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comely communion cup of silver, and a cover of silver for the same, which may 

 serve also for the administration of the Communion, bread. " [Cardwell, Vol. 1, 

 p. 356]. One of the Prebendaries of Canterbury, George Gardiner, in his reply to 

 "Parker's "Articles to be enquired of" in Canterbury Cathedral, says in 1567, 

 "He would have their Chalice turned into a decent communion cup." [Fuller 

 Russell in Arch. Journal, Vol. xxxv., p. 48]. Parker's suffragans were equally 

 zealous in their Dioceses, with the result that nine hundred and ninety-nine out of 

 every thousand of these beautiful chalices were converted into " communion cups." 

 Entries are found in sundry Churchwardens' accounts giving minute particulars as 

 to the weight of the old Chalice and new cup, the charge for fashioning, &c. 



Whether the remoteness of Bacton in any way contributed to the preserva- 

 tion of this Chalice while all its neighbours disappeared I know not. At all 

 events the only pieces of Pre-Reforniation plate remaining in the county are the 

 Leominster and Bacton Chalices with their patens, and a Paten at Norton Canon. 

 The Elizabethan Paten cover of the cup at Little Birch was fashioned out of the 

 mediaeval Paten. 



Or did Blanche Parry, Queen Elizabeth's favourite Maid of Honour use her 

 influence to save it from destruction ? We know that she was a staunch Church- 

 woman. She is reputed to have worked the altar cloth and to have given it to 

 the Church. She may have worked the curious designs on the cloth of silver 

 which is the fabric, but they were certainly worked on a dress, not an altar cloth. 

 Anyone may see this who looks at the uneven joinings of the pieces and who 

 observes the caterpillars, frog, snails, dog, deer, &c., depicted with the needle 

 upon the groundwork. The altar cloth is undoubtedly made out of parts of a 

 Court dress of Anne Parry or some other period of Elizabeth or James L She 

 was a benefactor to the parish and lies buried in the Church. But did her Church 

 views incline towards Rome or towards Geneva ? If towards the former, it may 

 be to her that the Chalice owes its present existence ; if the latter could claim her, 

 then it is owing to a series of lucky escapes that the Chalice remains here. 



Anyhow ; perfect in condition, this beautiful relic has during four centuries 

 survived Edwardian spoliation ; Elizabethan iconoclasm ; Cromwellian desecra- 

 tion, and Hanoverian neglect. Let us hope that all future Vicars will follow the 

 good example of the present one in taking excellent care of this, the most 

 precious treasure that Bacton Church possesses. 



