xt, 'Pa)ju.ai(rTi (Jn. xix. 20).
3 Lk. xxiii. 38.
^ Those wishing to enter more deeply into such questions find all
they need in Gretser's De Cruce Christi ; Nicquet's Titulus S. Cruets
L. i. c. xvi. p. 118; Gosselin, Not. sur la couronfie d'epines, p. 47,
note 1 ; Gerbet, Rome chretienne, vol. ii. p. 286 ; R. de Fleury, Mem.
186 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
the consideration of a graver problem. Was the Title
entire when it came into the possession of Santa
Croce ? Did what is now missing fall away through
the effects of age ? In other words, is Santa-Croce
alone in possessing any remains of the Title ?
Bosio unearthed in the library of a Roman archae-
ologist the MS. of a sort of diary written by La?lius
Petronius, Paul de Magistris, and Stephen Infessura,
who were contemporaries of the finding of the Title.
Here we read ^ : " The workmen found a small cavity
in which lay a leaden box two hands in length, and
hermetically sealed. Above it a rectangular marble
slab bore the words : Here is the Title of the True
Cross} In the box was a small tablet a hand and a
half in length, one side of which had been gnawed
by time. On one side had been engraved, and then
coloured red, these words : Jesus of Nazareth, King
of the Jews} The inscription was incomplete. Two
letters, urn, were wanting in the last syllable runi^
because, as I said, this side of the tablet had perished.
The first line was in Latin, the second in Greek, and
the third in Hebrew characters."*
Petronius, having the reputation of a trustworthy
witness, has led many historians astray. Gosselin, for
instance, though with some hesitation, writes ■ ' : "In
1564 the Title was again inspected, and was found to
have been shortened on that side where was the word
Judeeorum. In 1648 it was noticed that the right-
p. 192. Luppi in an article in the AiixUiaire cathoHque (1845)
sums up the work of Buonarotti, Boldetti, Mabillon, and Montfaucon.
1 Bosius, Crux triumpham, L. i. c. xi. p. tiO.
2 Hie est titulus vera' Crucis.
3 Jesus Nazarenus, rex Judteorum.
^ See the text in Bosio, op. cil., and in Nicquet, op. cit. i.
pp. 25, 162.
'' Courotme d'epines, p. 44 sq.
ROME'S PORTION 187
hand side too, where the word Jesus had been, had
also disappeared, so that now nothing remained except
Nazarenus re." Hence it was inferred that the Title,
which was almost intact in 1492, had gradually fallen
to pieces, to the extent of retaining only one-third
of its original surface. The view of Gosselin was
generally adopted, and is now found in nearly all
books which treat of the subject.
Yet how utterly untrustworthy all this is ! In the
first instance, with regard to the verification of the
relic in 1648. Presumably Gosselin is alluding to
the copy made by the Cistercians and published in
that year.^ But Bosio, as far back as 1617, had
already given a plate showing that the Title was then
what it is at present. As to a verification in 1564, it
would be vain to seek for one outside the works of
Suarez, bishop of Coimbra, who narrates that when
returning from the Council of Trent with other
bishops, he was shown a board with the words : Jesus
of Nazareth^ King}
If we examine these testimonies attentively, we see
that the accounts given by Petronius and by Suarez
are inexact. (Suarez says nothing of the Greek text.)
At this time the relic was on view, for Innocent VIII.
had seen that it was put in a glass case. The clergy
were free to inspect it, and any " verification " in the
proper sense of the word would have been meaningless.
Petronius's account is inaccurate from beginning
to end. He read hie est Titulus Verce Crueis where
^ Imago triumpkalis vivificce Cruets . . . qualis anno l64<8, Romae,
apud Cisterciences intra Basilicam S. Crueis - in - Jerusalem seu
intra Capellam S. Reliquiarum conspecta est. Reproduced by
M. Delfin Donadiu y Puignau, Compte rendu du Congres catk, de
Fribourg, 1897, sciences rel. p. 65, plate 1.
^ Nicquet, L. i. c. xxv. p. l63.
188 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
there was only Titulus Crucis ; he saw a marble slab ^
when there was only an earthenware tablet ; he states
that the order of the texts was as follows : — Latin,
Greek, and Hebrew, whereas in reality it was Hebrew,
Greek, and Latin. Why then need we heed him
when he states that the box was two hands, and the
Title one hand and a half in length ?
Rohault de Fleury very rightly investigated the
matter mathematically, and thus sums up his investi-
gations : "The words Nazarinus re measure 210 mm. ;
the inscription as given by Petronius's diary : Jesiis
Nazarenus 7^ ex Judceoruin, would have taken at
least double that length — i.e. much more than
333^ mm. Hence Petronius is wrong somewhere,
either in his measurement or in his text ; my impres-
sion is that he is wrong in both."^ Had Petronius's
measurements been accurate, the original casket could
never have contained the Title.
The Title, as it now is, measures 235 mm. by 130.
The earthenware tablet measures 325 mm. by 210 ;
we can thus form some idea of the measurements of
the leaden receptacle which was in the cavity closed
by this tablet. As de Fleury rightly points out, it is
evident that the tablet was made expressly for the
Title as we now know it. Hence what was found in
1492 is just the Title now kept at Santa-Croce, and
nothing more.
I should fancy that Petronius, as soon as he heard
of the find, ran to the basilica and mingled with the
crowd, but was kept at a distance by the prelates and
clergy kneeling about the relic. He probably saw
1 Super earn erat lapis quidam quadrangulus marmoreus.
2 A hand and a half, the measure used by Petronius, would make
exactly 333 mm.
3 R. de Fleury, Mem. 1 89.
ROME'S PORTION 189
very little, and obtained most of his information from
hearsay. He had been told that it was the Title of
the Cross. To make an entry in his diary he probably
opened the Gospels in the middle, and copied St. Luke's
account of the order of the languages. It was perhaps
lucky that he did not open it at the end of the Gospel
of St. John. Had he done so, and copied his text
faithfully, we should probably even now be unaware
of the other mistakes he committed.
Bosio had quoted the testimony of Petronius
merely as an archaeological curiosity. He himself
adds : " From its form and size we can see quite
clearly that the most Holy Title had been broken in
order that its fragments might be distributed over
the Christian world. It scarcely stands for more than
a third of the whole Title of the Holy C?'oss.''^
The Cruai Triumpha?is was published at Antwerp
in 1617. The Reformation wars were scarcely over.
Calvin had maliciously twitted Catholics with their
many churches which claimed to possess the Title of
the Cross. In fact, this multiplication of the Title
furnished a standing joke to the Genevese Reformer.
Some good Catholics, with more faith than common-
sense, had repeated the evasions of St. Paulinus of
Nola and St. Cyril, and maintained that the Title was
animated with a recuperative power which could
replace anew every fragment torn from it.^ Bosio
was better advised, and simply examined the Title.
He was thus able to state, and this with truth, that
Toulouse and the other places had not the Title, but
merely those pieces of it which were not to be found
at Santa- Croce.
1 Crux friiimpkans, p. 62.
2 Nicquet, op. cit. pp. 1, 25, l60. [See the texts in L. de Combes,
De I'inv. a l' exalt, p. 211 ff. — Trans.^
190 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
Toulouse, which Calvin had alleged as a justifica-
tion for his mockery, never claimed to possess more
than a fragment of the Title. As such it was described
in 1785 by the deputation which examined it.^ This
relic, which was kept in the church of the Daurade,
disappeared during the Revolution.'^ It used to be
exposed twice a year, on May 3rd and September 14th.^
Other fragments are known to be kept at Rome (in
St. John-in-the-Lateran and in St. Mark's) and at
Agnani.^ That the Title was preserved entire in
several places is thus shown to be merely a baseless
fiction of the Calvinists.
"T^ ^ TV w 'Tr
At the fourth International Catholic Scientific
Congress, held at Fribourg (Switzerland), between
the 16th and 20th August 1897, M. Delfin Donadiu
y Puignau, Professor at the University of Barcelona,
presented a paper on The Tr^ie Title of the Cross. ^
This paper raises two questions, one of no great
moment— viz. In what dialect was the Hebrew in-
scription ivritten ? The other of the greatest im-
portance. What was the state of the title in 1492 ?
With regard to the former point, the Abbe
Vigouroux writes *^ : " The family of Semitic languages
comprises Arabic, which was, and is still, spoken in
Arabia and in parts of Asia and Africa ; Ethiopian,
which was spoken in Ethiopia ; Assyrian, the language
of Assyria and Chaldea ; Aramaic, which was spoken
in the land of Aram — i.e. Syria ; and lastly Hebrew,
1 Gallia Christiann, xiii. 102.
2 Gosselin, op. ctt. pp. 52-53.
2 R. de Fleury, up. cil. p. 90.
4 Ibid.
^ Compte rendu, 1. p. 64 : Fribourg: CEuvre Saint- Paul, 1898.
•' F. Vigouroux, Le Xouv. Test, el les dccouvertes modemes, Paris,
1890, p. 11.
ROME'S PORTION 191
the language of Palestine before the Captivity.
After the Captivity Hebrew proper became a dead
language, and was supplanted by Aramaic.'' Aramaic
was the language of which Drach had found traces
in the Title.
M. Donadiu y Puignau prefers to run counter to
this generally admitted view, and maintains that the
language current in Judea at the time of Christ, and
consequently the language which appeared in the
inscription, was not Aramaic at all, but a debased
form of Hebrew. This view of his apparently did
not find adherents at the Congress.^
With the second point we return to matters of
greater moment. From the fifteenth to the nine-
teenth century historians had for their only documents
the fanciful diary of Petronius and the testimonies of
Bosio. But in 1830 Dom de Corrieris published
certain noteworthy original documents preserved in
the Vatican archives." Gerbet and R. de Fleury
often quote this work, but, unfortunately, they do not
reprint the texts, and copies of the Italian scholar's
work are exceedingly difficult to find. The Spanish
professor has therefore done us a good service in
extracting the principal passages relating to the
discovery of the Title.
The Title came to hght on 1st February 1492. On
4th February Leonardus Sarzanensis, at the demand
of Innocent VIII., thus describes it^: "On the
board, beginning from the top, the inscription is
in three lines, and in letters belonging to three
tongues — Hebrew, Greek, and Latin ; they were
1 Compte rendu, p. 8.
2 Leander de Corrieris, De Sessorianis prcecipius passionis D.N.J.C.
reliquiis conimentarius. Roma, 1830,
^ Compte rendu, p. 74.
192 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
engraved, so far as one can see, with an iron point.
The first Hne is Hebrew, the second Greek, the third
Latin. The Hebrew is written in abbreviations
which mean Jesus of Nazareth, King. The Greek
has I C NAZAPEN8C B ; but the word Bmileus,
meaning king, is wanting, save for the first letter.
The Latin has simply IHVS NAZARENVS RE.
The word rex is not complete, .r being wanting."
There is here one slight error, which we find
repeated until the time of R. de Fleury. The Latin
is NAZARINVS, and not NAZARENVS. Apart
from some minor inaccuracies, and save for the
name Jesus, the above description applies to the relic
as it now is. We can now gauge Petronius's trust-
worthiness, who states that he read NAZARENVS
REX IVDiEOR in an inscription which is officially
declared to contain only NAZARENVS RE.
John Brocardo, master of ceremonies in the ponti-
fical chapel, also drew up (2nd March 1492) a report
of the visit made by Innocent VIII. to Santa Croce.
