Pax (liturgical object)

The pax was an object used in the Middle Ages and Renaissance for the Kiss of Peace in the Catholic Mass. Direct kissing among the celebrants and congregation was replaced by each in turn kissing the pax, which was carried around to those present. The form of the pax was variable but normally included a flat surface to be kissed. Often the pax was held out with a long handle attached, and it seems to have been given a wipe with a cloth between each person. Some paxes are very elaborate and expensive objects, and most survivals fall into this class, but the great majority were probably very simple wood or brass pieces. It was usual to include an image, usually of or including the Virgin Mary or Jesus Christ.

The pax began to replace actual kisses in the 13th century, apparently because of a range of concerns over the sexual, social and medical implications of actual kissing. It is first documented in England, and the 17th-century historian of the Mass, Cardinal Giovanni Bona, associated the introduction with the Franciscan Order. The person holding the pax said "Pax tecum" and received the response "Et cum spiritu tuo" ("Peace to you", "And with your spirit"). The pax gradually fell out of general use, though the Catholic Encyclopedia in 1911 said it was still practised when "prelates and princes" were involved, but "not to others except in rare cases established by custom". In the 20th century the physical kiss, now more often a handshake, was revived in the Mass.

Pax was the Latin name, with osculatorium and instrumentum pacis as alternatives. Pax was also used in English, in which they were also called a pax board and pax-brede, or "paxbrede". Another Latin term was pacificale, still sometimes used in Italian and German. In art history the modern term "pax tablet" may be used, especially by church historians, where art historians mostly favour "pax". "Osculatory" is used in some 19th-century sources, and some claim that this refers to a pendant form, worn round the neck by the priest. This does not appear in most modern scholarship, though given a one-line entry by Oxford Art Online. Translators unfamiliar with the concept may introduce still further names into English. Kusstafel ("kiss-board") is one of the German names.

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