MITRE (Lat. mitra, also Wake), the head-dress worn in solemn church services by bishops, abbots, and certain other prelates in the western church. The name, as prob ably the ornament itself, is borrowed from the orientals, although, in its present form, it is not in use in the Greek church. or in any other of the churches of the various eastern rites. The western mitre is a tall, tongue-shaped cap, terminating in a twofold point, which is supposed to symbolize the "cloven tongues," in the form of which the Holy Ghost was imparted to the apostles, and is furnished with two flaps, which fall behind over the shoulders. Opinion is much divided as to the date at winch the mitre first came into use. Eusebius, Gregory of Nazianzus, Epiphaiins, and others speak of an orna mented head-dress, worn in the church; but there is no very early monument or pictorial representation which exhibits any head-covering at all resembling the modern mitre. From the 9th c., however, it is found in use, although not universally: and instances are recorded in which the popes grant permission to certain bishops to wear the mitre; as, for example, Leo IV. to Anschar, bishop of Hamburg, in the 9th century. The material used in the manufacture of the mitre is very various, often consisting of most costly stuffs, studded with gold and precious stones. The color and material differ according to the festival or the service in which the mitre is used, and there is 'a special prayer in the consecration service of bishops, used in investing the new bishop with his mitre. The mitre of the pope is of peculiar form, and is called by the name tiara (q.v.). Although the mitre properly belongs to bishops only, its use is also permitted by special privilege to certain abbots, to provosts of some distinguished cathedral chapters, and to a few other dignitaries. See Binterim, Denkwiirdigkeiten der Kirche, 1 B. 2 Th., p. 849.
The tnitre, as an ornament, seems to have descended in the earliest times from bishop to bishop. Among the Cottonian MSS. is an order dated July 1, 4 Henry VI., for the delivery to archbishop Chiehely of the miter which had been worn by his predecessor.
It was in some cases a very costly ornament: Archbishop Pecheham's new mitre, in 1288, cost £173 4s. ld In lIngland, since the reformation, the mitre is no longer a part of the episcopal costume, but it is placed over the shield of an archbishop or bishop, instead of a crest. The mitre of a bishop has its lower dm surrounded with a fillet of gold; but the archbishops of Canterbury and York are in the practice of encircling theirs with a ducal coronet, a usage of late date and (Ionian] propriety. The bishop of Durham surrounds his mitre with an earl's coronet, in consequence of being titular count pala tine of Durham and earl of Sedburgh. Before the custom was introduced of bishops impaling the insignia of their sees with their family arms, they sometimes difference(' their paternal coat by the addition of a mitre, Mitres are rare as a charge in heraldry, but are sometimes borne as a crest, particularly in Germany, to indicate that the bearers were feudatories, or dependencies of ancient abbeys.
BA.wroLoxi, b. Buenos Ayres. 1821; became an instructor in a military college in Bolivia in 1846 and also a journalist; was next engaged as an officer in the Bolivian army in a war against Peru; then successively as editor, politician, and finally military leader again in the movement of Buenos Ayres against gen. Urquiza in 1852, which resulted in the quasi independence of that province from the Argentine confed eration. After returning to peaceful pursuits, he wrote the Historia de Belgrano. In 1S30. after the re-imion of the seceded provinco to the Argentine confederation, be was chosen governor of Buenos Ayres; and in 1862, when new diflictiltieS With the federal government had brought into existence the Argentine republic in place of the confedera tion, Mitre was elected president for six years. • He was also a candidate again in 1874, but was defeated; after which he headed a rebellion that proved disastrous to his for tunes. Since then he has lived in retirement.