He writes ^ : " On the Title there was written back-
ward, in Jewish style, in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin
characters, IS NAZARENVS RE." The remainder
of the Title— z.e. X IVD^EORVM— was deficient.
The two prelates disagi'ce as to the word on the
right-hand side of the inscription. Sarzanensis reads
IHVS, Brocardo IS. We can easily find out which
of the two reports is the more correct. Originally
the word must have been lESVS. Supposing that
the end of the Title became frayed, there would
remain ESVS, and not IHVS as Sarzanensis has it.
On the contrary, had the end of the Title been broken
off, carrying away with it the first three letters and
part of the fourth, the remaining portion of the
^ Cample rendu, p. 74.
ROME'S PORTION 193
fourth might easily have been mistaken for I, and
the result would be IS as it is read by Brocardo.
What must we think of the testimony of Suarez,
who states that he saw in 1564 the name Jenus ?
Judging by the two witnesses Sarzanensis and
Brocardo, we may infer (1) that the left side of the
Title was in 1492 exactly what it is to-day ; (2) that
the name Jesus on the right-hand side was incomplete
in 1492, and that possibly on this side the Title has
since been eaten away ; (3) that Gosselin is mistaken
in believing that the relic was examined and described
in 1564, and consequently that his theory of the
gradual crumbling away of the Title is without
foundation.
After having dealt with the above texts, M.
Donadiu y Puignau examines whether the words of
Sarzanensis would not lead us to suppose that the
Hebrew inscription was also present when the Title
was found. " Looking carefully at this passage, we
find that it really conveys very little. . . . Leonard
Sarzanensis omits the Hebrew inscription, evidently
because he was not sure about it. ..." Leonard in-
deed states that the top line is written in abbreviated
characters, but Drach, a Jew by birth, on the con-
trary, came to the conclusion that the strokes visible
are not abbreviations at all, but the lower extremities
of words written on a portion of the Title which is not
to be found in Rome. Sarzanensis, who, like every
good Christian in the fifteenth century, was ignorant
of Hebrew, simply made a mistake.
The Title preserved at Santa-Croce differs therefore
very little from what it was in 1492. Moreover, as
R. de Fleury's measurements show that the leaden
case in which it was found could not have contained
the Title, had the latter been much larger than it is
194 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
at present, it seems probable that before the fifth
century the greater portion (two-thirds) of the Title
had been detached from it. Hence it would be no
matter for surprise did we find fragments of the Title
in other localities.
■TV- ^ T? -Jv TV
After all this it would indeed seem that the relic at
Santa-Croce might be left to enjoy in peace its pre-
scriptive right of fifteen centuries. However, the
publication of the ancient Palestine-Pilgrims' texts
has again brought doubts into the minds of many.
The pseudo- Antoninus Martyr visited Jerusalem
about the year 570. He writes : " The Title that had
been placed above the head of Jesus, and on which is
written ^Tesus of Nazareth^ King of the Jews, I saw it,
I held it in my hands, and I kissed it."^ Likewise
the so-called Peregrinatio Silvice, which deals with a
period between 385 and 388, tells us that the authoress
attended the Good Friday service in the chapel of the
Cross, which is situated to the south of the Atrium
against Constantine's basilica. The bishop seated
himself on his throne, and before him was placed a
table, covered with a cloth, around which the deacons
took their stand. Then the wondrous silver-gilt
reliquary was brought in, and out of it was taken the
wood of the Cross and the Title. One by one the
faithful approached, and touched first with their fore-
heads, then with their eyes, the Cross and the Title ^
and, after having kissed the Cross, withdrew.^
Dom Cabrol, late of Solesmes, who perhaps attaches
too much importance to Gamurrini's discovery, writes :
" It had been wrongly believed that the Title had been
^ Anton. M. Perambulatio loc. sand, xx, (Tobler, 102).
2 Hilarii, Tractatus de . . . S. Silvice Aquitancc peregrinat. ed.
Gamurrini, Rome, 1887, pp. 95-dQ.
ROME'S PORTION 195
brought to Rome by St. Helena, and that it was pre-
served there. This passage from Silvia proves the
contrary."^ Must we then follow Dom Cabrol and
consign the Roman Title to the regions of fiction ?
Not necessarily.
The faithful often betray their misdirected piety by
their exaggeration. They constantly speak of partial
relics as if they were entire. It was this that gave
Calvin an excuse for attacking them. Even those
who, like R. de Fleury, state explicitly that the
church of Santa-Croce never possessed more than
one-third of the Title of the Cross, still write at the
head of their works The Title of the Cross. Now
what was in this respect Silvia's attitude of mind, and
what was the language which she commonly used ?
Was she too, given to exaggeration ? We can easily
judge. One thing we know for certain : even if the
whole story of Helena is a legend, it is none the less
certain that the wood of the Cross was portioned out,
that Constantinople possessed half of it, and that at
Jerusalem only a fragment remained. Now Silvia,
speaking of this fragment of the Cross, terms it " The
Cross," as if it had been the Cross whole and entire.^
If then " The Cross " has in her language a merely
relative meaning, why may this not be the case also
with " The Title " ?
It is natural to surmise that the Cross and the Title
were both treated in the same way, that St. Helena
spared of both a portion for the church of Jerusalem.
Possibly it was not even necessary to break the Title,
for it seems hardly likely that so frail a board could
^ Etude sur la Peregritiatio Silvias, Paris: Oudin, 1895 p, 105,
note 1.
2 Peregrinatio, pp. 78-86, 90, 92-97, 99, 100, 103. She invariably
makes use of the expressions ad crucem, post crucem, ante crucem.
196 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
have resisted without injury the weight of the ac-
cumulated rubbish which had been heaped on it in
the cavern. Probably the pressure and the damp
had split it into several portions.
Nor does the text of Antoninus affect the genuine-
ness of the fragment of the Title at Santa-Croce.
The Title had originally borne a trilingual inscription.
On this point the united testimony of the fourth
Gospel, Rufinus, and Sozomen has been confirmed by
a recently recovered text of Priscillian's.^ Antoninus
held in his hand a piece of board, on which was a
single sentence written in an idiom which he does
not describe." Had the Title he saw contained a
threefold inscription in three different languages, we
should expect an allusion to this fact, but this we do
not find in Antoninus.
Bosio has shown us the right way out of the
difficulty. The fragments found here and there are
bits of the Santa-Croce Title. ^ At least, owing to
the relative meaning of the word " the Title," there
is no ground for contradicting this statement. In
the portion of the Title kept at Rome the only com-
plete word is Nazarinus in Latin and Greek. The
Hebrew inscription is not there, and we may well
suppose that it was this Hebrew inscription that
was seen by Antoninus ; the fragments kept at
Toulouse and Agnani may also be the missing
1 Cabrol (op. cit. p. 105, note 1) as his reference gives Schepss,
p. 26.
- [Since the idiom of the text seen by Antoninus is not described,
it is natural to believe that it was in Latin. If his description of
the words be correct, and supposing the Santa-Croce and the
Jerusalem fragments to be different portions of the same tablet,
then the Jerusalem fragment could have contained only the Hebrew
inscription. — 7V«hj.]
3 F. Martin, Arc/ieologie de la Passion, p. 332 sq.
ROME'S PORTION 197
portions to the right and left of the Santa -Croce
Title.
After the time of Antoninus we hear no more of
the Jerusalem relic. Durand de Mende, who died
in 1296, speaks of a parchment {chart a script a) on
which Pilate had written the cause of Christ's con-
demnation, and states that he saw it in the chapel
of the illustrious king of the Franks.^ Riant attaches
little importance to this isolated testimony.^ Had
the Title been given by Baldwin to St. Louis it would
certainly have been mentioned in the chart then
drawn up, or had it been already in I^ouis's possession
we should have otherwise heard of it. The Title un-
earthed in 327 was made of wood, for according to
Sozomen it was painted white. Evidently the docu-
ment seen by Durand was simply one of those
forgeries, once so frequent, similar to Christ's letter
to Abgar, or that other letter, purporting to have
been written by our Savour, instructing the faithful
to be diligent in paying tithes.^
When people have got over the first excitement
caused by the discovery of the Peregyinatio Silvice
and begin again to weigh calmly and impartially the
various testimonies, it will again become apparent
that the fragment of the Title kept at Santa- Croce
has little to fear from criticism.
(2) The Holy Nail
As compared with the relic previously spoken of,
^ Rationale divinorum officiorum, L. vi. c. Ixxx. in the Exuv. Constant.
ii. 250, no, 25.
- Exuvia;, I. ccxiii.
^ Revue ecclesiastique de Metz, Jan. 1901, p. 10. [Christ's letter to
Abgar may be found in G. Phillip's Doctrine of Addai the Apostle
in original Syriac with trans, and notes. London : Triibner, 1876.J
198 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
the Nail kept at Santa-Croce-in-Gerusalemme is from
a critical point of view in a much more unsatisfactory
position. It is pointless, and one-third of its length is
wanting. It measures now a little over four inches
— 120 mm. — and weighs 63 gm.^ Twenty-nine
localities possess altogether thirty-two nails or frag-
ments of nails,^ though at the most only four nails
were used in the Passion. These nails are diversely
venerated, for while some of them may have pierced
Christ's members, the others are merely facsimiles
containing at the most a few filings from one of the
original nails. Hence we must be very careful to
discriminate between the original instruments used
at the execution and those which are nothing more
than diluted replicas of the originals.
The Santa-Croce Nail was long considered as
having once been in contact with the sacred body
of the Crucified. We know this by the evident
traces it bears of having been over and over again
filed, to the end that new tertiary relics might be
manufactured from the filings.
The tradition is that St. Helena made a gift of it
to Rome. Father Ollivier in his work on the Passion ^
shows himself to be even now a believer not only in
this nail, but also in the tradition of the iron crown at
Monza and of the Holy Bit at Carpentras.
However, the doubts expressed by R. de Fleury *
seem well grounded. The Holy Nail in Santa-Croce
has for its head a kind of hollow cap, in the form of a
^ It has been depicted by Bosio, Crux triumphans, L. i. c. xv. p. 99 ;
Gosselin, op. cit. p. 140; R. de Fleury, op. cit. p. 172, pi. ib'and the
figure on p. 179.
2 R. de Fleury, op. cit. p. 171.
^J^a Passion, popular French edit. p. 429, note 1 .
*0p. cit. p. 179.
ROME'S PORTION 199
cardinal's hat, to which the upper end of the nail is
riveted. Such an article would be of little use in
crucifying, as any blow not given directly on the top
would send the cap flying. Possibly this nail is one
of the twelve nails which Constantine procured to be
made from metal with which had been mingled a few
filings from the nail with which he had made a bit
for his war-horse. If so, then we can easily explain
why Anastasius never mentions this relic, and also
why the emperor did not enshrine it in a precious
reliquary.
Though it seems that the Holy Nail has no right
to the rank claimed for it by tradition, yet this does
not deprive it of its history. It has been argued that
the missing point of the nail served for the making of
the famous iron crown of the Lombard kings.^ But
the consideration of such questions as these belongs
rather to a special work dealing exclusively with the
nails of the Passion.^
(3) TJie Good Thief; his Cross and his Legend
Our Saviour's Cross and the crosses of the two
thieves must all of them have been alike, for other-
wise Helena and Macarius would have recognised
immediately which was the True Cross.
