CHAPTER IV.

THE HISTORY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PROCESSIONAL VESTMENTS; THE ORNAMENTATION OF VESTMENTS.

In addition to the garments already described, which are more properly appropriated to the Eucharistic service, there are a few which are assumed on other occasions by the clergy of the Western Church. The occasions upon which these particular vestments are worn belong properly to the province of Chapter VII. We accordingly postpone the discussion of them until that chapter is reached, concerning ourselves here with the development, shape, and ornamentation of the vestments themselves.

The vestments which we have to describe in this chapter are the cassock, surplice (with its modifications, the rochet and cotta), almuce, and cope. These constitute the so-called processional {138} vestments; a misnomer, because they are not exclusively appropriated to processions. There are, besides, certain others of a more general character, not strictly falling under the head of either Eucharistic or Processional vesture, and they will be more conveniently described in this chapter also. These are the canon's cope, the mozetta, the Roman collar, and the various types of sacerdotal head-dress.

I. The Cassock.—The cassock was the long outer gown which was worn by everyone, clerical and lay, male and female, during the eleventh, twelfth, and succeeding centuries. When it was abandoned for the very much more convenient short coat, that conservatism in ecclesiastical matters, to which the very existence of ecclesiastical vestments is due, prevented the clergy from following the example of the laity, and left the cassock as the distinctive outer garment of the clergy on ordinary occasions, as it still remains. The dignity attaching to a long garment was also probably a factor in causing its ecclesiastical retention.

The Eucharistic vestments were placed over the cassock, as the cassock was placed over the under-garments of the wearer. But it was so entirely concealed by the long alb that it could scarcely be regarded as an essential part of the vestments for the Eucharistic office. The case was different, {139} however, when the priest was vested in processional attire, for the lower end of the cassock appeared very prominently under the surplice, and its presence was consequently essential to complete the processional outfit. We therefore discuss this vestment under the head 'Processional' rather than under the head 'Eucharistic.'

Cassocks were originally invented for purposes of warmth, and hence were lined with furs. This custom was retained when the cassock became exclusively a clerical dress, and we often find in monuments of ecclesiastics indications at the wrist that the cassock was so lined. The colour of the vestment was invariably black for ordinary ecclesiastics, scarlet for doctors of divinity and cardinals, purple for bishops and prelates, and on high occasions for acolytes; for the Pope, white. The fur with which the cassock was lined was ermine or some other precious kind for dignitaries; but ordinary priests were strictly forbidden to wear anything more costly than sheepskin. The cassock as we find it represented on mediaeval monuments was probably open to the breast; I do not recollect having observed any counterpart to the modern cassock, with a row of buttons from neck to hem (humorously compared by Lord Grimthorpe to a boiler with a close row of rivets!). In some parts of France and in Rome the cassock is kept in place by a sash; this also is a modern {140} innovation probably suggested by the custom of members of the monastic orders.

II. The Surplice.—From its fur lining, the cassock was called in mediaeval Latin the pellicea; the name superpellicea was accordingly given to the vestment which was worn immediately over it—a name which has passed by natural phonetic modifications into 'surplice.'

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. {141}

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, {142} 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.

It was shaped so that it could lie over the shoulders as a tippet, or be drawn over the head as a hood, and it must have been very necessary during the protracted services of the middle ages. The vestment was almost always of black cloth, as was the cassock; and the fur with which it was lined varied in quality and colour with the degree of the wearer. Doctors of divinity and canons wore an almuce lined with gray fur, the former {143} being further distinguished from the latter by the scarlet colour of the outside cloth; all others wore ordinary dark brown fur. A singular embellishment of this vestment consisted in the addition of the tails of the animals from which the fur lining was taken sewn round the border of the vestment.

At about the year 1300 the almuce, as a hood, was superseded by a cap, which will be described in its proper place. It was therefore thrown back, and suffered to fall behind, somewhat after the fashion of the hood worn in our modern universities. In order to prevent it from slipping off when in this position, it was sewn in front, so that an aperture was made through which the head of the wearer had to be passed. During the fourteenth century it gradually almost entirely lost its hood shape, and became more and more like a tippet, the only relic of its original form being the two long tails which hung in front somewhat like the ends of a stole, and which were doubtless the remains of the strings with which the original hood was fastened. The row of 'cattes tayles' (as the Elizabethan reformers called them) was also retained.

