First and Second Corporals

What we mean by the “First” and “Second” Corporals can be easily explained in this picture. The First Corporal is the cloth upon which the Chalice and Paten sit; the Second Corporal [sometimes called the “Sindon Veil”] is that which cover over them. Sometimes in the much later period [ 16^th and 17^th centuries], the Second Corporal in parts of Europe became a stiff board with a cloth cover [often referred to as a ‘pall’]. The rubrics one sees in later books about the Deacon lifting up the pall off a Chalice, etc., corresponds to the older rubrics in older books about the Deacon uncovering the Chalice [for example, the Second Corporal / Pall is removed at the very end of the Canon of the Mass by the Deacon, in order for the “Per Ipsum”].

However, in the way that the 7^th century Ordo Romanus Primus envisions things, the First and Second Corporal are not separate objects, but, rather, one large piece of cloth, upon which the Chalice and Paten set, and which also is large enough to fold over the Gifts.