In St. Helena's basilica there is a cross-beam which
is said to have belonged to the good thief's cross.
1 Bosio, Crux triiimphans, L. i. c, xv, p. 9^. Fontanini, Dissertatio
de Corona f err ea, Rome, 1717, c. i. No. 7.
^Shortly before his death Mgr. X. Barbier de Montault wrote a
dissertation, in which he strives to prove that the crown at Monza is
not a relic at all, but a piece of handiwork, of which the maker was
the ninth-century art-jeweller Volvinius (^Kevue de I' art chretien,
1900 p. 377; 1901, p. 12).
200 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
R. de Fleury describes it as follows ^ : — " I saw at
Santa-Croce-in-Gerusalemme a relic brought by St,
Helena and deposited in a chapel of this ancient
basilica. The importance of this venerable relic . . .
justifies my describing it in detail. It consists of a
huge lump of wood 2-25 m. in length [nearly seven
feet], and from 155 to 160 mm. broad. At about the
middle of the cross-beam is a hole from 22 to 25 mm.
in diameter, into which there must once have fitted
a sort of peg. The surface of the wood had once
been smooth, but many splinters have been taken
from it, principally about the hole just mentioned.
Judging by the fibres and knots in the wood, its
material must be Scotch pine or fir. It is a light
brownish-grey in colour. On a paper which is en-
closed with the relic in the somewhat shabby case
which serves as a reliquary, we read :
Pars cruets sancti Dixmce boni latronis."
Opinions are divided as to the authenticity of this
relic. We are free to treat or not to treat it as a
relic ; the True Cross had been made known by the
cure of an inhabitant of Jerusalem, but we know of
no like miracle which was given to distinguish the
cross of the good thief from that of his companion.
The BoUandists are reserved ; they point out that
according to ancient writers the good thief had been
venerated more especially at Bruges in Belgium ;
they also state that some fragments of his cross were
reputed to be kept at Bologna in the church of SS.
Vitalis and Agricola, and in that of St. Stephen ; but
on the subject of the cross-beam preserved at Santa
Croce they maintain a discreet silence.^
1 Mem. 74,
2 Acta SS. 25th March. De S. Latrone crucifixo cum Christo. [The
following passage from the Arundel MS. of Sir John de Mandeville's
ROME'S PORTION 201
From the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus we
learn that the thieves crucified to the right and left
of our Saviour were named respectively Dismas and
Gesmas/ St. Matthew gives a striking account of
the cruelty of the crowd. They that passed by, on
the road between Calvary and the city walls, " blas-
phemed him, wagging their heads, and saying, Vah,
thou that destroyest the temple of God, and in three
days dost rebuild it, save thy own self. If thou be
the son of God, come down from the cross. In like
manner also the chief priests, with the scribes and
ancients, mocking said. He saved others, himself he
cannot save. If he be the king of Israel, let him now
come down from the cross and we will believe him."^
Not one of the witnesses had compassion enough to
say a kind word — not even the thieves, for they too
mocked at and upbraided him. " And the selfsame
thing, the thieves also, that were crucified with him,
reproached him with."^
But suddenly a cry was heard : " Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do."* At these
words Dismas grew silent. He had expected hard
words, and behold Christ, in the midst of His tor-
ments, forgets His pain to utter words of pardon, and
a prayer for His insulters. Christ's cry brought a
light into the soul of the good thief ; he felt that to
Travels may be of interest : " Some men trowie yat half of ye
crosse of Cryste be in Cipre in a abbaye of monkes yat men call ye
hylle of ye holy crosse, bot it is nought so, for yat crosse yat is in
Cipre it is ye crosse on ye whiche Dysmas ye good thefe was
hanggede." Quoted by Berjeau, Geschiedenis, Intr. p. viii. — Tra7is.]
1 Evang. Nicod. c. x. ; Migne, Diet, des Apocryphes, vol. i. col.
1113.
2 Mt. xxvii. 39-43.
3 Mt. xxvii. 44.
* Lk. xxiii. 34.
202 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
love one's executioners was beyond the power of man,^
and he beheved. The incident is thus recounted by
St. Luke : " One of those robbers who were hanged
blasphemed him, saying, If thou be Christ, save
thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked
him, saying. Neither dost thou fear God, seeing
thou art under the same condemnation ; and we in-
deed justly, for we receive the due reward of our
deeds, but this man hath done no evil. And he
said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou shalt
come into thy kingdom ; and Jesus said to him :
Amen, I say to thee. This day thou shalt be with me
in paradise." ^ Words more full of hope never had
been spoken, for they teach fallen man that there is
no crime which cannot earn remission, save the crime
of despairing of God's mercy.
According to the apocryphal Gospel of St. Peter
Dismas gave vent to his indignation against the
stupid mockery of the populace, and from his gibbet
asked the crowd : *' What harm has he done you ? "
The crowd then turned its attention to him, and to
spite him they persuaded the soldiers sent by Pilate
" not to break his legs, in order that he might take
longer to expire, and so suffer more."^ This detail,
however, conflicts with St. John's account, which states
that the soldiers broke the legs of both the thieves.^
This striking episode of the Passion has given
birth to all kinds of legends about the penitent thief.
Sister Emmerich, whom we may quote, now that we
stand outside of the realm of history, tells ^ us how,
^ See OUivier's touching pages on the incident of the conversion
of the good thief, La Passion, 396"-400.
- Lk. xxiii, .S9-ti>.
3 Ev. Pebi, 13-14.
* Jn. xix. 31-32.
'' The Dolorous Passion, p. 257.
ROME'S PORTION 203
during the flight into Egypt, the Holy Family was
cared for by a band of brigands who terrorised the
Judean borderland. Dismas, the child of one of these
robbers, had been attacked by leprosy ; the Blessed
A^irgin had bathed him in the water with which she
had washed her own child, and Dismas had come out
of the bath cured, this purification of his body being
a kind of pledge of the grace he was finally to receive
on Golgotha.
In the Gospel of the Childhood the names given to
the two thieves were Titus and Dumachus. Once
upon a time they had seen the Blessed Virgin riding
an ass, with Jesus in her arms and St. Joseph trudging
beside her.^ " Said one thief to the other, ' I pray
thee let these travellers pass in peace, lest our com-
panions see them ' ; Dumachus refusing, Titus said
to him, ' I will give thee forty-four pieces of silver,
for which thou canst have my girdle as a pledge,' and
as good as his word he unwound his cincture and gave
it to his comrade. Mary seeing the kindly disposition
of the thief said to him, ' May God protect thee with
His right hand and may He pardon all thy sins,' and
the Lord Jesus also said to Mary, ' O mother, in
thirty years' time, the Jews will crucify me at
Jerusalem and these two thieves will be crucified
with me, Titus on my right side and Dumachus on
my left, and that day Titus shall go before me into
Paradise.' " '
But here the legend has spoiled the story. It was
no debt of gratitude that was paid by Christ on
Calvary. " If only thou didst know the gift of God,"
^ This part of the story is found also in Ludolf the Carthusian's
Life of Christ.
2 Ev. Inf. c. xxiii. ; Migne, Diet, des Apocryphes, vol. i. col.
995.
204 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
Christ had said to the woman of Samaria/ Dismas
when he had heard Christ's words of pardon for His
enemies had conceived a sudden love^ and pity for
Him who had uttered them. For this reason he
received the gift of God, and was the first, and perhaps
the most marvellous, instance of salvation by love.
2. TREVES' PORTION ^
At Treves St. Helena passed some of the happiest
days of her life. Here after many years of affliction
she again knew a mother's joy at being re-united with
her son, and the honour of being associated with him
on the imperial throne. Here too, as we believe, she
first experienced the sweetness attendant on conversion
to the Church. A Christian is in some sense a native
of the city in which he is born again to the spiritual
life by the regenerating waters of baptism. She then,
who left so much to Rome, cannot have forgotten
Treves, her birthplace in the faith.
(1) The Treves Tradition'
We are told that at the request of St. Helena, and
with a view of re-awakening the faith among the
natives, who almost all had returned to paganism.
Pope Silvester sent as bishop to Treves, St. Agricius,
1 Jn. iv. 10.
2 Cp. St Paul, " Love is the fulfilment of the Law "—Rom. xiii. 10.
3C. Willems, Ber HI. Rock Zu Trier. Treves, 1891. Ada
SS. LSth January. J)e S. Agricio . . . episcopo Trevirensi. This
gives us the Vita ex MS. monasterii S. Maximini. See also Chevalier,
Quelques questions stir une brochure intitulee " La Sainte Kobe de Treves "
du Dr IVillems. Paris: Dumoulin, 1892. Martin, Archcologie de la
Passion, Paris : Lethielleux, p. 368 sq.
* What follows is largely borrowed from Dr VVillems' work.
TREVES' POKTION 205
who bore with him a brief and a chest full of relics.
The purport of the brief was to confer on its bearer
the title of primate of the Gauls ; the contents of the
chest comprised among other things our Lord's Coat,
a Holy Nail, and the Knife which had been used at
the Last Supper. These gifts to Treves, as also the
foundation of Santa-Croce at Roine, must be con-
sidered as part of the undertakings which devolved on
Constantine as his mother's executor.
In 402 Stilico, having learnt of Alaric's plans, re-
called to Italy the legions which were quartered on
the banks of the Rhine. In 406 the prefect of the
praetorium of the Gauls seeing himself threatened by
the approach of the Vandals, precipitately quitted
Treves with his four hundred functionaries, and trans-
ferred his headquarters to Aries. Treves was thus left
at the mercy of the barbarians, who sacked it four
times before the end of the fifth century. So thorough
was the city's ruin that at a depth of about seven feet
there is now found a layer of ashes, from two to eight
inches thick, covering the foundations of the whole
Roman city. Silvester's brief is supposed to have
perished in this calamity.
After the invasion we find nothing to work on save
legends. We are told that an anonymous visionary
had overheard, whilst in ecstasy, a conversation be-
tween the Apostles Peter and Paul and the proto-
martyr St. Stephen. Stephen was saying : " I beseech
you, my lords, to prevent by your intercession the
town of Metz from being destroyed by the enemy,
for it is there that the remains of my humble body
are preserved." However, the sins of the city of Metz
were too great to be pardoned, but St. Stephen obtained
that his own oratory should be spared by the Huns.^
^ Greg. Tur. Hist eccl. Franc. I. ii. c. vi. ; P.L. Ixxi. 198.
206 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
The news of this vision spread, and the people of
Treves being anxious to bring their rehcs to a place
of safety, hurriedly carried to St. Stephen's oratory
the pastoral staff sent by St. Peter to resuscitate
Maternus, and the whole treasure of their basilica.
St. Stephen's chapel was spared, as had been predicted,
and St. Peter's staff remained at Metz until the Arch-
bishop Bruno, brother to the elder Emperor Otto,
demanded it for his cathedral of Cologne.^ As to the
other portions of the treasure, including the relics
left by St. Helena, we are told that they were handed
back in the middle of the fifth century. So far as I
know, there exists no trustworthy document which
bears out this tradition.
Certain late chroniclers relate of Volusian, a bishop
of Treves about 467, that he undertook to rewrite
the brief of Pope Silvester. Willems gives this
document as it is found in the Gesta Treviroruvi :
" Bishop and primate of Treves receive to-day
spiritual primacy over the Gauls and Germans, even
that primacy which in the times of paganism thou
didst hold from thyself, Peter the head of the Church
having by the gift of his staff bestowed it on thee,
in preference to all the bishops of these nations, in
the persons of Eucharius, Valerius, and Maternus,
who were the earliest apostles of Christianity ; in
doing which, he in some sense despoiled himself of
some of his own honour to make thee a partaker
in it.