When the almuce was in position on the head, the fur was inside, the cloth outside. Obviously, when the vestment was thrown back over the shoulder, the fur would be outside, the cloth {144} inside. This is a perfectly natural and intelligible transformation. Mrs Dolby, in noticing it, speaks of it in a most misleading manner. After describing the various changes which it underwent from hood to tippet, she says, 'By this time, too, what was originally the outside of the garment had become the lining, and the fur the only material rendered visible,' as though some ecclesiastical ordinance or the freak of some clerical tailor had brought about this transformation. And Dr Rock says: 'Not the least remarkable thing in these changes of the "furred amys" [as he calls it] is, that it became, as it were, turned inside out.' The remarkable thing would have been if anything else had happened.

At Wells Cathedral is the monument of Dean Huse (ob. 1305, but the tomb is a century and half later), on which are sculptured, besides the principal effigy, a series of small figures of canons holding books. The almuces of these figures show a unique peculiarity: the tails are fastened together on the breast by a cord which passes through them and hangs down with tasselled ends.

Mr St John Hope, in a paper in 'Archaeologia,' vol. liv, p. 81, has traced the history of the appearance of the almuce during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by reference to sculptured effigies and brasses in England. From this paper I extract the following illustrative examples:

{145} 1. An effigy in Hereford Cathedral, circa 1311, shows the almuce 'like a short cape down to the elbows, with long and broad pendants in front, and turned back round the neck like a loose, high-standing collar. The chief point to notice, however, is that the vestment is quite open in front and not joined on the breast, showing that it was put on like a woman's shawl.'

2. Another effigy in the same cathedral, circa 1320, shows a similar arrangement with the addition of a large morse to fasten the almuce.

3. In the fifteenth century, when the pendent tails became common, we find two brasses at Cobham, Kent, one showing the almuce clasped on the breast by a brooch, the other showing it open all down the front under the cope.

4. In a drawing at New College, Oxford, executed about 1446, the Warden of Winchester College is represented in a furred almuce not open in front, but the Fellows who stand near him wear almuces laced up the front. This drawing is reproduced in 'Archaeologia,' vol. liii, plate 14.

5. An effigy dating from the very end of the fifteenth century in St Martin's, Birmingham, illustrates the almuce as it appeared when the cape was joined completely across the breast.

To these facts we may add that as a general rule the two front tails in the earlier representations of almuces have plain ends; in those of later {146} representations (from circa 1450) the tails have a small ornamental tassel, or tuft, attached to their ends.
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VI. The Cope.—The cope may date back, as a vestment, to the ninth century, but in that form it is certainly not older. Before that time it was nothing more or less than an overcoat, which the clergy kept on in their cold and draughty churches or in open-air processions. It is represented in an Anglo-Saxon pontifical of circa 900 as a plain cloth vestment, fastened at the neck by a brooch or morse; the shape is similar to that which we find in later times. The shape of the cope was very much that of half the chasuble. It was secured at the neck by a brooch, and suffered to drape on the person. The material, at least in mediaeval times, was silk, cloth of gold, velvet, or other precious stuffs. It was magnificently embroidered, jewelled, and enriched with precious metals, the embroideries consisting either of strips along the straight edges, which hung down in front, or else of these strips {147} combined with patterns running over the entire surface of the vestment, or confined to the lower border. It is hard to say whether the cope or the chasuble was the richer vestment in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
ill-p147

Fig. 13.—Brass of Archdeacon Magnus, Sessay, Yorkshire, 1550 (showing Processional vestments, including hooded cope).

The cope, being originally a costume for outdoor processions, was furnished with a hood at the back; but when the almuce took its place, it degenerated, like so many other vestments, or parts of vestments, into a mere ornamental appendage; it lost its hood form (which would somewhat have interfered with the appearance of the almuce) and became a triangular flap, usually embroidered with some scene in sacred or legendary history. In many copes these hoods were absent, while to others there were several hoods, so that subjects appropriate to the day could be hooked on. This triangular flap gradually assumed curvilinear sides, till ultimately the angle disappeared altogether and the flap became semicircular.

The 'morse,' or brooch, with which the cope was fastened, was the counterpart of the rational. {148} It was made of gold or of silver, or else of wood overlaid with one of these metals. It was often enamelled and jewelled, and was of a great variety of shapes.

