Abstract
From a world of confessional rivalry and religious war, the cross—a contested symbol in post-Reformation Europe—was brought to North America by English adventurers (Protestant and Catholic) and planted in new ground. How did an object saturated with centuries of Christian theological and liturgical controversy function in a land filled with its own spiritual presences? What meanings did crosses convey to the earliest colonists and the native peoples they encountered? Beginning with an exploration of the politics of the cross in England from the Reformation to the Republic, this article surveys the archival and archaeological record of the exploration and colonization of English America to track the cross's presence in North America. Crosses appear in a variety of sources, sometimes as targets of iconoclastic violence, sometimes as agents of conversion, and sometimes as treasured objects of devotion. As a public monument to England's Christian heritage, the cross did the work of empire much as it did in New Spain and New France; but as an unwelcome reminder of England's own religious battles, the cross was a destabilizing figure for natives and newcomers alike.
Published Version
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