Summary. A folded gold cross found in the Staffordshire Hoard has zoomorphic imagery which is decoded and explained. It has profound iconography conveying the Easter message of crucifixion and resurrection that heals with eternal life. A 7th century cross emphasising Easter could be the work of Bishop Wilfrid of Mercia. It could have adorned the cover of the St Chad’s Gospels. It is a national treasure.
An incomplete, jewelled gold cross,[1]now called ‘The Great Gold Cross,’ was recovered within the Staffordshire Hoard together with five roundel attachments, two garnets and a ‘D’ shaped stone.[2] Parts have been reassembled and a replica made with the few missing bits added. It is extraordinary for its explicit depiction of Easter and salvation and for its time in Early Medieval zoomorphic imagery. It emphasises Easter for the early English, Roman church at the time when it was being established. This links with Bishop Wilfrid and adds to its significance.
Drawing of the recovered cross with the replica held by
Lichfield Cathedral. The cross unfolded is c. 300mm (12 inches) tall.
Another slightly different reconstruction
has been given.[3]
Understanding its appearance
The ends of the arms have leaf-shaped
extensions which are most likely vine leaves illustrating a ‘tree-of-life’
motif symbolising spiritual growth.[4] Vine
motifs are seen on Acca’s stone at Hexham, Northumberland and the standing
crosses at Bewcastle, Cumbria, and Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire.[5] Such
crosses have been linked with the reforms of Bishop Wilfrid and his mission to
connect the northern churches especially with the Church of Rome.[6] It
is argued the gold cross is contemporary with free-standing stone high crosses
in the Early Medieval kingdom of Northumbria and churches of southern Ireland
having grapevine motifs and espousing communion with Rome. This is not
original; the three stone crosses have previously been envisaged as monuments imitating
gold, jewelled crosses, of which some are displayed in mosaics in Rome churches.[7]
Between the roundels and garnets of the cross are five incised panels
containing non-figurative, semi-naturalistic zoomorphs.[8]
This animal art is interpreted as having cryptic biblical references rooted in
the seventh century. The explanation begins with deciphering panels from the
bottom stem of the cross and continues by moving upwards and then outwards
along the arms of the cross.
Lower Stem
The lowest stem panel has five
ribboned zoomorphs, each identifiable with a single eye. The five figures refer
to the five days from Palm Sunday to Maundy Thursday in Holy Week. The
bottommost zoomorph is small and represents Palm Sunday, this being the Lord’s
Day with an avoidance of activity, including dietary restriction. The zoomorph
has a large hand above the head and has the appearance of waving, such as with
a palm leaf. The uppermost fifth zoomorph has an extra limb to its sinuous body
and is taken to be showing an upturned foot washed on Maundy Thursday (John 13
v5). The hind leg has an upturned, trailing paw and is repeated in the next
panel, showing all remain washed and spiritually unsullied.
Lower stem
Upper Stem
Panel above the central garnet
Above the line in the top panel
are two entwined ribbon animals with mouths touching. The bodies of these
animals have simpler ornamentation; studs along the body are absent and eyes
are again indistinct. If this panel characterised Easter and resurrection,
their appearance is inevitably schematised and a biblical context is offered.
Interpreting the two zoomorphs as touching in an embrace recalls reference to John
13 v34, I give you a new commandment that you love one another. This is
elaborated in Galatians 5 v14-15, “For the whole law is summed up in one
commandment. You shall love your neighbour as yourself. If you bite and devour
one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another”.
Zoomorphs biting bodies, tails
and legs are numerous in Early Medieval artwork, but these two zoomorphs are unusual
in having touching mouths. The south side of the Ruthwell cross near to the top
has two figures in an embrace. A pair of remarkably similar zoomorphs with
interlocking jaws were carved on the jambs of the entrance porch to St Peter’s
church, Monkwearmouth, Sunderland. These late 7th-century figures appear to be
embracing each other and their ribbon bodies intertwine to form a tau cross.[11] They
could have reminded all who enter the church to love one another.
Monkwearmouth zoomorphs. Image thanks to N. Platts.
