VESSELS, SACRED.

The Chalice or Cup (§ 1).

The Paten (§ 2).

The Pyx or Ciborium and Monstrance (§ 3).

Spoons; the Holy Spear; the Colum (§ 4).

Sacred Vessels in the Wider Sense (§ 5).

The expression sacred vessels (vasa sacra) de notes those used in the Lord's Supper, or, in wider sense, all the vessels and utensils of the church service. First in order comes the chalice or cup

(Lat. calix; Gk. poterion), which was used from the very beginning. No examples from early Christian times are extant, but it is known that

r. The there were various- forms, the chief

Chalice being the bulging two-handled can

or Cup. tharus, beside which the simple cup

and bowl were also used (cf. V.

Schultze, Archaeologie der altchristliohen Kunst, pp.

125-126, Munich, 1895). Precious and ordinary

metals, clay, and glass are . mentioned as material.

In course of the two art eras of the Middle Ages, a uniform style was developed. The Romanesque chalice has a conical circular base upon which rises,

interrupted by a bulging knob (atodus), a short

stem, supporting a hemispherical bowl (cuppa).

Base, shaft, and cup are ornamented freely. Note

worthy German examples are the "Bernward"

chalice in St. Gotthard's Church at Hildesheim

(twelfth century), with Old- and New-Testament scenes; a chalice in the Church of the Holy Apostles at Cologne, with fine filigree work and figures of

the apostles; above all the chalice of the abbey at

Wilten, in Tyrol, the surfaces of which are entirely

overlaid with engraved and beaten designs and

adornments (cf. H. Otte, Kunstarchkologie des

deutschen Mittelalters, i. 215 sqq., Leipsic, 1883).

The Gothic in its aspiration toward elegance and vertical construction supersedes the hemisphere by a coniform cup, designs the base after foliage pat terns, usually with six leaves, employs a polygonal stem, and ornaments the same with diagonally

arranged bosses (rotuli). The engraver's art is re stricted. The Renaissance increases the height of the chalice, makes the bowl wider, and applies its decoration richly. The baroque and rococo styles carry this tendency to extremes. The Lutheran

Church retained the traditional forms, or favored

their further development; whereas the Reformed

churches undertook to restore the chalice to " apos

tolic " simplicity, even allowing the wooden cup.

The Greek Church, so far as is known, has generally adhered to the plain forms of about 800. The me dieval Church of the Nest, so long as it retained

communion in both kinds, distinguished between

11 ministerial chalices " (calices ininisteriales) for the

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use of the laity (m%nisterialis=" of lower condition

or status ") for more convenient handling, often

provided with two handles (calices ayesati), and priestly chalices for the daily observance of the mass. The wine was usually consecrated in the latter cup, and then poured into the larger cup, al ready partly filled with unconsecrated wine. Only

on extraordinary occasions, as at episcopal masses

(whence the designation " pontifical chalice "), were vessels used which had come to the Church by way of costly gifts. For the use of the newly baptized,

moreover, they had so-called "baptismal chalices"

(calices baPtismciles). Precaution against spilling

the consecrated wine, elicited, from about the ninth

century, the use of the suction tube (fistula, piPa) of precious metal or glass; it had a handle attach ment and was offered to the communicants by the deacon. On occasion of festival masses the pope still uses the same, and in some instances the prac tise was retained for some time in the churches of the Reformation. To satisfy ecclesiastical uses the chalice had to be consecrated, and when so set apart it was marked with an engraved cross. In the mat ter of the material, various church ordinances came into existence, the object of which above every thing else was to exclude unworthy materials (wood, lead), or brittle stuff (earthenware, glass; cf. Hefele,

Conciliengeschichte, iii. 639, iv. 554, 756, v. 688, vi.

491). Silver and gold ranked as excellent materials.

Inscriptions, such as dedications, Old- and New-Tes tament quotations, religious and dogmatic state ments, were often employed, preferably about the

base. The practise in primitive Christian worship

of having the wine supplied by -members of the

congregation required larger jars (scyphi, amm) to receive the same, which appear to have resembled in form the ancient mixing jars (V. Schultze, ut

sup., p. 126). Even after this custom died out, it remained necessary, so long as the laity received full communion, to keep the wine in readiness in larger vessels of clay, stone, or metal, which the subsequent legendary accretion often resolved into waterpots of the marriage in Cana. Upon exclu sion of the cup from the laity, these vessels naturally

decreased in size, and merged into the eucharistic

vials (ampudhe). Even at an early period, art ap propriated these objects, creating specimens costly both in material (silver, gold, sardonyx, agate) and workmanship (enamel, chasing). The dupli cation of the vessels finds its reason in the pre scribed mixing of the wine with water; hence it happens, toward the close of the Middle Ages, that

eucharistic vials are found distinguished by the

letters V (vinum, " wine ") and A (aqua," water ").

