The same uniformity is not, however, observable in the symbolism of this vestment. The variety of meanings is even greater than is the case with the alb and its girdle. We are told that it signifies (_inter alia_) the Holy Incarnation; the purity of good works; the subjugation of the tongue; the earthy origin and heavenly goal of the human body; the necessity of justice and mercy in addition to temperance and abstention from evil; and the endurance of present hardships. IV. _The Stole._—The early history of the stole has been discussed in the preceding chapter, in considering the _orarium_. Why, or when, the proper name of the vestment became 'stole,' or _stola_, does not appear. It is named _stola_ in the later ecclesiastical canons of our second period; but it is not clear how _stola_, which in its original significance denoted a flowing tunic, like the under-garment of the Roman or the _alba_ of the priests of the second period, came to signify a narrow strip of orphrey-work. It is quite certain that it cannot be explained (as some writers have attempted to do) as the _orphrey_ of a lost vestment which has survived while the bulk of it has disappeared; for the continuity of the stole and the _orarium_ is a matter of historic certainty, and we have already shown reason for assigning an entirely different origin to the latter vestment. Such an evolution, too, as that of a narrow strip from a large vestment is not natural, and is contrary to our observation in the history of other vestments; and it assumes the existence of embroidered 'orphreys' at a time far too remote for such ornamentation to be found. This hypothesis has suggested one of the less probable etymologies which have been proposed for the word _orarium_. [Illustration: FIG. 6.—STOLE-ENDS, SHOWING VARIETIES IN FORM AND ORNAMENT.] The stole is a narrow strip of embroidered work, nine or ten feet long and two or three inches wide. In its original form it was of the same width throughout; but about the thirteenth or fourteenth century we find its ends terminating in a rectangular compartment, giving each the appearance of a tau cross. This was in order to secure extra room for the cross with which every stole was supposed to be marked at the end. For the same purpose the modern stole expands gradually from the middle point, where also a cross is embroidered.