[Illustration: Ancient Pix, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.]
Pertaining to the high altar, which was covered with a frontal and cloths,
and anciently enclosed at the sides with curtains suspended on rods of
iron projecting from the wall, was a crucifix, which succeeded to the
simple cross placed on the altars of the Anglo-Saxon churches; a
pair[180-*] of candlesticks, generally with spikes instead of sockets, on
which lights or tapers were fixed; a pix, in which the host was kept
reserved for the sick; a pair of cruets, of metal, in which were contained
the wine and water preparatory to their admixture in the eucharistic cup;
a sacring bell; a pax table, of silver or other metal, for the kiss of
peace, which took place shortly before the host was received in communion;
a stoup or stok, of metal, with a sprinkle for holy water; a censer or
thurible[181-*], and a ship, (a vessel so called,) to hold frankincense; a
chrismatory[181-+], an offering basin, a basin which was used when the
priest washed his hands, and a chalice and paten. Costly specimens of the
ancient pix, containing small patens for the reception of the host, are
preserved amongst the plate belonging to New College and Corpus Christi
College, Oxford. A pix of a much plainer description, but without its
cover, of the metal called latten, was until recently preserved in the
church of Enstone, Oxfordshire: the body of this was of a semi-globular
form, supported on an angular stem, with a knob in the midst, and in
appearance not unlike a chalice.
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