The vessel which serves to receive the conse

crated bread during the communion is the paten

(Lat. Patena,, Gk. patane, " plate "). The use of ordinary bread at the earlier,, or more z. The ancient, celebration of the eucharist,

Paten implies that this was a real platter, of considerable size and weight. So it remained in the early Middle Ages, as the wafer was much larger down to the twelfth or thirteenth cen tury than in later times. The material of the paten was probably at first terracotta or glass; but in the era following Constantine heavy gold and silver

patens are heard of in the treasure of Roman bishops and in other connections. In the cathedral treasury at Halberstadt there is a magnificent gilded silver paten, sixteen inches in diameter, with richly decorated figures and other ornamentation, brought by Bishop Conrad to Halberstadt from Byzantium in 1215. Noteworthy specimens of German origin are also extant, such as the one in St. Gotthard's Church at Hildesheim, with a filigree setting of pearls and precious stones. Most of these elaborate specimens are associated with ministerial chalices. In the Gothic period the paten becomes smaller and less ornamental. It has also very little depth in this period. The rim not infrequently contains inscriptions relating to the communion. In the Greek Church, for protection of the consecrated bread when it is veiled, two metal strips (asterzskoi), put together in the form of a cross and provided with bent feet, are placed over the paten (Gk, dis kos; cf. design in D. Sokolow, iTarstellung des Gottesdienstes der orthodox-kathoLiselaen Ifirche des Morgenlandes, p. 11, Berlin, 1893).

For holding the consecrated as well as the unconsecrated bread, whether in church or on occasion of the administration of communion abroad, vessels of various forms and sizes were used under the general designation of pyxis, capsa, arcs; also ciborium and suspensio, from their place beneath the altar canopy (ciborium). The simplest form is that of the cylindrical wafer caskets, with fiat

3. The or arching cover, of metal or ivory, Pyx or some few of which have come down

Ciborium from Christian antiquity (cf. Victor and Schultze, ut sup., pp. 274 sqq.). In Monstrance, the second half of the Middle Ages the pyx was much elaborated; resting upon a cup-like base, it copied the structural plan of a tower (turris; Curriculum). In the later Middle Ages this development reached its culmination in the stone or metal tabernacle erected at. the north end of the choir, on the wafer side of the altar, being sometimes executed with admirable artistic skill; its structural pattern was the Gothic tower (superior examples of this kind in the Uhn Cathedral; in the Church of St. Lawrence in Nuremberg, by Adam Kraft; and elsewhere). This development was anticipated in the eucharistic shrines of earlier ages. The consecrated ele ent was ~enclosed in a compartment of lattice-work.

During that stage of its development when processions and public display of the Host became prominent, the festival of Corpus Christi led to the construction and use of a vessel that should at once augustly and visibly present the blessed sacrament to the eye. Thus the monstrance came into being (monstrantia, ostensorium, eustodia, tabernaculum). There was, however, no need of a new invention, and the makers confined themselves to copying the transparent reliquaries and ciboria, which were already at hand, being occasioned by quite a similar purpose. For the base the Gothic chalice was imitated in the diversity of its standard forms. Its knob (nodes) likewise recurs, but with a greater tendency toward sumptuous elaboration. Upon the like support there mounts an artistic superstructure, designed like the transept of a church

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having three to five naves. The free plane surfaces are of both simpler and richer disposition. To crown all, there are one or more turrets (hence the designation turricula). The effect of richness is enhanced by settings of pearls and precious stones. The Greek liturgy prescribes the presentation of the elements mingled in the chalice, for which pur pose there was in use, from quite early 4. Spoons; times, a metal spoon (labis, labida), the Holy the handle of which ends in a cross. Spear; the Western Church inventories and do Colum. nation records of the same time fre quently mention spoons (cochlearia), which may have served partly for mixing water and wine, partly in administering to the poor, being still in use for that purpose in Spain. To the Greek rites exclusively belongs the sacred spear (he hagia lonche), with which the bread is divided in the proc ess of preparation. The Western liturgy no longer provides occasion for the colum (colum vinarium, colatorium-a strainer with a long handle, used as the wine was poured), which was widely employed in the first half of the Middle Ages, before the with drawal of the cup from the laity. Of sacred vessels in the more comprehensive sense the following may be briefly mentioned: vessels for the sacred oil (oleum catechumenorum, g. Sacred infirmorum; chrisma) of various de Vessels in signs; stationary censers with double the Wider covers, and the swinging thurible with Sense. chains, occasionally of beautiful artis tic finish; the sprinkling-utensils used by the priest at mass, which freely affect animal forms, as the bear, griffin, or bird, together-with their appertaining basins; lastly, holy-water vessels (vasa lustralia), in the form of simple or decorated little metal pails. The entire category of these lesser and greater articles, comprehended undei^"9he desig nation of sacred utensils, is instructive alike in re lation to the history of worship and to that of eccle siastical art. As the order of divine service became renovated according to the Evangelical conception in the sixteenth century, most of these objects naturally fell out of use; also in the Roman Church the subsequent development ran partly in other channels.

Victor Schultze.

Bibliography: Bingham, Origines, II., aia. 17, zx. 4, VI., vi. 13, VIII., vi. sqq.; the articles on the several vessels in the dictionaries, as in DCA; and the literature under Symbolism; and Worship.