340 
NOTES AND QUERIES. [204 §, No 17,, Appin 26. °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. Tuomas LATHBURY. 
WOODEN CHALICES. 
(2™ 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. Irenzeus, used a chalice 
of crystal for his jugglery. St. Chrysostom, 
however, speaks of “a gold or jewelled chalice,” 
Hom. 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 Cealcythe, a.p. 785, c. 10., 
forbids the chalice or paten to be made of horn ; 
Elfric’s Canons, a.p. 975, ¢. 22., require the sacred 
vessels to be of wood; Edgar's Canons, a.p. 960, 
c. 41., require metal and proscribe wood, The 
Canons of Winchester, 1071, ¢c. 11., forbid wax or 
wood. Richard’s Canons, 1175, c. 16., require 
gold or silver; the Council of Rheims, 630, allows 
tin, but not brass. Hubert Walter, 1195, ec. 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.” 
Macxenzis Waxcort, M.A. 
The eighteenth capitulum of the Council of 
Tribur, a German council held in a.p. 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, martyr 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. 222—230), 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. Heel.,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.p. 451. foe 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- 
Jicalis : 
“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- 