A similar representation is on an early 8th-century grave cover or marker known as the Herebericht stone[12], also at Monkwearmouth, with two confronted animals (birds?) above a cross with squared arms.[13] Did the gold worker of the cross know the sculpture at the church at Monkwearmouth and if this was so, a date of late-7th or early-8th century could be given.
Ó Carragáin thought the paws of
the two animals on the Bewcastle cross originally crossed over to form a Chi-
‘X’ shape for the first Greek letter of Christ, but weather had obliterated
this. It is more obvious in a panel on the north side of the Ruthwell cross.[14]
The sinuous bodies of the zoomorphs in the top panel of the gold cross clearly
show an ‘X’ shape. If the gold cross imagery was contemporary with the two
stone crosses, a date in the first half of the 8th-century is recalled.[15]
Finally, the two hands, each with three digits, of the two sinuous zoomorphs
point upwards to the top garnet, as if holding high a ‘living stone’[16];
a theophany. Bede viewed the living stones metaphor as the faithful in the new
temple or church.[17]
Christ holds the equivalent trope of a ‘Book of Life’ on the Bewcastle cross.
Side arms
If the stem of the cross showed
zoomorphic representation of the days leading to crucifixion and resurrection
then the side arms show imagery of salvation.[18]
Side arm panels and its iconography labelled for the figurative river and associated fruits.
The two side panels refer to Psalm I. v3 and particularly to
a vision expressed in the Book of Revelation 22 v1-2.[19]
This vision consists of a river which proceeds from the throne of God that
flows to the people of the church who are embraced by the side arms. The
river-of-life is envisaged with a fruit tree growing on each side of the bank
producing 12 kinds of fruit.[20]
The fruit tree is the tree-of-life and underlines the whole cross being a
tree-of-life allegory. The ribbon body is deciphered as a river because it has
two lines of raised studs that are tear-shaped eliciting the appearance of
flowing water.[21]
The elbow pieces are analogous in shape to a stalked fruit and there are 12 on
the cross; 4 on each side arm and 4 on the top panel. There are animal heads at
the ends looking outwards and this suggests they have a protective function.[22]
It fits with a following verse in Revelation 22 v15, outside are the dogs
and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolators and everyone who loves
and practices falsehood. Dogs symbolically guarded against those who sin
and by extension harm the fidelity of the church. The inside dog on the left
arm has its ear missing and this could artistically refer to three verses later
in which everyone is exhorted to hear the words of Revelation 22 v18, otherwise
they lose their share in the tree of life. To illustrate this trope of dogs
looking outwards see St Chad’s Gospels in which Luke, on page 218, sits on a
chair with finials shaped as dog heads looking outwards.[23]
Dog
looking outwards on Luke’s Incipit page of St Chad’s Gospel.
Bede, in his ‘Commentary on
Revelation,’ c. 703, emphasised the fruit as the reward for Christian
obedience, Romans 6 v21–22 and Galatians 5 v22, and is a metaphor for all time,
that is 12 months with 12 fruits. In Bede’s words the Lord gives eternal health
and the eternal food of life.[24]
The arms of the cross are stretching outwards and healing all by offering
everlasting life. This sentiment was in Tatwine’s riddle 9 describing a cross
using the words, “Now I appear iridescent; my form is shining now. Whoever
enjoys my fruit will immediately be well for I was given the powers to bring
health to the unhealthy”.[25]
Tatwine, c. 670-734, was a monk at Breedon on the Hill, Leicestershire,
and appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, 731-4, by King Æthelbald of Mercia. He
could, like Bede, have been concerned with the healing of people out of reach
of the Mercian church. A similar animal ornamentation occurs on the impressed
silver-gilt foils around the rim of a Maplewood bottle found amongst the grave
goods in the Sutton Hoo ship burial, c. 620–30.[26]
This similarity does not necessarily make the two items contemporaneous or make
the bottle decoration explicitly Christian,[27]
but could be an image that was well-known, loved and copied over several
