PACE, STRUMENTO di. — A liturgical instrument, mentioned by the Missale romanum (Ritus servandus in celebr. Missa, tit. X, nos. 3, 8); by the Caerimonia episcoporum (I, 24, 2, 6, 7); and by the Pontificale Romanum (part 1, De bened. et consacr. regis) for carrying the “p.”, that is, for the kiss before Communion, to the choir and to certain persons assisting at Mass. S. Carlo Borromeo prescribed for every cathedral, parish, or collegiate church at least duae tabellae pacis offerendae (Acta eccl. Mediolanen., Milan 1599, pp. 609, 610, 611).
The instrument of peace generally consists of a kind of oblong, oval, or round tablet, bearing a sacred image (Crucifix, Madonna, saints), and sometimes also containing a sacred relic. It has a handle on the back for holding it, and often a foot as well, giving it somewhat the appearance of a monstrance. The types vary greatly, from simple pieces of marble or other stone, with a cross or another sacred object engraved upon them, to wooden panels, artistically carved and painted, and metal tablets, with the most varied shapes and decorations, according to the different periods (Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque); there are instruments of peace that are very simple, almost crude, and others, the majority, of very considerable artistic merit. Among the latter are recalled: the peace of Duke Orso in the Museum of Cividale (10th–11th cent.; V. BARBARICA ARTE), the small shrine-like peaces with or without a door in S. Petronio in Bologna (15th cent.), in the Poldi-Pezzoli and in the Treasury of S. Ambrogio in Milan (15th cent.); those of the Louvre (15th cent.) and of the church of the Assunta in Cividale (Grimani peace), remarkable for their richness and elegance; the famous “Peace of Siena,” donated by Pio II to the Sienese in 1464 and by them, in 1799, to the people of Arezzo, who preserve it in the Duomo of their city; the peaces in the Treasury of S. Marco in Venice, by M. Finiguerra in the Bargello in Florence and in the Vatican, and the one attributed to Sansovino in the Treasury of the Duomo of Palermo, all from the 16th century.
Its use was never obligatory; its origin is English and dates only from the later 13th century. It was introduced as a substitute for the kiss of peace, the embrace of peace, and the subsequent kissing of the paten or the Missal, in order to avoid the frequent inconveniences or awkwardness resulting from them. In England it is mentioned in the statutes of the archbishop of York, Gualterus Gray, ca. 1250, in the paragraph devoted to church furnishings, where he also lists the osculatorium (Mansi, XXIII, 792); and in a Synod held at Exeter in 1287, in can. 12,
where, in giving a list of the sacred furnishings indispensable for every church, it also names Lasser ad pecem (Mansi, XXIV, 800). At the beginning of the 14th century the use of the instrument of peace had already crossed the Channel and appeared in France. The Council of Bayeux of 1300, in can. 10, discussing church furnishings, also speaks of the marmo ad osculandum (Mansi, XXV, 63); the provincial Synod of Melun, held by the archbishop of Sens, Stefano Becard (1300), speaks in various places of the tabula pacis, the osculare, or the osculatorium required for every church (Mansi, XXV, 6). Innumerable other sources may be cited: synodal acts, church inventories, statutes and rules of religious families, and similar documents, which demonstrate the extraordinary diffusion of this instrument between the 15th and 18th centuries. It was called by the most varied names, such as, for example, lapis pacis, pacificale, or pax; in French la paix; and in the German-speaking countries often Paxbrettil (cf. J. Braun, Das christl. Altargerät [Munich 1932], pp. 557–72, pls. 116–20).
The instrument of peace first achieved rapid diffusion through the great Orders—the Franciscan, Dominican, Carmelite, Carthusian, and Camaldolese Orders, and later the Capuchins and others—and it is especially in these Orders that its use persists even today, whereas in parish churches it has almost disappeared.