DE CRUCE (De pascha; De ligno vitae). — A poem of 69 hexameters, found among the works of Tertullian (PL, 2, 1113 ff.) or of Cyprian (Hartel’s edition in CSEL, III, pp. 305–308). It sings of the wood planted on Golgotha (virga de radice Jesse, Is. 11:1), which has become the great tree of life. At its feet is the fountain (symbol of Baptism).
BIBL.: M. Manitius, Gesch. der christl.-latein. Poesie bis zur Mitte des 8. Jahrh., Stuttgart 1891, p. 116 ff.; C. Weyman, in Historisches Jahrbuch der Görresgesellschaft, 28 (1907), p. 174; ibid., 31 (1910), p. 380. Erik Peterson