cross-bearer
(ˈkrɒsˌbɛərə(r), ˈkrɔːs-)
[cross- 1.]
I. One who bears, wears, or carries a cross.
1. An attendant who carries a cross in a procession or religious ceremony; he who bears an archbishop's cross before him.
| 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 58 Thomas Becket..through the instigation of certain about him, but chiefely of his crosse-bearer. 1644 Evelyn Diary 23 Nov., The Crosse-bearer on horseback, with two Priests at each hand on foote. 1726 Ayliffe Parergon 94 He has..the Bishop of Rochester (Time was) for his Cross-bearer. 1840 Hood Up the Rhine 186 Besides a cross-bearer and flag-bearer, there were..a score of regular attendants all carrying lighted tapers. |
2. One who wears a cross in sign of a vow; spec. applied to certain officers of the Inquisition pledged to prosecute heretics.
| 1731 Chandler tr. Limborch's Hist. Inquis. I. 191 There is another sort of them, called Cross-Bearers, instituted by Dominick, to whom he gave such Constitutions..as obliges them vigorously to prosecute Hereticks. |
3. fig. One who ‘takes up his cross’ and follows Christ.
| 1540 Coverdale Fruitf. Less. i. Wks. (Parker Soc.) I. 294 Make us true cross-bearers and followers of thee. |
II. ˈcross-ˈbearer. [from cross a., cross- 4.]
4. (See quot.)
| 1874 Knight Dict. Mech., Cross-bearer, the transverse bars supporting the grate-bars of a furnace. |