AMICE (Lat. amictus, from amicire, to wrap round), some times called humerale (from humerus, shoulder), a liturgical vest ment of the Western Church. It is a rectangular linen cloth, with a small cross sewn or embroidered in the middle, which is wrapped round the neck, shoulders and breast. It is first laid on the head, then allowed to fall on the shoulders, and finally folded round the chest and tied with the strings attached for that purpose. It is worn under the alb, except at Milan and Lyons, where it is put on over it. The vestment was at first a perfectly plain white cloth, but from the loth century onwards it was often richly embroidered, and the custom arose of decorating the upper border with an "apparel" forming a sort of stiff collar which appeared above the chasuble or dalmatic.
The Latin word amictus was applied to any wrap-like garment, and, according to Father Braun, the liturgical amice originated in the ordinary neck-cloth worn by all classes of Romans. The first record of its liturgical use is in the Ist Roman Ordo (8th cen tury), when it was worn only with the dalmatic and was known as the anabolagium (anagolaium, anagolagium, Gr. avaj36Xaiov), a name it continued to bear at Rome till the nth century. In the 9th century it spread to other countries : it is mentioned in an inventory of vestments given by Abbot Angilbert (d. 814) to the monastery at Centula (St. Riquier) and in the de clericorum institutione of Hrabanus Maurus (c. 820). The amice was worn first simply as a shoulder-cloth, but towards the end of the 9th century the custom grew up of putting it on over the head and of wearing it as a hood, either while the other vestments were being put on or, according to various local uses, until the celebrant reached the altar. This ceased at Rome in the 15th century, when the apparel disappeared ; but two relics of it survive—(1) in the vesting directions of the Missal and the priest's prayer, "Place on my head the helmet of salvation," etc., (2) in the ordination of subdeacons, when the bishop lays the vestment on the ordinand's head with the words "Take the amice, which symbolizes discipline over speech." The amice was rejected with the other "Mass vestments" in England at the Reformation. Its use has, however, been revived in many Anglican churches. (See VESTMENTS.) A vestment akin to the amice is worn in the Armenian and some other oriental churches, but it is unknown to the Orthodox Eastern Church.
See Joseph Braun, S.J., Die liturgische Gewandung, pp. 21-56 (Freiburg im Breisgau, 5907), and bibliography to the article VESTMENTS.