360 



Old Church Plate in Wilts. 



about the edge and knoppe in the myddes of the shanke of the 

 chaliice, and aboute the edge of the patten or cover and the foot of 

 it also was gilted : which challice was sett or laide upon his breast 

 in the coffine with hime, and the cover thereof nayled downe to yt." 

 Rites of the Church of Durham, p. 49. 



During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the form of the 

 chalice seems to have been short and low, and the bowl wide and 

 shallow; the stem in the middle swelled into a bulb,, called the 

 knop, the foot or base being circular. One of the most remarkable 

 examples of this period is that long preserved at Rheims, and known 

 as the " calice de St. Remi." This incomparable example of the skill 

 of the workers in the twelfth century is of gold encrusted with 

 enamelled ornaments, gems, pearls, and filigree work of the most 

 curious character. It measures in height 6jin., and the diameter 

 of the cup is very nearly Gin. 1 The general form of the chalice at 

 this period will be seen in the remarkable Wiltshire example of 

 Berwick St. James, an illustration of which will be found further 

 on. It is difficult to fix any approximate date for this English 

 chalice, it is possibly of the thirteenth century, but there is nothing 

 to show that it is not as early as the twelfth. The paten is of much 

 later date, probably of the fifteenth. 



In the treasuries of many of our English Cathedrals are preserved 

 small chalices, found in the tombs of ecclesiastics, more or less 

 perfect, usually of tin or pewter, but sometimes of more precious 

 metal. The examples now kept in the treasury of the Cathedral 

 at Salisbury are believed to have been removed from some of the 

 early tombs, but from the hopeless confusion into which nearly all 

 places of sepulture of the early bishops have fallen since the senseless 

 removal of the original tombs by Wyatt in the last century, any 

 identification is now almost impossible. There is some evidence, or 

 tradition at least, that the interesting silvar-gilt chalice and paten^ 

 together with an episcopal ring and the fragments of a pastoral 

 staff in wood, came out of a tomb supposed to be that of Bishop 



1 See "Archaeological Journal," vol. iii., where is an excellent woodcut of this 

 chalice, together with a valuable paper by the late Albert Way on "Vessels and 

 Appliances of Sacred Use." 



