RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Vermigli Vessels, Sacred
(cf. J. H. Blunt, Annotated Book of Common Prayer;
pp. 17-18, 178, New York, 1903).] See Breviary;
CanonicaL Hours. (O. ZicKLERT.)
Brsiioararuy: Besides the works of Baumer and Batiffol named under Breviary, consult: H. M. Sengelmann, Vesperglocke, Leipsic, 1855; I. Hengstenberg, Ueber Vespergottesdienste, Berlin, 1861; Hvangelische Kirchenzeitung, 1860, pp. 349 sqq., 487 sqq.; M. Herold, Vesperale oder die Nachmittage unsrer Feste und ihre gottesdienstliche Bereicherung, Nordlingen, 1875; K. von Liliencron, Litterarisch-musikalische Geschichte der evangelischen Gottesdienste, pp. 1523-1700, Sleswick, 1893; KL, xii, 869- 871.
VESSELS, SACRED.
The Chalice or Cup (§ 1).
The Paten (§ 2).
The Pyx or Ciborium and Monstrance (§ 3). Spoons; the Holy Spear; the Colum (§ 4). Sacred Vessels in the Wider Sense (§ 5).
The expression sacred vessels (vasa sacra) denotes those used in the Lord’s Supper, or, in wider sense, all the vessels and utensils of the church service. First in order comes the chalice or cup (Lat. caliz; Gk. potérion), which was used from the very beginning. No examples from early Christian
times are extant, but it is known that
1. The there were various forms, the chief Chalice being the bulging two-handled canor Cup. tharus, beside which the simple cup
and bowl were also used (cf. V. Schultze, Archdologie der altchristlichen Kunst, pp. 125-126, Munich, 1895). Precious and ordinary metals, clay, and glass are mentioned as material. In course of the two art eras of the Middle Ages, a uniform style was developed. The Romanesque chalice has a conical circular base upon which rises, interrupted by a bulging knob (nodus), a short stem, supporting a hemispherical bowl (cuppa). Base, shaft, and cup are ornamented freely. Noteworthy German examples are the ‘‘ Bernward ”’ chalice in St. Gotthard’s Church at Hildesheim (twelfth century), with Old- and New-Testament scenes; a chalice in the Church of the Holy Apostles at Cologne, with fine filigree work and figures of the apostles; above all the chalice of the abbey at Wilten, in Tyrol, the surfaces of which are entirely overlaid with engraved and beaten designs and adornments (cf. H. Otte, Kumnstarchdologie des deutschen Muttelalters, i. 215 sqq., Leipsic, 1883). The Gothic in its aspiration toward elegance and vertical construction supersedes the hemisphere by a coniform cup, designs the base after foliage patterns, usually with six leaves, employs a polygonal stem, and ornaments the same with diagonally arranged bosses (rotuli). The engraver’s art is restricted. The Renaissance increases the height of the chalice, makes the bowl wider, and applies its decoration richly. The baroque and rococo styles carry this tendency to extremes. The Lutheran Church retained the traditional forms, or favored their further development; whereas the Reformed churches undertook to restore the chalice to ‘‘ apostolic”’ simplicity, even allowing the wooden cup. The Greek Church, so far as is known, has generally adhered to the plain forms of about 800. The medieval Church of the West, so long as it retained communion in both kinds, distinguished between ““ ministerial chalices ’’ (calices ministeriales) for the
Vessels, Sacred Vestments
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
use of the laity (ministerialis=“‘ of lower condition or status”) for more convenient handling, often provided with two handles (calices ansati), and priestly chalices for the daily observance of the mass. The wine was usually consecrated in the latter cup, and then poured into the larger cup, already partly filled with unconsecrated wine. Only on extraordinary occasions, as at episcopal masses (whence the designation ‘‘ pontifical chalice’’), were vessels used which had come to the Church by way of costly gifts. For the use of the newly baptized, moreover, they had so-called ‘‘ baptismal chalices ”’ (calices baptismales). Precaution against spilling the consecrated wine, elicited, from about the ninth century, the use of the suction tube (fistula, pipa) of precious metal or glass; it had a handle attachment and was offered to the communicants by the deacon. On occasion of festival masses the pope still uses the same, and in some instances the practise was retained for some time in the churches of the Reformation. To satisfy ecclesiastical uses the chalice had to be consecrated, and when so set apart it was marked with an engraved cross. In the matter of the material, various church ordinances came into existence, the object of which above everything else was to exclude unworthy materials (wood, lead), or brittle stuff (earthenware, glass; cf. Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, iii. 639, iv. 554, 756, v. 688, vi. 491). Silver and gold ranked as excellent materials. Inscriptions, such as dedications, Old- and New-Testament quotations, religious and dogmatic statements, were often employed, preferably about the base. The practise in primitive Christian worship of having the wine supplied by members of the congregation required larger jars (scypht, ame) to receive the same, which appear to have resembled in form the ancient mixing jars (V. Schultze, ut sup., p. 126). Even after this custom died out, it remained necessary, so long as the laity received full communion, to keep the wine in readiness in larger vessels of clay, stone, or metal, which the subsequent legendary accretion often resolved into waterpots of the marriage in Cana. Upon exclusion of the cup from the laity, these vessels naturally decreased in size, and merged into the eucharistic vials (ampulle). Even at an early period, art appropriated these objects, creating specimens costly both in material (silver, gold, sardonyx, agate) and workmanship (enamel, chasing). The duplication of the vessels finds its reason in the prescribed mixing of the wine with water; hence it happens, toward the close of the Middle Ages, that eucharistic vials are found distinguished by the letters V (vinwm, ‘‘ wine ’’) and A (aqua, ‘‘ water’).
