of a cross. It is used to contain the wafers for the congregation, and it stands open upon the altar beside the chalice while the wafers are awaiting consecration. The Hosts are afterwards distributed to the clergy and people from it, and it may be placed within the tabernacle to contain those which are reserved. In this case its cover is placed carefully upon it, and it should also be covered with a veil of white silk. In large churches, where several priests assist in the distribution to the congregation, there may be a corresponding number of ciboria. If at a Low Celebration the number of communicants is small, the Hosts for them may be conseerated upon the same paten as the priest's Host, and may be distributed from it; but great care must be taken to avoid accidents, as the modern paten is a small circular plate of gold (or silver gilt), often with no rim of any sort and only very slightly hollowed, so that the greatest vigilance is required to prevent the Hosts from slipping off when it is moved on the altar, or carried about from place to place.

It is convenient that a church should possess a pyx-a small box, generally of silver (but of course gilt inside), in which a Host can be kept for Benediction, or carried to the sick. In ancient days the pyx was often much larger than it is now and very richly ornamented; one at St. Paul's Cathedral weighed forty-two ounces. Some were in the shape of a dove, superbly enamelled; some in the form of a tower, or a cup with a cover. It was not infrequently suspended over the altar, and seems in this way to have taken the place of our tabernacle, which

superseded the hanging pyx only in the latter part of the fifteenth century. When heavy altar-canopies passed out of fashion it was more difficult to suspend the pyx, and so arose the custom of keeping it in a niche in the reredos, which must then have a door which could be locked, and so soon developed into a tabernacle. The cup-shaped pyx then came to have a foot, for the sake of convenience, and so was the ancestor of our ciborium.

The monstrance (Plate 19) in which the Host is placed for the service of Solemn Benediction, and when carried in procession, is really a transparent pyx. Ancient monstrances were made in many different shapes-images of all sorts, crosses, angels bearing a crystal pyx surmounted by a cross, a large tube of crystal fixed in a metal foot, figures of our Lord with a crystal door in the breast behind which the Sacred Host was inserted-many and strange were the forms they took; yet they were nearly always artistic and often of immense value. The type which is now almost invariably used was adopted in the seventeenth century. It is that of a radiating sun of gold or silver, with a crystal pyx in the centre, inside which the Host is held in an upright position by a crescent-shaped clip made of gold (or silver gilt) which is called the lunette. It is imperative that the Host shall not touch the glass.

CHAPTER VIII

THE VESTMENTS

There have been two schools of thought with regard to the origin of ecclesiastical vestments. For a long time it was supposed that they were modelled directly upon those of the Jewish priesthood, for which such minute instructions are given in the alleged law of Moses. Later and more critical research seems to show conclusively that they evolved by a natural process from the ordinary costume of a Roman citizen of the first century of our era, though various changes in their texture, outline and number are said to have been introduced to assimilate as far as possible the Jewish and Christian systems. Priests at first wore the civil dress, taking care only that it was specially clean and of the best quality obtainable; but when, about the sixth century, the fashion of that civil dress began to alter, the Church found the change less suitable to the dignity of the divine offices and to the work which she had to do, so she retained the older forms, gradually modifying them as the centuries rolled on. I have no doubt that in such modifications she has received a certain amount of guidance from higher powers behind-not in every detail, obviously, but sufficiently to produce a set of seemly and appropriate vestments which can be readily utilized for the inflow and outflow of the

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