The Chalice in the Church. I Author(S): C

Irish Church Quarterly

The Chalice in the Church. I Author(s): C. A. Webster Source: The Irish Church Quarterly, Vol. 4, No. 14 (Apr., 1911), pp. 146-153 Published by: Irish Church Quarterly Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30067085 . Accessed: 10/06/2014 23:15

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Irish Church Quarterly is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Irish Church Quarterly.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.34.78.209 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 23:15:03 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 146 THE CHALICEIN THE CHURCH.

THE CHALICE IN THE CHURCH.-I.

MUCH has from time to time been written on the Com- munion Plate of some of the English Dioceses, and the value of such records cannot be over-rated. One has only to mention in this connexion Old Church Plate in the Diocese of Carlisle, edited by R. S. Ferguson, F.S.A., I882, and the more recent and beautiful volume published in 1gog, by Canon Braithwaite, on The Church Plate of Hampshire. Of course, the great antiquity of the many ancient pieces of Church Plate to be found in the sister Church gives an interest to such publications that could never be awakened in the more modern pieces that exist in the Church of Ireland. And yet, although our possessions in Ireland are poor and meagre when compared with those of the richer Church, the writer feels that the subject has never received from Irish Churchmen the attention that it really deserves. As a consequence, the custodians of our Com- munion Plate are not as careful about it as they might be; the marks that tell of age and workmanship have not the same interest for those who are responsible for their pre- servation, and there is a general lack of knowledge as to whence the pieces came and at what date they were manufactured. This is not the place to speak of the alienation of Church Plate from its sacred use; such alienation has been too common in the past. Neither is it the occasion for point- ing out the duties and responsibilities of our Rural Deans1 in the matter. Suffice it to say that the whole subject calls for consideration on the part of our diocesan authorities. Any historical survey of our subject must start from the institution of the Eucharistic Feast, and the Cup stands out prominently in that scene. Of what material 1 In the Constitutions of Simon de Rochfort, Bishop of Meath, made at the Synod of Newtown A.D. 1216, canon 5 commands the newly instituted archpriests (who now took the place of earlier bishops) to return a faithful accounit to the Bishop in synod " de statu et conditione librorum, vasorum, vestimentorum, et aliorum ornamentorum et supellectilium in ecclesiis infra suos decanatus." Wilkins, Concilia i. 547. For Bishop John Jebb's reference to the office of Rural Dean, see his speech in the House of Lords on the Church of Ireland, Practical Theology, vol. ii., p. 368 f.

This content downloaded from 195.34.78.209 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 23:15:03 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE CHALICEIN THE CHURCH. 147 was the Cup of the Upper Chamber? The question leads us into many by-paths; it suggests the further questions: Was the Last Supper the usual Jewish Passover? Was the Cup used by our Blessed Lord one of the cups of the ceremonial of the Paschal Feast ? Was " the cup of bless- the the ing "' third cup-the Kds habberdkhahk-of Paschal celebration? The train of thought here sug- gested would lead us far afield, and it must be sufficient to say that probably the Cup used by Christ was made of glazed pottery or of glass, and differed little, if at all, from one of the ordinary cups used in a Jewish household. It is more probable, too, that at first the Christians used ordinary vessels in their celebration of the Holy Com- munion. The story of the broken chalice,2 which was con- cocted by the accusers of St. Athanasius, would seem to show that chalices of glass were used in the Church of Alexandria. St. Jerome, speaking of Exuperius, Bishop of Toulouse, and praising his frugality, says that he "ministered the body of Christ in a basket of osiers and the blood in a glass cup."3 Even as late as the tenth century glass vessels continued to be used on the continent. Marthne4 shows how a community of monks in Flanders, founded by St. Winocus, in that century still used chalices of glass. But local circumstances no doubt regulated then as now the material out of which the sacred vessels in any parti- cular church were made; the poverty or otherwise of the community settled in most instances whether their Com- munion vessels were of glass or of one of the precious metals. In some parts wood and horn were used, but there were objections to both materials. Wood was condemned by the provincial Council of Trebur,5 held in 895 A.D. Pope Leo IV. (847-855) had already 1 Cor. x. 16. 2 Socrates, E. H. i. 27, Athanasius, Orations against the Arians. Edit. W. Bright, 1884, p. xxV. 3 Hieron., Ep. iv. ad Rustic. Monach. Paris, 1643, P. 41. 4 De AAntiq.Eccl. Bit., iv. 78. 5 Can. 18, after stating that Pope Zephyrinus ordered masses to be celebrated with patens of glass, and that his second successor, Urban, caused all sacred vessels to be of silver, proceeds: Statui- mus ut deinceps nullus sacerdos sacrum mysterium corporis et sanguinis Jesu Christi Domini nostri in ligneis vasculis ullo modo conficere presumat, ne, unde placari debet, inde irascatur Deus." Mansi, Conc., xviii. 142.

