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The images decorating the back of this cross were often used as a focus for meditation in the late medieval period. The scenes on the lid show the Instruments of the Passion – scourge, whip, lance, sponge and nails – which were used during the Crucifixion. A tiny fragment of one of them may have formed a relic, stored within the cross’s now empty interior. Pearls symbolised purity, and the red gems may have symbolised sacrificial blood shed by Christ.
