THE KISS OF PEACE
The kiss, as expressive of deep, spiritual love, also came to figure in
the primitive Christian Church.
Christ has said: “Peace be with you, my peace I give you,” and the
members of Christ’s Church gave each other peace symbolically through a
kiss. St Paul repeatedly speaks of the “holy kiss” (ϕίλημα ἄγιον), and,
in his Epistle to the Romans, writes: “Salute one another with an holy
kiss”; and he reiterates this exhortation in both his Epistles to the
Corinthians (1, xvi. 20, and 2, xiii. 12), and his first Epistle to the
Thessalonians (v. 26), wherein he says: “Greet all the brethren with an
holy kiss.”
The holy kiss has gradually found admission into the ritual of the
Church, and was imparted on occasions of particular solemnity, such as
baptism, marriage, confession, ordination, obsequies, etc., etc. At a
wedding the ceremony was as follows: On the conclusion of High Mass and
after the _Agnus Dei_ had been chanted, the bridegroom went up to the
altar and received the kiss of peace from the priest. After this he
returned to his wife, and gave her the priest’s kiss of peace at the
foot of the crucifix. Reminiscences of this rite still survive in
several churches in England.
The holy kiss played an important part even at the Mass; in the Greek
Church it was imparted before, in the Roman Catholic Church after, the
consecration of the elements. The priest kissed the penitent, and
through this kiss gave him peace; this was the true kiss of peace
(_osculum pacis_). We have a peculiar memorial of this in Old Irish,
where the word _pōc_, which is derived from the Latin _pax_, means
“kiss,”--not “peace.” This change of meaning must, I suppose, be
attributed partly to a misunderstanding of the priest’s words when he
kissed the penitent: _Pacem do tibi_ (Peace I give unto thee), _i.e._,
people understood the kiss as the chief thing, and thought _pacem_
referred to that. The same peculiarity is again to be met with in
mediæval Spanish, where _paz_ has also the meaning of “kiss.” In an
ancient romance which relates how Fernando dubbed the Cid a knight, it
says at the end, “He buckled a sword on his waist, and gave him ‘peace’
(_i.e._, a kiss) on the mouth”:
El rey le ciñó la espada
Paz en la boca le ha dado.
The holy kiss occurs even in the early Christian love-feasts, the
so-called ἀγαπαί, and indeed was often exchanged in the church itself by
all the faithful without regard to sex, which gave the heathen cause for
scandal, and its use was restricted so that only men kissed men, and
women, women.
The kiss of peace was in vogue in France down to the thirteenth century.
We find it in the story about a very unpleasant incident to which Queen
Margaret, the wife of St Louis, was exposed. One day when she was in
church and the kiss of peace was to be imparted, she saw close beside
her a woman in splendid apparel, and taking the latter to be a lady of
rank, she gave her the kiss of peace. It turned out, however, that the
queen had made a mistake; she had kissed one of the common courtesans
who always swarmed about the Court. She then complained to the king, the
consequence of which was that certain ordinances were drawn up with
respect to the dress of women of that class, in order to render all
confusion with respectable women henceforward impossible.
The kiss of peace in the churches seems to have been abolished in the
latter part of the Middle Ages, at different times in different
countries.
In the middle of the thirteenth century a special instrument for
conveying the kiss was introduced into England--the so-called
_osculatorium_ or _tabella pacis_, which was composed of a metal disc
with a holy picture, and was passed round the church to be kissed.
From the English Church the osculatory was gradually introduced into
other churches, but nowhere does it appear to have contrived to rejoice
in any particularly long stay. In various ways it gave occasion to
scandal.
It was provocative of contention and strife in the church itself, when
people of position quarrelled violently as to whom the honour belonged
of kissing it first. Contentions as to precedence at church are, as we
see, of long standing.
It seems also to have served as a sort of profane intermediary between
lovers. When a young and beautiful girl kissed it she had close beside
her a fine young fellow who waited impatiently to take it directly from
her hand and lips. We read in one of Marot’s poems:
I told the maid that she was fair;
I’ve kissed the Pax just after her.
W. F. H.
Through the use of the osculatory, the well-known custom of gallants
such as, from the Greek romances and Ovid, existed in ancient times, was
revived--Huet calls it _elegans urbanitatis genus_--when the lover drank
out of the goblet from the very place which the beloved one’s lips had
touched. Formerly a sort of _pax_ was employed even in Danish churches.
The Catholic priests showed the people “a picture in a book” (of course
the picture of some saint), and this picture was kissed by the
congregation; for which purpose a small fee termed “kiss-money” or
“book-money” was handed to the parish clerk.
Even after the use of the _pax_ had been abolished by the Reformation,
the “book-money,” as a customary due to the clerk, was retained. But at
a congress at Roskilde in 1565, parish clerks were forbidden to demand
this fee.
The holy kiss is still imparted in the Greek Church on Easter Sunday;
all the faithful greet each other in church with kisses, and the words,
“Christ is risen,” the reply to which being, “Verily, He hath risen.” In
the Roman Catholic liturgy this usage has been confined to certain
masses, and the holy kiss is only exchanged among the clergy, not among
the members of the congregation. First, the bishop and archdeacon kiss
the altar, then the archdeacon kneels down and the bishop gives him the
kiss of peace with the words: _Pax tibi, frater, et ecclesiæ sanctæ Dei_
(Peace be with thee, brother, and with God’s Holy Church). The
archdeacon answers: _Et cum spiritu tuo_ (And with thy spirit), after
which he gets up, genuflects towards the altar, and carries the kiss of
peace to the chief canon, whom he kisses on the left cheek with the
words _pax tibi_, and thus it is sent round to all the officiating
clergy with many different ceremonies.
The holy kiss soon spread beyond the walls of the church, and came into
usage even in secular festivities. Thus, during the Middle Ages, it was
the custom to seal the reconciliation and pacification of enemies by a
kiss. The old German poets mention such a kiss under the name of
“Vredekuss,” and so widespread was the custom of the kiss of
reconciliation, that the verb _at sone_, or _udsone_, got the meaning of
“to kiss.” _Sônen_ has still this meaning in Frisian.
In an old French miracle-play St Bernard of Clairvaux says to Count
William and the Bishop of Poitiers, who had had a long-standing feud
with each other, and between whom he had managed to make peace: “In
order to show that your friendship is true and sincere, you must kiss
each other.” Count William then goes up to the bishop, saying: “My lord,
I crave your forgiveness for the wrong I have inflicted on you; I have
erred greatly towards you. Kiss me now to seal our peace, and I will
kiss you with loyal heart.”
Even knights gave each other the kiss of peace before proceeding to the
combat, and forgave one another all real or imaginary wrongs.
In _Covenant Vivien_, Vivien exchanges the kiss of peace with Girart and
six other illustrious warriors before the great fight with King Desramé
begins.
Manzoni has made use of the kiss of peace in the pathetic scene in _I
promessi Sposi_ (The Betrothed), when Fra Cristoforo obtains forgiveness
from the nobleman whose son he has slain. The nobleman receives the monk
in his palace. Surrounded by all his relations, he stands in the middle
of his great hall, with left hand on his sword-hilt, whilst with his
right he holds a flap of his cloak pressed against his chest. Cold and
stern, he gazes contemptuously and with suppressed wrath at the novice
as he enters, but the latter exhibits such touching remorse and noble
humility that the nobleman, there and then, abandons his stiffness. He
raises up the kneeling brother himself, grants him his forgiveness, and,
finally, “carried away by the emotion that prevailed, he threw his arms
round the latter’s neck, and gave and received the kiss of peace.”
After the Middle Ages the kiss of peace disappears altogether as the
official token of reconciliation; solitary instances, indeed, can
certainly be quoted from Catherine of Medici’s Court, but they are
rather to be regarded as studied efforts to re-introduce an old and
abandoned usage. After the murder of Francis de Guise in 1563, his widow
and brother meet Admiral de Coligny; the latter swore that he had not
the least suspicion of the assassin’s plot, whereupon they kiss each
other, and mutually promise to forget all enmities, and henceforward to
live in peace and harmony. This kiss of peace was as powerless to revive
the old custom as Lamourette’s memorable attempt at the time of the
Revolution. On the 7th July 1792, when the quarrel amongst the members
of the Legislative Assembly had reached a terrible height, at the time
when the Austrian and Prussian armies were marching on Paris, Lamourette
got up and made a fervent patriotic speech, in which, in the most moving
terms, he exhorted all the members of the Assembly to sink their
differences. He finished by saying: “Let us forget all dissension and
swear everlasting fraternity”--_et jurons-nous fraternité éternelle_,
and the deputies at once fell into each others arms, and in a universal
kiss of reconciliation every one forgave each other’s wrongs. But this
unity did not last long. The quarrels began again the following day, and
two years afterwards Lamourette himself died by the guillotine; but the
expression, a kiss of Lamourette--_un baiser de Lamourette_--still
survives in the French language as a half ironical term for a
short-lived reconciliation.
V
THE KISS OF RESPECT
Les rois des nations, devant toi prosternés,
De tes pieds baisent la poussière.
RACINE--_Athalie._
The kings of the Gentiles, prostrate before thee, kiss the dust of thy
feet.