X. _Ecclesiastical Head-dress._—Pseudo-Alcuin expressly contrasts the Churches of the East and West in this—that the Western clergy officiated at the mass bareheaded, which was not the practice of those of the Eastern Church. This gives us information as to the usage of the Western Church at about the tenth or twelfth century. In the following century a cap is noticed 'as one of the marks by which a Churchman might be known';[78] and it appears in inventories, classed along with mitres. The use of a cap at Divine service was a matter of special papal permission: thus, Innocent IV issued an indult in 1245 to the Prior and Convent of St Andrew's, Rochester, permitting them to wear caps (_pileis uti_) in the choir, provided that due reverence be observed at the gospel and the elevation. Two forms of cap are to be seen in mediaeval monuments: one a simple dome-shaped skull-cap, called _birettum_; the other a circular cap, with a point in the centre, of this shape ⏞̲, which was peculiar to university dignitaries. The latter is probably the ancestor of the modern _biretta_; and, indeed, in a brass of Robert Brassie in King's College Chapel, Cambridge (1558), appears a head-dress which is a connecting link between the two. The head-dress was always black, except for cardinals and a few bishops and others to whom the privileges of cardinals had been especially granted. These wore scarlet. [Illustration: FIG. 20.—BRASS OF ROBERT BRASSIE, KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE (showing almuce and biretta-like cap).] We have reserved for the conclusion of this chapter a more detailed account of the subjects with which, and the manner in which these various articles of sacred apparel were decorated. Vestments, as represented in mediaeval sculptures or illuminations, the testimony of which is confirmed by the examples which actually exist, are not as a general rule ornamented in a haphazard manner over the whole surface. The ornamentation is usually concentrated into patches of embroidery or jewel-work, which are sewn on to certain definite places in the vestment. In describing the vestments singly we have already noticed the positions in which these patches of embroidery were placed. It will be convenient, however, to bring all these particulars together and briefly remind the reader of them. The _alb_ was decorated with a rectangular patch on the breast; another on the back; two more above the lower hem, one in front, one behind; a small patch on each cuff (entirely encircling the wrist in older examples); and a narrow binding round the neck. The patches on the hem were sometimes suspended loose from the belt, and the patches on the breast and back fastened together and suspended loose over the shoulders. The _amice_ was decorated with a band of embroidery along one side, which was practically the only part of the vestment visible when it was in position.