generations.[28]
The cross
conveys the Easter message that belief in crucifixion and resurrection will
heal with eternal life. Most crux gemmata are eschatological and
have crucifixion imagery, sometimes on the reverse side.[29]
It could have been inspired by the gemmed cross[30]
set up, year 417, by Theodosius II, 408-50, on the altar of the true cross in
the Sepulchral complex in Jerusalem.[31]
The same imagery, that is Christ crucified, Paradise, Tree-of-life, and Revelation,
is evident in the Byzantine mosaics of various Italian churches from the 6th-century[32]
and would most likely have been seen by bishops on their pilgrimage to Rome. This
suggests the sponsor could have been Bishop Wilfred of Ripon and Hexham, 634-710,
who went on three pilgrimages to Rome and presumably visited these churches. The
Easter trope associates with someone adhering to the canonical laws decreed in
672 after the Synod of Whitby, 664.[33]
Wilfrid believed strongly in the centrality of Easter and his fervent promotion
for Roman observance throughout much of England.[34]
After Wilfrid was exiled from Northumbria, he turned to Æthelred of Mercia,
690–2, and was acting bishop for the Middle Angles.[35]
Then, with Bishop Headda of Lichfield, c. 691-716–27, a close relationship with
Mercia continued and lasted for eleven years, 691/2 to 703.[36]
By the end of Wilfrid’s life there existed a large network of monasteries in
Mercia owned and influenced by him.[37]
Wilfrid, aged c. 76 in early 710, in front of ten witnesses at Ripon,
including two Mercian monks, ordered his treasurer to open the church treasury,
spread out the gold, silver and precious jewels and distribute them to his
abbeys and monasteries in Northumbria.[38]
Around this time, after 709, Wilfrid made his last journey to Mercia, met
Mercian abbots and gave away endowments.[39] It is possible he passed on jewelled objects
to his Mercian brethren before he died at Oundle, 24 April, 710, [40]
with burial at Ripon. Foot concluded material prosperity seems both to have
marked out the Wilfridian houses and to have bound them to their patron. There
is good reason Lichfield would have been in his, ‘kingdom of churches’ and
perhaps a beneficiary of liturgical objects.[41]
Wilfrid was at the centre of Romanising England as well as developing the
cathedral-church at Lichfield. This cross could be his work.
[1]
It measured folded 114 mm long, 74 mm wide and 1.3 mm thick, see catalogue No.
539 online at Archaeology Data Service (ADS), The Staffordshire Hoard: An
Anglo-Saxon Treasure. The hoard contained five cross-shaped objects and other
objects with crosses displayed on them.
[2]
C. Fern, ‘Magnificent was the cross of victory: the great gold cross from the
Staffordshire Hoard’, Barbaric splendour. The use of image before and after
Rome, ed. T. F. Martin and W. Morrison (Oxford, 2020), 78–86.
[3]
C. Fern, T. Dickinson and L. Webster eds. The Staffordshire Hoard. An
Anglo-Saxon treasure. Research Report of the Society of Antiquaries, No.
80. (London: 2019), 100.
[4]
Refers to the tree in the middle of paradise according to the visions of Ezek
17 v22–4 and Dan 4 v7–14. Also, the tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden,
Gen. 2 v15. The cross as a tree is poetically described in The Dream of the
Rood, c. 8th-century, R. Hamer, A choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse (London,
1970), 160-1. Lines 7 and 8 state it is covered in gold and gleams with jewels.
The extensions have been described as animal ears, possibly equine, Fern
‘Magnificent was the cross of victory’, 84 and 94.
[5]
Acca’s Cross is in The Corpus of Anglo-Saxon stone sculpture,1, 174–176. The
Bewcastle cross is in The Corpus of Anglo-Saxon stone sculpture, 2, 61–72, see
<http://www.ascorpus.ac.uk>.
[6]
W. Herren and S. A. Brown, Christ in Celtic Christianity, (Woodbridge:
2002), 207.
[7]
J. Blair, The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society, (Oxford, 2005), 137.
[8]
Fern described the cross as combining a Christ-in-victory message with animal
art of northwest Europe rooted very probably in pagan pre-Christian belief. See
note 2. Fern, ‘Magnificent was the cross of victory.’ 78.
[9]
R. Page, An introduction to English Runes (Woodbridge, 2006), 171–2.
[10]
Isaiah 51 v9 is one of around 40 references to the arms of Jesus.
[11]
Animal shown in E. Wamers, ‘Behind animals, plants and interlace: Salin’s Style
II on Christian objects.’ Anglo-Saxon/Irish
relations before the Vikings ed. J. Graham-Campbell and M. Ryan (Oxford
2009), 182, is described as a crane bird zoomorph in The Corpus of Anglo-Saxon
stone sculpture, 1, 125–6 is labelled reptilian. There is a superficial
resemblance to the main zoomorph in the Durham Gospels (Durham A. II. 17, fol.
2r), late seventh century.
[12]
The Corpus of Anglo-Saxon stone sculpture, 1, Monkwearmouth, 5. 1040 x 530 x
180 mm.
[13]
J. Hawkes, ‘Symbolic lives: the visual evidence’ The Anglo-Saxons from the
migration period to the eighth century: an ethnographic perspective.
(Woodbridge, 1997), 322.
[14]
É. Ó Carragáin, ‘The periphery rethinks the centre: inculturation, Roman
Liturgy and the Ruthwell Cross’. Rome across time and space. Cultural
transmission and the exchange of ideas, c. 500–1400 ed. C. Bolgia, R.
McKitterick and J. Osborne. (Cambridge, 2011), 4, 79.
[15]
It is generally thought the two crosses were produced by the same team of
sculptors who were foreign and importing Continental artistic concepts, Herren
and Brown, Christ in Celtic Christianity, 237–9. A Statement of
Significance for Historic Environment Scotland, 2019, dates the Ruthwell Cross
to c. 730s.
[16]
I Peter 2 v 4, ‘Come to him, a living stone’.
[17]
From Bede’s Homilies on the Gospels,
Book 2, 24.
[18]
The
explanation was first published in a book, R. Sharp, The Hoard and its
History. Staffordshire’s secrets revealed (Studley: 2016).
[19]
Ibid R. Sharp, (2016), 56. Biblical references are from the Biblia Sacra
Vulgata, 5th edition Bible.
[20]
“And he showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the
throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of the street, and on both
sides of the river, the tree bearing fruit twelve months, yielding its fruit
and leaves are for the healing of nations”. The alternative to the Vulgate in
the N.R.S.V. Bible is found at 258.
[21]
The rivers could allude to the four rivers which watered the Garden of Eden,
Genesis 2 v10–14. The rivers were named as the Phison, Geon, Tigris and
Euphrates. On the cross arms are 4 rivers each ending in four animal heads.
Four rivers frequently appear in the Rome apse mosaics issuing from Christ’s
throne or from below His feet, see P. Murray and L. Murray, The Oxford
Companion to Christian Art and Architecture (Oxford, 1996), 433. The
tear-shaped studs have been suggested to be hair on an animal’s body, see C.
Fern, ‘Magnificent was the cross of victory: the great gold cross from the
Staffordshire Hoard’, Barbaric splendour. The use of image before and after
Rome, ed. T. F. Martin and W. Morrison (Oxford, 2020), 85.
[22]
The bears at the end of hogback stones might have had a similar protective
role, see M. Carver, Formative Britain. An Archaeology of Britain, fifth to
eleventh century AD (London and New York, 2019), 555. A cat forms the
border to Luke’s incipit page of the Lindisfarne Gospels, fol. 139r, and is
thought to be a guardian at the entrance of the underworld, see M. P. Brown, Painted
labyrinth. The world of the Lindisfarne Gospels (London, 2003), 30. F.
Wallis, Bede: Commentary on Revelation (Liverpool, 2013), 284 gives
Bede’s comment on Revelation 22, v15 as ‘the savage ferocity of shameless men
assaulting the church from the outside’.
[23]
See page 218. <https://lichfield.ou.edu/content/luke-portrait-pg-218>
[accessed February 2020].
[24]
See note 22, Wallis, Bede: Commentary on Revelation, 280.
[25]
M. J. B. Allen and D. G. Calder, Sources and Analogues of Old English
Poetry. The Major Latin texts in translation (Cambridge, 1976), 56.
[26]
London, British Museum object 1939,1010.122–7,1, see K. Hoilund Nielson, ‘Style
II and all that: the potential of the hoard for statistical study of chronology
and geographical distribution’. Papers from the Staffordshire Hoard
Symposium ed. H. Geake (London, 2010).
