The communion cup of the Reformation differed from the chalice,
too, in being taller and straighter, with a deep bowl, almost in
the proportions of a flaring tumbler, and a stem with a few close
decorations instead of a knop. The small paten served as a cover
to the cup, as has been mentioned.

It is not always easy to see old church plate where it originally
belonged. On the Scottish border, for instance, there were constant
raids, when the Scots would descend upon the English parish churches,
and bear off the communion plate, and again the English would cross
the border and return the compliment. In old churches, such as the
eleventh century structure at Torpenhow, in Cumberland, the deep
sockets still to be seen in the stone door jambs were intended
to support great beams with which the church had constantly to
be fortified against Scottish invasion. Another reason for the
disappearance of church plate, was the occasional sale of the silver
in order to continue necessary repairs on the fabric. In a church
in Norfolk, there is a record of sale of communion silver and "for
altering of our church and fynnishing of the same according to our
mindes and the parishioners." It goes on to state that the proceeds
were appropriated for putting new glass in the place of certain windows
"wherein were conteined the lives of certain prophane histories,"
and for "paving the king's highway" in the church precincts. At the
time of the Reformation many valuable examples of Church plate were
cast aside by order of the Commissioners, by which "all monuments
of feyned miracles, pilgrimages, idolatry, and superstition," were
to be destroyed. At this time a calf or a sheep might have been seen
browsing in the meadows with a sacring-bell fastened at its neck,
and the pigs refreshed themselves with drinking from holy-water