vessels and ornaments of sacred use, amongst which occurs the "osculatorium[1];" it is included likewise in the ordinance of Archbishop Robert do Winchelsea, A.D. 1305, as part of the "supellex rei divinæ[2]." By the Synod of Exeter held 15 Edw. I., 1287, during the prelacy of Bishop Quivil, it was ordered that each parish church should be provided with the "asser ad pacem[3]." In the Acts of the Council of Merton, A.D. 1300, it is termed "tabula pacis," as likewise in the following entry in an inventory of precious effects of Edward I., taken in the same year, "una tabula pro pace, in capellâ Regis, cum platis argenti[4]."
The materials employed for the formation of the Pax, and other sacred ornaments, were as various as the symbolical devices introduced in their decoration. The most ancient example hitherto noticed, destined probably, as its form would indicate, to be used as a tabula pacis, is the precious tablet of lapis-lazuli, now preserved in the Salle des Bijoux at the Louvre, and formerly part of the treasures of the Royal Abbey of St. Denis. It appears to be of Greek workmanship, and presents on one side the figure of the Saviour, with that of the Blessed Virgin on the reverse, wrought in gold curiously inlaid upon the stone[5]. In the collection of enamels in the Louvre a remarkable Pax is to be seen, composed of an ornament originally intended, as it would appear, to serve as a morse, or brooch, used to fasten the cope in front upon the breast; it is ornamented with figures of the Virgin and the infant Saviour chased in high relief. In the possession of Dr. Rock there is also an enamelled morse which had been converted into a Pax by affixing it to a piece of wood which served as a handle: this ornament had probably formed part of the furniture of a parish church in Buckinghamshire, previously to the Reformation. The date of both these examples is about A.D. 1300. In the inventory of the treasures of St. Paul's Cathedral, A.D. 1298, given by Dugdale, is mentioned a "paxillum" covered with silver plates, "per circuitum triphoriatum auro," containing many relics[6]. The opus triphoriatum appears to have been a kind of filigree or pierced work, of
- ↑ Wilkins, Cone. II. 49.
- ↑ Lyndw. Provinciale, edit. 1679, p. 252.
- ↑ Wilkins, Cone. II. 139.
- ↑ Liber Garderobæ, p. 351.
- ↑ Dom Millet, Tresor Sacré de S. Denis, 1638, p. 95.
- ↑ Another instance of the use of relics in this manner occurs in one of the Exchequer inventories, 18 Edw. III. "Unam pacem deosculator' in quâ continentur reliquie diversorum sanctorum." Kalend. Exch. III. 207.
