Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/348

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

S. NO 1?., APRIL 2(5. '56,

I have also a copy of Campbell's Middle State, on the margins of which Cartwright has written numerous corrections for a new edition. On a fly-leaf he states that the corrections were made by Campbell in a particular copy, of which he gives an account. THOMAS LATHBUBT.

WOODEN CHALICES.

(2 nd S. i. 211.)

Becon says :

" The cup, wherein the Sacrament of Christ's blood was ministered, which we now commonly call the Chalice, was, in the time of the Apostles and of the Primitive Church, made of wood. But Pope Zephyrynus com- manded chalices of glass to be used in the year of our Lord 202. And, afterwards, Pope Urbanus ordained that the chalices should be made either of silver or of gold, in the year 227." Works, iii. 262. (Parker Society.)

This assertion can only apply to certain coun- tries, as six centuries after orders had to be made with respect to the material employed. Marcus the heretic, mentioned by St. Irenajus, used a chalice of crystal for his jugglery. St. Chrysostom, however, speaks of " a gold or jewelled chalice," Horn. 50. on St. Math. St. Ambrose says, " Sacra- ments need not gold ; " and sold his church plate to relieve captives. St. Jerome (Ep. 95. to Rus- ticus) mentions that Exuperius, Bishop of Tou- louse, carried the Sacrament in a wicker canister and glass. Bishop Boniface, as Gratian records, when consulted on the subject, said, " When priests were gold, the chalice was of wood ; now, when the vessel is of gold, priests are wooden." The Legatine Council of Oealcythe, A.D. 785, c. 10., forbids the chalice or paten to be made of horn ; Elfric's Canons, A.D. 975, c. 22., require the sacred vessels to be of wood ; Edgar's Canons, A.D. 960, c. 41., require metal and proscribe wood. The Canons of Winchester, 1071, c. 11., forbid wax or wood. Richard's Canons, 1375, c. 16., require gold or silver ; the Council of Rheims, 630, allows tin, but not brass. Hubert Walter, 1195, c. 9., requires silver. Even after the Reformation chalices were sometimes of pewter, I believe. In 1576, the Articles for the province of Canter- bury, 18., inquires whether the Communion is ministered in " any profane cup or glass."

MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A.

The eighteenth capitulum of the Council of Tribur, a German council held in A.D. 895, ap- pears to have been in the mind of the writer quoted by your correspondent :

" The vessels in which the holy mysteries are cele- brated, are chalices and patens. Concerning which, Boni- face, martjT and bishop, being enquired of, whether it was lawful to celebrate the sacraments in vessels of wood, replied, 'Formerly, golden priests used wooden cha-

lices ; but now, on the contrary, wooden priests use golden chalices.' Zephyrinus, the 16th bishop of Rome (A.D. 197 217), ordained that masses should be celebrated with patens of glass. Afterwards, Urban, the 18th pope (A.D. 222230), made all .the sacred utensils of silver. For in this as in other parts of worship, in course of time the display made in churches more and more increased. In our days, who are servants of a master, that the splen- dour of Mother Church may not be diminished, but more and more augmented and amplified, we have resolved, that henceforth no priest should presume to celebrate the sacred mystery of the body and blood of Jesus Christ our Lord in vessels of wood, lest God should be offended by that whereby He ought to be appeased."

The Latin of this passage, which I have at- tempted to give in English, will be found in the collections of councils ; I will therefore not trouble you with it. I will add instead two other refer- ences. The so-called Apostolical Canons (No. 73., ed. Hefele) have the following :

" A consecrated vessel of silver or of gold, or linen, let no one hereafter alienate to his own use, for it is un- lawful ; and if any one be detected, let him be punished by separation."

Dr. Hefele says, in a note on this canon, that " it is demonstrable that in the third century, many churches had a large collection of gold and silver vessels." In the time of Julian, according to Theodoret, the plate of a single church erected by Constantine was of sufficient value to attract the cupidity of the apostate monarch. See the narrative in Theodoret, Hist. Eccl., 3. 11. It was one of the charges brought against. Ibas of Edessa, at the Council of Chalcedon, " That he had not deposited among the vessels of the holy church a jewelled cup of great price, which had been given to our church by a holy man eleven years ago." This, however, was in A.D. 451. B. H. C.

The Pope St. Zephyrinus made no decree about chalices at all ; he speaks only of patens. This is what is written of his decree, in the Liber Ponti- ficalis :

' Hie fuit constitutum de Ecclesia, ut patenas vitreas ministri ante sacerdotes portarent, dum episcopus missam celebraret."

These patens were probably used for adminis- tering the Holy Communion. That there were wooden chalices in the primitive times cannot be denied ; but there is no reason to infer that there were not also chalices of gold and silver, as there is evidence of some being of onyx and other valu- able stones. Wooden chalices were most likely used in poor churches, but when the Council of Tribur forbid them in 895, it did not for the first time enact that chalices should be of gold or silver, but simply forbid them to be of wood or glass. The tyrant required St. Laurence in the third century to produce the golden cups, in which he under- stood that the Christian priests offered sacrifice. St. Optatus of Milevis, and others, testify abun-