Calvary cross

English

A Calvary cross.

Noun

Calvary cross (plural Calvary crosses)

1. (heraldry) A cross atop a platform of (typically three) stepped tiers.
   • 1864, London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archæological Society, page 57:

     Arms of Baldwin : Gules, on a chevron or between three Calvary crosses argent, as many slips of laurel fructed proper; with an inescocheon, Azure, within barrulets or, three escallops fessways erminois, in chief an etoile  […] Crest, a squirrel or, sejant upon a hazel-branch fructed turned up behind his back, the dexter paw holding a slip of the same proper, the sinister paw resting upon a Calvary cross sable.

   • 1867, John Gough Nichols, The Herald and Genealogist, page 168:

     [...] in the Notitia Monastica it is a Calvary cross sable, standing on a basis of two steps, and fimbriated or. Or the device may have belonged to some guild or fraternity among the townsmen of Nottingham. Thoroton mentions one more […]

   • 1867, Notes and Queries, page 455:

     The arms are argent, a Calvary cross gules. Is the name identical with our Brignal so common in the county of Durham, and which probably originates from Brignal near Rokeby?

Alternative forms

• cross Calvary, cross calvary