Weapon of Peace

The cross has been associated with military victory since the time of Constantine. Beginning with the Emperor Maurice in 593, a portion of the True Cross was placed on a lance and led the army into victory. (1) Frolow believes that this is the same lance that led the army of Heraclius in the 620s to defeat the Persians and restore a piece of the True Cross to Jerusalem. (2) This event stirred the imagination of many Christians, disturbed by the loss of the True Cross and the Holy Land.

Processional crosses, usually with various relics, led the Byzantine armies in its frequent conflicts, usually in defense of its territory. John A. Cotsonis writes, "in the 10th century liturgical service composed for those about to engage in battle, hymns invoked the cross as a weapon: they recalled the vision of Constantine and addressed the Virgin as another source of protection." (3)

These crosses did not guarantee success. Crosses lost in battle became prime trophies for the victors, just as loss of any standard for the Roman army had been a cause for great shame. A list of the relics contained in one cross lost in battle included the True Cross, relics of famous saints, Virgin’s milk, and part of her sash.(4)

With the promise of heavenly reward (complete remission of sins), crusaders took up the cross and fought for the Holy Land. Once there, the crusaders not only fought under cross banners but were led into battle by a jeweled cross with a fragment of the True Cross discovered by the Latin patriarch in August 1099.(5) Other fragments of the True Cross were sent back to France from the Holy Land. The cross was taken into battle on 31 occasions over the next 88 years to boost morale and to assure victory. (6) In 1187, the relic was lost in a battle against Saladin. The most frequent reason given for this defeat and its loss was due to the sins of the Christians. (7)

Icons of Mary and images such as the Mandylion (one of the images of the face of Christ imprinted on a cloth and therefore not made by human hands) were also used to assure victory in armed conflicts. A banner with the Mandylion was used by Ivan the Terrible (1530-84) and this practice continued into World War I, used by Russian and Bulgarian armies.(8)

Other uses of the cross by the state include the different crosses developed in the use of heraldry in the 12th century, the use of the cross on most European flags, and its use as the basic design for medals to recognize valor and service. The cross continued to appear on coinage throughout Byzantium and the West, such as British pennies and the Spanish reale. While no US coin has featured a cross, the motto, "In God We Trust," has appeared on coinage since 1864 and currency since 1957.(9)

Notes

1. Anatole Frolow, "The Veneration of the Relic of the True Cross at the End of the Sixth and the Beginning of the Seventh Centuries," St. Vladimir’s Seminary Quarterly, 2, No.1 (winter 1958) AtlaReligion (22 February 2004) 24. [Return]
2. Frolow, 26. [Return]
3. John Cotsonis, Byzantine Figural Processional Crosses, (Washington, D.C.:Dumbarton Oaks, 1994) 11. [Return]
4. Cotsonis, 14. [Return]
5. Alan V.Murray, "‘Mighty Against the Enemies of Christ’; The Relic of the True Cross in the Armies of the Kingdom of Jerusalem," The Crusades and Their Sources: Essays Presented to Bernard Hamilton, edited by John France and William Zajac. (Brookfield, Vt: Ashgate Publishing, 1998) pp. 219-20. Prior to the crusades, western armies had rarely used a relic for assistance. [Return]
6. Alan Murray, 221. [Return]
7. Alan Murray, 218. [Return]
8. Hans Belting, Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image before the Era of Art. trans. Edmund Jephcott (Chicago: Univeristy of Chicago Press, 1994), p. 215. [Return]
9. A request was made in 1861 from Rev. M. R. Watkinson, Minister of the Gospel from Ridleyville, Pennsylvania, during the beginning of the civil war and further petitioned by 11 protestant ministers. Secretary of Treasury Samuel Chase then put the request in writing, "No nation can be strong except in the strength of God, or safe except in His defense. The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins." It became the US national motto in 1956 according to the United States Treasury. [Return]