This content downloaded from 195.34.78.209 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 23:15:03 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 148 THE CHALICEIN THE CHURCH.

ordered in his homily De Cura Pastorali that no one should celebrate Mass with a chalice of wood, lead or glass. It was the use of wood that gave rise to the celebrated apophthegm of St. Boniface of Mainz: "Once golden priests used wooden chalices, but now wooden priests use golden chalices."' Horn also was condemned by the Synod of Celclyth or Chelsea (A.D. 787), inasmuch as it had in it an element of blood ;2 whilst by a decree of the Council of Rheims, held A.D. 847, it was laid down that, if not of gold, chalices should be wholly of silver; tin was only allowed where great poverty could be pleaded." That the Church had her sacred vessels of gold and silver at an early period is evident; the natural tendency to have special vessels for sacred usage asserted itself, and such differentiation showed itself by the Christians adopting costly materials for their chalices, as well as by the adorn- ment- and inscriptions which they put on them. Several instances are cited by Bingham" of the sale of Communion vessels in order to redeem captives or help the poor with the money. The case of Ambrose melting down the vessels of the Church of Milan is an outstanding example; Possidius refers to it in his Life of St. Augustine, and tells how the later saint had in like manner caused the sacred vessels to be broken up and melted down that he might be enabled to release some captives and give relief to the poor.6 There is, however, no need to labour this, for it is perfectly plain that from the fourth century, at least, the Communion vessels of the Church were made of gold or silver, wherever local conditions permitted such outlay and men's devotion prompted them to it. But I desire to treat the subject now as it concerns our own Church of Ireland, and with the aid of such scanty records as we possess. It has been thought that the earliest chalices in the Church of Ireland were made of

1 See Bingham, Origines Ecclesiasticae, ed. 1840, book viii., chap. vi., p. 450, note. 2Haddan and Stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents, 1871, vol. iii., p. 452. Vetuimus etiam ne de cornu bovis calix aut patina fierct, ad sacrificandum Deo, quia sanguineae sunt. 3 Gratian, Corpus Juris Canonici, dist. i., c. 45. 4Tertullian, De Pud. io: "Praecedant picturae calicum vestrorum . . . Si forte patrocinabitur pastor, quemn in calicc depingis." 5 Bingham, book v., chap. vi., pp. 93-95. 6 Vita S. Auliustini, 24.

This content downloaded from 195.34.78.209 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 23:15:03 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE CHALICE IN THE CHURCH. 149 stone. Miss Margaret Stokes, in her Early Christian Art in Ireland, says: " The rudest, and possibly the oldest, form of chalice of native workmanship in Ireland was of stone. One example, now preserved in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, is as rude and archaic as the primitive cell in the monastery on the Blasket Island from which it was taken. Another chalice, also of stone, is preserved in the same museum, and this is gracefully decorated." x Wakeman" had already described this vessel as a chalice. Mr. E. C. R. Armstrong has gone very carefully into the matter, and comes to the conclusion, which I think is in- disputable, that these objects, to be seen with other stone vessels in the collection of the Royal Irish Academy, are not chalices, but lamps in which oil or fat had been burnt.3 There is evidence of the use of glass chalices in the Celtic Church. In the Tripartite Life we have the oft repeated story which tells how St. Patrick informed Ailbe "of a stone altar in Sleab-Hria-n-Ailella, under the ground, with four glass chalices at the four angles of the altar." This story occurs in the Book of Armagh, but no mention is there made of the glass chalices; it merely states that St. Patrick showed Ailbe the altar in a moun- tain of the Ui Oiliolla.5 We read also that after St. Patrick "had founded Cell Atrachta in Gregraide and placed in it Talan's daughter, who took the veil from Patrick's hand, he left a chalice and a paten with her."' Again, the same authority says that " Thrice now did Patrick wend across the Shannon into the land of Connaught. Fifty bells and fifty chalices and fifty altar cloths he left in the land of Connaught, each of them in his church." 7 It is impossible to say of what material these fifty chalices were made, but that glass ones were used in the Celtic Church is further shown by the fact that their use, as well 1 M.. Stokes, Early Christian Art in Ireland, p 69 2 W. F. Wakeman, Handbook of Irish Antiquities, 1858, p. i6i. 3 Proceedings R.I.A., vol. xxvi., sec. C., no. 13. 4 Whitley Stokes, Tripartite Life, 1887, part i., p. 95. 5 J. H. Todd, St. Patrick, I864, p. 222 f. Dr. Todd considered the existence of such an altar as "a curious incidental proof that Christianity existed before St. Patrick's time in this remote district." " W. Stokes, op. cit., p. Io9. 7 Ibid. p. 147.

