be laid down upon the paten to drain off, which might have led to inconvenience if the foot were still circular.1

When the cup was restored to the laity, the bowls were necessarily very much larger than they had for some centuries been made.

Church plate was so sought after by the Royal Commissioners, and "annexed" for the king's use, that even in 1549 the parish of St. Dionis, Backchurch, had to buy (as appears by the accounts) "ij coppes of sylver and gilt, waying 61 owncys at 7s 4d the ownce, for the Comunyon tabyll, costing xxijli. vijs. iiijd." 2 Chalices of Elizabethan date are not uncommon in our English churches; they are generally very simple in design, and were, we can have little doubt, given to replace those plundered by the Edwardian Commissioners.

CORPORAL, PALL, BURSE, AND VEIL.

Other accessories were the corporal, pall, burse, and veil, but it is not very easy to define their form and use in early days, since each of these terms was also otherwise applied; it must always be borne in mind that words have not at an early period in the history of a language the same exact, definite, and limited meaning that they subsequently acquire when the language becomes fuller and richer and possesses a word expressing a particular meaning, which word is limited to that one meaning; though probably no language has yet attained to perfection in this respect.

The corporal is defined by Dr. Lee as a square piece of linen, on which is placed the "Corpus" during the Holy Sacrifice. Anciently it was much larger than it is at present. St. Isidore, of Pelusium, in the beginning of the fifth century, compares it to the clean linen cloth in which St. Joseph of Arimathæa wrapped the body of our Lord.3

There is an interesting and valuable article on this subject by Mr. Micklethwaite, in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 2nd series, VIII, p. 155.

2 London and Middlesex Archæological Transactions, IV, p. 205. 3 Lee; Glossary, s. v. "Corporal."

:

This veil (as distinguished from the vela or curtain before referred to) is described by Dr. Lee as a covering of silk, embroidered, and of the colour of the season, used for placing over the chalice and paten when prepared for mass, and afterwards.1 Walcott adds that in France it covered the chalice during the elevation, but not so in England.2

The burse is described, by the same authority, as the purse or receptacle for the corporal and chalice-cover; a square, flat receptacle, formed of cardboard covered with rich silk or cloth of gold embroidered and studded with jewels, open on one side only, and placed over the chalice veil when the sacred vessels are carried to the altar by the celebrant.3

The pall (on the same authority) is a piece of millboard, six to eight inches square, covered with linen and embroidered with a cross and border on the upper side, used to place over the surface of the chalice at certain portions of the mass.* Probably it would be a very difficult task to show at all conclusively what the article was until a modern date. Walcott states it to be another name for the corporal; as also for the linen cloth covering the mensa ;5 and in our own Coronation Service it is spoken of as of gold.

Archbishop Gray's Constitutions, in 1250, enumerate, amongst the articles which it was the duty of the parishioners to provide for their church, tribus thuellis et corporalia; also a Lent veil.6

When a church was consecrated, the sacred vessels were usually placed upon the altar and consecrated with it; but they might be separately consecrated at any time. Among the injunctions to treat sacred vessels with respect, it may suffice to refer to the Canon of 994, which runs to this effect: "Let no cleric, and still less a layman, dare presume to use

1 Lee; s. v. "Veil."

66

2 Walcott; s. v. Veil," he gives other applications of the same word, such as curtains of great richness, used only in Lent.

3 Lee; Glossary, s. v.

4 Ibid., s. v. "Pall."

"Burse."

5 Walcott; s. v. "Pall."

6 Archbishop Gray's Register, fol. 23; Surtees Society, p. 371. 7 See Pontifical.

either the cup or the dish, or any of the vessels which are hallowed to divine service, for any worldly purpose. Plainly, he who drinketh anything out of the hallowed cup but Christ's Blood, which is consecrated in the mass-song, or that puts the dish to any other service but that of the altar, he ought to consider that that concerns him, as it did Balthasar (when he had seized the vessels hallowed to the Lord, for his own use), viz., he lost at once his life and his kingdom."1

As to the liturgical directions respecting the chalice, it would expand the present paper too largely to include them; but I may mention that it was decided by Pope Gregory II, in answer to an inquiry by St. Boniface, that it is not fit (congruum non est) to place two or three chalices on the altar, cum missarium solemnia celebrantur.2

It was anciently customary at the burial of a priest to place upon his breast a chalice, which was buried with him; such chalice was probably made for the purpose, being (in the many instances where they have been found) of pewter, very plain, and so small as to be more like a model.