VII. The Canon's Cope.—This vestment must be carefully distinguished from the cappa serica, or ordinary cope. It was a simple choir robe, worn at ordinary services, of black cloth, permanently sewn at the neck, though open from the breast downwards, so that it had to be passed over the head. It was not ornamented in any way, and probably for this reason was not popular as an object for treatment among manuscript illuminators or monument sculptors and engravers. A hood was appended, which usually hung on the back.

VIII. The Mozetta.—This is a cape worn over the cope by the Pope, cardinals, and bishops in the Roman Church. It is of white fur or coloured silk, according to the season; the Pope wears a red mozetta bordered with ermine when holding receptions; canons in choir wear a black, bishops and (on penitential seasons) cardinals a violet mozetta; on ordinary occasions cardinals wear a mozetta of red. The vestment is probably a descendant of the almuce, and kin to the chimere.

IX. The Roman Collar.—This being an entirely modern vestment, is properly outside our range. It is an embroidered imitation of the turndown shirt-collar of ordinary dress.

{149} In mediaeval monuments the throat of the priest is exposed, as are also those of present-day members of the older religious orders. Considerations of comfort and appearance have led to the adoption of this collar for the ordinary clergy. It should be 'made,' says Mrs. Dolby, 'of a perfectly straight piece of fine linen or lawn,' and 'bordered on the turnover side and along its short ends by a neatly-stitched hem of half an inch. Opened out, when made, it is two and three-quarter inches wide; the turndown should be not more than one and a half inch deep.... The Roman collar worn by a bishop is violet, that of a cardinal is scarlet.'

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 {150} 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 hat, 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.
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Fig. 20.—Brass of Robert Brassie, King's College, Cambridge (showing almuce and biretta-like cap).

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.

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 {151} 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.

The stole and maniple were embroidered along their whole length; they usually ended in a rectangular or trapezium-shaped piece of cloth, embroidered with a different pattern from that which ornamented the rest of the vestment {152} (usually some form of cross), and fringed along its lower border.

The dalmatic, besides the peculiar arrangement of fringes already described, was ornamented with a series of horizontal bands of embroidered work, running right across the body of the vestment. The bishop's dalmatic was usually embroidered all over.

The chasuble was almost invariably adorned with an edging of embroidered work, and when the body of the vestment was adorned it was usually with some of the many modifications of the Ψ or Y cross.

The sandals were sometimes ornamented all over, sometimes decorated with a Ψ cross, the upper part of the cross being turned towards the toe.

The pall properly had no ornamentation except its crosses.

The stockings were either not embroidered at all or richly embroidered over the whole surface.

The rational was decorated with enamel, goldsmith's or jewelled work.

The mitra simplex was decorated with little or no adornment; the mitra aurifrigiata with embroidered work all over it; the mitra pretiosa with embroidery combined with jewels and goldsmith's work.

The gloves do not appear to have been conspicuously {153} ornamented. They often bore a large jewel set against the back of the hand.

The tunicle was generally quite simple; the bishop's tunicle, however, in no wise differed from the dalmatic.

Of the orale a full description has already been given; we need not again refer to it.

Passing to the Processional and other vestments, it will be unnecessary to mention any but the cope; for, with the exception of a little trifling embroidered work in coloured threads round the neck of the surplice, none of the other vestments showed any ornamentation. The cope was ornamented with embroidered work down the straight edges in front, and often round the bottom edge and the neck as well; often also the whole vestment was elaborately embroidered all over. The hood, too, must not be forgotten.

For some inscrutable reason a distinction is drawn in name between the embroidered ornaments of the alb and amice and those of the remainder of the ecclesiastical dress. The former are called apparels, the latter orphreys.

