Chalice

Chalice (Lat. calix), the cup in which the wine of the Eucharist is administered. At first, when the Christians were poor, the cups were of common materials; but when they grew rich, the cups were of the most costly materials they could afford, such as onyx, sardonyx, silver, and gold. The chalices are of two kinds, the greater, containing a large quantity of wine, and the less, called ministeriales, because the priests deliver the wine to be drunk out of them. — Binpham, Orig. Ecclesiastes bk. 8, ch. 6, § 21; Doughtseus, de Cailic. Euchar. Vet. (Helmst. 1726); Siegel, Alterthümer, 1:61.