Calvary

Calvary, the Anglicised form of the Vulgate calvaria, which was the Latin rendering of the Greek kranion, as that again of the Hebrew golgotha or gulgalta, all three words meaning 'a skull.' Why the scene of the Crucifixion was called 'the place of a skull' has been keenly debated, whether from the skulls of criminals lying about there, or from its being a round, bare, skull-like hillock. The latter is probably the true explanation; though none of the Evangelists offers any warranty for the current phrase, 'Mount Cal- vary.' It lay beyond but nigh to the city, and by Captain Conder is identified with 'the old "House of Stoning," or place of public execution according to the law of Moses, on the top of the remarkable knoll outside the Damascus gate, on the north side of Jerusalem. It was from this cliff that the criminal used to be flung before being stoned (according to the Talmud), and on it his body was afterwards crucified; for the spot commands a view all over the city; and from the slopes round it the whole population might easily witness the execution' (see JERUSALEM).—In Catholic countries the term Calvary is applied to an eminence crowned with one or three crosses bearing life-sized figures of Christ and the thieves, and surrounded sometimes by a number of figures, representing the various personages who took part in the crucifixion. Along the approach to such a Calvary—the Via Dolorosa, the Way of the Cross—are sculptured representations of the Stations (q.v.) of the Cross.