The first Christians were horrified at the idea of placing Christ on the cross, for they had witnessed with their own eyes those wretched bodies in all their nakedness, nailed to the rough-hewn post, with a crossbeam in the shape of a T towering above it, hands nailed to this instrument of torture, feet similarly affixed with nails... They saw bodies collapsing under their own weight, heads drooping, dogs attracted by the smell of blood, gnawing at their feet, vultures circling above this field of blood and the condemned man worn out from torture, burning with thirst, calling for death with a silent scream. This was the punishment of slaves and robbers. This was the punishment that Jesus endured.
(Marie-Joseph Lagrange OP /1855–1938/, L’Évangile de Jésus-Christ, Paris 1928)
