Treasures of the English Church.(Report from Europe)(Treasures of the English Church: Sacred Gold and Silver, 800-2000 * Goldsmiths' Hall, London)

From its earliest years the Christian Church has commissioned ritual objects from the most sumptuous materials. Precious metals, jewels, and rare objects have been combined to dazzle the spectator and inspire devotion.

English churches were no exception, and this summer's exhibition at Goldsmiths' Hall in London charts the history of ecclesiastic gold and silver in England from medieval times to the present. The show, with over 330 objects, contains many treasures both in terms of the materials used and the history revealed, indicating, among other things, that less was destroyed during the Reformation than we supposed. Surviving examples of medieval silver indicate that some pieces were altered to suit new Protestant sensibilities, others survived because they were constantly and openly used, and still others were hidden in secret chapels that maintained Catholic worship.

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Many of the objects in the exhibition have unusual stories. A twelfth-century chalice and paten survived because they were buried with their owner, Archbishop Hubert Walter of Canterbury, who died in 1205; they and various other items, as well as his identity, were discovered in 1889 when a tomb in the cathedral churchyard that no longer bore any ...