On Gauffres or Wafer Irons. By J. G. Winning. 491 



" Of wheat GO quarters ; of malt, or of meslin, aud oats to make malt, 

 120 quarters; of wine two barrel* hooped with iron, to be used in singing 

 masses; (de viu, ij barils ferrez, pour f aire chauuter messes) ; of the car- 

 t-asses of oxen 20 ; of herrings 10,000 ; of dried fish 1000; of salt 10 quarters. 

 Item, 8 cords great and small, necessary for two engines; and of tanned 

 hides for slings as many as shall be necessary ; and a pair of irons to make 

 altar wafers for the slaying of masses," [et une poire de fers pour fair onblez 

 a messes chauuter."] The "fers pour oublez afai re chanter messes," are 

 again enumerated near the end of the writ : (Stevenson's Documents Illus- 

 trative of the History of Scotland, 128<>-130b\ vol. n., pp. 21)1-2-4.) Sir 

 Walter de Huntercumb was then governor of Edinburgh Castle. 



In the inventory of the state of the House or Priory of Holy 

 Island in 1181, there Avas there inter alia, " 1 pair of ' bakyng- 

 iryns' (for the wafer)" — (Raine's North Durham, p. 123.) In 

 1533, there was in the "House," " 1 par of yrons " to east the 

 wafer (pro hosti is pine erni), p. 12.3. Pincema is a cup-bearer. At 

 Norliam, 1329-30, there were " two pair of iron moulds (ij p'ibus 

 ferr')for baking the sacramental bread (ad hostias coquendas) 

 purchased for v shillings," (p. 271)., which in a note are described 

 as " not much unlike a pair of tongs, internally impressed with a 

 device to be communicated to the wafer." 1513-4, at Fame, 

 there was a "pare bakyn yrings " for the wafer, (p. 357). This 

 is the last entry in Raine's collection of documents referring to 

 these utensils. 



In Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, in the enumeration of the 

 various compartments of the Cardinal's household ; there is one 

 called the "wafer}',' '(Loseley Manuscripts, p. 12, note). Shakes- 

 peare has " For oaths are straws — men's faiths are wafer cakes." 



James I.'s second Parliament chose to receive the communion 

 at St Margaret's Church, instead of Westminster Abbey, "for 

 fear of copes and wafer-cakes." — (Green's Hist, of England, iii., 

 p. 15). 



J. H. 



