The Crutch-Cross, Crusader's Cross or Jerusalem Cross

 "What more fitting symbol for a pro-Israeli political party than the Jerusalem Cross"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jeff Rosen, Philadelphia

A sign used in seventeenth century chemistry for crucible, i.e. a pot in which for instance metals were melted. This sign was also used for acids in alchemy and old chemistry. Hydrochloric acid. 

This sign is also known as the Crutch cross, the Jerusalem cross, or the Crusader's cross.

This is the cross that was on the papal banner given to the crusaders by Pope Urban II in the middle ages. Geoffrey of Bouillon conquerer of Jerusalem used the symbol and that is where it got its name.

This cross also was adopted as the symbol of the Hermandad de Jesús Nazareno in Spain, which was founded by way of the concessions of the Catholic Pope Inocencio XIII, sometime between 1432 and 1492, and this brotherhood was established in the monastery of Nuestro Padre San Francisco, de Xerez de la Frontera, in Spain, where the cults of Santiago and Jesús Nazareno were both propagated and advanced.

The cult of Santiago was a warrior cult, and this was connected with the conquest of Moorish Spain by the Christians, and later with the conquest of the Americas by the conquistadores.

The cult of Jesús Nazareno was a penitent cult, which featured (and still does) rituals of self-flagellation and which had much to do with the propagation of the penitent cults in Northern New Mexico, in the United States.

The Jerusalem Cross was first used as a coat of arms for the Latin Kingdom in Jerusalem. During the Crusades, it was referred to as the "Crusader Cross". The four "T" arms are symbolic of the four Gospels proclaimed to the four corners of the earth, beginning in Jerusalem; the cross symbolizes the person of Christ.

It was also the symbol used by the Nationalist government of Austria from 1933 until the nazis took over that country in 1938.
 

Of course there are some people who are totally ignorant of politics and symbols who may take this cross for a swastika or some kind of a neo-Nazi symbol...fortunately they are a minority. This cross is definately an attention getter and 99% of the people we've encountered while wearing this cross have simply asked out of curiosity what the symbol means. If anything, it is an anti-Nazi symbol as Austria under this cross was the first nation to throw the Nazis into concentration camps...where they belong.

The Jerusalem Cross may look similar to a swastika but that fact seems to aggrevate the neo-Nazis more than anyone else because it is being used by a pro-Israeli organization. Unlike the swastika which is off balance and crooked, the Jerusalem Cross is balanced and even.

The Christian Falangist Party of America had for years flirted with the idea of adopting this cross its official symbol and now we have made it so. Quite a few other organizations use this symbol in one form or another including the Catholic and Lutheran churches,The Order of St. Sebastian, etc.

On Vestments from the Lutheran Church.

As a piece of art made from glass

The Pope receiving a Jerusalem Cross mosaic gift from the Lutheran Church.

As a piece of art made from the wood of an Israeli olive tree.

It is also an American Indian Symbol as seen on this shirt worn by a Seminole.

On a Spanish Uniform

From a scene in the movie "The Sound of Music"

The Franciscan Flag in Jerusalem

20 Jun 2006