ABSTRACT
The cross, as we have seen, was used in private devotions by Christians during the 1st century of our era, and was cut upon the tombs in the Ilnd and Illrd centuries, but it did not become a public symbol or badge of Christians until Constantine had it placed on the shields of his soldiers and removed the Roman eagle from them early in the IVth century. The Crucifix was the natural development of the cross, but this development did not take place until the cross had become a sign of triumph and glory instead of a stumbling block and a symbol of ignominy. Representations of Christ on the Cross are found on crosses, etc., already in the Vth century, but they did not appear in churches until the Vllth or VHIth century. Until the Xlth century the body of Christ on the Cross was always clothed, and in a drawing reproduced by Hulme (op. cit.,p. 45) He is represented as the Great High Priest. Afterwards the clothing becomes less and less, until it becomes a species of loin cloth. In the same way until the XlVth century Christ the Babe was always depicted clothed, but after this period, as a result of the decadence of Christian art, He is represented naked, or nearly so. In Hulme's drawing the Figure wears a crown of radiatory bars, and above this, on a title are, A and Ω. It is thought that this representation is as old as Charle-magne. In all the other ancient examples (the Crucifix of John VII, the Crucifix of Charlemagne, given to Leo III) Christ wears a long tunic. In the picture of the Crucifixion given in the Syriac Evangeliarium in the Medicean Library the two thieves wear waistcoats (see Assemânî, Cat. Bibl. Medic., Florence, 1742, tavola xxiii.). The NIMBUS, which is so often found on early scenes of the Crucifixion, is of pagan origin, and it seems to have been originally a symbol of power rather than of holiness. It possibly represented at first the rays of the sun, and it was assigned not only to God, Whose symbol was the sun, but to men of might and power like MOSES and Muhammad, and even to Satan ! The nimbus came into general use in the VIth century. Early nimbi were circular. The square nimbus was introduced in the IXth century and the triangular form of it in the Xlth. The nimbus with a cross within it is always assigned to the Deity.
