he was supposed to have suffered
was the object of universal adoration to all sects of Christians; armies
fought with religious enthusiasm, not for the faith, but for the relic
of the cross; and the traditions regarding it were received as undoubted
facts by the heroes of the crusades, the hierarchy of the Church, and
all who called themselves Christians, in those iron ages, when with rope
and fagot, fire and sword, the fierce piety even of good men sought to
enforce the precepts of Him whose advent was heralded with the angels'
hymn of "peace on earth and good will towards men."

It is related in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, that when Adam
fell sick he sent his son Seth to the gate of the terrestrial paradise
to ask the angel for some drops of the oil of mercy, which distilled
from the tree of life, to cure him of his disease; but the angel
answered that he could not receive this healing oil until 5500 years had
passed away. He gave him, however, a branch of this tree, and it was
planted upon Adam's grave. In after ages the tree flourished and waxed
exceeding fair, for Adam was buried in Mount Lebanon, not very far from
the place near Damascus whence the red earth of which his body was
formed by the Creator had been taken. When Balkia, Queen of Abyssinia,
came to visit Solomon the King, she worshipped this tree, for she said
that thereon should the Saviour of the world be hanged, and that from
that time the kingdom of the Jews should cease. Upon hearing this,
Solomon commanded that the tree should be cut down and buried in a
certain place in Jerusalem, where afterwards the pool of Bethesda was
dug, and the angel that had charge of the mysterious tree troubled the
water of the pool at certain seasons, and those who first dipped into it
were cured of their ailments. As the time of the passion of the Saviour
approached, the wood floated on the surface of the water, and of that
piece of timber, which was of cedar, the Jews made the upright part of
the cross, the cross beam was made of cypress, the piece on which his
feet rested was of palm, and the other, on which the superscription was
written, was of olive.

After the crucifixion the holy cross and the crosses of the two thieves
were thrown into the town ditch, or, according to some, into an old
vault which was near at hand, and they were covered with the refuse and
ruins of the city. In her extreme old age the Empress Helena, making a
pilgrimage to Jerusalem, th