This content downloaded from 195.34.78.209 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 23:15:03 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 150 THE CHALICE IN THE CHURCH.

as the use of wooden ones, was forbidden by a later authority. ' It is easy to see why vessels of glass should be condemned; they were easily broken, and they also allowed the sacred element to be seen. These two reasons, apart from the desire to consecrate the best for holy pur- poses, were sufficient to condemn their use. In Mabillon's Acta Sanctorum2 there is a reference to Communion vessels of bronze, and it goes to show that the monks in Irish continental monasteries preferred to use chalices made of that material to those manufactured from the precious metals. St. Gall, according to Wala- frid Strabo, justified his use of them, by giving the example of Columbanus," and added that the earlier saint was guided in his choice by the fact that the nails used at the crucifixion were of bronze.' This shows that in the seventh century bronze chalices were used in the Irish Church. The famous chalice of Kremsmiinster is in- teresting in this connexion. It belongs to the eighth century, and is probably earlier than A.D. 780. It bears the inscription: " Tassilo dux fortis Luitpirc virga regalis." This Tassilo-the donor-was Duke of Bavaria until he was deposed by Charles the Great, and the monastery of Kremsmtinster is in Lower Austria, a country in which Irish missionaries laboured. The chalice is of bronze, ornamented with niello and incrustations of silver, and the use of bronze in its manufacture, as well as the peculiar designs and traceries on it, connect the chalice with Irish artificers.5 But even as far back as the fifth century a great degree of excellence seems to have been reached in the art of " 1 Leabhar Breac, p. 248, col. I. Nullus presumat missam cantare in ligneo vel in vitreo calice." See F. E. Warren, Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church, p. 87, note. For the legend of a broken chalice-probably of glass-being blessed and restored by St. Ailbe, see C. Plummer, Vitae Sanctorun Hiberniae, vol. i., p. 53. For reference to chalices of crystal (de cristallo), ibid. p. 117. 2 Acta SS. Ord. S. Ben., saec. ii., p. 241. 3 " Praeceptor meus B. Columbanus in vasis aeneis Domino solet sacrificium offerre salutis." XWalafrid Strabo, Vita S. Galli, i. ig, quoted by Warren, op. cit., p. 143, note. 4 Perhaps we have here, too, traces of the spirit of asceticism, which prompted the use of the less costly material. SIt is quite possible that the traceries on this chalice are of continental origin and were introduced from the continent into Ireland. For a representation of this chalice, see Dict. Chr. Antiq., vol. i., p. 339.

This content downloaded from 195.34.78.209 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 23:15:03 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE- CHALICE IN THE CHURCH. 151 metal work in Ireland. It is certain too that gold and silver mines were worked here from the most remote antiquity. Dr. Joyce says1 :- time " The pagan Irish, like the ancient Britons, practised from immemorial-long before the introduction of Christianity-the art of working in bronze, silver, gold and enamel; an art which had become highly developed in Ireland by the time St. Patrick and his fellow missionaries arrived. Some of the antique Irish articles made in pagan times show great mastery over metals and exquisite skill in design and execution." In Christian times many of the Irish ecclesiastics were skilled artificers. St. Conledh, who was chosen by St. Brigid as first bishop in her community at Kildare, is called her " principal artist."2 St. Daig of Inis Cain in Louth was a smith and artizan as well as a scribe. "'Tis he that made 300 bells and 300 croziers and 300 gospels, and he was Ciaran of Saiger's chief artizan.""' The office of artizan, too, seems to have been hereditary in some monasteries.4 In the Genealogy of Corca Laidke5 there is reference to the Ceard or artificer who was of the Ceard- raidh of Teamhair, and in these Ceardraidh "we seem to have a glimpse of an hereditary caste or tribe of gold- smiths " in Munster." With St. Patrick's mission new designs were introduced from the continent. In Gaul, as we saw, glass vessels were used as late as the tenth century, but there is evidence that some churches there were possessed at an early period of gold and silver chalices. By his will Perpetuus, Bishop of Tours (;circa 477), bequeathes two golden chalices and a cross of gold to his church.' Gaulish bishops accompanied St. Patrick into Ireland, and from the Tripartite Life we learn that artificers were in the muinnter or familia of the saint; the names of those whose task was to make the patens and credence tables and the altar chalices, are given as Tassach, Essu, and Bitui.8 There are two other references to our subject in connexion with the patron saint, 1P. W. Joyce, Social History of Ancient Ireland, 190o3, vol. i., p. 559. 2 Todd, op. cit., p. 25. 3 Martyroloqy of Oengus, ed. W. Stokes, 1905, p. 187 Christian 4 Inscriptions, ed. M. Stokes, 1872, ii. 159. 5 Miscellany of the Celtic Society, 1849, p. Io. Plummer, note. 6' op. cit., p. xcviii., For other references to golden chalices in Gaul, see Warren,, note. op.I cit., p. 144, W. Stokes, Tripartite Life, p. 251.

