Cross
Cross names 5 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Cross a gibbet, consisting of two pieces of timber placed
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a gibbet, consisting of two pieces of timber placed across each other in a variety of forms. The cross was used as a very general instrument of punishment from the earliest times. Among the Syrians, Jews, Egyptians, Persians, and especially the Carthaginians, it appears to have been the usual military punishment; but in no part of the ancient world was this punishment so generally resorted to as in the Roman empire, where it was regarded as the most infamous of deaths, and, except in cases of sedition, was inflicted only on slaves or the vilest malefactors. By the Jewish law, it was ordained that the body of the culprit should be removed from the cross on the day of his execution; but the Romans frequently allowed it to hang till it dropped piecemeal to the ground. By the death of Christ, the cross, from being an object of horror, became the symbol of the Christian world, and, from respect for this symbol, Constantine abolished the punishment of crucifixion throughout the Roman world. The cross is still regarded with the utmost veneration by the Roman Catholic Church, in which certain festivals are observed in memory of circumstances connected with the cross. The cross on which our Lord suffered is commonly considered to have been the crux capitata or Latin cross, but the cross with equal limbs (+) or Greek cross, has been the model followed in the architecture of Eastern churches. The large cross over the entrance to the chancel of a church was called the Rood or Holy Rood. Monumental crosses were and are still often raised in Catholic countries, to mark a boundary, the entrance of a sanctuary, or as record of some event.
Cross an ancient gibbet
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
an ancient gibbet, consisting essentially of an upright piece and a crosspiece. It preceded the modern gallows, and was in common use among the Romans at the time of the crucifixion of Christ. There are several forms. The Latin cross, or the cross of the crucifixion, consisted of a long upright beam, crossed by a transverse beam near the top. St. Andrew's cross has the form of an X. St. Anthony's cross has the form of the letter T. The Greek cross is like the Latin cross except that the four arms are of equal length. The Maltese cross consists of four triangular arms with their points to the center. Cathedrals are built in the form of a Latin or a Greek cross. The top, or choir, points invariably toward the east. The cross is the emblem of sorrow, suffering, and burden bearing. A crucifix is a cross bearing an effigy of Christ. It took the place of the plain cross about the eighth or ninth century. It is used above the altar in the Greek, the Roman, and in some Lutheran churches. See Crescent
Cross WILBUR LUCIUS, an American educator and editor
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
WILBUR LUCIUS, an American educator and editor, born in Mansfield, Conn., in 1862. He graduated from Yale in 1885 and took post-graduate studies at that university. In 1902, after having occupied several positions on the faculty of Yale, he became professor of English in the Sheffield Scientific School. In 1916 he was appointed dean of the Graduate School at Yale. He was editor of the "Yale Review" and in 1903 was lecturer at Columbia. He was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. His writings include "Development of the English Novel" 1899); and "History of Henry Fielding" (1918). He also edited the works of many English writers, contributed articles on literature to several encyclopædias , and was a wellknown contributor to magazines.
Cross A four-winged iron beam
The Encyclopedia of Founding (1892)
A four-winged iron beam, provided with a central ring for suspending in the crane-hook. The wings or arm-ends for some distance are evenly notched to receive beam-hooks or slings. By this means each of the four slings is suspended vertically, and clear of the cope or core, separate lugs being provided under which to insert the slings. See SLINGS; BEAM-HOOKS; BEAM.
Cross MARY ANN EVANS
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
MARY ANN EVANS. See ELIOT, GEORGE.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's wrote in 1921 that the cross "was used as a very general instrument of punishment from the earliest times," but no physical trace of a Roman crucifixion was then known; in 1968 a burial at Giv'at ha-Mivtar north of Jerusalem yielded the heel bone of a man named Yehohanan with an iron nail still through it, the first and still almost the only direct archaeological evidence. The 1892 foundry sense — the four-winged iron lifting beam — has largely vanished with the hand-rigged moulding shop that used it. Wilbur Lucius Cross, listed by Collier's as dean of the Yale Graduate School, went on to a second career entirely absent from that notice: he was elected Governor of Connecticut in 1930 and served four terms, until 1939, dying in 1948. Aiton's remark in 1910 that a cathedral's choir "points invariably toward the east" was already an overstatement, and modern church building abandoned the rule outright.
Written for this edition, 2026.