Crosier

“ The mitre of an abbot differed from that of a bishop, inasmuch as it had no labels—or infulæ—depending from within it. The Abbot used a crosier, which doubtless was correctly added to his armorial bearings, but it is found in pale behind the shield, in bend, and also two in saltire, and it is difficult to assert which was the most correct form. ”

“ A common modern fallacy is that there is a distinction between the crosier and the pastoral staff, the latter name being assigned to the crook of a bishop, and the former to the processional cross borne before an Archbishop. The late Dean Hook, if he was not the originator of the idea in an article in his “Church Dictionary,” at any rate did much to propagate it thereby, and it is now frequently found in books of reference. But the use of the words in the past is all against it. It is true that crosier comes from the Latin crux, a cross, but from the same root too, come crook and crutch ”

“ The friar does not scruple to make an invidious use of this subject at the expense of the parochial clergy, because, being obliged by his rule to gain his livelihood by begging, he had no interest in tithes.'—Bell.
1317. Alluding to the shape of the bishop's crosier. In P. Plowman, C. xi. 92, the crosier is described as having a hook at one end, by which he draws men back to a good life, and a spike at the other, which he uses against hardened offenders. On the crosier, see Rock, Church of Our Fathers, ii. 181. The bishop dealt with such offenders as were contumacious to the archdeacon. ”

“ Notwithstanding the frequent pillage of church property by the Danes, and the destruction of ‘superstitious’ relics in a later time, numerous examples, remarkable for the beauty of their decoration and the excellence of their workmanship, have been preserved to our own day. The Irish crosier has simply the curved handle of a staff, which seems originally to have belonged to a saint or founder of a church, on which the metal covering was subsequently laid. ”

“ Numerous processional crosses and crosiers still exist, of the work of Limoges. It was customary to deposit the crosier in the tomb of the prelate to whom it had belonged, and several interesting examples have thus been preserved. The most remarkable work of this kind is the crosier discovered in a tomb at Chartres cathedral, and attributed to Ragenfroi, bishop of that see, who died A.D. 941. It bears the inscription FRATER WILLIELMVS ME FECIT. The design is exceedingly elaborate ; the costume and ornament shew that it is not more ancient than the twelfth century. ”

“ A crest is never used with a mitre or ecclesiastical hat. Many writers deny the right of any ecclesiastic to a crest. Some deny the right also to use a motto, but this restriction has no general acceptance.
Therefore ecclesiastical heraldry in Britain is summed up in (1) its recognition of the cardinal's hat, (2) the official coat of arms for ecclesiastical purposes, (3) the ensigns of ecclesiastical rank above alluded to, viz. mitre, cross, and crosier. ”

“ A Bishop has: (1) His official coat of arms, (2) his mitre, (3) two crosiers in saltire behind his escutcheon.
The Bishop of Durham has: (1) His official coat of arms, (2) his coronetted mitre, which is peculiar to himself, and (which is another privilege also peculiar to himself alone) he places a sword and a crosier in saltire behind his arms. Reference should also be made to the chapter upon Ecclesiastical Heraldry.
A Peer has: (1) His coronet, (2) his helmet of rank; (3) his supporters, (4) his robe of estate. ”

“ CROZIER, or pastoral staff, one of the insignia of a bishop, and probably derived from the lituus of the Roman augurs. It is crook-headed, and borne by bishops and archbishops alike (see Pastoral Staff) . The word “crozier” or “crosier” represents the O. Fr. ”

“ And to begin, I present this abbey to you, its lands, buildings, slaves, with no other charge upon you than to contribute a certain sum into my treasury and to turn out with your men at my first call."
"I a count of this country! I the possessor of such broad estates!" the young chief cried with joy, hardly believing so magnificent a gift possible. "But the goods of this abbey are immense! Its lands and forests extend more than two leagues in a circle!"
"So much the better, my lad! You and your men will settle down here. Handsome female slaves are sure to abound on the place. ”

