gives a representation of one formed with the head of such angelic being affixed to the end of a staff or handle, the fan consisting of the six wings surrounding the face[1]. If such appliance were deficient, the Greeks used a napkin or piece of linen to supply its place. The Maronites make use of fans formed of plates of silver or brass, surrounded with little bells.
Although no mention of the flabellum is found in the "Ordo Romanus" and many ancient rituals of the Latin Church, there are sufficient evidences of its early use. Cardinal Bona cites the relation of Moschus, a writer of the seventh century, in which an occurrence is described shewing the use of the flabellum in the time of Pope Agapetus, (A.D. 535), and the epistle of St. Hildebert, archbishop of Tours, presenting to a friend such an object of sacred use, to drive away flies from the sacrifice, and setting forth its mystic import. He cites also the ancient Cluniac Consuetudinal, and other proofs of its adoption by the Roman Church.
In the inventory taken at St. Riquier, near Abbeville, in the year 831, mention is made of a "flabellum argenteum, ad muscas a sacrificiis abigendas." In another, relating to the church of Amiens, is found "flabellum factum de serico et auro ad repellendas muscas et immunda," given by a canon of that church, about 1250. An inventory of the Sainte Chapelle, at Paris, in 1363, gives the "Item, duo flabella, vulgariter nuncupata muscalia, ornata perlis," and another, in 1376, "ij. flabelli, Gallice esmouchoirs, ornati de perils."
In our own country the following instances of the use of this singular object of sacred use may be cited. In a MS. inventory preserved at Salisbury, the following entry occurs, A.D. 1214, "Ornamenta Ecclesie Sarum, inventa in Thesauraria,—ij. flabella de surto (? serico) et pergameno." In 1298 amongst the ornaments and vestments in the church of St. Faith, in the crypts under St. Paul's, London, there was "unum muscatorium de pennis pavonum[2]." Hamo, bishop of Rochester, gave, in the year 1346, to a chantry founded by him in that cathedral, "unum flabellum de serico cum virga eburnea[3]." In the enumeration of the valuable effects of the deceased Queen Isabella, daughter of Philippe le Bel, and
