Cross pattée

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A cross pattée (also known as a "cross pattee", "cross patty" or "cross formy" or in German "Tatzenkreuz") is a type of cross that has arms which are narrow at the center, and broader at the perimeter. The name comes from the fact that the shape of each arm of the cross was thought to resemble a paw (French patte). Here are several variants of the cross pattée:

With the edges of the arms concave throughout; the "iron cross"

With less curvature

With triangular arms which come close to filling the square

With the ends of the arms convex and curved; sometimes called "Alisee" (French croix pattée alésée arrondie)

This cross is often associated with Crusaders or the Crusades. The heraldic cross pattée was sometimes used by a Crusader order, the Teutonic Knights (though their more usual emblem was a plain straight black cross on white)^{[citation needed]}, and later became associated with Prussia and the 1871-1918 German empire. It continued to be used by the German military after 1918. A version of the Iron Cross is used to date by the German army (Bundeswehr) as its symbol and nationality marking and found on vehicles, aircraft and publications.

The cross pattée is also sometimes associated with another Crusader order, the Knights Templar, though as with the Teutonic Knights, it was not used consistently. The Templars did adopt a red cross on their white robes in 1147,^[1] but there was no specific style designated, and different Templars used different versions of cross -- the pattée was by no means their official symbol. Some modern Freemason organizations however do use the pattée in an official way, and this use occasionally causes confusion as to which version was used by the medieval order of Knights Templar.

The cross pattée is also placed before the name of the bishop who issues a Catholic imprimatur, is occasionally found as a map symbol indicating the location of a Christian site, and is the logo of the "Independent" skate clothing line (in the "alisee" form, with the ends of the arms in the shape of arcs of an enclosing circle). It is also associated with the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity.

The character "X" is rendered as a cross pattee in the Microsoft Wingdings font.

[edit] Doubtful examples of cross pattee

The cross pattée is sometimes confused with a Maltese cross. Sometimes a form of the cross is found which is intermediate between a cross pattée and a Maltese Cross, but is neither of the two (though this might sometimes have been considered to be a cross pattée). An altered form with parallel straight lines near the center is well-known in continental European heraldry (and so is called a cross pattee in Rudolf Koch's Book of Signs and a few other sources), but it is doubtful whether this meets the ordinary definition of the English-language term "cross pattée".