chap. XXIV. USE OF GOLD AND SILVER.

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cifixes, chalices, flagons, processional and othercrosses, batons de chantre, vessels for holy waterand for incense; besides chandeliers, lamps, shrines,reliquares, images, boxes for holy oil, and varioussmall articles used in the different parts of de-votion. Many parts of the dress made of gold orof silver, especially buckles for belts for the bodyand for the swords, are enumerated; besides thehilts and guards of the swords and sabres, andmany ornaments for the harness of the war andother horses.

This long list of articles contained in the or-dinance is framed to ensure the stamping of theseveral portions of the gold and silver articles, andto afford a security to the purchasers that theywere of the legal degree of purity; but it showsthat a large portion of those metals must in thatage have been applied to other uses than that ofconversion into coin in France .

The ordinance was not extended to articles ofless than an ounce in weight, and therefore, as faras relates to gold, the greater part of the objects towhich that metal was applied, such as rings forthe fingers and for the ears, beads for countingprayers, and small trinkets of various kinds, werenot amenable to the laws for assaying.

At the early part of the period the consumption Spain ,of the precious metals in Spain must have bornesome proportion to its wealth and its devotion.

At the close of the seventeenth century we find