WHY CATHOLICS HAVE THE CRUCIFIX AND NOT SIMPLY A CROSS?

Why do Catholics have the crucifix  instead of simply the cross like most other Christian denominations?

          Christianity is the New Covenant sprung from the Old Covenant of the People of Israel who did not encourage religious art that depicted the divine being or other religious images. But already by the end of the first Century, most Christians were gentiles who brought with them highly illustrative religious imagery. The practice of carving beautiful images on the tombs of the dead was inherited from the Greeks and the Romans, so some of the first Christian imagery is found on these sarcophagi.
          The religious traditions of the Greeks and Romans had no prohibitions against imaging the Divine, so the human imagination, inspired by the Spirit, brought forth many forms of religious art to express religious truths. Most important to note was that this was an age of limited literacy, so the most effective way to convey religious truths apart from preaching the word was through paintings, sculptures and architectural art. There were controversies because some thought that praying in front of icons of the Divine and saints was idolatry. But most of the first 1500 years of Christianity saw depictions of the divine in religious art as another form of theology.
           A major shift in how religious was handed on or taught took place after the invention of the printing press. Suddenly Christians could learn to know their faith through books and bibles and thus didn’t need the “school of the cathedral window” to teach them about Christ. The sacralizing of the written word accompanied a demonization of religious art. The book, Stripping the Altars, is a powerful description of the destruction done to religious art in England during the reign of Elizabeth I.
           Historically speaking, removing the “corpus” or body of Christ from the cross took place in the iconoclastic fury of the Reformation when protestants were bent on purging Christianity of all religious imagery, not just the body on the cross, but almost all forms of religious art. Out went the elaborate vessels, the ornately carved altars, and the stained glass windows. In fact, one of the most valuable antiques in England would be a crucifix from before the 1500s. They are so rare because almost all were destroyed in the purging of Catholic imagery.
           If the cross represents the sacrifice of Christ, then an artist surely would be inspired by reading the Scriptures to depict Christ as he died, crucified, with wounds visible and death real. What would depart from the norm then would be a stipulation that one must not depict the body of Christ on the cross. Why is that so? Go to your neighboring baptism Church and you will see many pictures of Christ as the Good Shepherd or in the Agony of the Garden and even paintings of Calvary. The more appropriate question is why has the protestant tradition embraced painting as a fitting depiction of Christ, but generally do not use three dimensional imagery (that is, statues). It is my understanding that this tradition functions most importantly to distinguish them from Catholics.