It will be remembered that the _alba_ of the second or transitional epoch was a very much more ample vestment than its successor in mediaeval times. The chasuble, tunicle, or dalmatic (sometimes all three) had to be put on over it—an impossibility if it had maintained its original size. It accordingly was contracted in size in order to adapt itself to the new requirements; but in so doing the needleworkers went to the other extreme, and produced a vestment which threatened to become intractable every time the attempt was made to put it on over the cassock when the latter article of dress was thick and lined with fur. These difficulties resulted in the invention of a new garment, which retained the amplitude of the old _alba_, and was worn only when no vestment of importance (except the cope, which was adaptable) was put on over it. This was the surplice. The alb was retained for the Eucharistic service, as the upper vestments would lie over it more conveniently. The surplice was a sleeved vestment of white linen, plain, except at the neck, where there was occasionally a little embroidery in coloured threads. The sleeves were very full, and hung down to a considerable length when the hands were conjoined, as they generally are in monuments. The surplice was put on by being passed over the head, exactly like the alb; the modern surplice, open in front, and secured at the neck with a button, was invented within the last two hundred years, and was designed to make the assumption of the vestment possible without disarranging the enormous wigs which were worn during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. III. _The Rochet_ is a still further modification of the alb. The sleeves are reduced to a minimum or totally absent. It appears to have been worn, though not always, by choristers, and there is also evidence that it was the form of surplice favoured by bishops. Thus we read: 'Item 8 surplices for the quere. 'Item 3 rochets _for children_.'—Inventory of St Mary Hill, London. 'Bis adiit [Richardus de Bury] summum pontificem Johannem et recepit ab eo rochetam in loco bullae pro proximo episcopatu vacante ex post in Anglia.'—Will. de Chambre, 'Continuatio Hist. Dunelmensis,' Surtees Society, 1839, p. 127. IV. _The Cotta._—This is a surplice, considerably modified, which has the advantage of being cheap, and is accordingly worn as a substitute for the longer surplice in poor parishes. It is a sleeveless vestment, of crochet work or crimped linen, which reaches to the middle of the back. It has not an effective appearance. V. _The Almuce_,[76] which is also variously styled the Amys, or Amess,[77] was a hood lined with fur, and, like the cassock, designed to protect the priest from cold. In winter-time the churches—never very warm—would have been uninhabitable before the invention of heating stoves, had it not been for comforting articles of apparel such as these.