set forth, and learned commentators have bestowed great labour in the investigation of the antiquities of Greece or Rome, devoting their especial attention to the ceremonies of idolatrous worship. The antiquities of the Christian Church do not appear to have been regarded as deserving of the like attention, and the details connected with sacred usages still, in great measure, remain in vague obscurity. From these details, however, trifling as they may appear to some persons, much valuable information may be gathered, scarcely less interesting to the student of ecclesiastical history, in their connexion with the progressive changes in ritual usages or ceremonial observances, from the times of primitive Christianity, than to the antiquary who is engaged only in researches into the history of Art. These considerations induce me to hope that the endeavour to supply some detailed notices of ancient ornaments of a sacred nature, especially as they were used in England, with illustrations selected wherever it may be practicable from English examples, may prove acceptable to the readers of the Archæological Journal.
The primitive origin of the use of the Pax is to be derived from the practice of the first ages of the Christian Church, when the faithful followed literally the injunction of St. Paul to the Corinthians, "greet ye one another with an holy kiss." This custom is mentioned by Tertullian, St. Clement of Alexandria, and Origenes: Athenagoras, in his Apology for the Christians, written about A.D. 166, speaks of the solemnity and grave demeanour with which this token of Christian charity was given. The manner in which the ceremony was performed is detailed in the following passage of the Apostolical Constitutions, cited by Dr. Milner in his Notice of the use of the Pax in the Roman Catholic Church[1]. "Let the Bishop salute the Church, and say. The peace of God be with you all: and let the people answer, And with thy spirit. Then let the Deacon say to all, Salute one another with an holy kiss: and let the Clergy kiss the Bishop, and the laymen the laymen, and the women the women[2]." During the early times, when men and women were placed in different parts of the church, this custom appears to have continued, and it is
- ↑ Archæologia, vol. xx. p. 534.
- ↑ Const. Apost., lib. viii. c. 11, apud Coteller, p. 345. The term Pax appears occasionally to have been used to denote not only the instrument, but the act of salutation. In the Promptorium Parvulorum are given "Pax, of kyssynge, osculum pacis. Pax brede, osculatorium."
