Vestments

Hitherto the example of the Roman Church had exercised no exclusive determining 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 honour to various distinguished prelates ; Britain, converted by a Roman mission, had adopted the Roman use, and English missionaries had carried this into the newly Christianized parts of Germany; but the great Churches of Spain and Gaul preserved their own traditions in vestments as in other matters. From the 9th cen tury onwards, however, after the revival of the Roman empire by Charlemagne, this was changed ; everywhere in the West the Roman use ousted the regional uses.

The process of assimilation, however, was by no means one sided. If Spain and Gaul borrowed from Rome, they also exer cised a reciprocal influence on the Roman use ; it is interesting to note, in this connection, 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 borrow from Rome only the dal matic, maniple and liturgical shoes.

The 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 loth, the mitre; in the i i th, 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.

In an age when, with the feudal organization of society, even everyday costume was becoming a uniform, symbolizing the exact status of the wearer, it was natural that in the Church the official vestments should undergo a similar process. With this process, which was practically completed in the 1 i th 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 hitherto had for the most part no symbolism whatever. Yet in view of later controversies, the changes made during this period, notably in the vestments con nected with the mass, are not without significance. Hitherto the chasuble had been worn indifferently by all ministers at the eucha rist, 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. New vestments took the place, on less solemn occasions, of those hallowed by association with the holy sacrifice ; thus the processional cope (q.v.) appeared in the nth 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 plain; 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 embroidery and jeweller's work (see, e.g., the

articles CHASUBLE and COPE).

Very significant, too, is the parting of the ways in the develop ment of liturgical vestments in the East and West. During the first centuries both branches of the Church had used vestments substantially the same, developed from common originals; the alb, chasuble, stole and pallium were the equivalents of the sti charion, phenailion, orarion and omophorion. While, however, be tween the 9th and 13th centuries, the Western Church was adding largely to her store of vestments, that of the East increased her list by hut three, the encheirion, epimanikia (see MANIPLE) and the sakkos (see DALMATIC).

In the Western Church, though considerable alterations con tinued to be made in the shape and decoration of the liturgical vestments, and in this respect various Churches developed different traditions, the definition of their use was established by the close of the 13th century and still continues in force. Before discussing the changes made in the 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 mystery of the Catholic faith, the vestments worn by the priest when celebrating mass are the most important. The 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), maniple, stole and chas uble. Taking the other orders downwards : deacons wear amice, alb, girdle, maniple, stole and dalmatic ; subdeacons, amice, alb, girdle, maniple and tunicle; the vestment proper to the minor orders, formerly the alb, is now the surplice or cotta. (The stole and maniple alone are symbolical of order, i.e., of the relation to the sacrifice of the mass.) Bishops, as belonging to the order of priesthood with completed powers, wear the same vestments as the priests, with the addition of the pectoral cross, the pontifical gloves and ring ; liturgical sandals and stockings ; a tunicle and dalmatic worn over the stole and under the chasuble, and the mitre (see fig. 3). Archbishops, on solemn occasions, wear the pallium over the chasuble (see fig. 2). Bishops also carry a pastoral staff (q.v.) as a symbol of their pastoral office. Finally, the pope, when celebrating mass, wears the same vestments as an ordinary bishop, with addition of the subcinctorium (see ALB), and orale or fanone (see AmicE). It should be noted that the liturgical head-dress of the pope is the mitre, not the tiara, which is the symbol of his supreme office and jurisdiction (see TIARA).

Of the liturgical vestments not immediately or exclusively associated with the sacrifice of the mass the most conspicuous are the cope and surplice. The bi retta, too, though not in its origin or in some of its uses a liturgical vestment, has developed a dis tinctly liturgical character (see