“ If I set slaves to keep them off, a fight breaks out between my slaves and those of the abbey; one day mine are beaten, the next mine beat the others. But however it be, I am deprived of the help of their arms. Besides, seigneur, almost every day has its special duties; one day we have to prune the vines of the abbey, another we have to plow, harrow and plant its fields; yet another, we have its crops to cart away; another day it is the fences that have to be repaired. We have lately also had ditches to dig when the abbess feared that the convent was to be attacked by some bands of marauders. ”

“ Such are these churchmen! Always receiving and taking, never giving or returning! Ye are a race of vipers! Under whom does this old abbey hold the land?"
"From the liberalities of the pious King Dagobert. The charter of our endowment is of the year 640 of our Lord Jesus Christ."
"Do you, monk, believe that the Frankish kings made these endowments to you of the tonsured fraternity to the end that you might grow fat in idleness and abundance, and without ever contributing towards the expenses of the war with either men or money?"
"Seigneur ... remember the obligations of the monastery ... ”

“ Hence it appears that crozier does not refer to a cross but to a crook.
In such ancient authorities as I have had the opportunity of referring to at the moment, as brasses, incised slabs, &c., bishops and archbishops are alike represented with the crooked staff; a cross is of more rare occurrence, and at the moment only two instances occur to me, one in the fine brass of Frederic, son of Casimir, king of Poland, and a cardinal, which is in the cathedral of Cracow, and in which he is represented holding a crozier, while crosses are figured on the sides under the cardinal's hat. ”

“ Of priests and lordlings, an infernal clan,
Who live by force, and fraud, and artifice.
The crown, associated with the cross,
Is held up by the church as the reward
Of souls that blindly follow in the lead
Of priests who advocate a stupid creed!
"A crown of gold," and nothing else, for loss
Of common sense, full payment can accord!
"No cross, no crown"—self-evidently true,
But not in the delusive sense implied;
If men beneath the cross would not bow down,
No devil, pope, or king, could wear a crown;
But they will wear it all the ages through
That men are willing to be crucified. ”

“ It is from the period of the Crusades especially that we must date the wide-spread erection of crosses and use of cross-forms throughout Europe. Worn as a badge or charm, worked in silk or chaced in metal, towering in stone by the wayside or overshadowing the busy market, gleaming on banners, or resplendent in jewels in the solemnity of the Church,—everywhere the holy sign met the eye. ”

“ The Title of the Cross.
One of the most interesting relics in connection with the holy nails is the Iron Crown of Lombardy. This, as may be seen by reference to the illustration (Fig. 1) , is a circlet of gold, ornamented with precious stones, and it is indebted for its name of “Iron” to a thin band (A) of that metal, which is inside the gold circlet. The Crown itself is of very antique form, being even devoid of rays, and is too small to go on the head. ”

“ The treasury is kept in the sacristy above, in which are crosses of massy gold and silver, studded with precious stones, one of gold three feet high, set with sapphires, rubies, and great oriental pearls. Another given by Charles the Great, having a noble amethyst in the middle of it, stones and pearls of inestimable value. Among the still more valuable relics are, a nail from our Savior's Cross, in a box of gold full of precious stones; a crucifix of the true wood of the Cross, carved by Pope Clement III., enchased in a crystal covered with gold ”

“ The crown of St Edward, with which the sovereigns were crowned, had a narrow circlet from which rose alternately four crosses and four fleurs-de-lys, and from the crosses sprang two arches, which at their crossing supported an orb and cross. These arches must have been a later addition, and possibly were first added for the coronation of Henry IV. (vide supra) . Queen Edith’s crown had a plain circlet with, so far as can be determined, four crosses of pearls or gems on it, and a large cross patée rising from it in front, and arches of jewels or pearls terminating in a large pearl at the top. ”

“ No Crusader, whether clerk, soldier, or other, shall be held responsible but for debts already demanded legally at the time at which they shall have taken the cross; he shall not be passible to others before his return from the Holy Land. They who are not Crusaders shall pay, at least this year, the tenth of all their property and revenues, except the monks of the order of Citeaux, of the Chartreux, of Fontevraud, and the lazar-houses, with regard to the property which belongs to them. Nobody shall meddle with the property of the communes, unless it be the lord of whom they hold. ”