" We, Silvester, his servant and unworthy suc-
cessor, in thy favour renew and confirm this primacy
at the instance of Agricius, patriarch of Antioch, and
^ See the exceedingly curious inscription engraved by Bishop
Egbert on the reliquary containing the staff. It narrates all these
things. Willems, op. cit. p. 158^.
TREVES' rORTION 207
to honour the birthplace of the Empress Helena, who
was a native of thy metropolis. She munificently
enriched and specially favoured it, leaving it by deed
of gift the body of the apostle St. Matthias, which she
had brought from Judea, and other relics : to wit, the
Coat and the Nail of our Lord, the head of Pope
Cornelius, one of St. Peter's teeth, the sandals of the
Apostle St Andrew, and many others."^
What value has this curious document, even
supposing it to be what it purports ? Is it a hypo-
thetical reconstruction made by Volusian according
to traditions which he had collected ? Is it a duplicate
of some document from the Vatican archives duly
delivered by the pontifical chancery ? Scholars are
divided on the subject.
The seamless Coat, after this, disappears even from
legend. Almannus, who about 880 wrote, at the
instigation of Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, a tract
against the primacy of the church of Treves, says
nothing of it. Helena, he says, " filled a chest with
divers relics of the martyrs, in the midst of which she
placed the knife, cultelluvi, which our Lord Jesus
Christ had used at the last most holy meal of the
Supper. By which wonderful act of graciousness
she wished to endow and ennoble her birthplace."^
The chest containing the relics remained shut for
centuries in the treasury of Treves cathedral. The
clergy, though they retained the tradition that it
contained certain gifts from Constantine's mother,
soon lost all recollection of the nature of the relics.
The next time we meet the story is in the Life
of St. Agricius, written by some unknown writer,
and preserved in an MS. at the monastery of St.
1 Willems, p. 144/
- Acta SS. 18th August. De S. Helena, cap. x. § 98.
208 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
Maximin. This life was published by the Bollan-
dists.^
According to Schmitt this life was written after
the year 1019, according to Waitz between 1050
and 1072. It narrates the following episode^ : —
" We have learnt from the truthful tradition of
the ancients that a most pious bishop of this metro-
polis (Treves) was made aware that opinions were
divided on the subject of these relics, some affirming
that they comprised the seamless Coat of Christ,
others that it was the purple garment with which
He was clothed during the Passion, others again that
the pledge of love consisted of the sandals of the
Saviour of the world. As he much desired to put
an end to this difference of opinion by discovering the
truth, after having taken counsel of the people and
of the clergy both secular and regular, he ordered a
three days' fast throughout the city, humbly praying
the faithful to beseech God in common, that by His
grace one of them might solve the mystery.
" When the fast was accomplished the clergy and
the people assembled in St. Peter's church, in which
the treasure was. A monk, noted for his piety, was
selected from the crowd that he might see the secret
of the Lord and make it known to the bishop. He
therefore opened the chest in which St. Agricius had
hid the treasure, but the moment he lifted the lid to
look inside, by one of those secret divine decrees
which human wisdom cannot fathom, he was deprived
of the light of his eyes."
The faithful considered this sudden blindness as a
judgment on their inquisitiveness, for in those days
^ Acta SS. 1 .Sth January. De S. Agricio.
2 Which is summarised in Ada SS. 18th August. Helena
Gloria Poslhuma, iii. § 20.
TREVES' PORTION 209
it was considered a sacrilege to look on relics. Hence
the chest remained closed, and the people were no
wiser after the incident than before. As to when the
incident occurred, it cannot be placed farther back
than the closing year of the tenth century. The
" tradition of the ancients " to which it refers is evi-
dently the chat of some old fellow who had seen, or
heard of, the event in his youth. ^ When was the
chest finally opened ? When did the good people of
Treves discover the real nature of their treasure ? No
one can tell. However the discovery may have come
about, in 1101 the seamless Coat definitively enters
into history. The Gesta Trevirorum states simply :
" The bones of the apostle St. Matthias ^ were buried
at the side of the bodies of St. Eucharius and his
companions. Our Lord's Coat was deposited with
the Nail and the other relics in St. Peter's church."^
After this it is useless to quote the numerous and
equally positive later documents. Since 1101 the
seamless Coat has peaceably enjoyed its rights. We
must now enter on the examination of its claims to
find out how far they are well founded. The ques-
tions we now have to answer are : Has it a real
prescriptive right to be reckoned as the Coat of
Christ ? And : What is the value of the deed by which
Silvester is supposed to have bestowed it on the city
of Treves ?
(2) The Claims of the Seamless Coat of Treves
We can scarcely doubt that Helena did leave
^ Martin, Archeologie, p. 369.
2 The apostle elected to fill the place of Judas. Acts i. 21-26.
3 Monumenta Germ. V, viii. p. ] 5S. For the date see the proofs
given by Willems, p. 42.
o
210 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
many precious relics to Treves. It is also possible
that among these relics there was Christ's seamless
Coat. But the point we want to ascertain is whether
the garment exhibited at Treves is really the seam-
less garment worn by Christ when taken prisoner.
Unfortunately, the proofs, to which its defenders
appeal, are anything but demonstrative. They prove
neither the prescriptive rights of the Coat nor the
genuineness of the chart by which it is supposed to
be authenticated.
To be sound, the tradition should have been con-
stant, and unequivocal, and public — i.e. not confined
to a small circle. As a matter of fact, the tradition
only makes its appearance in the eleventh century,
or perhaps in the tenth. Previous to that no one
knew what the chest, sent by Helena, contained.
The faithful, according to their inclinations, believed
it to hold either the seamless Coat or the purple
garment, or, again, the sandals of Christ. The arch-
bishop himself was no wiser than the rest. He had
not even the right to say that the mysterious vest-
ment had belonged to Christ, since there were reasons
to believe that the relics of the Passion were there
mixed up with those of the martyrs, there being the
Holy Nail, and the Knife, and the body of St. Matthias,
and the head of Pope Cornelius, a tooth of St. Peter's,
and the sandals of St. Andrew.
Had an inscription been attached to the seamless
Coat, then we should have something on which to
work ; but can we imagine Constantine, who certainly
was anything but stingy in the matter of reliquaries,
leaving so precious and unique a relic mingled with
others of far less worth ? We cannot be surprised if
those cautious writers, the BoUandists, speak of the
Knife and the Nail, but pass in silence over the seam-
TREVES' PORTION 211
less Coat when dealing with the gifts sent by St.
Helena to the Belgian churches/
Then there is the brief, which is itself of scarcely
less dubious character than the relic it is supposed
to authenticate. This brief of Pope Silvester's is
found in three works, all of them belonging to
the eleventh or twelfth century ; in the Life of St.
Agricius, written between 1019 and 1072 ; " in the
Chronicle of Hugo of Flavigny, written about 1100,^
which seems to be copied from a more ancient
text found at Verdun by Father Sirmond, in a
MS. of conciliar decrees ; and lastly, it is found
in the Gesta Trevirorum^^ a work of uncertain
date.
Of course, a brief can perish, but to admit that this
one ever really existed we must have some solid
reason. Now between the fifth and the sixth
century no chronicler mentions this letter, not even
Almannus, who, had it existed, would have been
bound to impugn it when writing against the
primacy of the church of Treves.
AVe are told indeed that we have copies of the
brief, but when we examine them we find that they
differ on the very point in question. The only point
they agree on is that the archbishop of Treves was
created primate of the Gauls ; here one writer copies
the other ; but as to the character of Helena's legacy
to the church of Treves, we find nothing but dis-
agreement. The Verdun MS., which may be the
most ancient, speaks o^the body of the Apostle Matthias
1 Acta SS. De S. Helena, 18th August, § 10.
"^ Acta SS. 13th January.
^ Monum. Germ. vol. viii. p. 298.
* Mojiiim. Germ. vol. viii. p. 153^ and Gesta Trev. ed. Wyttenbach
and Miiller,
212 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
and other I'elics of I he hord} The anonymous writer
of the Life of St. Agricius adds a detail, and speaks
of the body of Matthias, the Nail, and other relics of
the Lord.^ Lastly, the chronicler of the Gesta
Trcvirorum, goes further still, and mentions besides
the body of Matthias, the tunic [or seamless Coat] and
the Nail of the Lord, the head of Pope Cornelius, St.
Peter's tooth, and St. Andrew's sandals.
It is easy to understand the meaning of these
divergencies. Father Beissel, a German Jesuit, was
the first to point out that the allusion to the seamless
tunic is an interpolation for which the writer of the
Gesta is responsible.^ Willems indeed argues that
the Gesta is more ancient than the other documents ;
but Martin rightly replies,* alluding to the prolixity of
the Gesta when compared with the other works :
" The most ancient text is the shorter, for we know
that mediccval chroniclers were not in the habit of
abbreviating such documents, and still less, of sup-
pressing any mention of relics. For a suppression to
have occurred here we should have to seek a motive,
and such a motive is not to be found."
The tradition is surrounded by improbabilities.
The Archbishop Egbert in the inscription on the
reliquary containing St. Peter's staff says that the
treasure of Treves was sent to ]\letz to prevent its
destruction. Were this the case, Silvester's brief
would have gone with the relics, and also would
have accompanied them when they returned in more
peaceful times.
^ Per a])ostolum Matthiam, Judsea translatum, ca'teris reliquiis
Donmii.
2 Cum clavo caeterisque reliquiis Domini.
^S. Beissel, Geschichte des heiligen Rorkex. Treves, 188P. 2nd ed.
p. 60. * Martin, Arch, de la Pass. 371.
TREVES' PORTION 213
We must go further, and say that the whole story
of Volusian's reconstruction in 467 of Silvester's
brief is apocryphal. Had the church of Treves
possessed such a duplicate she would have known
the character of the treasure which was kept so
secretly ; she would never have forgotten the presence
of the seamless Coat, for the document would have
been sufficient to set any doubts at rest. The fact of
the archbishop having been obliged to depute a monk
to examine the contents of the chest proves that he
did not possess the reconstructed brief, probably
because such an article never existed.
Moreover, the document contains some glaring
inaccuracies. It speaks of Helena as having been
born at Treves, whereas Pope Silvester would have
known that she was really a native of Drepane. It
confers on the archbishop of Treves the title of
primate of the Gauls, whereas such a dignity was
at that time not in the power of the Roman pontiff.
In the early ages ecclesiastical divisions of territory
were based on the civil divisions.^ The Council of
Chalcedon (451) ordained that in the case of a new
town being founded, the spiritual government of the
place was to follow the temporal.^ Macarius, bishop
of Jerusalem, could not persuade the Nicene Council
to declare him independent of the bishop of C^esarea,
which wasthecapital of theprovince of Palestine. Now
Treves being the headquarters of the pra?torium was
by this very fact the metropolitan diocese of Gaul.
1 Longnon, Geographic de la Gaule au VJ^ siecle, Paris : Hachette,
1878, p. 2.
2 Si vero quaelibet civitas per auctoritatem imperialera renovata
est, aut si renovetur in posterum, civilibus et publicis ordinationibus,
etiam ecclesiarum parochianarum sequatur ordinatio. Canon xvii.
