It is the opinion of many that early Christian standing crosses (particularly ‘high crosses’) were the focus for prayer and worship and hence might be termed ‘preaching crosses’. The use of the term has spread informally such that many churchyard and village crosses have been called preaching crosses – some church leaflets mentioning a churchyard cross will suggest that the ‘preaching cross’ predated the building of the church and was thus the earliest religious structure on the site – even though architecturally, it is clearly later than the earliest origins of the church building.
However, it cannot be doubted that standing crosses BECAME sites for preaching even if that was not the first intention of their builders. From the thirteenth century, the mendicant orders (the friars in all their variations) had a mission to preach . . . and particularly to preach against whatever the current heresy might happen to be. For this task, they chose a central gathering place where they knew that they might get a large (and hopefully appreciative/generous) audience. That place was often the market cross or village cross.
St Paul’s Cross, outside St Paul’s cathedral in London, must rank as one of the most famous ‘preaching crosses’ in the land. It was already established as a place of proclamation by the thirteenth century and was in regular use for religious preaching from the fourteenth century. The cross was demolished in the 1630s, but its position is marked in the paving outside St Paul’s.
In later years new evangelists – notably John Wesley – took to similar local preaching places – Amongst the many market and villages crosses from which Wesley preached was the one in his home town of Epworth – a brass plaque on the remains of Epworth market cross records the association.
Thus, while the term ‘preaching cross’ is valid as a function – it is perhaps not valid as an origin and, therefore, from our point of view should not be used as a category or type of standing cross.
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