The subjects with which these vestments are embroidered must next engage our attention for a short time. These fall naturally into three broad groups:

1. Conventional and meaningless devices.

2. Symbols or figures of Divine or beatified {154} persons, or passages of Scripture and other religious inscriptions.

3. Personal devices.

The number of conventional patterns which meet us embroidered on ecclesiastical vestments is endless, and to attempt to catalogue even the most striking would be an undertaking the magnitude of which would only be equalled by its uselessness. A small collection of rubbings of monumental brasses will convince the reader of this. Floral devices are the most common, either in continuous scrolls or in repetitions and variations of the same pattern; and these are found combined with patterns of the other two groups to fill up the gaps and spandrels between different figures or letters. But grotesque and real animals, wild men, and various other objects of natural history, all have their place; though, if the evidence of the monuments be reliable, these were not so common in England as in the other countries which yielded allegiance to the Western Church. It is, of course, possible that some of these figures may have been intended as emblems of saints,[79] and others may have been heraldic; but it is probable {155} that the majority of them were simply ornaments with no other intention beyond filling up space effectively.

The symbols of Divine or beatified persons are of more interest. These are usually found on the centre orphreys of the chasuble, on the edges and hood of the cope, on mitres, and on rationals or morses, the orphreys of the other vestments being usually conventional, floral, or animal devices. The hood of the cope almost invariably bore some emblematic or sacred device, or else some scene in sacred or traditional history; the edge of the cope and the centre of the chasuble often bore figures of saints in niches, one above another, or else connected scenes from the life of a saint; while the rationals and morses, which were under the province of the enamellers (and were consequently more easily decorated than the embroidered vestments), usually displayed some more elaborate design in miniature.

Of the greatest importance, however, are devices of the third order—those which display the name, initials, rebus, or coat-of-arms of the wearer or the donor of the vestment. In monuments these designs invariably are connected with the name and family of the wearer, while the personal devices recorded in inventories are usually connected with the donor. The reason is, probably, that the vestments catalogued in inventories {156} originally were made for, and worn by, the donors thereof; during their lifetime the devices showed forth the wearers' names; after their death, the names of the testators: while the monuments, which were supposed as nearly as possible to represent the persons commemorated as they appeared while they lived, would naturally pourtray the vestments which they wore, or might have worn, when celebrating mass or conducting the other offices of church service.

Mediaeval priests and embroiderers seem to have shrunk from placing these personal devices on the chasuble, though such ornamentation is not altogether unknown even in that most reverenced of vestments. Thus, at Arundel, Sussex, is a brass representing a priest in ecclesiastic vestments, in which the initials of the wearer occur on the chasuble. The cope, however, often shows initials or other designs[80] which serve to identify {157} the wearer. The same chariness does not seem to have been felt with regard to the other Eucharistic vestments, possibly because they were not so exclusively appropriated to the Eucharistic service. Thus, at Beverley Minster there is a sculptured effigy of a priest whose entire stole is covered with a series of coats-of-arms.

As I have already said, this group of orphrey patterns is of considerably greater importance than the other two, which cannot be regarded as other than mere artistic curiosities. It is generally possible to identify the personality of the priest commemorated by a monument, even if the inscription be lost or defaced, when these convenient symbols enter into the composition of the orphreys on his vesture. This helps us in assigning the date of the monument; and every monument of which we know the date exactly adds something to our stock of knowledge respecting the chronology of mediaeval art.

As giving an idea of the number and variety of the designs employed by the embroiderers and enamellers to decorate the vestments of the church, it has been thought that the following table will not be found uninteresting. It is a classified catalogue of the designs enumerated in a single inventory of a single collection of vestments, the inventory of the commissioners of Henry VIII, drawn up in 1536, of the property of Lincoln Cathedral.

{158} It has not been considered necessary to preserve the uncouth spelling of the original, especially as some words are scarcely spelt the same way twice in the course of the document. Nor has it been thought worth while to swell the bulk of the list by giving details as to the parts of the vestments on which the various objects are represented, or the frequency with which those occurring more than once are found, the purpose of the list being simply to show faintly the variety of designs at the disposal of the embroiderer or enameller. It should be premised that this is by no means a complete list; in many cases the inventory gives little or no information concerning the decoration of the vestment catalogued. Most probably, however, all ornaments of interest or importance are here included:
Group I
Flowers:

    Fleurs-de-lys (possibly heraldic).
    Roses,⎱ possibly emblematic of St Mary the Virgin.
    Lilies,⎰

{159}
Birds and beasts, or parts thereof:

    Leopards.
    Harts.
    Falcons.
    Falcons bearing crowns of gold in their mouths (probably heraldic).
    Swans.
    Ostriches.
    Ostrich feathers.
    Popinjays.
    Lions.
    Owls.
    Black eagles.
    Peacocks.
    Gryphons.
    Dragons.
    Phœnix.

