The five wedges

From The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by J-J Tissot (1897)

The five wedges. J-J Tissot

One of the most acute pangs of the death by crucifixion must have been the shock caused by the falling of the Cross into the hole in the ground prepared for it.  The blood of the victim would flow with painful rapidity into the extremities, gushing out afresh from the open wounds, and the pallid limbs would be yet again striped with crimson.  Moreover, the dulled nerves would be again roused up to throbbing sensitiveness, whilst the drooping head would  quiver yet again with the pain of the wounds made by the crown of thorns.

The Cross once set up in its place, it had still to be wedged firmly in, and to do this it was not enough to fill in the hole, which was, of course, much too big for it, with the earth that had been removed; it would be sure to rock about unsteadily in the newly-disturbed soil.  In fact, wedges would be required, and the probability is that they were introduced as represented in my picture "The Five Wages".

This time, the horizontal bar of wood, with the aid of which the ropes had done their part of the work, was removed and the Cross stood upright in all its dignity with the Son of Man, all bleeding from His wounds, crucified upon it.  The awful task is completed at last; the platform is cleared of the debris encumbering it: the ropes, the ladders, the tools.  The clothes of the divine Victim, which are to be divided amongst the four chief executioners as there perquisite, are done up into a bundle and laid aside for the time being.  The executioners now withdraw to a distance, leaving the space around the Cross vacant, and in a moment it becomes crowded with Pharisees, influential Jews, in a word, with all those who have brought about the death of the Master.  They are eager to watch closely the agony of Him Who has for so long a time rendered them anxious.  They begin to give vent to their rage by all manner of insulting epithets; the sight of His blood, instead of appeasing, intoxicates them.  With them the crowd surrounding Golgotha also surges nearer; there is no longer any need to keep the people at a distance; no rescue is possible now, and these dregs of the populace are free to come and gloat over the awful spectacle.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam