TONSURE (Lat. tonsura, a shaving, from tondeo, I shave), a religious observance of the Roman Catholic and oriental churches, which consists in shaving or cutting the hair as a sign of the dedication of the person to the special service of God and commonly to the public ministry of religion. It is a very ancient usage, and by some writers is rep resented as of apostolic origin; but that it did not prevail in the early ages is sufficiently plain from the fact with which Optatus upbraids the Donatists of his time (4th c.) of having shaved the heads of certain Catholic priests and bishops in derision. Jerome also in his Commentary on Ezekiel, c. 24, is equally explicit. It would appear that the usage first arose in reference to the monastic rather than the clerical life. Paulinus of Nola; in the end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th c., alludes to it as then in use among the western monks; and it speedily passed from them to the clergy, the crown-like figure being regarded partly as a symbol of our Lord's crown of thorns, partly as an emblem of the " royal priesthood" of the Christian dispensation. The form of the tonsure was different in different churches, and the varieties of it are of some historical interest. That of the Roman church, called "the tonsure of Peter," consisted in shaving the crown as well as the back of the head, so that there remained a circular ring or " crown" of hair. This was the form in use in Italy, Gaul, and Spain. In the " Scottish (or
Irish) tonsure," which was iu use in Ireland, iu north Britain, and in those parts of Ger many in which the Irish missionaries had preached, the entire front of the head was shaved, leaving the front bare as far back as the line from ear to car. This tonsure was called "the tousure of James," and sometimes of "Simon the magician." The Greeks and other orientals shaved the entire head. The supposed derivation of the Irish form of tonsure from the apostolic times led to its being held both in Ireland and in Britain, as well as other churches of Irish foundation, to be of the most vital importance, inso much that the introduction of the Roman form was almost the occasion of a schism. Originally the tonsure was merely a part of the ceremonial of initiation in orders, and was only performed in the act of administering the higher order; but about the 7th e. it came to be used as a distinct and independent ceremonial, and a question has been raised whether it is to be considered as itself an order and to be added to the list of what are called the "minor orders" (q.v.). The now received opinion of Catholic writers is that tonsure is not an " order, ' but only a "preparation for orders."—See Wetzer and Welte's art. " Tonsur."