This content downloaded from 195.34.78.209 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 23:15:03 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 152 THE CHALICEIN THE CHURCH.

and having made them we shall leave this period. A quatrain, preserved in several ancient manuscripts, fore- tells the arrival of St. Patrick and his companions; the mention of "cups and patens " in it is made to show that at the time the orientation of churches was the rule. Colgan1 translates it thus: "'Veniet tonsus in vertice trans mare vorticosum, Cujus toga (i.e. cassula) erit desuper perforata, cujus baculus erit praecurvi capitis, Cujus disci (sive utensilia) erunt in parte orientali suae domus: Eique decantanti, tota ipsius familia respondebit Amen, Amen." Todd2 renders the last two lines: - " Far in his house, at its east end, his cups and patens lie, His people answer to his voice; Amen, Amen, they cry." The other reference is from the Annals of Ulster. It tells how the relics of St. Patrick were enshrined by Columcille, and how three precious reliquaries were found in his tomb, i.e., the cup which an angel directed Columcille to give to Down; the Bell of the Will which he was to give to Armagh, and the gospel which he was to keep himself." It is beyond question that, down to the twelfth century, the Communion was administered in both kinds to the laity in the Celtic Church.4 As a consequence the chalices up to that period were of much larger size than those of a later date. It appears, too, that a small cup was used by the officiating priest, whilst a larger one was provided for communicating the minor clergy and laity. This latter was called " Calix Ministerialis,"' and often had two 1 Trias p. 5, col. 2. 2 Thaum., Todd, op. cit., p. 411. - Reeves, Adamnan a Columba, 1857, P. 327. For of see 4r proof this, Warren, p. 134. Under " Calices ministeriales" Ducange's Glossary has ' Majores vino pleni, in quos refundebat archidiaconus guttulam sanguinis Christi de calice sancto, quo populus confirmaretur, id communicaretur de sanguine dominico seu complementum .est,acciperet communionis." The large chalices were also used to receive the wine which the intending communicants brought in amulae, and when used in this manner they were called calices offertorii, or calices offerendarii. See Diet. Chr. Antiqg., under Chalice. There are three beautifully chased silver cups, with two handles and a cover 'to each, in churches in the Diocese of Cloyne. They are of Dublin make, and were presented in 1774 by Bishop Agar. There is also a two-handled cup of Sheffield plate in a church in the Diocese of Ross. See Charles A. Webster, Church Plate in the Diocese of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross, 19o9.

This content downloaded from 195.34.78.209 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 23:15:03 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE CHALICE IN THE CHURCH. 153 handles. The chalice of Ardagh, one of the finest cups in the world, and the most remarkable of Irish make, is of this class. It was found with other treasures in a rath called Reerasta, near Ardagh, a village in the County Limerick. Gold, silver, bronze, brass, copper, lead, and enamel have all been used in its manufacture; the orna- mental designs on it belonging to the Celtic period, and the divergent spiral or trumpet pattern, of which this cup has two varieties, bring it within a period not later than the tenth century; round the bowl are stippled in the names of the twelve apostles, omitting St. Matthias and includ- ing St. Paul. This cup is one of the most valuable treasures of our National Museum.1 The Chronicum Scotorun tells that in A.D. 1125 " the altar of the great stone church of Cluain-mac-Nois was opened and precious things were taken out of it,"' and amongst these "precious things " are mentioned " a silver chalice with a burnishing of gold and an engraving and a silver cup of Ceallach, comarb of Patrick." It has been thought3 that the chalice of Ardagh is one of these treasures of Clonmacnoise that were stolen on that occasion and secreted at Reerasta, to be accident- ally found so many years after. Here, too, mention must be made of another chalice; it is " the chalice of gold on the altar of Mary," which was presented by Queen Der- vorgilla, the wife of Tiernan O'Ruairc, to the church of Mellifont, in the year 1157. The Four Masters have re- corded the gift as well as holy ornaments for nine other altars which were in the same church.4

(To be continued.) C. A. WEBSTER.

I For a representation and full account of the Ardagh chalice see M. Stokes, Early Christian Art in Ireland, and the Earl of Dunraven's paper, Transactions of the R.I.A., vol. xxiv., p. 433- 2 W. M. Hennessy, Chronicum Scotorum, 1866, p. 329. 3 J. Healy, Insula Sanctorumr et Doctorum, 190go2, p. 563. 4 Four Masters, ed. O'Donovan, vol. ii., p. 1125.

This content downloaded from 195.34.78.209 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 23:15:03 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions