Chrisome

Chrisome, the name of the white linen cloth laid by the priest on the child in Roman Catholic baptism, to signify its innocence. By olden usage it was generally presented by the mother as an offering to the church, but if the child died before the mother was 'churched' again, it was used as a shroud. By a common abuse of words, chrisome came to mean the child itself, being first applied in the old bills of mortality to denote such children as died within the month of birth. Mrs Quickly's use of the phrase in her account of Falstaff's end will be remembered. The following from Jeremy Taylor (Holy Dying, i. 2) explains itself: 'Every morning creeps out of a dark cloud, leaving behind it an ignorance and silence deep as midnight, and undiscerned as are the phantasms that make a chrisome child to smile.'