Miscellaneous:

    Knots.
    Clouds.
    Crowns.
    (Also a few others, properly included under Group II.)

Group II
Divine Persons:

    The Holy Trinity.
    Our Lord.
    The Majesty.
    The Holy Ghost, Crucifix, and St Mary the Virgin.

Incidents in the life of Our Lord, and His emblems:

    Our Lord with the Cross.
    The Passion, in scenes.
    The Crucifixion.
    Ditto, with SS Mary and John on either side.
    Ditto, ditto, the Father above.
    The Ascension.
    Our Lord sitting on the rainbow.
    The root of Jesse.
    The vernacle.
    The Holy Lamb.
    Crosses.

{160}
Members of the Holy Host of Heaven:

    [Archangels, angels, and images, passim.]
    Two angels singing.
    Two angels incensing.
    An angel bearing a crown.
    Two angels bearing St John Baptist's head (properly heraldic).
    An angel with a harp.

Scenes in the life of St Mary the Virgin and her emblems:

    Salutation.
    St Mary; on the left side three kings, on the right two shepherds, and an angel with 'Gloria in excelsis.'
    St Mary with the Holy Child.
    Ditto, and St Mary Magdalene.
    Burial.
    Assumption.
    Coronation.
    'Our lady of pity.'
    Wm. Marshall (donor of vestment) kneeling to the Virgin.
    Suns, Moons, Stars.
    Roses, lilies. (See Group I.)

Other Saints and their emblems:

    'History of Apostles and Martyrs.'
    St Peter.
    St Catherine.
    St Catherine (the tomb springing oil).
    St John Baptist.
    St Bartholomew.
    History of St John Baptist,⎱ Probably in different scenes.
    History of St Thomas,⎰
    Wheels (St Catherine).
    Keys (St Peter).
    The Majesty, SS Mary the Virgin, Peter, Paul, the four evangelists, and a man kneeling to them.

{161}
Various Scenes in Sacred History:

    Eve eating of the tree.
    The massacre of the innocents.
    The last judgment.

Uncertain and Miscellaneous Subjects:

    A bishop (probably some saint).
    A king (perhaps King David).
    Kings and prophets.
    Two kings crowned.

Inscriptions:

    The hye wey ys best.
    'Divers verses.'
    Da gloriam deo.
    Gracia dei sum, etc.
    Vox domini super aquas.
    Cena dñi.

Also the following, which form a connecting-link between the second and third groups, being requests for prayers for the donors of vestments:

    Orate pro anima Magistri Willelmi Skelton.
    Orate pro anima Willelmi Spenser capellani.
    Orate pro anima Magistri Ricardi Smyth vycar de Worseworth.
    Orate pro anima Roberti Dercy.
    Memoriale Willelmi Marshall olim virgarii hujus ecclesiae.

{162}
Group III
Heraldic:

    Leopards powdered with black trefoils (? leopards ermine).
    'White harts crowned with chains on their necks full of these letters S.S.'
    Orphreys with diverse arms.
    Mullets.
    'All may God amend' (Rudyng motto), together with Rudyng arms and badges.
    'A shield paled.'
    Arms of Lord Chadworth.

Names, Initials, and Dedicatory Inscriptions:

    Ricūs de Gravesend.
    T.S., I.C., O.L., P.D. (on different vestments).
    Ex dono Johannis Reed Capellani Cantar' quondam cantarie Ricardi Whitwell.
    Southam ex dono Johannis Southam.
    Ex dono Mʳⁱ Willelmi Smyth archidiaconi Lincoln.

In many vestments, especially among those of early date, the embroidery is of a distinctly Oriental character, which, if not actually Byzantine, is founded on Byzantine models. These were popularized throughout Europe by the Mohammedan weavers and their successors of the royal establishment in Sicily. Often vestments are found bearing Arabic or other Oriental inscriptions; these are sometimes meaningless, like the patterns formed with Arabic letters on many Eastern shawls and cloths of modern times, but occasionally they give important information as to the date and origin of the vestment which they decorate. The coronation vestments of the German Emperors, now at Vienna, are of entirely Eastern character, and the cope bears inscriptions in Cufic characters, telling us that it was made at Palermo {163} in 1133. Occasionally the Eastern ornaments and inscriptions are forged (alas, for mediaeval morality!), in order to counterfeit the workmanship of the highly popular Eastern looms. Sometimes we find clumsy imitations of Arabic words treated ignorantly by the forger as ornaments, the word being written correctly, though in an obviously amateurish manner, from right to left, and a replica reversed set opposite to it, in order to balance it symmetrically!

