Ecclesiastical Vestments: Their development and historyMacalister, Robert Alexander Stewart
History
Ecclesiastical Vestments: Their development and history
Macalister, Robert Alexander Stewart
Church vestments
The following appendix does not profess to furnish more than an outline
of the extensive subject with which it deals; for further details, as
well as for illustrations of members of each of the orders, reference
must be made to the great work of Bonanni, cited in Appendix III.
Bonanni names the different habits rather loosely; in the main his
nomenclature has been followed, but brought to a more uniform system.
_Monks._
The dress of monks usually consists of the _vestis_, tunic or closed
gown; the _scapular_, roughly speaking, a narrow, chasuble-like dress,
with the front and back portions rectangular and of uniform width
throughout; one or more open gowns (_pallium_ or _cappa_); and the
_caputium_ or hood, fastened at the back and capable of being drawn over
the head. 'Discalced' is not always to be taken in its fullest
significance, or as signifying more than simply 'sandaled.' Different
vestments are worn by individual orders or houses; the nature of these
will be self-evident from their names.
1. ALEXIANS.—Black vestis and pallium, both reaching a little below the
knee: caputium.
2. AMBROSE, ST.—Dark-coloured gown with cappa and scapular. Discalced.
3. ANTONIUS, ST (_Armenia_).—Ample black tunic, girded, mantellum,
cuculla, and caputium.
4. ANTONIUS, ST (_Canons of_).—Black gown signed with a blue T; girded
white collar, black mantle, also signed with T. Others, who are devoted
to manual labour, wear a similar dress, but tawny in colour. The T is a
representation of a crutch, the symbol of sustaining and power.
5. ANTONIUS, ST (_Egypt_).—Black tunic and scapular, with round
caputium. Discalced.
6. ANTONIUS, ST (_Syria_).—Long black gown with short round caputium,
black leather girdle; over all, long black mantle.
7. APOSTOLI.—Tawny tunic with girdle of leather, scapular with caputium
attached. Cappa, and in winter short and narrow mantellum.
8. AUBERT, ST (_Canons regular of_; _Cambrai_).—Violet cassock, and cap
or biretta: white surplice.
9. AUGUSTINE, ST.—Black tunic girded, black cape and hood. White may be
worn indoors.
10. AVELLANANS.—White tunic, scapular, azure pallium, square biretta in
place of mantellum.
11. BASIL, ST (_Armenia_).—Tunic and caputium white, scapular black.
12. BASIL, ST (_Germany_).—Tunic, long scapular, long broad cappa,
caputium on shoulder, and a biretta on head in outline resembling the
'Tam o' Shanter' cap.
13. BASIL, ST (_Greece_).—Black woollen tunic, over which another with
sleeves about three palms wide, open in front, with woollen fringes or
loops of another (but still dark) colour, which can be fastened with
small buttons. Head always covered with a cap, which conceals the ears.
Caputium with _vittae_ or streamers attached, which hang over the
shoulders, and are said to typify the cross.
14. BASIL, ST (_Italy or Spain_).—Till 1443 resembling the Greek dress
(No. 13). After that date, tunic, leather girdle, scapular, cuculla,
caputium—all black.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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