In this chapter I examine the process of Christianisation among the Franks, Alamans and Bavarians as revealed by the wearing of the cross, and in particular the wearing of the symbol of the cross on brooches and pendants as part of female dress. I begin by describing the practice among the Roman peoples south of the Alps, and then how it was adopted – or not-among the Germanic peoples north of the Alps, and I offer an explanation for the differences. In the space available I can give only a brief sketch of the background of Christianity among the peoples either side of the Alps, in order to interpret this particular use of the signum of the cross, and to put it into context.

Roman and Post-Roman Christianity in Italy

In the well-known decree cum cunctos populos, the Emperor Theodosius made the Nicean creed obligatory for the Roman Empire in 380, an act which turned the Romanised population into a congregation of the Church and vice versa. Although paganism was not completely abolished, either by this decree or by imperial laws which were to follow immediately afterwards, Christianity had firmly established itself by the fifth century in both town and country in northern Italy. The map in Fig. 27.1.1 shows the network of bishoprics in the Metropolitan districts of Milan, Aquileia and Ravenna and in the rural surroundings where Christian communities had now emerged. A more detailed map of north-east Italy, in Friuli (Fig. 27.1.2), that is in the surroundings of Aquileia, shows the distribution of church foundations, almost all of them from the first half of the fifth century.

In the fifth to the seventh centuries, Christianity is manifested in northern Italy by the wearing of specific types of personal dress and jewelry. The evidence comes from the study of cemeteries of this period (Fig. 27.2.1) which have shown that the local population had already started to wear cross-shaped brooches in the fifth century, both in Friuli and over the Central Alps as a whole. The distribution map (Fig. 27.2.2) shows the location of the fifth and sixth-century examples which have been found in cemeteries.