No country excelled England in embroidered work in the middle ages. Matthew Paris's story of Pope Innocent IV's admiration of some English vestments is well known. His holiness, 'seeing some desirable orphreys in the copes and infulae of certain English ecclesiastics, asked where they had been made. "In England," was the answer. "Truly is England our garden of delights," said he; "truly is it a well inexhaustible; and where much is, thence can much be extorted." Whereupon the Pope, allured by the lust of the eyes, sent his sealed letters to nearly all the abbots of the Cistercian order in England (to whose prayers he had just been committing himself in the chapter-house of the Cistercian order) that they should not delay to send those orphreys to himself—getting them for nothing, if possible—to decorate his chasubles and choral copes.' Matthew Paris concludes his narrative by telling us that the {164} London merchants were gratified enough, but that many were highly offended at the open avarice of the Head of the Church.[81]

This leads us to another point to be noticed with regard to mediaeval vestments—their value as articles of merchandise. In the 'Issues of the Exchequer,' 24, 25 Henry III (A.D. 1241-1242), there are several entries of expenses involved in purchasing vestments. Thus we find 4l. 19s. paid to Adam de Basinges 'for a gold cope purchased by our command and placed in our chapel at the feast of the Nativity of our Lord in the 25th year of our reign: also to the same 24l. 1s. 6d. for a cope of red silk given to the Bishop of Hereford by our command in the same year and day: also {165} to the same 17l. 18s. 10d. for two diapered and one precious cloth of gold, for a tunic and dalmatican entirely ornamented with gold fringe purchased by our command and placed in our chapel the same year and day: also to the same 47s. 10d. for a chesable of silk cloth without gold purchased by our command and placed in our chapel: also to the same 7s. 2d. for an albe embroidered with gold fringe purchased by our command and placed in our chapel: also to the same 17l. 1 mark for two embroidered chesables purchased by our command and placed in our chapel.'[82] The same year the enormous sum of £82 was given by the King for a mitre.

It has been calculated that the present value of money is fifteen times greater than it was in the thirteenth century. Applying this principle, we obtain the following results, which give a clearer idea of the value of the vestments purchased by the King:
{166}

    A cope costing 4l. 19s. would be worth, at present rates, £74 5s.
    A cope costing 24l. 1s. 6d. would be worth, at present rates, £361 2s. 6d.
    Tunic and dalmatic costing 17l. 18s. 10d. would be worth, at present rates, £269 2s. 6d.
    A chasuble costing 2l. 7s. 10d. would be worth, at present rates, £35 17s. 6d.
    An alb costing 7s. 2d. would be worth, at present rates, £5 7s. 6d.
    Two chasubles costing 17l. 13s. 4d. would be worth, at present rates, £265.
    A mitre costing 82l. would be worth, at present rates, £1,230.

Even if we allow that these vestments, being royal gifts, or royal furniture, were of larger price than usual, it still remains evident that a set of vestments was an expensive luxury. And when we consider the enormous number of vestments which were existing in the different cathedral establishments, we can hardly wonder at the cupidity of Henry VIII being aroused. Mr St John Hope has calculated that in Lincoln (of which we possess perhaps the fullest set of inventories) the commissioners of 1536 found 125 red copes, 7 purple, 20 green, 36 blue, 9 black, 60 white, 2 yellow, 2 various, and perhaps 4 for choristers—265 in all; 16 red chasubles, 3 purple, 6 green, 11 blue, 5 black, 9 white, 1 yellow and 1 various—52 in all; 2 dalmatics, 94 tunicles, and 131 albs, not to mention other property in embroidered work, such as altar frontals, or in precious metal, such as chalices. It is, of course, impossible to assign an estimate of the value of this vestry, but even if we reckoned the copes at £50 of our money—a low estimate in the majority of cases—these vestments alone would {167} be worth £13,250 together. But this is pure guesswork and of no practical value; of more importance is such an entry as the following, from the old Durham 'Book of Rites' (printed by the Surtees Society):