Labbe, Sacrorum Concilioim coUectio (Florentiae, 1767), torn. vii.
214 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
Its bishop having to treat with the civil powers of
the three Galhc provinces was necessarily, from the
beginning, primate of the Gauls, and such indeed he
remained so long as the civil arrangements remained
the same. AVhen in 408 the prefecture was transferred
to Aries, the archbishop of Treves ipso facto ceased
being metropolitan.
The primate of the Gauls, according to the old
principle which was again confirmed by the Council
of Turin in 397, was the bishop of Aries. To
him, according to the instructions given by Pope
Zosimus (417), pilgrims were to apply when requiring
a safe-conduct from Gaul to Rome. In 557, to get
rid of the difficulties caused by the constant redis-
tribution of the country which went on under the
Frankish kings. Pope Pelagius confirmed Sapandus,
bishop of Aries, in the primacy, and also created him
his vicar ; and he did so not because of any claims
made on behalf of the archbishop of Treves, but to
put a stop to the claims of the bishop of Vienne.^
Hence the document supposed to have been drawn
up by V^olusian would have gone counter to the then
law.
Nor do we find, when we come to examine the
Coat of Treves, that it agrees with the details given
by the Gospel. In St. John we find " :
" The soldiers therefore, when they had crucified him took his
garments, and they made four parts, to every soldier a part ; and also
his coat : now the coat was without seam, woven from the top
throughout. They said then one to another. Let us not cut it,
but let us cast lots for it, whose it shall be."
So far as we can now discover, the clothing used by
the Jews consisted of several parts : of a shirt ; of a
^ Longnon, op. cit. p. 183. ^ jn. xix. 23.
TREVES' POKTION 215
inachanase, an article of dress which is described by
Josephus as being " in the nature of breeches " ^ ; of a
coat ; and of a mantle,^ In winter - time double
clothing was worn.^
Thanks to the reports drawn up in 1890 by direction
of Bishop Korum and his coadjutor, Bishop Feiten,
we now know the Treves relic in its every detail :
' The matter of the tissue, which is of a uniform,
brownish colour, is apparently linen or cotton."* As
the whole robe was in a very mouldly condition, it
was first thoroughly cleansed, and then the examina-
tion was proceeded with. It was described as
follows : —
" On the collar and the cuffs and at the bottom of
the garment there are to be seen remains of some
embroidery, in which red and green colours are still
perceptible. We can also see traces that two similar
lines of embroidery went from the neck down to the
lower edge of the tunic. From the collar there hung
some twenty tassels, of which eighteen are still perfect;
they are formed of bundles of threads, apparently of
silk ; each of these is from 10 to 47 c. in length and
from 1 to 6 mm. thick." From this we can see that
the Treves relic is an outer coat. Was the tunic for
which the soldiers drew lots an outer garment ?
The two verses from St. John's Gospel which we
quoted above early gave rise to a legend, according
to which the piece of clothing in question was an
under-garment that had been woven by the Virgin
^ Jos. Ant. III. vii. 1.
2 [The dress of the Syrian Arabs agrees with this description.
They wear a shirt, loose drawers, and a long coat kept closed by a
girdle. The latter they frequently unwind and bind about their
heads as a turban. — Trans.^^
^ Vestiti sunt duplicibus. Prov. xxxi. 21.
*Willems, p. 121.
216 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
Mary for Jesus when He was yet an infant. As the
child grew, the tunic grew with Him. We can afford
to smile at such a charming little story, though it
hardly agrees with the Gospel, as, according to it,
Christ would, from His cradle to Calvary, have been
living enveloped in miracle, whereas according to the
Gospel His first miracle was performed at Cana.^
But in one respect the legend is right. The object
for which the legionaries drew lots was an under-
garment. By the Vulgate it is described as a tunic,
tunica ; the Greek text has xltoov, a word which
dictionaries are unanimous in rendering as " an under-
garment, Latin tunica, both of men and women," as
a " sleeveless woollen shirt worn next to the body."
Hence the Treves relic, which is a coat, and not a
shirt, is not the garment alluded to in the Gospel ;
but may we perhaps say that at least it belonged to
our Saviour ?
When reading Bishop Korum's report there is one
omission which is bound to strike the reader. Jesus
had been maltreated, covered with spittle, scourged,
and crowned with thorns. His clothing must have
been torn and soiled by His blood, but of all this we
find not a trace in the official description of the Holy
Coat of Treves. The distinguished prelate's minute
report merely depicts a comfortable gown, which from
its general appearance would seem to have belonged
to a man of means. How then could the opinion
that this was the seamless Coat have arisen ?
The relic is wrapped up in some ancient tissue,
embroidered with birds, which Dr Bock declared to
be of Eastern workmanship and to date from the time
of Justinian. For centuries it was kept hidden.
Doubtless the tissue in question indicates the age at
1 Jn. ii. 11.
TREVES' PORTION 217
which the rehc was last exposed, at the very beginning
of the Middle Ages. From that time onwards all is
mystery until the verification occurred which is de-
scribed in the Life of St. Agricius, a work seemingly of
the eleventh century. Soon after that time it became
the custom to exhibit the relic, and on the receptacle
being explored it was found to contain a seamless coat.
Now the people of the Middle Ages firmly believed
that the seamless Coat of which St. John speaks was
alone of its kind, and they immediately inferred that
the mysterious relic was indeed the article for which
lots had been drawn on Calvary. Of course, their
premises were wrong ; seamless gowns were common
in the East. There is no need of appealing to the
Egyptian mummies ; we may establish this point by
quoting from Josephus his account of the Meeir which
the high priest wore under his ephod and above his
under-garment ^ : " This vesture was not composed
of two pieces, nor was it sewn together upon the
shoulders and the sides, but it was one long vestment,
so woven as to have an aperture for the neck."
To sum up, there is nothing to show that the Holy
Coat of Treves is Christ's tunic. It has no prescrip-
tive right to this title, the brief which accompanies it
is worthless, and speaking generally, there is no argu-
ment whatever in its favour. Nevertheless, we have
reasons to believe that it was truly a gift of Helena,
and consequently it may be maintained that it is
really a relic, but a relic of whom ? Silvester's brief
is spurious ; but the work of Almannus is not, and
according to this writer, who wrote about the year
880, it was a matter of common knowledge that
Helena's gift to the church of Treves consisted of
some relics of the martyrs, amidst which was the knife
1 Jos. AfU. Ill, vii. 4.
218 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
used at the Last Supper. The forger of Silvester's
brief simply transformed the relics of the martyrs into
relics of our Lord ; such transformations were not
rare in those days. Hence the gown kept at Treves
is not improbably an article of dress belonging to an
early martyr ; it might possibly be argued that it
belonged to St. Matthias, whose body the chest is said
to have contained.
(3) The other Relics kept at Ti^eves
Tradition, as we have seen, holds that among the
relics presented to Treves by St. Helena there was the
knife used at the Last Supper, and a nail used at
the Crucifixion. With regard to the knife, it is
mentioned by Almannus as the only relic of the Lord
preserved at St. Peter's church in Treves. So far as
possession goes, Treves can claim it, but as judicious
historians we must state that this knife had rivals.
A knife, said to have served the same purpose, was for
ages the attraction of the church of St. Samson at
Orleans. Pilgrims on their way to St. James of
Compostella were wont to break their journey to
come and pray before it.^
With regard to the Holy Nail of Treves, it is open
to the same objections as that of Rome. Riant's
Exuviae sacTae Constantinopolitanae gives us the only
means of distinguishing the authentic Nails from those
which are but copies. According to the Western
sixth-century tradition, which is vouched for by St.
Gregory of Tours," the Nails were thus distributed :
of the first was made the bit already alluded to, the
1 Couret, I^es Lcgendes du S. S^pulcre, p. 47, note 1. He quotes as
his reference the Codex of St. James Gampostella [Liber de miraculis
S. Jacobi), iv. ed. Fita. Paris: Maisonneuve, 1882.
2 De Gloria Martyrum, i. 6. ; P.L. Ixxi. 710.
TREVES' PORTION 219
second was placed on the imperial crown, the third
was thrown into the Adriatic, the fourth was placed
in the nimbus of the statue of Apollo, which repre-
sented Constantine at the summit of the great stone
column at Constantinople. Of course, this is all the
merest legend, but it serves to prove one thing — viz.
that the Holy Nail of Treves was not known at this
period.
We know now that the Eastern emperors preserved
most jealously the Nails of the Passion. In 1092
Alexius Comnenus I. sent to Robert of Flanders an
urgent appeal to the whole of Christendom. In his
letter he enumerates the relics which he has in his
possession, and which he wishes to be saved from the
fury of the Mohammedans ; among these relics were
the Nails.^ Nicholas Soemundarson, abbot of Thin-
geyrar in Iceland saw them there in 1157.^ A like
testimony is given by William of Tyre in 1190.^ In
1190 likewise, an anonymous traveller paid a visit to
the treasure kept in the imperial palace chapel of
Buccoleon, and states that he there saw a whole nail
and half of another ; the lower portion of the latter,
he says, was given to the Emperor Charlemagne, and
is now at the abbey of St. Denis ; the third had been
left in the royal chapel at Jerusalem ; * and the fourth
had served to make a bit for Constantine's horse. In
1157 this so-called Holy Bit formed a part of the
imperial treasure.'' The two former Nails were seen
as late as 1203 by Robert of Clari." The first can be
1 Clavi quibus affixus fuit. Exuvice, ii. 208.
2 Exuvice, ii. 2 1.3.
' Hist, belli sacri, xx. cap. 23 ; Exuvice, ii. 21 6.
* Descriptio sanctuarii Constantinopolitaiii. Exuvice, ii. 217.
^ Nicolaus Thingerensis, Exuvice, ii. 214.
^ Li estoires de chiaus qui conquisent Constantinoble. Exuvice,
ii. 231.
220 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
no other than that which Constantine was accustomed
to carry sometimes on his hehnet and at other times
on his crown.
Hence Riant has really succeeded in locating all
the four Nails. Had we room here to enter into the
question at all fully, we might be able to show that
the Nail which was once in the royal chapel of
Jerusalem has been lost, that the Bit is probably at
Carpentras, that the whole Nail once kept at Con-
stantinople was ceded to the Venetians in the crusade
of 1204, and that Notre-Dame at Paris has inherited
the portion of the Nail once venerated at the abbey
of St. Denis.
But there is a tradition, which is borne out by
some archaeological discoveries, that Constantine had
twelve copies made, each of which contained a little
of the filings from his horse's bit. Doubtless it is
one of these that Treves, like Santa-Croce, possesses.
The Treves Nail is without its sharp end, which is
venerated at Toul.^ According to the inventory
made in 1776 the Nail was kept in an ivory reliquary
which had been made at the command of Egbert, a
tenth-century bishop." The Life of St. Agricius^
relates in connection with it a curious tale. Bruno,
brother of the Emperor Otto I. (936-973), being
desirous of obtaining it by hook or by crook, bribed
the custodian of the Treves treasure. The latter
accordingly made so perfect a duplicate of the Nail
that one could not possibly be told from the other.
He received the price of his simony, put the imitation
in the reliquary, and wrapping the real relic in a linen
cloth, he put it in his pocket. But, wonderful to
relate, blood began to flow from the Nail, and soon
^ R. de Fleury, op. cit. p. 180.
2 Martin, op. cit. p. 329. ^ Acta SS. 13th January.
BESANgON'S PORTION 221
the unhappy wretch was drenched, and being seized
with remorse, avowed his crime. Brower places
this episode in the year 1027, and states that it was
Theodore, bishop of Metz, who corrupted the warden.
The anonymous monk of St. Maximinus, and also
Justus Lipsius, state that a female demoniac, at the
moment when she was being exorcised, revealed that
the Nail had pierced Christ's right foot. In the nine-
teenth century the relic again passed through some
vicissitudes, and only returned to the cathedral of
Treves after having been in the hands of the Nassau
government from the year 1805 to 1838, and after-
wards in the possession of Prince Metternich.
3. besancon's portion
St. Helena spent at Besan^on a few hours in the
greatest distress of mind. She had followed the
army of her son, who was marching against Maxen-
tius, and she stopped here to rest and pray at the
little church of St. Stephen. Here she offered her
fasts, and her tears, and her prayers to the God of
Battles,^ beseeching Him to have regard for her faith.
The vow she made here, she performed in due season,
and after the victory at the Milvian bridge a basilica
replaced the humble chapel in which she had prayed.
But she was not satisfied with so small a token of
her affection for this city. When she had exhumed
the Cross and the Holy Places she proceeded to collect
all the souvenirs she could find of the Apostolic age.
Many such articles she directed should be given to
Besan^on. Unfortunately, the case containing them
was confided to the skipper of a barge which was
ascending the Rhone loaded with marble. The boat
^ Hugo of Flavigny, Monum. Germ. vol. viii. p. 298.
222 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
safely entered the Doubs, but there it was wrecked
when still at some distance from the city.^ The gift
of the empress long remained at the bottom of the
river. Almannus supposes that some part of the
precious burden was recovered, but history has
naught to say of the recovery.
^ Almannus Altivillarensis. Vita S. Helence, c. v. § 52 in Ada SS.
18th August.
CHAPTER VII
OBJECTIONS AGAINST THE STORY OF THE FINDING
OF THE CROSS
The story of the finding of the Cross is open to two
objections. It has been contended that it presup-
poses an impossibihty — viz. the incorruptibihty of the
wood ; and secondly, that the texts on which the story
is based are unreHable. The first objection may be
easily disposed of, but the second will require more
ainple consideration.
It has been said that a piece of common deal, such
as was the wood of the Cross, could not have remained
so long buried in the cavern without rotting away.
At the request of R. de Fleury, two scientists,
Decaisne of the Paris Institut and P. Savi, a pro-
fessor of the university of Pisa, submitted to examina-
tion under the miscroscope, certain fragments of the
True Cross taken from Santa-Croce at Rome, and
from the cathedrals of Pisa, of Florence, and of
Notre-Dame at Paris. As a result of the examina-
tion it was decided that these various fragments all
belonged to the pine tribe. ^
" As to the preservation of the wood," adds de
Fleury, " I could quote many other equally re-
markable instances. At Herculaneum and Pompeii,
much ancient woodwork was found intact. Here,
indeed, its preservation might be set down to the
action of the fire ; but we have other examples in
point, such as the wooden stays which were found
^ R. de Fleury, Mem. p. 62.
223
224 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
by Simonin still standing in the Etruscan mines of
Campaglia,^ or the beams retaining the banks which
conveyed the aqueducts of Carthage, or the piles,
recently discovered in the harbour of this same ancient
city, which have been shown to be of a species of
wood similar to that of the Cross. Some fragments
of this Carthaginian wood, which were exhibited at
the French Academy of Sciences by Peligot in 1857,
were described by Decaisne as belonging to trees of
the coniferous tribe, probably to some species of fir
or pine. " "
In fact, we find wood even amidst prehistoric
remains. " In the Stone- Age," writes Mortillet,^
" axe-heads were often fixed to a wooden handle. In
the Swiss lake-settlements several such handles have
been found with the heads still attached ^ ; they have
likewise been found in England." The same writer,
speaking elsewhere of the scarcity of wood in pre-
historic times, remarks : " Wooden handles for all
kinds of tools are fairly common, but what we find
more often are remains of houses, and especially of
piles. Usually that portion of the latter which is
exposed to the air, quickly rots, but the lower portion,
which is permanently in the water or buried in the
soil, is often remarkably well preserved, so much so
that such wood is sold to cabinet-makers to be made
up into imitation old furniture. In the peat-fields
have been found also the boards, which in days of old
formed the floor of the lake-dwellers' abodes. In this
case the wood had been preserved by the silt which
had drifted over it."^
^ Simonin, La Toscane el la mer Thyrrhenienne.
2 R. de Fleury, Mem. p. 5S. ^ Le Prihistorique, p. 543.
^ Musee prchisloriqtie, Nos. 439, 440.
5 Le Prehistorique, p. 556.
OBJECTIONS TO THE STORY 225
Now, in the cavern below St. Helena's chapel the
Cross was in much the same position as the piles just
spoken of. The cavern was excavated to receive the
rain-water of the neighbourhood, and even when it
had been filled with rubbish the water still found its
way down through the crevices, and then lay stagnant,
transforming the soil around the Cross into a bed of
mud, which effectually screened it against the ravages
of time.
We now pass to the consideration of the objection
of those who hold that historically we have no reason
for believing in the finding of the Cross. Until the
time of the Reformation St. Helena was universally
believed to have found the Cross ; but when Pro-
testantism arose, the Reformers were led by their
zeal against relic-worship to contest the validity of
the tradition. Their first manifesto was contained in
the famous INIagdeburg Centuries, a work which by
Brunet ^ is ascribed to the editorship of a certain
Francowitz or Flaccus Illyriacus, but which is due to
the collective efforts of a school of scholars and
theologians belonging to the city of Magdeburg.^
As the criticism there offered is exceedingly interest-
ing, we shall summarise their conclusions.
" The miraculous finding of the Cross to which
Christ had been nailed is spoken of by Ambrose in
his funeral oration on the death of Theodosius, and
also by Rufinus, Socrates, Theodoret, and Sozomen.
Eusebius, who was a contemporary, and who in the
third book of his Life of Constantine mentions
Helena and Constantine having restored to light
the spot of Christ's Resurrection, says nothing of the
^ Manuel du bibliophile.
- Qiiarta Centuria ecclesiasticce histories continens descriptiotiem
amplissimarum rerum in regno Christi, Basilese, 1560^ col. 1438 ^.
P
226 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
finding, and, in fact, it might be supposed that he was
entirely ignorant of it, were it not for the following
passage which occurs in. his Chronicle : — ' In the year
of the Lord 325, and the sixteenth of Constantine's
reign, Helena, his mother, being admonished by
visions, brought to light at Jerusalem the most
blessed wood of the Cross to which the world's
Salvation had been nailed.' ^ But was it not an easy
matter for a late-comer to have interpolated these
words in his book ? ^ Hence we have no testimony
prior to that of Ambrose."
The Centuriators having given St. Ambrose's
narrative, then proceed : " According to Erasmus the
oration is not from the pen of Ambrose, and historians
are still doubtful concerning its authenticity." ^ They
then narrate the different events which are supposed
to have followed. According to some of the Fathers
Constantine buried a piece of the True Cross under
the pedestal of the porphyry column which bore his
statue (as a matter of fact, it was a statue, not of
Constantine, but of Apollo). The Centuriators upon
this remark that " this opinion is a fond invention and
disagrees with the character of the good emperor
Constantine, who, knowing but little of Christian
doctrine, would not have ascribed to a piece of wood
the power of preserving the city. If he did anything
of the sort, it was probably to preserve the memory of
Christ's Passion. We may leave such idle fancies to
Socrates and those other superstitious writers who,
after having fallen away from the purity of faith, strove
1 Chron. an. 321 ; P.L. xxvii. 671.
2 This criticism of the Centuriators seems well founded. The
passage in question is not found in the Greek text of Eusebius.
^ As a matter of fact, the De obitu Theodosii is now acknowledged
to be a production of St. Ambrose.
OBJECTIONS TO THE STORY 227
to disfigure the vestiges of antiquity with superstitious
and idolatrous notions, fabricating all sorts of legends
and wonders. Such a man was Nicephorus, who tells
us that a piece of the third cross was placed by Con-
stantine in the marble column in the Artopolia — i.e.
in the principal square of Constantinople — and that by
the power of this relic all those who suffered from
inflammation or pain in the eyes were cured ; and that
three times in the year, in the silence of the night, an
angel of the Lord was wont to descend like a flash of
lightning on to the column, and after having spread
abroad the sweet smell of incense and sung the
Trisagion, would disappear like a meteor. The same
author likewise states (L. viii. c. Iv.) that many miracles
took place about the tomb of Constantine the Great,
and before the same emperor's statue, which crowned
the porphyry column, and that there was no malady
which could not be driven away by simply touching
these monuments. Such events can only be described
as superstitious, and as things which never happened.
They are the merest monkish inventions."
We have quoted the above at length because it is
typical of a certain kind of Protestant polemic, in the
imputation it makes of unworthy motives, in its in-
sinuation of the spuriousness of a text to which it
objects, and in its very adroitness in confusing the
issues. The matter in question is the value of the
recollections of Ambrose, the friend of the emperor
Theodosius, but instead of a direct attack on them we
only find an allusion to Nicephorus Callistus, a
fourteenth-century Byzantine monk, who makes no
pretence of being a sober historian, and who, more-
over, wrote a thousand years after the finding of the
Cross.^
1 Similar destructive criticism of the story of St. Helena was
228 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
The conclusion of the Magdeburg writers naturally-
met with opposition in the Catholic camp, and among
those who resisted their opinions we may mention
Baronius,^ Gretser,- Le Nain de Tillemont,^ Benedict
XI v., ^ and Father Zaccaria.
AVhen in 1844 the Holy Coat was exhibited to the
faithful at Treves, an occasion was afforded for a
renewal of the controversy in Germany, the two prin-
cipal opponents being von Sybel and Gildemeister.
Kraus, who undertook the defence of the traditional
side, reproaches both his adversaries with a lack of
objectivity and impartiality.' Still more recently, in
1878, Fuldain his work on the Cross and Crucifixion"
had a passing tilt at the tradition of the finding of the
Cross, but, says Martin, his arguments consisted of
little more than a few rather heavy jokes on the wood
of the Cross."
The last writers who have dealt with the subject
are Tixeront and F. Martin ; of these the first is
inclined to doubt the truth of the story, whilst the
latter unhesitatingly accepts it as correct.-
•75" TT TT TV Tt*
The objection of modern opponents of the tradition
takes three forms : some prefer to argue that the Cross
undertaken by two other old writers of the Protestant school :
Salmasius, De Cruce, and Kipping, De Cruce.
1 Annals, an. 326, Nos. YZ-5-\'.
-' De Cruce Chrisli. Ingoldstadt, I6OO.
^ Memoires, vii. 16.03.
* De Festis Doinmicis, L. i. c. xiv.
^ BeitrJige zur Trierschen Archaologie, 1868, p. 49.
•^ Fulda, Das Kreuz und die Kreuzigung, Breslau, 1878, pp. 244-
276.
^ Martin, Arch, de la Pass. p. 260.
s Tixeront, Les origines de l' Eglise d' Edesse et la legende d'Abgar,
Paris: Maisonneuve, 1888, p. \6S ff. ; Martin, Arch, de la Passion,
Paris: Lethielleux, 19OI, p. 260.
