Ecclesiastical Vestments: Their development and historyMacalister, Robert Alexander Stewart
History
Ecclesiastical Vestments: Their development and history
Macalister, Robert Alexander Stewart
Church vestments
'The pall which the principal bishops wear signifies the discipline with
which archbishops should rule themselves and those set under them. By
this the golden chain[59] is obtained which those receive who strive
lawfully, of which Solomon saith, "My son, hear the instruction of thy
father and forsake not the law of thy mother, for they shall be an
ornament of grace unto thy head and chains about thy neck." For the
pallium is made of white wool, woven, having a circle above constraining
the shoulders, and two tails (_lineae_) hanging down on either side;
moreover, there are four purple crosses, front and back, on the right
and on the left. On the left side it is double, and single on the
right.'[60] After a long moralization on these facts, he goes on: 'The
three pins which are fixed in the pallium over the breast, on the
shoulder and in the back, denote pity for his neighbour, the
administration of his office, and the meting out of justice.... There is
no pin fastened in the right shoulder,' because there is no trouble in
everlasting rest. 'The needle is golden, sharp below, rounded above,
enclosing a precious stone,' which bears a variety of meanings. If we
may believe the Elizabethan reformers, the pall was an expensive item in
an archbishop's insignia. Although Gregory I ordained that it should be
given to the archbishop-elect freely, Jewel speaks of the Archbishop of
Canterbury giving 5,000 florins (£1,125 at 4s. 6d. the florin) to the
Pope for his pall, in addition to the first-fruits of his province; and
Bullinger speaks of the pall being so dear that 'in gathering money for
it' the archbishop often 'beggared his whole diocese.'
X. _The Stockings_, or buskins, seem to have been originally
appropriated to the Pope alone, bishops being content with the somewhat
scanty sandal already described. But by the time of Ivo of Chartres the
_caligae_ had taken their place among the articles in an episcopal
wardrobe. He is the first writer who mentions them. In the middle ages
they, like all the other vestments of which we have been treating,
forsook their primitive simplicity and became enriched with elaborate
ornamentation. They signify the need of framing the courses of their
feet aright; and in that they reach to the knees, they indicate that the
wearer should strengthen the feeble knees weakened by heedlessness, and
hasten to preach the Gospel.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.—BISHOP WAYNFLETE'S EPISCOPAL STOCKING.]
XI. _The Subcingulum._—The discussion of this vestment will be more
difficult than that of any other among the equipment of the clergy of
the West. It is all but obsolete at the present day; there does not seem
to be more than one representation of it extant, and that only shows a
small portion of it in an unsatisfactory manner; and the references to
it in ecclesiastical writers are few and far between.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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