Ecclesiastical Vestments: Their development and historyMacalister, Robert Alexander Stewart
History
Ecclesiastical Vestments: Their development and history
Macalister, Robert Alexander Stewart
Church vestments
The duty of the minister, as far as the vestments of the celebrant are
concerned, consists in seeing that the vestments are laid out in their
proper order on a table in the vestry, or, should there be no vestry, on
a side-table near the altar (never on the altar itself); the vestments
for the assistant should be on the right-hand side of those for the
celebrant, the vestments for the deacon and subdeacon on the left. He
should also see that each is properly put on, especially that the alb is
drawn through the girdle so as to overhang it and to be raised about a
finger's breadth from the ground, and that the chasuble is straight. He
must especially be careful that the assistant does not put on his cope
before the priest puts on his chasuble. During the celebration he has to
see that the chasuble is not disarranged by genuflexions, and to raise
the chasuble so as to give complete freedom to the priest's arms at the
elevation of the host. After the celebration the vestments are taken off
with similar ceremonies in the reverse order.
On Ember days, Rogations, in processions, and when the Sunday or Saint's
day mass is said in the chapter house, on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday,
and Palm Sunday, albs and amices only are to be worn by the ministers.
The dress at the ordinary offices (mattins, lauds, etc.) is amice, alb,
stole, and cope; a brass at Horsham represents a priest so vested, and
has the merit of showing the exact manner in which the stole should be
crossed. This combination of vestments was also worn at benedictions, at
absolution after a mass for the dead, and, as just remarked, by the
assistant at mass if a priest, and by the celebrant at the mass of the
pre-sanctified. 'The cope,' the rubric tells us, 'is not strictly a
sacerdotal vestment, but it is worn by the rulers of the choir and
others.'
The clergy in choir wear black (choral) copes, except on principal
doubles,[99] and on the doubles falling on Sunday, when silk copes of
the colour of the day are worn. On the vigil of Easter, and through and
on the octave, they wore surplices only, as also on doubles occurring
from Easter to Michaelmas.
If a bishop celebrate, and if it be Maunday Thursday, or Whitsunday, he
has seven deacons, seven subdeacons, and three acolytes—on other doubles
only five. On feasts with Rulers, two at least; on Good Friday only one.
The rulers of the choir were those whose duty it was to chant the office
and Kyrie at mass, and to superintend the choristers. On doubles these
were four in number, on simples two. Rulers wore silk copes of the
colour of the day over a surplice, and had silver staves as emblems of
office.
The Roman Pontifical lays down succinct rules for the vesting of a
bishop for the different duties of his position. These are as follows:
_Confirmation._—White cope and stole, amice, rochet, mitra aurifrigiata.
_Ordinations._—As for high mass: colour according to the day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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