CHALICE

(Lat. calix .) This word was formerly (as by Shakspeare) used to denote any sort of cup, but is now usually restricted to the cup in which the consecrated wine for the eucharist is administered. The primitive Christians, desirous of honouring the holy purpose for which it was used, had it made of the most costly substances their circumstances would allow—of gla , crystal, onyx, sardonyx, and gold. By a canon of the Council of Rheims, in Charles the Great’s time, all churches were obliged to have chalices of some purer metal. The ancient chalices were of two kinds: the greater, which were in the nature of our flagons, containing a large quantity of wine, which was all consecrated in them together; and the le er, which were otherwise called “ministeria les,” because the priest delivered the wine to be drunk out of them; for communion in one kind was not then invented by the Romish Church.— Dr. Nicholls. (See Cup .)