The material of the cross is described in the following distich:
Pes crucis est cedrus, corpus tenet alta cupressus,
Palma manus retinet titulo lætabor oliva—
“The foot is cedar, a lofty cypress bears the body, the arms are palm, the title olive bears.”
[457] Milman, Hist. Christianity, bk. iv, c. 4.
[458] Hist. Christianity, bk. iv, c. 4. One or two apparent exceptions, as in the semi-subterranean chapel annexed to the church of St. Sebastian, by their internal evidence—the drooping head, severe expression, and degraded art—indicate their late origin, Perret thinks of the twelfth or thirteenth century. Bottari figures one (Tav. 190) which may possibly belong to the seventh or eighth century.
[459] Cant. iii, 11.
[460] Northcote’s “Catacombs,” p. 130.
[461] Weiter aber geht diese Reihe nicht; Tod und Auferstehung Christi sind in diesem Bereich gar nicht zur Darstellung gekommen.—Ueber den Christlichen Bilderkreis, p. 7. Berlin, 1852. Bishop Münter, indeed, asserts that, although it is impossible precisely to determine the first appearance of the crucifix, before the end of the seventh century the church knew nothing of them—Es ist unmöglich das alter der crucifixe genau zu bestimmen. Vor dem Ende des siebenten Jahrhunderts kannte die Kirche sie nicht.—Sinnbilder, etc., p. 77.
[462] Sub cruce sanguineâ niveo stat Christus in agno.—Epis. xxxii.