or travers, and then the ladies shall come downe and creepe to the crosse, and when they have done, the Lords and noblemen shall in likewise.’ Creeping to the Cross seems to have been practised in noble households as well as in that of the king. The following entry is found in the Northumberland Household Book[227] (_temp._ Henry VIII): ‘Item my Lord useth and accustometh yerely when his Lordship is at home to cause to be delyveride for the Offerings of my Lordis Sone and Heire the Lord Percy upon the said Good Friday When he crepith the Crosse ij_d_. Ande for every of my Yonge Maisters my Lords Yonger Sonnes after j_d_. to every of them for their Offerings when they Crepe the Cross the said Good Friday iiij_d_.’ Many of the entries in the accounts of the Plantagenet kings show that the homage was paid to the Gneyth Cross. This cross was held in great veneration, and, according to tradition, was made of wood from the true Cross presented by a pilgrim to Richard Cœur de Lion: no satisfactory explanation of its name is forthcoming. It seems to have been transferred from place to place. Under Edward I we find it in the royal chapel of the Priory of Plympton: under Edward II in the royal chapel within the Tower: under Edward III in the private chapel of the royal Manor of Clipstone, and later in the same reign in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor, where it was in the time of Henry VII. The purpose of the ceremony is set forth in a Proclamation of February 26, 30 Henry VIII, now in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries: ‘On Good Friday it shall be declared howe creepyng of the Crosse signifyeth an humblynge of ourselfe to Christe before the Crosse, and the kyssynge of it a memorie of our redemption made upon the Crosse.’ When Convocation, in A.D. 1536, abolished some of the old ceremonies, on the ground that they were superstitious, this of Creeping to the Cross was retained as a laudable and edifying custom. The following records, taken from the Household Books and Account Rolls of the times, serve to establish the continuity of the ceremonial subsequent to its first mention in the time of Edward II. In the Eleemosyna Roll of 9 Edward III[228] occurs the following entry: ‘In oblacione domini Regis ad crucem de Gneythe die parasceues in capella sua, infra mannerium suum de Clipstone, in precium duorum florencium de Florencia, xiiii die Aprilis, vi_s._ viij_d._, et in denariis quos posuit pro dictis florenciis reassumptis pro annulis medicinalibus inde faciendis, eodem die, vi_s._: summa xii_s._ viii_d._’ [For the offering of the lord King to the Gneythe Cross on Good Friday in his chapel, in his manor of Clipstone, to the value of two florins, on the 14th day of April, vi_s._ viii_d._, and for the pence bestowed in redemption of the said florins for the making of medicinal rings, on the same day, vi_s._: total xii_s._ viii_d._]