XI.—On an Ebony Pax bearing the Legend of St. Veronica

Extract

In the early Church the kiss of peace, the simplest of all symbolisms, was a holy ceremony in public worship reverently kept up. Its use lingered on to the Middle Ages. In the twelfth century, when the separation of the sexes began to fall away, the custom came in of the priest kissing a carved ornament instead of his brother-minister, and this in its turn was saluted by the whole congregation. This substitute of any material, costly or simple, even of wood or glass, and generally small in size, after use was returned to the altar. In the West it bore many names—the Pax, Osculatorium, Deosculatorium Pacis, Osculare, Tabula Pacis, Asser ad Pacem, Paxillum, Paxilla, Porte-Paix, Porte-pax, Pax-brede, Pakys-bred, Pax-bord, and so on.