[27]
There is no justification in labelling any of the burials, Sutton Hoo horse,
ship and bed burials, as Christian, see Carver, Formative Britain. An
Archaeology of Britain, fifth to eleventh century, 34.
[28]
It
is feasible the bottle contained a drink, Comey thought sweet mead or ale,
which would give healing of a sort. Placement in the middle of the burial
chamber must have had a funerary significance. See, M. G. Comey, ‘The
wooden drinking vessels in the Sutton Hoo assemblage: Materials, morphology and
usage’. Trees and timber in the Anglo-Saxon World. Medieval History and
Archaeology, ed. M. D. J. Bintley and M. G. Shapland (Oxford, 2013),
117.
[29]
The recently installed cross icon hanging above the nave
at Lichfield Cathedral has jewels on the east side representing the
Staffordshire Hoard.
[30]
The existence and form of this monumental cross has been questioned, see C.
Milner, ‘Lignum Vitae or Crux Gemmata? The Cross of Golgotha in the Early
Byzantine Period. Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 20, (1996), 77–99.
[31]
J. Hawkes, ‘Venerating the Cross around the year 800 in Anglo-Saxon England’ The
Jennifer O’Reilly Memorial Lecture (Cork, 2018), 4.
[32]
M. Baghos, ‘Christ, Paradise, trees and the Cross in the Byzantine art of
Italy’ J. of Orthodox Theology, 9, (2018).
[33]
At the Synod of Whitby, AD 664, it was established how Easter should be fixed,
made distinct and kept separately. It had to be restated in the first of ten
decrees at the Council of Hertford (Herutford), 672. A meeting on 24 September,
convoked by Archbishop Theodore with Bishop Winfrith of Mercia, 672-76, present
and Bishop Wilfrid of Ripon attending by a proxy.
[34]
M. Laynesmith, ‘Anti-Jewish rhetoric in the Life of Wilfrid’, Wilfrid Abbot,
Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conference, ed. N. J. Higham.
(Donington, 2013).
[35]
C. Cubitt, ‘Appendix 2: The Chronology of Stephen’s Life of Wilfrid’. Wilfrid
Abbot, Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conference, ed. N. J.
Higham. (Donington, 2013), 345–347.
[36]
M. Capper, ‘Prelates and politics: Wilfrid, Oundle and the Middle Angles’.
Wilfrid Abbot, Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conference,
ed. N. J. Higham. (Donington, 2013), 262.
37 S.
Foot, ‘Wilfrid’s monastic Empire. Wilfrid Abbot, Bishop, Saint. Papers from the
1300th Anniversary Conference, ed. N. J. Higham. (Donington, 2013), 31. At
least six have been suggested between AD 691/2 and 703, see P. Coulstock, The
Collegiate Church of Wimborne Minster (Woodbridge, 1993). Capper, ‘Prelates and
politics: Wilfrid, Oundle and the Middle Angles, 263, mentioned Bath, Oundle,
Ripple, possibly Inkberrow and Chester. Evesham and Wing have some claim, see
D. Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, fifth ed.’ (Oxford, 2011), 448.
Also, Worcester, Leicester and Medeshamstede (Peterborough) with its satellite
minsters at Breedon-on-the-hill, Woking, Bermondsey and perhaps Hoo (Kent) and
Brixworth, see Blair, The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society, 83. Foot, Monastic
life in Anglo-Saxon England c. 600–900, 258–269, included Repton and Thorney.
Mercian monks were regarded as part of the Ripon Community according to
Stephen, Vita Sancti Wilfrithi, chapter 64,138.
[38]
Vita Sancti Wilfrithi, 63, 136–137. See A. Thacker, ‘Wilfrid, his cult and his
biographer.’ Wilfrid Abbot, Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary
Conference, ed. N. J. Higham. (Donington, 2013), 10.
[39]
J. Blair, The church in Anglo-Saxon Society, (Oxford: 2005), 96.
[40]
C. Stancliffe, Dating Wilfrid’s death and Stephen’s life’ Wilfrid Abbot,
Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conference, ed. N. J. Higham.
(Donington, 2013), 21.
[41]
S. Foot, Monastic life in Anglo-Saxon England c. 600–900, 26. See note 37.
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