Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/366

 290 PKOCEEDINGS AT MEETINGS OF ewers with lids, of small size, as but a small quantity of wine was required. The material of their body ought to have been glass, or some transparent substance, but metal was generally used. " At the time of the Reformation, when, in 1547, by the 1st Edward VI., it was enacted that the communion in both kinds should be administered to the laity, as being more conformable to the earliest practice of the Church, it is probable that the chalices then in use were often found inconveniently small. It does not appear, however, that any change in form or size took place at that time ; for in 1552 a commission was issued by Edward VI. to the Marquis of Northampton, and others, for a survey of church plate ; and the instructions to the commissioners were, that they should ' visit churches, chapels, fraternities or guilds, and cause due inventories to be made of all goods, plate, jewels and ornaments, and give good charge and order that the same goods should be at all times forthcoming, leaving nevertheless, in every parish church or chapel, one, two, or more chalices or cups, according to the multitude of the people in every church or chapel.' " During the reign of Queen Mary no alteration is likely to have occurred, and we now come to the year 1558, when by statute of 1st of Elizabeth, the protestant religion, according to the doctrines and discipline of the Church of England, and the rites and ceremonies thereof, was re-established, as it had been in the time of Edward VI. "It is probable that inconvenience from the size of the chalices was again felt, and this, together perhaps with a desire to remove all traces of the former ceremonies of the mass, concurred to bring about the great change which soon took place in the form and style of ornament of the sacred vessels which were used in the administration of the holy communion. In what year or by what authority this change was made, I have been unable to ascertain. I have searched in Burnet's History, and Strype's Annals of the Reformation, in the Constitutions and Canons of the Church, the ' Acts and Proceedings in Convocations,' the ' Documentary Annals of the Reformation,' the ' Injunctions, Declarations and Orders,' but have been unsuccessful in finding any information as to the sacred vessels required for the celebration of the Lord's Supper. The entire change made in them, and the uniformity of shape and pattern, which is remarkable in every instance, could hardly have been the result of the taste or caprice of churchwardens or silversmiths, since it is of universal occurrence, and not confined to the works of any one artist — for I have found it to prevail in Monmouthshire, Somersetshire, Hampshire, Surrey, Kent, Sussex and Oxford, besides numerous instances in the silversmiths' shops, whither the old chalices from dift'erent parishes have been sent, some to be repaired, others, I regret to say, to be exchanged for new. As the peculiar form could hardly have become conventional without some authority, I am inclined to think that some regulation, though not recorded, must have emanated from the convocation held in London in 1562, at which many important matters concerning the doctrine, articles, rites and discipline of the Church of England were settled ; for the earliest of these chalices which I have met with is that of the parish of Old Alresford in Hampshire, the date of which, as indicated by the annual letter, is 1563, (the letter for this year being the small black letter f ;) the chalices of New Alresford, and All Souls' College, Oxford, arc of the following year ; and now that I have directed attention to this matter it is likely that more light may be thrown upon it.