Holy Lance
The name of the soldier who pierced Christ's side with a "lonchē" is not given in the Gospel of John, but in the oldest known references to the legend, the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus appended to late manuscripts of the 4th century "Acts of Pilate", the soldier is identified as a centurion and called Longinus (making the spear's Latin name "Lancea Longini").
Instrument of Jesus' crucifixion
"The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology", dealing specifically with the crucifixion of Jesus, says it is most likely that the "stauros" had a transverse in the form of a crossbeam. "Secular sources do not permit any conclusion to be drawn as to the precise form of the cross, as to whether it was the "crux immissa" (†) or "crux commissa" (T). As it was not very common to affix a "titlos" (superscription, loanword from the Lat. "titulus"), it does not necessarily follow that the cross had the form of a "crux immissa"."