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VESTMENTS . The word " vestment" (See also:Lat. vestimentum, In. vestire, to clothe), meaning generally simply an See also:article of clothing, is in the usage of the See also:present See also:day practically confined to the ceremonial garments worn in public See also:worship; in this sense it may be used equally of the See also:robes or "ornaments" of the ministers or priests of any See also:religion. Ecclesiastical vestments, with which the present article is solely concerned, are the See also:special articles of See also:costume worn by the See also:officers of the See also:Christian See also: It will See also:deal briefly (1) with the See also:general See also:idea and the historical See also:evolution of ecclesiastical vestments, (2) with the vestments as at present worn (a) in the See also:Roman Catholic Church, (b) in the See also:Oriental Churches, (c) in the Reformed Churches, (d) in the Anglican Church. The more important vestments are dealt with in some detail under their See also:separate headings; here it will only be necessary to give See also:short descriptions of those which cannot be conveniently treated separately.
1. The Origin and Idea of Ecclesiastical Vestments.—The liturgical vestments of the Catholic Church, See also:East and See also:West, are not, as was at one See also:time commonly supposed, borrowed from the sacerdotal ornaments of the Jewish See also:ritual, although the obvious analogies of this ritual doubtless to a certain extent determined their sacral character; they were developed independently out of the various articles of everyday See also:dress worn by citizens of the Graeco-Roman world under the See also:Empire. The officers of the Church during the first few centuries of its existence were content to officiate in the dress of See also:civil life, though their garments were expected to be scrupulously clean and of decent quality. The few scattered references in contemporary records to the dress of the See also:clergy all point to this as the only recognized See also:rule.
Thus in the 37th of the so-called " Canons of See also:Hippolytus " we read: " As often as the bishops would partake of the Mysteries, the presbyters and deacons shall gather See also:round him clad in See also: 20) says that to See also:wear talares et tunicas manicatas was a disgrace among the See also:ancient See also:Romans, but that in his own day it was no longer so considered in the See also:case of persons of See also:good See also:birth. The tunica was originally of white See also:wool, but in the 3rd See also:century it began to be made of See also:linen, and from the 4th century was always of linen. About the 6th century the See also:long tunica See also:alba went out of See also:fashion in civil life, but it was retained in the services of the Church and developed into the various forms of the liturgical alb (q.v.) and surplice (q.v.). The tunica dalmatica was a long, sleeved upper tunic, originating, as its name implies, in See also:Dalmatia, and first becoming fashionable at See also:Rome in the 2nd century; it is the origin of the liturgical dalmatic and tunicle (see DALMATIC). Another over-dress of the Romans was the paenula, a cloak akin to the See also:poncho of the See also:modern Spaniards and See also:Spanish Americans, i.e. a large piece of stuff with a hole for the head to go through, See also:hanging in ample folds round the See also:body. This was originally worn only by slaves, soldiers and other people of See also:low degree; in the 3rd century, however, it was adopted by fashionable people as a convenient See also:riding or travelling cloak; and finally, by the sumptuary See also:law of 382 (See also:Cod. Theod. xiv. so, r, de habitu . . . infra urbem) it was prescribed as the proper everyday dress of senators, instead of the military chlamys, the toga being reserved for See also:state occasions. This was the origin of the See also:principal liturgical vestment, the chasuble (q.v.). As See also:late as the 6th century these garments were common both to the clergy and laity, and, so far as their character was concerned, were used both in the liturgy and in everyday life. Meanwhile, however, a certain development had taken See also:place. By the 4th century the garments worn at liturgical functions had been separated from those in ordinary use, though still identical in See also:form. It is in the 4th century, too, that the first distinctive vestment makes its See also:appearance, the di,uo¢bpcov worn by all bishops in the East; in the 5th century we find this in use at Rome under the name of pallium (q.v.), as the distinctive See also:ornament of the See also:pope (see fig. s). About the same time the orarium, or stole (q.v.), becomes fixed in liturgical use. The See also:main development and See also:definition of the ecclesiastical vestments, however, took place between the XX~'II. 's6th and the 9th centuries. The secular fashions altered with changes of See also:taste; but the Church retained the dress with the other traditions of the Roman Empire. At Rome, especially, where the popes had succeeded to a See also:share of the See also:power and pretensions of the Caesars of the West, the See also:accumulation of ecclesiastical vestments symbolized a very special dignity: in the second See also:quarter of the 9th century the pope, when fully vested, wore a camisia girdled, an alb (linea) girdled, an amice (anagolaium), a tunicle (dalmatica See also:minor), a dalmatic (dalmatica See also:major), stole (orarium), chasuble (planeta) and pallium. With the exception of the pallium, this was also the costume of the Roman deacons. By this time, moreover, the liturgical character of the vestments was so completely established that they were no longer worn instead of, but over, the ordinary dress. Hitherto the example of the Roman Church had exercised no exclusive determining See also:influence on ritual development even in the West. The popes had, from time to time, sent the pallium or the dalmatic—specifically Roman vestments—as gifts of See also:honour to various distinguished prelates; See also:Britain, converted by a Roman See also:mission, had adopted the Roman use, and English missionaries had carried this into the newly Christianized parts of See also:Germany; but the great Churches of See also:Spain and See also:Gaul preserved their own traditions in vestments as in other matters. From the 9th century onwards, however, this was changed; everywhere in the West the Roman use ousted the regional uses. This See also:change synchronized with the revival of the Western Empire under See also:Charlemagne. a revival which necessarily gave an impulse to the claims of the see of Rome. The See also:adoption of the Roman liturgical dress had, however, at most an indirect connexion with these claims. Charlemagne was active in prescribing the adoption of the Roman use; but this was only as See also:part of his general policy in the organization of his em- pire. A renovation of the Gallican Church was not the least crying need ; and, in view of the confusion of See also:rites (Galli)an, See also:Gothic, Roman, Ambrosian in 1'11' the Frankish empire, Charlemagne recognized that this innovation could only be effectually carried out by a closer connexion with Rome in ritual as in other matters. Charlemagne's activity in this respect was, in effect, but the completion of a See also:process that had been going on since the 6th century. Whatever effect the reinvigoration of the papacy may have had in hastening the process, the See also:original impulse towards the adoption of the Roman rite had proceeded, not from Rome, but from Spain and Gaul; it was the natural result of the lively intercourse between the Churches of these countries and the Holy See. Nor was the FIG. 2.—See also:Stigand, See also:Archbishop of process of assimilation by any See also:Canterbury (1052–1070) ; trom means one-sided. If Spain and the See also:Bayeux See also:Tapestry. See also:Note Gaul borrowed from Rome, they the See also:absence of the See also:mitre, the also exercised a reciprocal influ- chasuble short or tucked up in ence on the Roman use; it is front, the maniple still carried interesting to note in this See also:con- in the See also:left See also:hand. nexion, that of the names of the liturgical vestments a very large proportion are not of Roman origin, and that the non-Roman names tended to supersede the Roman in Rome itself.' ' Apart from the archiepiscopal pallium, the Churches of Spain and Gaul had need to See also:borrow from Rome only the dalmatic, maniple and liturgical shoes. On the other hand, it was from Spain and Gaul that Rome probably received the orarium (stole) as an See also:ensign of the major orders. See also:Father Braun, to whose kindness the writer is indebted for the above See also:account of the causes of the ritual changes in the Carolingian See also:epoch, adds that the papacy was never narrow-minded in its attitude towards See also:local rites, and that it was not until the See also:close of the See also:middle ages, when diversity had become confusion and worse, that it began to insist upon uniformity. Even then it allowed those rites to survive which could prove a tradition of 200 years. The See also:period between the 9th and the 13th centuries is that of the final development of the liturgical vestments in the West. In the 9th century appeared the pontifical gloves; in the See also:roth, the mitre; in the 11th, the use of liturgical shoes and stockings was reserved for cardinals and bishops. By the 12th century, mitre and gloves were worn by all bishops, and in many cases they had assumed a new ornament, the rationale, a merely honorific decoration (supposed to symbolize See also:doctrine and See also:wisdom), sometimes of the nature of a highly ornamental broad See also:shoulder See also:collar with dependent lappets; sometimes closely resembling the pallium; rarely a " See also:breast-See also:plate " on the See also:model of that of the Jewish high See also:priest.1 This elaboration of the pontifical vestments was contemporaneous with, and doubtless partly determined by, the assimilation of the bishops during those centuries to the type of the great feudal nobles whose ambitions and love of pomp they shared. In an See also:age when, with the evolution of the feudal organiza- tion of society, even everyday costume was becoming a uni- form, symbolizing in material and See also:colour the exact status of the wearer, it was natural that in the parallel organization of the Church the See also:official vestments should undergo a similar process of differentiation and definition. With this process, which in all its essential features was completed in the nth century, doctrinal developments had little or nothing to do, though from the 9th century onwards liturgiologists were busy expounding the mystic symbolism of garments which, until their See also:imagination set to See also:work, had for the most part no symbolism whatever (see below). Yet in view of later con- troversies, the changes made during this period, notably in the vestments connected with the mass, are not without significance. Hitherto the chasuble had been worn indifferently by all ministers a't the See also:eucharist, even by the acolytes; it had been worn also at processions and other non-liturgical functions; it was now exalted into the mass vestment par excellence, worn by the celebrant only, or by his immediate assistants (See also:deacon and subdeacon) only on very special occasions. New vestments were de- vised to take the place, on less solemn occasions, of those hallowed by associa- tion with the holy See also:sacrifice; thus the processional cope (q.v.) appeared in the 11th century and the surplice (q.v.) in the 12th. A change, too, came over the general character of vestments. Up to the 9th century these had been very See also:plain, without ornament See also:save such traditional decorations as the clavi of the dalmatic; what splendour they had was due to their material and the ample folds of their draperies. But from this time onwards they tend to become more and more elaborately decorated with See also:embroidery and jeweller's work (see, e.g. the articles CHASUBLE and COPE). Very significant, too, is the parting of the ways in the development of liturgical vestments in the East and West. During the first centuries both branches of the Church had used vest- ments substantially the same, developed from common originals; the alb, chasuble, stole and pallium were the equivalents of the trTLXapcov, 4evbXtov, iapaptov and The rationale is worn only over the chasuble. It is now used only by the bishops of See also:Eichstatt, See also:Cracow, See also:Paderborn and See also:Toul, by the special concession of various popes. See Braun, Liturg. Gewandung, pp. 676-700.c io46ptov. While, however, between the 9th and 13th centuries, the Western Church was adding largely to her See also:store of vestments, that of the East increased her See also:list by but three, the kexeipiov and E7rq iavtKCa (see MANIPLE) and the oiu<iOS (see DALMATIC). The living force of development in the Latin Church was symbolized in her garments; the stereotyped orthodoxy of the See also:Greek Church in hers. With the exception of the mitre, introduced in the 15th or 16th century, the liturgical costume of the Eastern clergy remains now practically what it was in the 9th century. In the Western Church, though from the 9th century onwards the Roman use had been the norm, considerable alterations continued to be made in the shape and decoration of the liturgical vestments, and in this respect various Churches developed different traditions (see, e.g. CHASUBLE). The definition of their use by the various orders of the clergy in the several liturgical functions, however, was established by the close of the 13th century and still continues in force. Before discussing the changes made in the various Reformed Churches, due to the doctrinal developments of the 16th century, we may therefore give here a list of the vestments now worn by the various orders of clergy in the Roman Catholic Church and the Oriental Churches. Roman Catholic Church.—As the sacrifice of the mass is the central See also:mystery of the Catholic faith, so the seven orders of the See also:hierarchy culminate in that of priest, who alone is em-powered to work the daily See also:miracle of the altar (see See also:ORDER, HoLY). The vestments worn by the priest when celebrating mass are then the most important. The See also:cassock (q.v.), which must always be worn under the vestments, is not itself a liturgical garment. Over this the priest, robing for mass, puts on the amice, alb, girdle (cingulum), stole, maniple and chasuble. Taking the other orders downwards: deacons wear amice, alb, girdle, stole, maniple2 and dalmatic; subdeacons, amice, alb, girdle, maniple and tunicle; the vestment proper to the minor orders, formerly the alb, is now the surplice or See also:cotta. Bishops, as belonging to the order of priesthood with completed See also:powers, wear the same vestments as the priests, with the addition of 2 The stole and maniple alone are symbolical of order, i.e. of the relation to the sacrifice of the mass. From Braun's Getmandung, by of B. See also:Herder. Liturgisthe permission the See also:pectoral See also:cross, the pontifical gloves, the pontifical See also:ring, the 1 liturgical sandals and caligae, a tunicle worn over the stole and under the chasuble, and the mitre (see fig. 3). See also:Arch-bishops, on solemn occasions, wear the pallium over the chasuble (see fig. 5). Bishops also carry a See also:pastoral See also:staff (q.v.), as See also:symbol of their pastoral See also:office. Finally, the pope, when celebrating mass, wears the same vestments as an ordinary See also:bishop, with the addition of the subcinctorium (see ALB), a dalmatic, worn over the tunicle and under the chasuble, and the orate or fanone (see AMICE). It should be noted that the litur- gical head-dress of the pope is the mitre, not the See also:tiara, which is the symbol of his supreme office and See also:jurisdiction (see TIARA). Of the liturgical vest- ments not immediately or exclusively associated with the sacrifice of the mass the most con- spicuous are the cope and surplice. The See also:biretta, too, though not in its origin or in some of its uses a liturgical vest- ment, has developed a distinctly liturgical character (see BIRETTA). Besides the strictly liturgical vestments there are also numerous articles of costume worn at choir services, in processions, or on ceremonial occasions in everyday life, which have no sacral character; such are the See also:almuce (q.v.), the cappa end mozzetta (see See also:Conn), the rochet (q.v.), the pileolus, a See also:skull-cap, worn also sometimes under mitre and tiara. These are generally ensigns of dignity; their form and use varies in different Churches, and they often represent special privileges conferred by the popes, e.g. the cappa of the Lateran See also:basilica worn by the canons of See also:Westminster See also:cathedral, or the almuce worn, by concession of Pope See also:Pius IX., by the members of the Sistine choir. The character of the vestments, the method of putting them on, and the occasions on which they are severally to be worn, are regulated with the minutest care in the See also:Missal and the Caeremoniale. Oriental Churches.—As already stated, the vestments of the great historical Churches of the East are derived from the same Graeco-Roman originals as those of the West, but in contra-distinction to the latter they have remained practically stereo-typed, both in character and number, for a thousand years; in the East, however, even more than in the West the tendency to gorgeous ornamentation has prevailed. An Orthodox bishop, vested for the holy liturgy, wears over his cassock—(I) the aTLXLipLOV, or alb (q.v.); (2) the irirpay0Lov, or stole (q.v.) ; (3) the I"wvri, a narrow stuff girdle clasped behind, which holds together the two vestments above named; (4) the firruavieLa, liturgical cuffs, corresponding, possibly, to the pontifical gloves of the West;i (5) the irLyov6.rtov, a stiff See also:lozenge-shaped piece of stuff hanging at the right See also:side by a piece of riband from the girdle or attached to the e6esos, the See also:equivalent of the Western maniple (q.v.) ; (6) the a6.KKOS, like the Western dalmatic (q.v.), worn instead of the oa,V6Xiov, or chasuble; (7) the wpoOpiov, the equivalent of the Western pallium (q.v.). Be-sides these, the bishop also wears a pectoral cross (eyKhXrioe) and a See also:medal containing a relic (ravayca). He also has a mitre (q.v.), and carries a See also:crozier (SLKaPiKLOV), a rather short staff ending in two curved branches decorated with serpents' heads, with a cross between them. The vestments o£a priest are the sticharion, epitrachelion, girdle, epimanikia and phainolion (see CHASUBLE). He wears all these vestments only at the celebration of the eucharist and on other very solemn occasions; at other ministrations he wears only the epitrachelion and phainolion over his cassock. A dignitary in i Thi h is the view of Dr See also:Adrian See also:Fortescue (The Orthodox Eastern Church, p. 406) ; according to Braun (Lit. Gewandung, p. See also:loo) they were originally merely the ornamental cuffs (XLnpta) of the episcopal sticharion, which were detached for purposes of convenience.priest's orders is distinguished by wearing the epigonation; and in See also:Russia the use of the mitre is sometimes conceded to distinguished priests by the See also:tsar. The deacon wears the sticharion, without a girdle, the epimanikia and the orarion (hphp&ov, Lat. orarium, see STOLE) hanging over his left shoulder. The lesser orders wear a shorter sticharion and an orarion See also:wound round it. On less solemn occasions bishops wear the mandyas (.iavSGas), a cope-like garment fastened at the See also:lower corners as well as at the See also:neck, and the kalimaukion (KaX, ual/eioi), a tall, brimless See also:hat, with a See also:veil hanging down behind, and, in place of the SLaKbvcov they carry a short staff with an See also:ivory cross-piece. The kalimaukion is also worn by the other clergy in ordinary life, and with their vestments at processions, &c. The general character of the vestments is much the same in the other Oriental rites. The sticharion answers to the Armenian shabik, the Nestorian kutina, the Coptic tuniah or stoicharion; the epimanikia to the See also:Arm. pasban (which, however, resemble rather the Latin maniple), the Nestorian zando, and the Coptic kim¢n ; FIG. 7.—An Orthodox Eastern the epitrachelion to the Arm. See also:Patriarch in full Pontificals. See also:por-urar, Syrian uroro, Coptic See also:bat- rashil; the girdle to the Arm. kodi, Nestorian zunro; the phainolion to the Nestorian phaino and Arm. shurtshar, both of which are, however, cope-shaped.2 Armenian priests, besides, wear a mitre (see MITRE, fig. 3), and a collar-like ornament probably derived from the See also:apparel of the Western amice (q.v.). The liturgical handkerchief, which in the Greek Church has become the epigonation, has retained its original form in the Armenian. The Liturgical See also:Colours.—In another respect the vestments of the Eastern differ from those of the Western Church. In the East there is no sequence of liturgical colours, nor, indeed, any definite sense of liturgical colour at all; the vestments are usually white or red, and stiff with See also:gold embroidery. In the West the See also:custom, long universal, of marking the seasons of the ecclesiastical year and the more prominent fasts and festivals by the colour of the vestments of clergy and altar See also:dates, approximately, from the Ieth century: the subject is mentioned (c. 'zoo) in the See also:treatise of See also:Innocent III., De sacra altaris mysterio (cap. 1o), where the rules are laid down which are still essentially those of the Roman Church,3 though the liturgical colours were only four, See also:violet belonging to the See also:category of See also:black—as that of See also:mourning. Custom in this respect was, however, exceedingly varied for a long time, numerous important Churches having their own " uses," and it was not until the time of the See also:Reformation that the Roman use was fixed and became the norm of the Churches of the Roman obedience. According to the rubric of the Roman Missal (tit. xviii.) the liturgical colours are five: white, red, See also:green, violet, black. Though, in the embroidery of vestments, many colours may be used, these five above named must severally give the dominant See also:tone of colour on the occasions for which they are appointed. Gold brocades or See also:cloth-of-gold may, however, be substituted for red, green and white, and See also:silver for white. The following is a list of the occasions to which the various colours are appropriated:
White.—Trinity See also:Sunday, all festivals of Christ (except those connected with the See also:Passion), festivals of the Blessed Virgin, of the Holy Angels and Confessors, of holy virgins and See also:women (not being martyrs), nativity of St See also: In See also:England red vestments are worn at the mass (of the Holy Spirit) attended by the Roman Catholic See also:judges and barristers at the opening of term, the so-called " Red Mass." Green.—Sundays and week-days between See also:Epiphany and Septuagesima, and between Trinity and See also:Advent, except festivals and their octaves and Ember days. Violet.—Advent; the days between Septuagesima and Maundy See also:Thursday; vigils that fall on fast days, and Ember days, except the See also:vigil before Whitsunday (red) and the Ember days in Whitsun week (red). Violet vestments are also worn on days of intercession, at votive masses of the Passion, at certain other masses of a pronouncedly intercessory and See also:penitential character, at intercessory processions, at the blessing of candles on See also:Candlemas Day, and at the blessing of the baptismal See also:water. A violet stole is worn by the priest when giving See also:absolution after See also:confession, and when administering Extreme See also:Unction. Black.—Masses for the dead and funeral ceremonies of adults; the mass of the pre-sanctified on Good See also:Friday.' See also:Benediction of Vestments.—In the Roman Catholic Church the amice, alb, girdle, stole, maniple, chasuble must be solemnly blessed by the bishop or his delegate, the prayers and other forms to be observed being set forth in the Pontificale (see BENEDICTION). Other vestments—e.g. dalmatic, tunicle, surplice—are sometimes blessed when used in connexion with the sacrifice of the mass, but there is no definite rule on the subject. The custom is very ancient, Father Braun giving See also:evidence as to its existence at Rome as See also:early as the 6th century (Liturg. Gewandung, p. 76o, &c.). Mystic Meaning of Vestments.—It is clear from what has been said above that the liturgical vestments possessed originally no mystic symbolic meaning whatever; it was equally certain that, as their origins were forgotten, they would develop such a symbolic meaning. The earliest See also:record of any See also:attempt to interpret this symbolism that we possess is, so far as the West is concerned, the short exposition in the Explicatio Missae of Germanus, bishop of See also:Paris (d. 576), the earliest of any elaboration that of Hrabanus Maurus (d. 856). From the latter's time onward a See also:host of liturgists took up the theme, arguing from the form, the material, the colour and the fashion of wearing the various garments to symbolical interpretations almost as numerous as the interpreters themselves. The Report of the five bishops divides them into three See also:schools: (1) the moralizing school, the See also:oldest, by which—as in the case of St Jerome's treatment of the Jewish vestments—the vestments are explained as typical of the virtues proper to those who wear them; (2) the Christological school, i.e. that which considered the See also:minister as the representative of Christ and his garments as typical of some aspects of Christ's See also:person or office—e.g. the stole is his obedience and See also:servitude for our sakes; (3) the allegorical school, which treats the priest as a See also:warrior or See also:champion, who puts on the amice as a See also:helmet, the alb as a breastplate, and so on. We cannot even outline here the process of selection by which the symbolic meanings now stereotyped in the Roman Pontifical were arrived at. These are taken from the various schools of interpretation mentioned above, and are now formulated in the words used by the bishop when, in ordaining to any office, he places the vestment on the ordinand with the appropriate words, e.g. " Take the amice, which signifies discipline in speech," while other interpretations survive in ' In the Anglican Church, in the numerous cases when the liturgical colours are used, these generally follow the Roman use, which was in force before the Reformation in the important dioceses of Canter-See also:bury, See also:York, See also:London and See also:Exeter. Some Churches, however, have adopted the colours of the use of See also:Salisbury (Sarum). The red hangings of the Holy Table, usual where the liturgical colours are not used, are also—like the cushions to support the service books—supposed to be a survival of the Sarum use.the prayers offered by the priest when vesting, e.g. with the amice, " Place on my head the helmet of salvation," &c. For the symbolic meanings of the various vestments see the separate articles devoted to them. See also:Protestant Churches.—In the Protestant Churches2 the custom as to vestments differs widely, corresponding to a similar divergence in tradition and teaching. At the Reformation two tendencies became apparent. See also:Luther and his followers regarded vestments as among the adiaphora, and in the Churches which afterwards came to be known as " Lutheran " many of the traditional vestments were retained. See also:Calvin, on the other hand, laid stress on the principle of the utmost simplicity in public worship; at See also:Geneva the traditional vestments were absolutely abolished, and the Genevan model was followed by the Calvinistic or " Reformed " Churches throughout See also:Europe. The Church of England, in which the Lutheran and Calvinistic points of view struggled for the mastery, a struggle which resulted in a See also:compromise, is separately dealt with below. At the present day the Lutheran Churches of See also:Denmark and Scandinavia retain the use of alb and chasuble in the celebration of the eucharist (stole, amice, girdle and maniple were disused after the Reformation), and for bishops the cope and mitre. The surplice is not used, the ministers conducting the ordinary services and See also:preaching in a black See also:gown, of the r6th-century type, with white bands or See also:ruff. In Germany the Evangelical Church (outcome of a compromise between See also:Lutherans and Reformed) has, in general, now discarded the old vestments. In isolated instances (e.g. at See also:Leipzig) the surplice is still worn; but the pastors now usually wear a harret cap, a black gown of the type worn by Luther himself, and white bands. In See also:Prussia the superintendents now wear pectoral crosses (instituted by the See also:emperor See also: This question was settled after 1662 by the See also:secession of the See also:Nonconformist clergy, and no more was heard of the See also:matter until the " See also:Oxford See also:movement " in the 19th century. At the outset the followers of See also:Newman and See also:Pusey were more concerned with doctrine than with ritual; but it was natural that a reassertion of Catholic teaching should be followed by a revival of Catholic practice, and by the middle of the century certain " Ritualists," See also:pleading the See also:letter of the Ornaments Rubric in the Prayer Book, had revived the use of many of the pre-Reformation vestments. Into the See also:history of the resulting controversies it is impossible to enter. Popular passion confused the issues, and raged as violently against the substitution of the surplice for the Geneva gown in the See also:pulpit as against the revival of the " mass vestments." The law was invoked, and, confronted for the first time with the intricacies of the Ornaments Rubric, spoke with an uncertain See also:voice. In 187o, however, the " vestments " were definitely pronounced illegal by the Privy See also:Council (Hebbert v. See also:Purchas), and since the " Ritualists " refused to See also:bow to this decision, See also:parliament intervened with the Public Worship Regulation See also:Act of 1874, which set up a disciplinary machinery for enforcing the law, and at the same time reconstituted the See also:Court of See also:Arches (q.v.). The recalcitrant clergy refused to obey.an act passed solely by the secular authority (convocation not having been consulted) or to acknowledge the jurisdiction of a court which had been robbed of its " spiritual " character. Prosecutions 2 The term " Protestant " is used here in its widest sense of those Churches which reformed their doctrine and discipline as a result of the religious revolution of the 16th century (see REFORMATION). " on the complaint of two parishioners " (too often qualified ad hoc by a temporary See also:residence) followed; and since the act had provided no See also:penalty save imprisonment for contempt of court, there followed the See also:scandal of zealous clergymen being lodged in See also:gaol indefinitely " for conscience' See also:sake." This result revolted public opinion; the bishops acquired the See also:habit (rendered easier by the See also:personal expense involved in setting the law in See also:motion) of vetoing, under the power given to them in the act, all prosecutions; and the act became a dead letter. The " persecution " had meanwhile produced its natural result: the use of the forbidden vestments rapidly spread; and since there was no central authority left competent to command obedience, every See also:incumbent—intrenched in his See also:freehold as a "See also:corporation See also:sole"—became a law unto himself. The outcome has been that in the Church of England, and in many of her daughter Churches, there exists a bewildering variety of " uses," varying from that of Sarum and that of Rome down to the closest possible approximation to the Geneva model. Some explanation of this state of things may be ventured. Apart from those clergy (still the See also:majority) who follow in all essentials the See also:post-Reformation traditions of the English Church, there are three schools among those who justify the use of the ancient " eucharistic "j vestments: (I) a small number who affect to ignore the rules of the Prayer Book altogether, on the ground that no local or See also:national Church has the right to alter the doctrines or practice of the Catholic Church, of which they are priests in virtue of their ordination, and whose prescriptions and usages they are in conscience See also:bound to follow; (2) those who maintain that the Ornaments Rubric, in the phrase " second year of See also: 13). The evidence is now clear that the Rubric refers to the first Prayer Book. This was decided in See also:Liddell v. Westerton (1857), and is admitted in the Report of the five bishops to Convocation on The Ornaments of the Church and its Ministers (1908), which adduces conclusive evidence. This was inserted, probably by the Privy Council, as a memorandum or interpretation of the clause in the Act of Uniformity. Clearly it was the intention of the See also:government, consistently with the whole trend of its policy, to See also:cover its concession to the Protestant party dominant in the See also:Commons by retaining some of the outward forms of the old services until such time as it should be expedient to " take other order." Then followed a period of great confusion. If the " massing vestments " continued anywhere in use, it was not for long. Whatever the letter of the law under the rubric, the Protestant bishops and the commissioners made short work of such " popish stuff " as chasubles, albs and the like. As for copes, in some places they were ordered to be worn, and were worn at the Holy Communion,' while elsewhere they were thrown into the bonfires with the rest.' The difficulty seems to have been not to suppress the chasuble, of the use of which after 1559 not a single authoritative instance has been adduced, but to save the surplice, which the more zealous Puritans looked on with scarcely less disfavour. At last, in 1565, Queen Elizabeth determined to secure uniformity, and wrote to Archbishop See also:Parker bidding him proceed by order, See also:injunction or censure, " according to the order and See also:appointment of such See also:laws and ordinances as are provided by act of parliament, and the true meaning thereof, so that uniformity may be enforced." The result was the issue in 1566 by the archbishop of the statutory Advertisements, which fixed the vestments of the clergy as follows: (I) In the ministration of the Holy Communion in cathedral and collegiate churches, the principal minister to wear a cope, with gospeller and epistoler agreeably;' at all other prayers to be said at the Communion table, to use no copes but surplices; (2) the See also:dean and prebendaries to wear surplice and See also:hood; (3) every minister saying public prayers, or ministering the sacraments, to wear " a comely surplice with sleeves." This has been. decided by the judicial committee of the Privy Council (Hebbert v. Purchas, 187o; Ridsdale v. See also:Clifton, 1877) to have been the " other order " contemplated in the Act of Uniformity of Elizabeth, and it was held that from this time the cope and surplice alone were legal vestments in the Church of England. The authority of the Advertisements, indeed, was and is disputed; but their lordships in their See also:judgment pointed out that they were accepted as authoritative by the canons of 1603 (Can. 24 and 58), and argued convincingly that the revisers of the Prayer Book in 1662, in restoring the Tomlinson (The Prayer Book, Articles and Homilies, p. 122 seq.) argues that this was a " See also:fraud rubric " inserted without authority, and utterly perverting the meaning of the proviso in the Act of Uniformity. This See also:argument is dealt with in the bishop's Report, p. 66. * Resolutions of 1561, " See also:Item that there be used only but one apparel; as the cope in the ministration of the Lord's Supper." See Report, p. 68. 5 See Machyn's See also:Diary (See also:Camden See also:Soc. 42; London, 1848), p. 208, for St See also:Bartholomew's day, 1559: " All the roods, and See also:Manes and Johns, and many other of the church goods, both copes, crosses, censers, altar cloths, See also:rood cloths, books, See also:banners, with much other See also:gear about London," were " burned with great wonder." Yet later the cope seems to have been authoritatively See also:pro-scribed with the rest. In the Acts of the Privy Council (1578-1580), p. 208, is the following entry: " A letter to See also:Sir See also:Walter See also:Ashton, See also:Knight, Mr. See also:Deane of Lichefield, etc. . touching certaine copes, vestments, tunicles and such other Popishe stuff e informed by letter from the Dean of Lichefield to be within the cathedral churche of Lichefield; they . are required to assemble themselves together in the towne of Lichefield and to cause the said Popishe stuffe to be sought out and brought before them, and thereupon to deface the same . . . and to see the same effectuallie done, and thereof to advertise their Lordships." Flo. 8.-Anglican Priest in Cassock, Surplice, and Narrow Black See also:Scarf. See also:Brass of William Dye (d. 1567) at Westerham, See also:Kent. rubric of 1559, had no idea of legalizing any vestments other than those in customary use under the Advertisements, and the canons (cf. Report of sub-committee of Convocation, pp. 48, 49). The law, then, is perfectly clear, so far as two decisions of the highest court in the See also:realm can make it so. But apart from the fact that the authority of the Privy Council, as not being a " spiritual " court, is denied by many of the clergy, no one claims that its .decisions are irreversible in the See also:light of fresh evidence. See also:Thirty years after the Ridsdale judgment, the ritual confusion in the Church of England was worse than ever, and the old ideal expressed in the Acts of Uniformity had given place to a See also:desire to sanctify with some sort of authority the parochial " uses " which had grown up. In this respect the dominant opinion in the Church, See also:intent on compromise, seems to have been expressed in the Report presented in 1908 to the con-vocation of the See also:province of Canterbury by the sub-committee of five bishops appointed to investigate the matter, namely, that under the Ornaments Rubric the vestments prescribed in the first Prayer Book of Edward VI. are permitted, if not enjoined. Even if this be, so, the question arises, what vestments were prescribed in the Prayer Book of 1549? It has been commonly assumed, and the See also:assumption has been translated into practice, that the rubrici of, 1549 prescribed the use of all the old " mass vestments." This, however, is not the case. In the short rubric. before the communion service the celebrating priest is directed to " put upon him . . . a white alb plain with a vestment or cope," while the assisting priests or deacons are to wear " albs with tunicles." In the additional explanatory notes at the end of the book, after directions as to the wearing of surplice and hood in See also:quire, in cathedral and collegiate churches (they are not made obligatory elsewhere), bishops are directed to wear, besides the rochet, a surplice or alb, and a cope or vestment, with a pastoral See also:stall See also:borne either by themselves or their chaplains.' Thus the alternative use of cope or chasuble (vestment) is allowed at the celebration of Holy Communion—an obvious compromise; of the amice, girdle (cingulum), maniple and stole there is not a word,2 and the inference to be See also:drawn is that these were now disused. The cingulum, indeed, which symbolized chastity (i.e. See also:celibacy), would naturally have been discarded now that the clergy were allowed to marry, while the stole had become intimately associated with the doctrine of holy orders elaborated by the See also:medieval schoolmen and rejected by the Reformers (see ORDER, See also:Hove). If this be so, the case is exactly parallel with that of the Lutheran Churches which, about the same time, had discarded all the " mass vestments " except the alb and chasuble. It becomes, then, a question whether the present-day practice