The Legendary History of the Cross: A Series of Sixty-four Woodcuts from a Dutch Book Published by Veldener, A.D. 1483
History
The Legendary History of the Cross: A Series of Sixty-four Woodcuts from a Dutch Book Published by Veldener, A.D. 1483
Church of the Holy Trinity (Stratford-upon-Avon, England); Holy Cross -- Legends -- Art; Incunabula -- Facsimiles
Then will Chriſt, the moſt merciful Son of God, come on earth to raiſe
again the human body of Adam, and at the ſame time to raiſe the bodies
of the dead, and when he cometh he will be baptized in Jordan;
[Sidenote: _v._ 7.]
Then with the oil of his mercy he will anoint all thoſe that believe on
him; and the oil of his mercy will continue to future generations, for
thoſe who ſhall be born of the water and the Holy Ghoſt unto eternal
life.
[Sidenote: _v._ 8.]
And when at that time the moſt merciful Son of God, Chriſt Jeſus, ſhall
come down on earth, he will introduce our father Adam into Paradiſe, to
the tree of mercy.
[Sidenote: _v._ 9.]
When all the patriarchs and prophets heard all theſe things from Seth,
they rejoiced more.
[F] Alban Butler, in _The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and
other Principal Saints_, denies that St. Helena was an Innholder
(_Stabularia_) in Bithynia, when Conſtantius married her, and ſays: “We
are aſſured by the unanimous tradition of our Engliſh hiſtorians that
this holy empreſs was a native of our iſland. William of Malmeſbury,
the principal hiſtorian of the ancient ſtate of our country after Bede,
and before him, the Saxon author of the life of St. Helen, in 970,
quoted by Usher, expreſſly ſay that Conſtantine was a Briton by birth.”
Leland, in his _Commentarii de Scriptoribus Britannicis_, ſays that St.
Helena was the only daughter of King Coilus, the King Cöol who firſt
built walls round Colcheſter, and the Engliſh Church has generally
recogniſed her Britiſh origin. Her feſtival is kept on Auguſt 18.
When her huſband, Conſtantine Chlorus, entered into an arrangement with
Diocletian, by which he had the countries this ſide the Alps, namely,
Gaul and Britain, he was obliged, as part of the bargain, to divorce
St. Helena, and marry Theodora, the daughter-in-law of Maximinianus.
According to Euſebius, ſhe was not converted to Chriſtianity at the
ſame time as her ſon Conſtantine, who, when he came to the throne,
paid her the greateſt deference, and gave her the title of Auguſta,
or empreſs. After the Council of Nice, in 325, he wrote to Macarius,
Biſhop of Jeruſalem, concerning the building of a ſplendid church upon
Mount Calvary, and St. Helena, although ſhe was then 79 years of age,
undertook to ſee it carried out.
It was then that the reputed Invention of the Croſs, together with the
nails, took place, and ſhe ſoon afterwards died, but the exact year is
uncertain, ſome authorities giving A.D. 326, others 328.
[G] Other accounts ſay the Croſſes were found by Macarius, then Biſhop
of Jeruſalem.
[H] The book of the office of Mithras or Mithra, the Sun, worſhipped by
the Perſians.
[I] Heraclius, Emperor of the Eaſt, who from A.D. 622 to 627 fought
Choſroes II., defeated him, and concluded peace.
[J] St. Equitius was a hermit, and looked after the welfare of other
hermits and monks. He took a ſpecial intereſt in a convent of young
virgins; died about A.D. 540.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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