P. 240, 513 a, III, 514. Mabillon cites Balderic’s history of the first
crusade, whose words are: “Multi etiam de gente plebeia crucem sibi
divinitus innatam jactando ostentabant, quod et idem quædam ex
mulierculis præsumpserunt; hoc enim falsum deprehensum est omnino. Multi
vero ferrum callidum instar crucis sibi adhibuerunt, vel peste
jactantiæ, vel bonæ suæ voluntatis ostentatione.” Migne, Patrologiæ
Curs. Compl., tom. clxvi, col. 1070.
A man who is looking forward to a pilgrimage to the Holy Land wishes to
have the cross burned into his right shoulder, since then, though he
should be stript of his clothes, the cross would remain: Miracula S.
Thomæ, Auctore Benedicto, Robertson, Materials for the History of Thomas
Becket, II, 175. The branding of the cross in the flesh must have become
common, since it was forbidden by the canon law. In some editions of the
Sarum Missal, a warning is inserted in the Servitium Peregrinorum:
“Combustio crucis in carne peregrinis euntibus Hierusalem prohibitum est
in lege, secundum jura canonica, sub pœna excommunicationis majoris.”
Sarum Missal, Burntisland, 1867, col. 856*. (Cited by Cutts, Scenes and
Characters of the Middle Ages, p. 167.)