VESTMENTS, SACRED, the peculiar habiliments worn by ministers of religion in the p blic discharge of their office, and sometimes in other sacred ministrations, even when pr vately performed. The use of a distinctive costume in public worship formed a part no only of the Jewish, but of almost all the ancient religions, and has been found in a gr r or less degree in the religions of the new World. See Lipsius, De Monument. of Exemp. lit., ]. i. c. 3. The whole 28th chapter of Exodus is taken up with a descrip tion of the vestments of 'the high priest; and the directions for those of the inferior func tionaries are almost equally minute. Whether the same characteristic was carried into the early Christian worship, has been a subject of controversy; some, writers being of opinion that the peculiar sacred costume which we find in use among Christian minis ters from a very early period was not originally peculiar to the clergy, but was simply the ordinary costume of Rome and of the east in the first centuries, and only came to be a costume distinctive of sacred ministers, because by them it was retained unaltered, whereas in the every-day world the costume varied in fashion, in material, in color from year to year. There seems little room, however, for doubting, that from a very early time Christian ministers did employ some distinctive dress in public worship; and Oath..
elle writers even find traces in the beginning of the 5th c. of the practice of blessing the vestments which were destined for the public services of the church. bee Bintermi, Den k tefirdtfiketten, 1V. i. p. 198. From the 8th c. downward, the rituals of the west all contain formularies for the blessing of the several sacred vestments worn by bishops, priests, deacons, and lower clergy. The vestments used in the celebration of the mass by priests of the Roman Catholic emirch are six in number,—viz. (1) the amice, a square piece of linen, which is worn upon the shoulders, and in some of the religious orders, over the head, which latter, indeed, appears to have been the ancient mode of wearing it; (2) the alb, a long, loose-sleeved, linen gown, sometimes richly embroidered or " apparelled at the lower border; (3) the cincture, a linen curd tied around the waist, and confining the folds of the alb; (4) the maniple, a narrow strip of embroidered silk, worn pendeut from the arm; (5) the stole, a lone narrow scarf, similarly embroidered, and worn by priests around the neck, the ends being crossed over the breast or pendent in front, and by dea cons transversely over one shoulder; (6) the chasuble, a loose flowing vestment, open at the sides, having a hole in the center, through which the head passes, and falling down over the breast and back to some distance below the knees. Most of these vestments have been already briefly described. The three last named are always of the same material and color; but this color, which appears primitively to have been in all cases white, now, and for many centuries, varies according to seasons and festivals, five dif ferent colors being employed in the cycle of ecclesiastical services—viz., white, red,
green, violet, and black. Cloth of gold, however, may be substituted for any of these, except the last. A cap, called biretura, is worn in approaching the altar, but is laid aside during mass. Besides these vestments, which are worn by priests during the mass, bishops in the same service use also two inner Vestments, of nearly the same form as the chasuble, called " dalmatic" and " tunic," as also embroidered gloves and shoes, or bus kins, together with the distinctive episcopal ornaments—the pectoral cross, the miter, the pastoral staff, or, if archbishops, the crosier, and ring. Archbishops celebrating mass also wear the pallium (q.v.). Deacons, at the same service, wear a robe, called dalmatic; and sub-deacons, a tunic. The sub-deacon is not privileged to wear the stole. In other public services, priests and bishops wear a large flowing cloak, called cope (Lat. piuniale), with a pendent cape or hood, called orfrey. In the ministration of the other sacraments, and also in administering communion, priests wear the surplice (which is but a short alb) with the stole. The vestments of the Greek priests differ considerably in their general character and effect from those of the Latin clergy, but the several por tions of the costume are substantially the same as those of the Latin costume already described. The stoicharion, the sore, the orarion, the epimanikia, and the phelorion, correspond respectively with the alb, cincture, stole, maniple, and chasuble. Greek bishops wear the ornophorion, which corresponds with the later pallium. The phelorion, however, is so ample in its folds as to resemble the Latin cope rather than the chasuble; and the general effect of the Greek vestments, which may be said to resemble in all par ticulars that of the other eastern rites, is much more picturesque.
The natural effect of the religious changes of the 16th c. was to put aside the costume at the same time and on the same grounds with the ceremonies of the existing worship. This was done, however, by the different churches of the reformers in very various degrees. The Calvinistic -worship may be said to have dispensed with vestments alto gether. The Lutherans generally retained with the cossack the alb, and in some countries the chasuble. In the English church a variety of practice has existed. The disputes about the use of the surplice (q.v.) have been already described. As to the rest of the costume, the first prayer-book retained the Roman vestments with little change; and as, by a remarkable accident, the rubric of this prayer-book has never been formally repealed, a so-called ritualistic movement in the English church has re-introduced in some places almost every detail of the Roman costume in the communion and other services, an Innovation which has in many instances been vigorously resisted.