The vessel which serves to receive the consecrated bread during the communion is the paten (Lat. patena, Gk. patané, “ plate’). The use of ordinary bread at the earlier, or more ancient, celebration of the eucharist, implies that this was a real platter, of considerable size and weight. So it remained in the early Middle Ages, as the wafer was much larger down to the twelfth or thirteenth century than in later times. The material of the paten was probably at first terra-cotta or glass; but in the era following Constantine heavy gold and silver
2. The Paten,
patens are heard of in the treasure of Roman bishops and in other connections. In the cathedral treasury at Halberstadt there is a magnificent gilded silver paten, sixteen inches in diameter, with richly decorated figures and other ornamentation, brought by Bishop Conrad to, Halberstadt from Byzantium in 1215. Noteworthy specimens of German origin are also extant, such as the one in St. Gotthard’s Church at Hildesheim, with a filigree setting of pearls and precious stones. Most of these elaborate specimens are associated with ministerial chalices. In the Gothic period the paten becomes smaller and less ornamental. It has also very little depth in this period. The rim not infrequently contains inscriptions relating to the communion. In the Greek Church, for protection of the consecrated bread when it is veiled, two metal strips (asteriskot), put together in the form of a cross and provided with bent feet, are placed over the paten (Gk. diskos; cf. design in D. Sokolow, Darstellung des Gottesdienstes der orthodox-katholischen Kirche des Morgenlandes, p. 11, Berlin, 1893).
For holding the consecrated as well as the unconsecrated bread, whether in church or on occasion of the administration of communion abroad, vessels of various forms and sizes were used under the general designation of pyxis, capsa, arca; also ciborium and suspensio, from their place beneath the altar canopy (cibortwm). The simplest form is that of
the cylindrical wafer caskets, with flat 3. The or arching cover, of metal or ivory, Pyxor some few of which have come down Ciborium from Christian antiquity (cf. Victor and Schultze, ut sup., pp. 274 sqq.). In Monstrance. the second half of the Middle Ages the pyx was much elaborated; resting upon a cup-like base, it copied the structural plan of a tower (turris, turriculum). In the later Middle Ages this development reached its culmination in the stone or metal tabernacle erected at the north end of the choir, on the wafer side of the altar, being sometimes executed with admirable artistic skill; its structural pattern was the Gothic tower (superior examples of this kind in the Ulm Cathedral; in the Church of St. Lawrence in Nuremberg, by Adam Kraft; and elsewhere). This development was anticipated in the eucharistic shrines of earlier ages. The consecrated element was enclosed in a compartment of lattice-work.
During that stage of its development when processions and public display of the Host became prominent, the festival of Corpus Christi led to the construction and use of a vessel that should at once augustly and visibly present the blessed sacrament to the eye. Thus the monstrance came into being (monstrantia, ostensorium, custodia, tabernaculum). There was, however, no need of a new invention, and the makers confined themselves to copying the transparent reliquaries and ciboria, which were already at hand, being occasioned by quite a similar purpose. For the base the Gothic chalice was imitated in the diversity of its standard forms. Its knob (nodus) likewise recurs, but with a greater tendency toward sumptuous elaboration. Upon the like support there mounts an artistic superstructure, designed like the transept of a church