OBJECTIONS TO THE STORY 220
was found previously to 327, others that the Cross
found was an imitation pahned off on Helena by the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, others again that the whole
story is a legend which grew up about the year 380.
We shall consider separately each of these objections.
One point on which modern criticism had improved
on previous efforts is in its attempt to shift back the
date of the finding to the first century of the Christian
era. In 1876 G. Phillips published a Syriac manu-
script entitled the Doctrine of Added the Apostle in
which the finding is ascribed to Protonice, the wife of
the Emperor Claudius.^ The English editor admits
that the ignorance of the copyists has given rise to
impudent interpolations, and consequently, in view of
this admission, the conclusion to which he comes is
rather surprising. He states that there can be no
manner of doubt that one story gave rise to the other,
and as that of Protonice has the advantage of being
the earlier, the story of St. Helena having found the
Cross can only be considered as a repetition of the
Eastern legend.^
Of course, we too admit that one story gave rise to
the other, but recollecting that the ignorant copyist
actually relates of Protonice that she built over the
holy place just such a basilica as we know Constantine
to have built, we see every reason for reversing Phillips'
conclusion, and for stating that the Eastern tale is
merely an embellishment of the story of St. Helena.^
Phillips likewise shows himself far too rash in his
statement that a feast of the finding of the Cross was
kept at Jerusalem before the year 327. All that he
1 The Doctrine of Addai the Apostle in original Syriac, with translation
and notes. Edited by George Phillips. London : Triibner, 1876.
2 Op cit. p. viii. note.
^ Tixeront, op. cit. p. 177.
230 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
gives us by way of proof for this statement is an
extract from an ancient calendar ascribed to St.
Isaac, the great-grandson of St. Gregory the Illumin-
ator, who was patriarch of Armenia from 389 to 439 —
i.e. more than fifty years after the death of St. Helena.^
Tixeront, who inclines indeed to Phillips' view, is
more cautious in his selection of an argument.^ He
opines that " the words used by St. Cyril, unless
we are to consider them as greatly exaggerated, pre-
suppose that the True Cross was kept at Jerusalem
before a.d. 326." He then infers that " the relic may
have existed, doubted by some, and neglected by all,
long before the time commonly assigned to its
finding," though he does not venture so far as to
state that this really was the case.
But when we come to examine in detail, as we shall
immediately, St. Cyril's texts in the Catechcses, we
find that, far from presupposing that the finding had
occurred long before, the writer expresses his astonish-
ment that the fragments of the Cross should have
so soon spread even to the ends of the earth. His
words consequently are quite consonant with the
tradition which places the finding of the Cross some
twenty years before the time when Cyril wrote ; in
fact, the supposition that the Cross was found before
St. Helena's time is based on no texts. Whatever
view we adopt, this much is evident : since the Cross
was originally hidden away by the Jews, it must have
been found by somebody ; and as to the person of the
finder, this would be more easily ascertained by a
1 Toupin, Hist, de S. Ilclaie, vol. ii. p. 327, note E. [The
wording of the calendar for 17th May is : " Feast of the Finding of
the Cross. See in the letter of Abgar : Petronice, and read it." —
Trans. ^
" Op. cit. p. 175.
OBJECTIONS TO THE STORY 231
fourth-century writer than by a worker at the present
day.
We must also point out that Phillips' view makes
no account of the monuments at Jerusalem. We
are told that the crosses were found in a cavern near
to Calvary ; the tradition to this effect begins with
the erection of Constantine's basilica between 327
and 331, and since then it has not changed ; we find
it in the narrations of all the pilgrims who visited
the Holy Places, in Theodosius,^ Antoninus Martyr,^
Arculfus,^ Venerable Bede,* St. Willibald^ and the
monk St. Bernard.''
The Holy Places had been buried by Adrian be-
neath twenty feet of solid masonry to form an
esplanade, on which stood statues of Jupiter and
Venus. On this point St. Jerome is quite clear.''
Arculfus is equally to the point when he writes in
670 : " It was in this place, excavated by the hand of
man, that it is said the Cross of the Saviour and the
crosses of the two thieves were hidden and covered
with earth, and after a cycle of two hundred and
thirty-three years were by God's grace again brought
to light." ^ The cavern in which the crosses had been
cast, for more than two centuries was buried beneath
a huge embankment, which was only demolished in
327 ^ ; hence Christ's Cross cannot possibly have been
found before that time.
^ De Terra Sancta, iv. ; To bier, 64.
- Perambulatio locorum Sanctorum, xx. ; Tobler, 102.
^ Relatio de locis Sanctis, vii. ; Tobler, 151.
^ De locis Sanctis, ii. ; Tobler, 21 6.
•"> Hodceponcum, xviii. ; Tobler and Molinier, 263.
6 Itinerarium, xi. ; Tobler and Molinier, 314.
7 Second letter to St. Paulinus.
8 Tobler, 151.
9 See above,, p. 72.
232 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
There is another point to bear in mind : Helena
bore a letter of Constantine's addressed to Macarius
commanding him to build over the Holy Sepulchre
" a church which would be the largest and the finest
in the world." But, as a matter of fact, in the event
only a crypt was erected over the sepulchre, the
basilica being built right over the cavern of the
finding. How, then, can we explain this change in
the plans except by admitting the occurrence of an
unforeseen event, which was the finding of the Cross ?
We have now to consider the objection raised by
those who consider that the finding was an imposture.
Duruy, in his Histoire des Romains,^ appears to
question the authenticity even of the Holy Places.
He writes ; " When St. Helena asked to be shown
the spot where Christ had been buried no one was
able to do so ; the bishop himself was ignorant of the
position of the Holy Sepulchre. For three centuries
the surroundings had been constantly altered, both
by war and by peace. Buildings had been erected
and then destroyed, and neither Jew nor Christian,
for both had been banished by Adrian, knew where
the Passion had occurred. Houses were demolished
on Calvary, and excavations were made, but all to no
purpose. But Helena willed that the cavern should
be found, and accordingly it was discovered under
the temple of Venus, and near by were found also
the three wooden crosses. The undertaking had been
supervised by a clever Jew, who gave out that he
had in his possession family documents describing
the spots which had witnessed the Passion." In
other words, we are to believe that a trick was played
on Helena similar to those by which inexperienced
travellers are so often victimised, when coins which
1 Vol. vii, p. 144 /.
OBJECTIONS TO THE STORY 233
have been previously hid in the soil are dug out and
palmed off on them as genuine antiques.
But it was not to gratify Helena's wish that the
esplanade was demolished and a hill and a cave
respectively dubbed " Calvary " and the " Holy
Sepulchre " ; there was not even any need of the
ubiquitous Jew. At Jerusalem everybody was aware
that Adrian had placed a statue of Jupiter over the
sepulchre and one of Venus over Calvary.^ So well
were the localities known that prior to the under-
taking Constantine ordered Macarius to demolish the
esplanade and construct a basilica above the Holy
Sepulchre.
Had those who incline to such views taken pains
to study impartially the different sides of the question,
they would have seen that any hoax was impossible
under the circumstances. Three heavy crosses, each
some twelve feet in height, could not be introduced
unseen into the cavern, where the legionaries and
workmen were digging ; moreover, the crosses were
found at the bottom of a pit, to which there was but
a single entrance, at which Helena and Macarius
watched in turns.
What Duruy only insinuates Gildemeister ex-
plicitly asserts ; his view, according to Martin,^ is
that "the pilgrims' intense desire of seeing in detail
all the spots mentioned in the Bible soon made it
necessary to paint the scenery and discover relics of
each event. So credulous were the visitors of those
times that, like the Bordeaux pilgrim, they swallowed
^ [This statement is apparently made by the author on Jerome's
authority ; it is not in agreement with Eusebius or Theophanes,
who only speak of Venus's statue, and locate it over the Sepulchre.
See references above, pp. 72-73. — Tra7is.^
- Arch, de la Pass. p. 286.
234 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
every story, no matter how tall. At the time of St.
Helena the only sacred spots shown were those of
the Ascension and of the birth of our I^ord at
Bethlehem. Soon, however, the list became longer ;
the task of finding the True Cross presented certainly
no greater difficulty than that of finding the stone
which the builders had rejected." Martin, however,
rightly remarks on the above, that "the author of
this ingenious explanation follows rather too closely
in the steps of the Bordeaux pilgrim, at whom all the
time he is poking fun, for he, like the latter, fails to
make the necessary distinction between evidently
stupid relics and others which have at least a great deal
to be said in their favour. His manner of proceed-
ing is unscientific, and consequently inconclusive."^
The views of the Magdeburg Centuriators have
recently been restated in better scientific form. By
M. Paul Lejay they are expressed as follows " : — " The
finding of the Cross was unknown until the latter
end of the fourth century. The pseudo-Silvia, some-
where between 381 and 389, was the first to speak
of it in connection with Constantine's basilica. St.
Ambrose in 395, and St. John Chrysostom about 398,
allude to St. Helena, and speak of the Cross as having
been recognised by the Title fixed to it ; Rufinus
about the year 400, and Socrates about 439, sub-
stitute for the Title the cure of a Jerusalem lady ;
St. Paulinus of Nola about 403, and Sulpicius Severus,
speak of the help afforded by the Jews to St. Helena,
^ [Among the objects venerated as relics there are undoubtedly
many which cannot be considered as authentic. But of devotion
exhibited to relics, true or spurious, we may say what is said of
the worship of sacred pictures, that all such worship is directed
to the Saint of whom the object sets us in mind. Papebroch, in
Willems, op. cit. p. 8, and Martin, op. cit. p. 373. — Trans.'\
2 Revue crilique d'hisloire el de littcrature, 1890, ii. l63.
OBJECTIONS TO THE STORY 235
and substitute the raising of a dead man for the cure
of the sick lady ; lastly, in Sozomen, about 443, we
find the first traces of the Judas-Cyriacus tradition."
These successive embellishments are the results of
a legend which arose in Edessa. " It is evident,"
concludes M. Tixeront, " that the story of Helena
grew up in the East during the last twenty years of
the fourth century. In 379 St. Gregory of Nyssa as
yet knew nothing of it. In 400 it had already left
the surroundings in which it had been evolved, and
quickly spread over both East and West ; in Meso-
potamia it first gave rise to the Protonice legend, and
a little later, on the advent from Jerusalem of a story
touching a certain Cyriacus, bishop of that city, it
resulted in the new Judas-Cyriacus legend. This
new legend had just returned to its birthplace at the
time when Sozomen wrote. As to the verity of all
these facts, the silence of Eusebius, a contemporary
and probably a witness, tells strongly against it."^
Our own view is that if the texts quoted by M.
Lejay be classed, not according to their date of
publication, but according to the time when their
writers received their information, the result would
be entirely different. We shall endeavour to do this
further on,'^ but it is important that we should first
deal with the curious silence preserved on the subject
by the Bordeaux pilgrim and by Eusebius.
The finding of the Cross must have been the great
event of the time. Hence if it really occurred in 327,
how could the Bordeaux pilgrim have visited Jeru-
salem in 333 without even alluding to it ?
Critics rightly attach little importance to the
silence of this anonymous writer ; in fact, the Itiner-
1 Tixeront, Origines de l' J^glise d'£desse, pp. 174-175.
^ See below, p. 249.
