Et Godemite altretant
Com en franceiz Dex tot poissant.
Or, translated:
Holy Cross they often cried,
And shouted God Almighty;
Holy Cross is in English
What Sainte Croix is in French,
And God Almighty is, otherwise,
As they say in French, Dieu tout puissant.
If the English really did say “’Oly Cross,” it shows us that the letter “h” was as slighted in the eleventh century as it is in the twentieth.