carry the cross on his shoulders to the place of execution, a circumstance which implies that the scourging was not excessively severe, and that the dimensions of the gibbet did not in general much exceed those of the human body. On arriving at the spot, he was stripped of his clothes; and, after receiving a cup of wine-sometimes medicated, with a view to impart firmness, or alleviate pain-was speedily nailed to the cross, either before or after its erection. In either case he was made to sit astride on the middle bar; and his limbs, having been extended and bound with cords, were finally secured by large iron spikes driven through their extremities, the hands to the transverse beam, and the feet to the upright post. The crucifixion of Christ is thus accurately described by Bishop Pearson:-"The form of the cross on which our Saviour sufered was not a simple but a compounded figure, according to the custom of the Romans, by whose procurator he was condemned to die. In which there was not only a straight and erected piece of wood fixed in the earth, but also a transverse beam fastened unto that toward the top thereof; and, besides these two, cutting each other transversely at right angles, so that the erected part extended itself above the transverse, there was also another piece of wood infixed into, and standing out from, that which was erected and straight up. To that erected piece was his body being lifted up applied, as Moses's serpent to the pole, and to the transverse beam his hands were nailed. Upon the lower part coming out from the erected piece his sacred body rested, and his feet were transfixed and fastened with nails. His head, being pressed with a crown of thorns, was applied to that part of the erect which stood above the transverse beam; and above his head to that was fastened the table on which was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin characters, the accusation, according to the Roman custom, and the writing was,-Jesus of Naz

areth, the king of the Jews." *The bodily sufferings attending this punishment were doubtless great, but, either through ignorance or design, have been much exaggerated. The insertion of the cross into its hole or socket, when the criminal was previously attached to it, did not necessarily produce the violent concussion which has been supposed; and, as the body rested on a bar, it did not bear with its whole weight on the perforated extremities. At all events, there have been many examples of persons. enduring these sufferings with the utmost fortitude, and almost without a complaint, until relieved from them by death. A fact of importance to be known, but which has not been sufficiently regarded, is that crucifixion was a very lingering punishment, and proved fatal not so much by loss of blood, since the wounds in the hands and feet did not lacerate any large vessel, and were nearly closed by the nails which produced them, as by the slow process of nervous irritation and exhaustion. This would of course be liable to variety, depending on differences of age, sex, constitution, and other circumstances; but for persons to live two or more days on the cross was a common occurrence, and there are even instances of some who, having been taken down in time and carefully treated, recovered and survived. In many cases death was partly induced by hunger and thirst, the vicissitudes of heat and cold, or the attacks of ravenous birds and beasts; and in others was designedly accelerated by burning, stoning, suffocation, breaking the bones, or piercing the vital organs.†

In proof of the lingering nature of crucifixion, and of the courage with which it was often endured, a few instances will be adduced from ancient and modern authors;

* Bishop Pearson, Exposition of the Creed, pp. 203-205.

Claudius Salmasius, De Cruce, etc., pp. 229-340, etc.;-Justus Lipsius, De Cruce, pp. 98-109, etc.;-Dr. Adam Clarke, The New Testament, with a Commentary, etc.; Comment on Matt. chap. 27, v. 35.

but it is difficult to find many examples of this kind at once sufficiently detailed, and fully deserving of credit. In his elaborate work entitled "The Cross Triumphant," etc., Bosius recites from the Roman Martyrology the crucifixion of the apostle Andrew, who is said to have lived on the cross two days, which he spent in preaching and instructing the people; also that of Victor, bishop of Amiterna, who, although crucified with his head downward, a posture unfavorable to the continuance of life, survived in like manner two days; which, according to Origen and other early fathers, seems to have been the usual period during which crucified persons survived, when their death was not hastened by additional means. He likewise repeats the marvellous story of Timotheus and Maura, a married pair who suffered in the Thebaid about the year 286, under the Diocletian persecution. After enduring many horrible tortures with invincible constancy, these pious persons were, it is said, crucified together; and having hung alive on the cross nine days. and nights, mutually exhorting and confirming each other in the faith, expired on the tenth day.* Although this last narrative may justly be suspected of exaggeration, it serves to show that in ancient times, when the punishment of crucifixion was common, it was well known to be a tedious mode of death. The following examples, extracted from the same Martyrology by the Rev. Alban Butler, seem to be more authentic. The same year 286 proved fatal to Marcus and Marcellianus,-" twin brothers of an illustrious family in Rome. . . . who were condemned to be bound to two pillars, with their feet nailed to the same. In this posture they remained a day and a night, and on the following day were stabbed with lances, and buried in the Arenarium, since called their cemetery, two miles out