'Prossession of Hallowe Thursdaie, Whitsondaie & Trinitie Sonday, by the Prior and the Monnckes.—The next morninge, being Hallow Thursdaie, they had also a generall Prossession, with two crosses borne before theme, the one of the crosses, the staff and all, of gould, the other of sylver and parcell gilt ... with all the riche Copes that was in the Church, every Monnke had one, and the Prior had a marvellous riche cope on, of clothe of ffyne pure gould, the which he was not able to goe upright with it, for the weightines thereof, but as men did staye it and holde it up of every side when he had it on. He went with his crutch in his hand, which was of sylver and duble gilt, with a rich myter on his head.'

In the private account-book of the last prior but one of Worcester[83] is given the following interesting bill for a mitre:
{168}
'Item to John Cranckes gold smyth of london for al maner of stuff belongyng of the new mytur, with the makyng of the same as hit apereth by parcelles foloyng:
In primis for v grete stones     xvis viijd.
Item for xx⁄iiij & vj stones prece viijd apeece to the frontes     lvijs iiijd.
Item for xxj stones sett in golde, weyng di. vnces     xiijs iiijd.
Item for xl medyll stones, prece vjd a stone     xxs.
Item for xx⁄iij & xv smale stones prece iiijd a stone, to garnesshe     xxvs.
Item for iij vnces & a quarter of fyne peerll, at iij li. the vnce     iij[84] li xvs.
Item for xij vnces of medull peerll, at xs the vnce     vj li.
Item the selver warke weys, in all xx⁄iiij xiij vnces, which is with the fassheon & all     xiiij li xvjs.
Item to the broderar vj wokes (? wekes) xijd a day, besydes mete & dryncke     xxxvjs.
Item payd for lynnen cloth to cowech ytt on with perll     vijd.
Item for sylke to thred the seid perll & steche the peerll j vnce & di     xvd.
Item for yalow thred     jd.
Item for Rybande of iiijd brede ij yeards     viijd.
Item for Reband of ijd brede A yearde     ijd.
Item for Rownde selk about the bordure     jd. ob.
Item for red selke to sow hytt with all, di. quarter the vnce     ijd ob.
Item for past     iiijd.
(Item) for a quarter of sarcenett to lyne hytt     xiiijd.
Item for a case to the mytur of lethur     iiijs.
Summa xlixli. xvs. the coste of the mytur.'    

Before parting with the ancient vestments of the Western Church, let us spend a few moments on another, and to the antiquary a melancholy, subject, namely, the fate which has befallen them.

The number of actual vestments which survive to our own day is comparatively small. Notwithstanding the scrupulous care with which they were {169} kept, the action of time and probably of moths could not but destroy the perishable material of which they were made; and as so sacred were they regarded that when a vestment was worn out it was burnt, and the ashes thrown into and washed down the drain of the piscina, or font; so, at least, it was ordered by the ninth canon of the Synod of Dublin, 1186.[85] In France and in England, however, far the greatest havoc was wrought in the religious and political troubles of the eighteenth century in the former case, of the two centuries preceding in the latter.

The destruction of churches and church property in France at the hands of the atheistical mobs of the Revolution was incalculable. Monuments, glass and fabrics were broken and ruined, if not utterly destroyed, and the vestments and Processional crosses were torn from the treasuries and heaped up in the streets to be burnt in bonfires. In England the damage was perhaps even more considerable, though it was executed in a quieter and more deliberate manner. In the reaction after the revival of the Roman faith under Queen Mary, orders were sent to the churchwardens of the different parishes requesting returns from them as to the relics of popery, if any, which remained in the churches under their care, and the manner {170} in which such superstitious objects had been disposed of, whenever they had been removed. A very perfect series of these returns exists for Lincolnshire, and they have been edited by Mr Edward Peacock, F.S.A., in a highly-interesting volume entitled 'English Church Furniture and Decorations,' published in 1866. In each return is a note describing what was done with the vestments and other pre-Reformation furniture of the church to which the return relates. From them we extract the following entries, which may serve as specimens of the varied fate of vestments, not only in the county of Lincoln, but throughout the country:

