Re: No cross no crown

Sally Caves scripsit:

> No cross no crown.  Sorry about the tofu. :)
Well, I scanned the first 500 Google references to the phrase, and
all of them except three clearly refer to William Penn's sense, and
they are drawn from all over Christianity, mostly Catholic and Quaker,
but Episcopal, AMEZ, and Orthodox, and even Rosicrucian.  The Christian
Scientist symbol of a cross surmounted by a crown probably alludes to
the saying as well.  The saying is also found in secular contexts with
the same sense: one must work hard to achieve a desirable outcome.

The three exceptions are: a song "Ojo por Ojo", which says "And in that
place there is no cross, no crown, no sacred ground, all is done and
left unsaid"; a speech on Voltaire by Robert Ingersoll (the 19th-century
atheist), who is clearly using the expression in the mode of parody; and
a page denying that the Mormon Temple is a Christian edifice, enumerating
the Christian symbols that it does not have (at least on the outside):
"There is no cross, no crown, no alpha or omega, no icthys, no lion, no
lamb, nor any other recognizable historical Christian symbol."  Of these,
only the Ingersoll context seems to be at all related to your sense,
where he associates it with James I's maxim "No bishop, no King".

Penn's original phrase, BTW, was "No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne;
no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown."  The modern phrases "No pain,
no gain" and "No guts, no glory" are clearly reminiscences of this.
I also found "No pruning, no grapes; no grinding mill, no flour; no
battle, no victory; no Cross, no Crown!" and "No laming, no naming,
no struggle, no Promised Land; no cross, no crown" in the works of others.

--
John Cowan       http://www.ccil.org/~cowan        <jcowan@...>
        You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
        You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
                Clear all so!  `Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)