* Jacobus Bosius, Crux Triumphans et Gloriosa, pp. 8, 9, 43, 47, 94,

112-115.

of Rome, between the Appian and Ardeatine roads."In the year 297, by order of the Emperor Maximian, seven Christians at Samosata were subjected to long and various tortures, and ultimately crucified." Hipparchus,"— a venerable old man,-" died on the cross in a short time. James, Romanus, and Lollianus, expired the next day, being stabbed by the soldiers while they hung on their crosses. Philotheus, Habibus, and Paragrus, were taken down from their crosses while they were still living. The emperor, being informed that they were yet alive, commanded huge nails to be driven into their heads,"-by which they were at length dispatched. Under the reign of the same execrable tyrant, Calliopius, a handsome youth, born at Perga in Pamphilia, was put to death in the year 304, at the city of Pompeiopolis in Cilicia. After suffering the most cruel tortures by being scourged, broken on the wheel, and partially burnt, he was crucified with his head downward on the fifth day of the passion-week, and expired on the following or preparation-day, at the same hour.*—The fortitude displayed under crucifixion by Bomilcar is thus described by the pagan historian Justin. After a severe defeat of the Carthaginian army by Agathocles king of Sicily, this African chief had shown a disposition to desert to the enemy;-" for which offence,"says Justin," he was nailed by the Carthaginians to a gibbet in the middle of the forum, that the same place which had been the scene of his honors might now witness his punishment. But Bomilcar bore the cruelty of the citizens with magnanimity, and from the height of the cross, as from a tribunal, declaimed against their crimes, etc. . . . . Having thus spoken with a loud voice amid an immense concourse of the people, he expired."

* Rev. Alban Butler, Lives of the Fathers, etc., vol. vi. pp. 251, 252; vol. xii. pp. 175, 176;-Acta Sanctorum, curâ Bollandi, vol. i. pp. 659

The following testimonies on the same subject are derived from more modern times:-"The capital punishments inflicted in Soudan "-observes Captain Clapperton, writing in 1824,-"are beheading, impaling, and crucifixion; the first being reserved for Mahometans, and the other two practised on Pagans. I was told, as a matter of curiosity, that wretches on the cross generally linger three days before death puts an end to their sufferings." *—When describing the punishments used in Madagascar, Rev. Mr. Ellis remarks,-"In a few cases of great enormity, a sort of crucifixion has been resorted to; and, in addition to this, burning or roasting at a slow fire, kept at some distance from the sufferer, has completed the horrors of this miserable death. . . . In the year 1825 a man was condemned to crucifixion, who had murdered a female for the sake of stealing her child. He carried the child for sale to the public market, where the infant was recognized, and the murderer detected. He bore his punishment in the most hardened manner, avenging himself by all the violence he was capable of exercising upon those who dragged him to the place of execution. Not a single groan escaped him during the period he was nailed to the wood, nor while the cross was fixed upright in the earth. The wooden frame used in the place of a cross resembles a gallows. To this the malefactor is nailed while it remains flat upon the earth, after which it is lifted up with its miserable burden, and fixed in two holes made in the ground for the purpose. Here the sufferer is kept until he dies of cold, hunger, or agony. Some criminals, after being nailed to the frame, have remained for hours for the gaze of the multitude. A fire has oftentimes been placed to windward of them by which they and the cross have been consumed together."-Even the still more horrible punishments of

* Justinus, Historia Philippicæ, pp. 490, 491;-Denham and Clapperton, Travels in Africa, etc.; Clapperton's Narrative, p. 107.