and after Morning and Evening Prayer, and also before and after
sermons; which shows they were not to be intermingled in the public
Liturgie. But in some tract of time, as the Puritan faction grew in
strength and {461} confidence, they prevailed so far in most places, to
thrust the _Te Deum_, the _Benedictus_, the _Magnificat_, and the _Nunc
Dimittis_, quite out of the church. But of this more perhaps hereafter,
when we shall come to the discovery of the Puritan practices in the
times succeeding."

J. SANSOM.

Oxford.

* * * * *

THE SIGN OF THE CROSS IN THE GREEK CHURCH.

(Vol. vii., p. 380.)

The cross, X, in the Greek Church, represents the initial of [Greek:
Christos], the Messiah, the symbolic affixing of which (sealing) before and
after baptism indicates that the name of Christ is imposed on the believer,
who takes his new or Christian name at baptism. This mark on the forehead
refers to Revelation vii. 3., xiv. 1., xxii. 4. The longer catechism of
that church, in answer to the question, "What force has the sign of the
cross, used on this and other occasions?" says, "What the _name_ of Jesus
Christ crucified is, when pronounced with faith by the motion of the lips,
the _very same_ is also the sign of the cross, when made with faith by _the
motion of the hand_, or represented in any other way." The authority quoted
is Cyril of Jerusalem (_Cat. Lect._ xiii. 36.).

In the Western Church the cross, [Symbol: cross], represented the [Greek:
stauros] whereon Christ suffered.

Both these crosses are now found in the Greek Church; and the Latin form,
[Symbol: cross], has at least been used therein nine centuries, for in
Goar's _Rituale Graecorum_ may be seen (pp. 114, 115. 126.) the icons of
Saints Methodius, Germanus, and Cyrillus, whose vestments are embellished
with Latin crosses. The Latin cross is marked on the sacramental bread of
the Greek communion,--which bread is also impressed with an abbreviation of
the words on Constantine's labarum: "Jesus Christ overcometh." (Eusebius's
_Life of Constantine_, lib. i. c. 25.: compare with Goar's _Rituale
Graecorum_, p. 117.)

The Latin cross, [Symbol: cross], is rarely found on the sepulchres in the
catacombs at Rome,--the most ancient Christian memorials; but, instead of
it, a combination of the letters [Chi][Rho] prevails, as the monogram for
"Christ." Aringhi, in his _Roma Subterranea_ (Romae, 1651)