Abbey. It was "that beautiful and costly sphere,
most curiously constructed of different metals, according to the
different planets. Saturn was of copper, Jupiter of gold, Mars of
iron, the Sun of brass, Mercury of amber, Venus of tin, and the Moon
of silver: the colours of all the signs of the Zodiac had their
several figures and colours variously finished, and adorned with such
a mixture of precious stones and metals as amused the eye, while it
informed the mind of every beholder. Such another sphere was not known
or heard of in England; and it was a present from the King of France."

No insignificant proof this of the mechanical skill of the eleventh
century.

We are told that Pope Eutychianus, who lived in the reign of the
Emperor Aurelian, buried in different places 342 martyrs with his own
hands; and he ordained that a faithful martyr should on no account be
interred without a dalmatic robe or a purple colobio. This is perhaps
one of the earliest notices of ecclesiastical pomp or pride in
vestments. But some forty years afterwards Pope Silvester was
invested by the hands of his attendants with a Phrygian robe of snowy
white, on which was traced in sparkling threads by busy female hands
the resurrection of our Lord; and so magnificent was this garment
considered that it was ordained to be worn by his successors on state
occasions: and to pass at once to the seventh century, there are
records of various church hangings which had become injured by old age
being carefully repaired at considerable expense; which expense and
trouble would not, we may fairly infer, have been incurred if the
articles in question, even at this more advanced period, had not been
considered of value and of beauty.

Leo the Third, in the eighth century, was a magnificent benefactor to
the church. With the vessels of rich plate and jewels of various
descriptions which were in all ages offering to the church we have
nothing to do: amongst various other vestments, Leo gave to the high
altar of the blessed Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, a covering
spangled with gold (_chrysoclabam_) and adorned with precious stones;
having the histories both of our Saviour giving to the blessed Apostle
Peter the power of binding and loosing, and also representing the
suffering of Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and Paul. It was of
great size, and exhibited on St. Peter and St. Paul's days.[15]

Pope Paschal, early in the ninth century, had some magnif