TONSURE (from the Latin, tondere, clip") is the name given to a distinguishing mark of the clergy of the Roman Catholic church, formed by cutting off a portion of the hair from the head. Mention is made of polled or shaven crowns in connection with the clerical cha racter ih the earliest ages of the church; but it seems to be clear that this has nothing to do with the modern tonsure : the practice of shaving the head or wearing the hair too short is in fact, condemned in priests by Jerome and others of the Fathers. (' Bingham's Origines Ecelesias time ' b. vi. e. iv. e. 16.) What is now called the tonsure was probably introduced not earlier than the latter part of the 5th century. 'Various explanations of its mystical meaning have been proposed : one theory is, that it is a sign of adoption by the church • another, that it is intended to symbolise the clerical subjection and obedience; another, that it is a memorial of the Saviour's crown of thorns, &c. According to the existing and long-established practice, the tonsure is formed by clipping away the hair from a circular space on the back of the head.
The application of the scissors by the bishop to remove the first tuft is the initiatory rite by which persons are received into the clerical order. Of course the clerical crown, as it is called, must bo preserved by repeated trimming when necessary; and the practice, we believe, is to enlarge it as the wearer rises in ecclesiastical station and dignity. The present however was not the universal form of the tonsure in former time& When the missionaries who had come over to Britain from Rome encountered in the 7th century the Scottish and Irish priests, they were horrified by observing that instead of a circular tonsure on the occiput, they were distinguished by a tonsure in the shape of a crescent on the forehead. The Roman missionaries asserted that this was the sort of tonsure worn by Simon Magus and iris dis ciples. The true form of the tonsure and the proper mode of-calcu lating Easter were the chief subjects of theological controversy in this island in the latter part of the 7th and the beginning of the 8th centuries.