REED.

In early inventories we find mention of a REED, and examples of the vessel itself may, though extremely rarely, be met with; it was used, I believe, for administration of the Holy Sacrament to the sick, when it could not be given from the chalice without risk of accident; but very little indeed seems to be known about it. Dr. Rock states that it was in use in the Anglo-Saxon period and was formed of gold, silver, or tin; and he gives engravings of specimens.3 Examples of spoons for the same purpose have been noted.

THE PYX.

The vessel in which the Holy Sacrament, in the form of bread, is reserved for the need of the sick, is so called.

1 Johnson; Canons.

2 Rock; Church of our Fathers, I, p. 165.

3 Ibid.

Such a vessel was used for the purpose from early Christian times. By the ancient custom it was suspended over the altar, and thence sometimes spoken of as the "suspensio." The favourite form for a pyx was that of a dove, or occasionally a tower. Pyxes in the form of a dove, beautifully enamelled, may not infrequently be seen in museums abroad; there was recently and probably still is one in use at St. John's, Malta. But in the fourteenth century it was most frequently a small box, circular in form, in accordance with the form of the Host, and with a conical lid, usually

terminating in a cross; it was sometimes formed of ivory, sometimes of wood, but generally of metal, often gilt within and externally enamelled. The term corporas, or corporax, seems to have been often used as a synonym for pyx, though sometimes (as the Prayer Book of Edward VI, in 15491) for a cloth placed upon the paten or in the pyx, and at other times for the covering placed upon the pyx, which Walcott states was a thin veil of silk or muslin; that at Durham was of very fine lawn, embroidered with gold and red silk, and

1 Rubric to Prayer Book of 1549 (Parker Society Ed., p. 85).

finished with four knobs and tassels.1 A pyx cover is mentioned in the inventory of St. Mary-at-Hill in 1485–62: :

A pyx clothe for the high aulter, of Sipers (Cyprus) frenged with gold, with knoppes of golde and sylke, of Spayneshe makyng; of the gift of Mr. Doctor Hatclyff, parson.

A pyx clothe of Sipers, frenged with grene sylke and red, with knoppes silver and gylt, with corners; goyng of Mrēs Sucklyng's gyfte.

For such use was the bequest of John Osborne to the Church of Purleigh, Essex, in 15113:

I bequeth my typett of sarsenett to be hanged of the pixe w' the holy Sacramet of the forsaid high aulter.

At Chipping Barnet, to take another example, was :

A clothe of nedyll worke, and another of silke, for the pyxe. From the latter part of the fifteenth century an important change took place; the pyx was no longer suspended, but was placed in a niche in the reredos, over the altar, and necessarily furnished with a door and a lock; and to suit this changed arrangement the pyx had a foot attached, which gave it the descriptive title of a "standing pyx;" and it took the form of a covered chalice. By this time the ciborium or baldacchino had been generally abandoned, and the term ciborium was frequently applied to a standing pyx. The original custom of a suspended pyx was never abandoned in this country, for in the reign of Queen Mary we find it mentioned frequently; as, in the Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Michael, Cornhill, "Paid for a pyxe to hange o the hye awlter, iijs iiijd;" and in 1556 they "Paide for a corde to pull upe the sacrament, iiijd;"6 and probably in many places it hung beneath a canopy, as at Durham, which is described as most sumptuous, while the pyx itself was of most pure, fine gold, curiously wrought of goldsmith's work."

1 Walcott, s. v. "Corporax Cups."

2 Nichols; Illustrations, &c., p. 114.

3 Essex Archæological Society, 2nd Series, I, p. 172.

4 Cussans; Hertfordshire Inventories, p. 29.

5 St. Michael, Cornhill; Churchwardens' Accounts, p. 115.

6 St. Michael, Cornhill; Churchwardens' Accounts, p. 129.

7 Rites of Durham; Surtees Society, p. 7.