236 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
ary from Bo7^demix to Jerusalem ^ is a work of
doubtful value. It comprises only a few pages con-
veying summary descriptions of the Holy Places, the
rest of the Itinerary consisting merely of measure-
ments of the distances between the places mentioned.
The pilgrim was anything but observant ; he de-
scribes Jerusalem as a ruined city, and has nothing
whatever to say of ^Elia Capitolina and its grand
buildings ; ^ he evidently swallowed every tale that
people told him ; he saw the stone which the builders
had rejected, and which had become the corner-stone ;
he saw on the ground the blood of Zacharias, which
had been shed between the temple and the altar ; also
the fountain of Siloe, which only ran on week-days.^
He states that he ascended Sion, and that he there
saw the ruins of the palace of Caiphas, and yet he
says not a word of the Coenaculum.
A pilgrim who omits even to mention such a spot
as the last can surely have forgotten anything ; and,
in fact, in this omission we find perhaps the reason of
his silence concerning the Cross.* The fragment of
the True Cross which was left with Macarius was no
doubt ultimately deposited in a chapel specially built
for the purpose below the rock of Calvary ; ^ but at
the time of the Bordeaux pilgrim's visit Constantine's
basilica was not yet finished,^' and in the meantime the
relic was doubtless preserved in the Coenaculum or in
the parish church — i.e. in some building not visited by
the pilgrim in question. As the relic was only
' Itinerarium a Burdigala Hienisalein usque. Tobler, and in P.L.
viii. 783/.
- Germer-Durand, ^Aia Capitolina, Revue Biblique, 1892, p. 369.
2 Tobler, 17. * Tixei'ont, op cit. p. l64,
5 Antoninus, § 20; Tobler, 102.
Itinerarium a Burdigala. Tobler, 18.
OBJECTIONS TO THE STORY 237
shown on Good Friday it is probable that, never
having seen it, the pilgrim saw no reason for speaking
of it.
A similar silence which must be similarly explained
is noticeable in the records of other pilgrims. The
pseudo-Silvia in 385 speaks of the chapel of the
Cross ^ and of the manner in which the relic was
honoured, but neither Eucherius in 440,^ nor the
Breviarius de Hierosolyma^ in 530, nor again Ar-
culfus about 670,* have a word to say either of the
chapel or of the relic, both of which certainly were
there in their time. We have no right to press the
silence of the Bordeaux pilgrim any more than that
of these other later pilgrims.
The absence of all reference in Eusebius to the
finding is at first sight a more serious matter.
" Eusebius, the Church historian and the emperor's
biographer," writes Duruy,^ " must have been well
informed as to all the details of the enterprise of re-
storing the Holy Places to the faithful. He does, in
fact, relate at length the fashion in which the Holy
Sepulchre was discovered,*^ but of the finding of the
Cross he knows nothing, yet he who attaches such
great importance to the monogram, to the Labaimm,
to the Cross painted on the soldiers' shields, should
surely have spoken of this discovery, which would in
some sense have justified his enthusiasm for the
power of the signum salutare et vivificum. He does
not speak of it . . . because the legend in question
was invented after his death, which occurred shortly
1 [For details concerning this building see L. de Combes, De
I'lnv. a r exalt, p. 23.]
^ Tobler, 52. 3 Tobler, 57. ^ Tobler, 141.
^ Hist, des Romains, vol. vii, pp. 145-146.
^ Vita Condantini, iii. xxv. f.
238 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
after that of Constantine." Eusebius is silent like-
wise in his account of the dedication of the basilica^
and in the sermon which he preached on that occa-
sion.^ Hence the conclusion that Eusebius knew
nothing of the event.
But as a Protestant writer, Augusti, has pointed
out,^ it is critically incorrect to reject the tradition
merely on account of Eusebius's silence. More-
over, we do find in Eusebius a strong indirect argu-
ment in favour of the finding of the Cross. In
effect, the Life of Constantine contains a letter from
the emperor to Macarius, which opens with these
words * : "So great is the grace of our Lord that
words are powerless to recount the miracle which fms
happened. For to have discovei'ed the monument of
the most holy Passion which had been so long concealed
in the earth, to preserve it from the common enemy,
and to have restored it to light that it might shine
before the faitfful, this indeed is a surpassing wonder."
Now fourth-century religious writers make frequent
use of two technical expressions, which though some-
what similar denote two different things, these are
monumentum resurrectionis and monumentum passionis;
the first refers to the Holy Sepulchre and the second
to the Cross. Hence Eusebius or Constantine does
speak of the finding of the Cross, and describes it as
a miracle.^
Tixeront indeed argues that the expression Monu-
ment of the Passion may refer either to the Cross or
to the Tomb, and that more probably it refers to the
^ Vita Cons tail tin i, iv. 43.
- De laudibus Constantini, ix. l6; x. If.; P.G. xx. 1372.
3 Handbuch der Christlichen Archaologie, iii. 56.5.
* iii. c. XXX. ; P.G. xx. 1090.
° Benedict. XIV., Dejestis dominicis, L. i. c. xiv. notes 10-12.
OBJECTIONS TO THE STORY 239
latter, because if the True Cross had really been
found, it is odd that the emperor does not speak of it
more clearly.^
But the view of this scholar is open to serious
objections. Constantine's letter speaks of the miracle
which has happened — i.e. of something both wonderful
and unexpected. Now everybody knew that Adrian
had buried the Holy Sepulchre beneath a temple of
Jupiter, and the demolishing of the esplanade could
by no stretch of imagination be described as a miracle.
Hence the writer of the letter is speaking not of the
tomb, but of an object which, as he himself states,
had been long concealed in the earth to preserve it
from the common enemy. Constantine shared the
error of those who believed that the Cross had been
buried by the disciples to screen it from profanation.
His allusion to a sacred object which was concealed
by the faithful can apply neither to the sepulchre nor
to Calvary, but only to the Cross, which, in the
language of the time, was the real Monument of the
Passion.
The only difficulty in our interpretation of this
letter is caused by a statement of Theodoret, who
says that St. Helena was the bearer of the letter to
Macarius. Were this the case, Constantine could
not have been speaking of the Cross, which was only
discovered subsequently to Helena's arrival. Fortun-
ately, there is every reason to believe that Theodoret,
who was only a compiler, in this particular was guilty
of a slight mistake ; if we examine the letter in detail
we can easily see that it was written after the demolition
of the esplanade.
We have not yet suggested a motive for the silence
of Eusebius in his historical works, but this motive
* Origines de I'Eglise d'J^desse, p. l63, note 1.
240 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
is easily found. Eusebius of Ca^sarea was a prelate
of questionable orthodoxy ; as a semi-Arian he had
little sympathy with Helena, and, after her death, he
was one of the ringleaders of the Arian revival and
of the religious scandals which spoilt the end of
Constantine's reign.
On the matter of relics especially his views disagreed
with those of the Church. Kraus has shown this very
clearly, and his dissertation on the subject has been
well summarised by F. Martin ^ : " Eusebius tells us
that in his time there was to be seen at Paneas ^ a
statue of Christ, which was commonly stated to have
been erected by the woman whom our Lord had cured
of an issue of blood.^ Eusebius observes that in this
there was nothing very remarkable, for the Gentiles
were accustomed thus to honour all their benefactors,
and that there are medals in plenty engraved with
the image of St. Peter, of St. Paul, and of Christ
Himself. These remarks of Eusebius show that he
considered the Paneas statue, and generally all images,
as mere survivals of paganism.* We find an even
more striking instance of Eusebius's antipathy to
relics and sacred images in a letter which he wrote to
Constantia, Constantine's sister.^ The princess had
requested of him a portrait of Christ. The bishop
replies by asking her which portrait she wishes — that
of the unspotted Godhead of the Saviour or that of
His human form. It is impossible, he adds, to portray
the Saviour under either of these aspects, because, on
the one hand, we do not know the divine nature of
the Son, which is known to the Father alone, nor,
^ Arch, de la Pass. p. 293 f. ^ Caesarea-Philippi.
2 Eus. Hist. eccl. vii. 18. * eOviKij a-wi^ddf}..
'" This letter is to be found in the acts of the second Nicene
Council. Apparently it is authentic.
OBJECTIONS TO THE STORY 241
on the other hand, do we, according to St. Paul,
know Christ in the flesh. He also states that he
had deprived a woman of her portraits of Christ and
of St. Paul, because, as he says, it did not seem meet
that strangers \_i.e. pagans] should see such images,
lest they might accuse us of treating our God as
an idol. Can we wonder then that the Byzantine
historian Gregoras should have called Eusebius an
iconoclast ? " ^
Martin continues : " Such a tendency is in singular
contrast with the blind credulity of most of the
Christians of that time, of which the Bordeaux pilgrim
is a good instance in point ; we have here the two
extremes, and we can also understand why Eusebius
kept silence on a matter concerning which he could
not have ventilated his views without giving offence at
court and to his brother bishops. It is quite evident
that he suppressed much of what he knew. Thus
when he describes Constantine's triumphal reception
at Rome, he says nothing of the statue which was
erected in his honour by the Senate. Another point
on which he is silent is as to the attitude of St. Helena
with respect to Arianism." ^
Eusebius no doubt intended his silence as a dis-
approval of Helena's undertaking, and of the worship
of the Cross, which he considered as idolatrous. We
may well expect such disapproval from a bishop who
was accustomed to spend his leisure hours hunting
out and confiscating pictures of Christ.
There is one point, too, which is closely connected
with Eusebius's narrative, and which cannot otherwise
be explained than by the Cross having been found by
St. Helena. Let us suppose for a moment that St.
^ eiKoi'o/xaKos. Hist. Byzatit. xix. 3.
2 Cp. Kraus, Beitrage zur Trier schen Archaologie, p. 72 ^'
Q
242 THE FINDING OF THE CROSS
Helena in 327 had accomplished nothing more than
the unearthing of the sepulchre — how then did it
come about that in the following year, 328, Constantine
laid the foundation at Rome of a basilica called by
the name of the " Holy-Cross-in-Jerusalem," and
placed in it a fragment of the same True Cross ? ^
The building was erected on land which had belonged
to the empress, and the work was proceeded with so
rapidly that a year later the new church was being
consecrated by Silvester ; it is also noteworthy that
the new church from the beginning was known as
the "Helenian basilica,"^ a name which it is difficult
to account for if she had no connection with the
finding of the Cross.^
We will now consider the testimonies of certain
other writers ; in the first instance that of St. Cyril.
St. Cyril was born at Jerusalem in 315, was ordained
priest by Macarius in 345, and then given charge of
the catechumens. His teaching or Catccheses seems
to have been given to the public some two years
later, and in it we find three distinct allusions to the
wood of the Cross. Thus, speaking in the Atrium at
the foot of Calvary,* he exclaims :
" There He was crucified, for our sins. If you doubt it be con-
vinced by this place, this blessed Golgotha — in which we are even
now assembled to worship Him who was here attached to the Cross
— and by the wood of the Cross, of which fragments without number
have already been carried throughout the world." ^
1 Anastasius, Savctus Silvester, c. xli. ; P.L. cxxvii. 1521.
2 See above, p. 1 69.
3 [It is only right to point out that this name of the basilica may
have arisen from the fact that it was built on what had been
St, Helena's property. There are several instances in Rome of
cemeteries e.g. being named after their donors. — Tratis.]
•* Dom Cabrol, Les Egli.'-;i'-'V''.i'-.'?;.*.'/a