The cult of the cross in the early middle ages

Abstract

The subject of this study is the cult of the Cross, from the first to the thirteenth centuries. First considered is the period ending c.200. Special attention has been given to the writings of the Apostolic Fathers. Chapter 2 examines a number of the New Testament Apocrypha, writings of very varied date. The distinction between orthodoxy and heresy not being always clear, these are witnesses to heretical speculations and to some orthodox ideas (many apocrypha have been edited for orthodox or heterodox use.)The third chapter collects the various narratives of the finding, or Invention, of the Cross. Eusebius of Caesarea (d.340) is perhaps the earliest writer to give such a narrative, and we have concluded the catena of authors with Theodoret of Cyr (d.46.0). An Edessene and a Jewish tradition also exist. All these are examined in Chapter 4.Next comes an account of the liturgical veneration of the Cross: a brief survey of various calendars, and then a study of some Western liturgical books: the period extends from about 335 to 950. In 818 the Bishop of Turin wrote against certain features of religious practice. What remains of his book, and of one reply to it, is studied in Chapter 6.Chapter 7 is concerned with a Nestorian monument from 781, discovered in China, and with English devotion to the Cross from 597 to 970.Then follows a study of the Cross and heretics from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries: the last chapter summarises the previous eight. We preach Christ crucified, to the Greeks foolishness, and to the Jews a stumbling-block, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. I Corinthians 1:23,24 There [i.e. in S. Paul] the Cross is exalted, with a vehemence of language that is astonishing in its freshness, and the Crucified Figure is, as indeed he [S. Paul] asserts, the central thesis of all his exhortations.