    Alford. Itm̃ one cope whearof is made a clothe for the coīon table [a frequent entry].
    Itm̃ one vestment [chasuble] sold and defacid [a frequent entry].
    Ashbie iuxa Sleford. Itm̃ vestmẽtes copes crosses aulbes phanelles crosse clothes banner clothes and all such lyke ymplements—stollē out of or churche in quene maries tyme.
    Ashbie iuxa Spillisbie. Itm̃ one vestm̃t with crose clothes—geven to the poore Aõ iijᵒ Regine Elizabt̃h [a frequent entry].
    Itm̃ an alb—whearof wee have made a surples [a frequent entry].
    Aswardbie. Itm̃ two vestmentes were cut in peces yesterdaie and sold to Thomas waite and george holmes and theʸ haue put them to prophane vse.
    Bomnbie. Itm̃ a vestmᵗ and yē rest as fanells, stooles and such like—brent iiij yeare ago p̃te of the same and the rest hath made quishwines of John Michill and James Totter then churchwarden.

{171} So we find at Braceby an alb made a covering for the font. At Castlebytham we find 'one cope one vestment and one albe' were 'sold to Thomas Inma for the some of Vs. Vpon sondaie was a sevenighte wc̃h he haith defaced and cutt in peces.' Elsewhere, a vestment was made into a 'dublett,' others into 'clowtes for children,' or 'hangings for a bedd.' Some churches had lost their vestments in the Edwardian Reformation, and consequently, when they were required again in Queen Mary's reign, substitutes had to be borrowed from private owners. These were 'restored' to their possessors; in a few cases the churchwardens thoughtfully cut them in pieces before doing so.
ill-p172

Fig. 21.

There is one other series of vestments which deserves a passing notice—the vestments in which the newly-baptized were clothed. In the sixth or seventh century these consisted of the alba, the sabanum, the chrismale, and the garland. The alba was probably similar to the clerical alba; the form of the sabanum (σάβανον) is uncertain, but it was possibly not more than its name implies—simply a towel. The chrismale was a piece of white linen tied on the head, intended to keep the chrism in its place during the week in which these vestments were worn. The garland was a chaplet of flowers with which the baptized were crowned after baptism.

There is a rite in the Armenian Church in {172} which the priest twists two threads, one white and one red, lifts them up under the cross, and then lays them on the person to be baptized. The white and red is obviously symbolical of the mingled blood and water which flowed from our Lord's side, but there are obscure traces in early writers which seem to indicate that this observance was of more general acceptance, and that the present rite is a corruption of something quite different. Durandus, in the 'Rationale Div. Off.,' vi, c. 82, speaks of the alba of baptism having upon it a red band like a 'corona,' and elsewhere we find a combination of red and white mentioned in connection with the robes of the neophytes.

These vestments were worn throughout the week after baptism, and put off on the Sunday following, hence called Dominica in albis depositis. They were either retained after baptism as a memorial of the sacrament—and often used as shrouds after death—or else presented to the church by the baptized.

In the mediaeval church this comparatively elaborate suit was reduced to one cloth, the chrysome, or chrism cloth, in which the body of a newly-baptized infant {173} was swathed. This cloth was kept upon the child for a month, and if it died within the month the child was buried in it as a shroud. Several monumental brasses are extant in which children are represented in their baptismal robes; we reproduce an example in Chesham Bois Church, Buckinghamshire. In the modern Roman Church the white cloth is merely placed on the head; it is now too small to cover the body.

The chrism cloth was taken off if the child survived till the end of the month, and returned to the church, in whose custody it was kept. These cloths were used for the reparation of vestments and altar hangings, and other sacred textile fabrics connected with the church. Thus in the Treasurer's Rolls for Ripon we read (1470-71) the following entries:
{174}

'Est de ccᵐᵃlxvj vestibus crismalibus de reman. ultimi compoti praedicti. Et de cᵐᵃiij vestibus crismalibus rec. de tot pueris baptizatis hoc anno. Summa ccciiijˣˣix.[86] De quibus.

'In sepultura puerorum viij. Et in reparacione vestimentorum, xiiij. Et liberantur pro manutergiis inde fiendis, ordinatis pro expensis ecclesiae, ix. Et liberantur pro calicibus involvendis et aliis necessariis ejusdem ecclesiae, vj. Summa xxxvij. Et reman. cccᵐᵃlij vestes crismales.'