of many of the clergy, ostensibly based on the rubric of 1549, is in fact covered by this. The revived use of the stole is the most curious problem involved; for this, originally due to a confusion of, this vestment with the There is no mention of mitre, gloves, dalmatic, tunicle, sandals and caligae, which were presumably discontinued. = It has been argued that the term " vestment " covers all these. The Report of 1908 (Appendix A, p. 109) says cautiously that the word " may perhaps in some cases stand for the chasuble with the amice, stole and fanon, the alb being mentioned separately," but adds that " very many of the instances commonly cited for this (e.g. those in Essays on Ceremonial, p. 246) are quite inconclusive, as ' vestment' is often a convertible term with ' chasuble'; and it does not seem to be at all conclusively established that ' vestment ' with ' alb' mentioned separately, and ' cope' given as an alternative, in a document with the precision and directive force of a Rubric, means more than the actual chasuble." Father Braun (See also:Die liturg. Gewandung in der Englischen Staatskirche) endorses this opinion. He gives reasons for believing that in the Church of England, under the first Prayer Book, as in the Lutheran Churches, while chasuble and alb were retained, stole, maniple, amice and girdle were discontinued: With this the bishop of Exeter (Ornaments Rubric, p. 30) would seem to agree, when he says that " the customs of the present day do not fully See also:accord with any See also:reason-able interpretation of the rubric. The stole, now nearly universal, is only covered by the rubric if the word ` vestment ' be taken to include it (a very dubious point), and then only at Holy Communion."traditional Anglican black scarf, has now become all but universal among the clergy of all schools of thought (see STOLE). The five bishops in their Report, tracing the various vestments to their origins, conclude that they are meaningless in them-selves, and therefore things indifferent. This appears gravely to misread history. The chasuble and the rest, whatever their origin, had become associated during the middle ages with certain doctrines the rejection of which at the Reformation was symbolized by their disuse.3 Their revival has proceeded pari passu with that of the doctrines with which they have long since become associated. With the truth or falsehood of these doctrines we are not here concerned; but that the revived vestments are chiefly valued because of their doctrinal significance the clergy who use them would be the last to deny. Nor is the argument that they are a visible manifestation of the continuity of the Church anything but a See also:double-edged weapon; for, as Father Braun pertinently asks, if these be their symbolism, of what was their disuse in the Church of England for nigh on 300 years a symbol?4 In 1910 the question of the " permissive use of vestments," in connexion with that of the revision of the Prayer Book generally, was still under' discussion in the convocations of the two provinces. But there was little See also:chance that any change in the rubric, even in the improbable event of its receiving the See also:sanction of parliament, would produce any appreciable effect. It is often forgotten that " extreme " ritual is no longer an " innovation " in the English Church; it has become the norm in a large number of parishes, and whole generations of Church people have grown up to whom it is the only See also:familiar type of Christian worship. To attempt to " enforce the law " (whatever the law may be) would, therefore, seriously wound the consciences of a large number of people who are quite unconscious of having broken it. Formally to legalize the minimum enjoined' by the rubrics of 1549 would, on the other 'hand, offend the " Protestant " section of the Church, without reconciling those who would be content with nothing short of the Catholic maximum. Aurtsoarrizs.-All previous See also:works on vestments have been largely superseded by Father See also:Joseph Braun's Die liturgische Gewandung (See also:Freiburg-See also:im-See also:Breisgau, 1907), a See also:monument of careful and painstaking See also:research; profusely illustrated. This contains a list of medieval writers on the subject, another of the inventories used by the author, and one of more modern works. W. B. Marriott's Vestiarium Christianum (1868), though it must now be read with caution, is still of much value, notably the second part, which gives texts (with See also:translations) of passages bearing on the subject taken from early and medieval writers, with many, interesting plates. Of other works may be mentioned Mgr. L. See also:Duchesne's Origines du culte chretien (Paris, 1903), and especially C. Rohault de See also:Fleury''s La Messe (Paris, 1883-89). See also F. X. Kraus, Realencyklopadie der christlichen Altertumer (Freiburg-i.-B., 1892, 1886) ; See also: Braun, S.J., in his See also:paper on liturgical- dress in the Church of England, contributed to Stimmen aus Maria-Leach (1910, Heft 7, Freiburg-im-Breisgau). In this he criticizes the bishops' Report in a sympathetic spirit, but points out how intimately the symbolism of the vestments had become associated with the doctrine of the Sacrifice of the Mass, and how logical was the See also:action of the Reformers in rejecting certain of these vestments. He See also:sees in the revival of " vestments " " an energetic condemnation of the English Reformation." He adds that this is, of course, unintentional (allerdings ohne das sein zu wollen). A more intimate acquaintance with the See also:language commonly used by many of the more extreme " Ritualists " would have shown him that there has been, and is, no lack of such intention. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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