decorated with lots of gems and gold, but gilt in copper on the back," a description which matches all four of the processional crosses in the Essen Cathedral Treasury. Likewise, the Liber ordinarius, which regulated the liturgical use of the Abbey treasures, only mentions processional crosses in general terms. Since donated sacral objects were not usually exchanged, it is believed that the cross belonged to the Abbey continuously until the secularisation of the Abbey in 1802. During the Thirty Years War, the Abbess fled with its treasure to Cologne. In 1794, as the French advanced on Essen, the cathedral treasury was brought to Steele (modern Essen-Steele) and hidden in the orphanage donated by Abbess Francisca Christina of Sulzbach. At secularisation, the Catholic church of St Johann Baptist took over Essen Abbey and its property, including the cross. During the Ruhr Uprising of 1920 the whole treasury was taken to Hildesheim in absolute secrecy, whence it returned in equally secretive circumstances in 1925. In the Second World War the cathedral treasury was taken first to Warstein, then to Albrechtsburg in Meissen and finally to a bunker in Siegen. After the war it was found there by American troops and, along with the rest of the treasury, the cross went to the State museum in Marburg and later to a collection for displaced artworks in Schloss Dyck in Rheydt. From April to October 1949, the Essen cathedral treasury was displayed in Brussels and Amsterdam and then returned to Essen. With the establishment of the Diocese of Essen in 1958 and the promotion of Essen Minster to the status of cathedral, the cross became property of the diocese. Liturgical significance Middle Ages The liturgical use of the Cross of Otto and Mathilde in the Middle Ages is barely reconstructable. In principle, processional crosses were placed at or shortly after the altar and carried in processions. In this, the side with the crucifixion usually pointed forwards, with the members of the procession following Jesus in accordance with Matthew 10.38. The Essen Liber Ordinarius from the fourteenth century, which draws on earlier texts, records several processions. A processional cross was probably also a symbol of the Sovereign Abbey of Essen, comparable to the Imperial cross of the Imperial regalia. A special role is specified in the Liber Ordinarius for the procession of the Easter vigil, which passed from Peter's Altar in the westwerk of the