“ THE present official rules are that crests must be upon, or must issue from, a wreath (or torse) , a coronet, or a chapeau. It is not at the pleasure of the wearer to choose which he will, one or other being specified and included in the terms of the grant. If the crest have a lawful existence, one or other of them will unchangeably belong to the crest, of which it now is considered to be an integral part.
In Scotland and Ireland, Lyon King of Arms and Ulster King of Arms have always been considered to have, and still retain, the right to grant crests upon a chapeau or issuing from a crest. ”

“ Eve, and it would be impossible to imagine anything finer. Like the rest of the Royal achievement, the Royal crest is of course not hereditary, and consequently it is assigned by a separate Royal Warrant to each male member of the Royal Family, and the opportunity is then taken to substitute for the Royal crown, which is a part of the sovereign's crest, a coronet identical with whatever may be assigned in that particular instance as the coronet of rank. In the case of Royal bastards the crest has always been assigned upon a chapeau. ”

“ Crozier is generally (I should formerly have said universally) understood to mean the staff with a crook, the so well-known "ensign of bishops."
In the instances mentioned by MR. WALCOT, croziers are repeatedly spoken of as having been borne at the funerals of bishops, while the crosses borne before Wolsey are called crosses, and not croziers. ”

“ Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, in allusion to the custom of crowning crosses, has these lines:—
"Cerne coronatam Domini super atria Christi,
Stare crucem, duro spondentem celsa labori
Præmia: tolle crucem, qui vis auferre coronam."
"See how the cross of Christ a crown entwines:
High o'er God's temple it refulgent shines;
Pledging bright guerdon for each passing pain:
Take up the cross, if thou the crown would'st gain."
Vide Dr. Rock's Hierurgia. Quarles says, in his Esther:
"The way to bliss lies not on beds of down,
And he that had no cross deserves no crown." ”

“ Every body of ecclesiastics was there: monks and friars, black, white, and gray; nuns, black, white, and blue; the clergy in their richest robes, with costly crucifixes of gold, silver, and ivory held aloft, and reliquaries of the most exquisite workmanship, sparkling with precious jewels, diamond, ruby, emerald, and sapphire flashing in the sun; the fifty-two guilds in gowns, each headed by their Master and their banner, gorgeous in tint, but with homely devices, such as stockings, saw and compasses, weavers’ shuttles, and the like. ”

“ Crests are not borne by ladies, a reigning Sovereign only excepted. (See Panache, Rebus, and Chapter XIV.)
Crest-Coronet. A coronet from which issues, or which supports, a crest. No. 232.
Crest-Wreath, or Torse. In the Middle Ages, of rich materials and costly workmanship; now represented as being formed of two rolls of silk of the principal metal and colour in the arms, which are twisted to show 114 the metal and colour alternately. The earliest examples are about A.D. 1375. No. 233 shows three varieties of representation. ”

“ But the chief beauty of this remarkable crown is the fringe of jewelled letters, which, as we have already said, records the offering it by the king. Four golden chains attached to the upper margin (united by an elegant foliated ornament enriched with pendent pearls and emeralds, and surmounted by a knob of rock crystal elaborately carved and polished) served doubtless to hang it up in the church.
Within the crown, suspended by a long slender chain, is a Latin cross, which hangs a little lower than the letter-fringe. It is set with six fine sapphires and eight pearls in very high relief ”

“ The Great Cross, the largest of the two more perfect crosses, measures 27 feet in height, and is composed of three stones. A portion of the base is buried in the soil. The shaft at its junction with the base is 2 feet in breadth, and 1 foot 3 inches in thickness. It is divided upon the western side by fillets into seven compartments, each of which contains two or more figures executed with bold effect, but much worn by the rain and wind of nearly nine centuries. ”