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Rh Vesta appears to have been rarely so treated. The Athenian prytaneum contained a statue of Hestia. But there was no effigy in the Roman temple of Vesta, although one is commonly shown on reverses of coins which have a representation of the temple, and it appears to have been commonly thought in Rome that a statue of Vesta did exist inside her shrine—a mistake which Ovid corrects (Fasti, vi. 297–300). No Roman statue now known can be certainly considered to represent Vesta, though a very beautiful standing figure of a female with veiled head (in the Torlonia collection) has, with some probability, had this name given to it.

The worship of Vesta appears to have died out slowly in the 4th century, after the adoption of Christianity as the state religion by Constantine, and in 382 Gratian confiscated the Atrium Vestae. Zosimus (Hist. Nov. v. 38) tells an interesting story of a visit made to it at the end of the 4th century by Serena, the wife of the Vandal Stilicho, who took a valuable necklace from one of the statues, in spite of the remonstrances of an aged woman, the last survivor of the vestal virgins. Soon after that time the building appears to have fallen into decay, its valuable marble linings and other ornaments having been stripped from its walls.

Authorities.—For the Atrium and the Aedes Vestae see , Archaeology (footnote ad loc.). See also Wissowa, ''Relig. und Kultus'' der Römer (1902) and authorities under.

VESTERÅS, or, a town and bishop’s see of Sweden, capital of the district (län) of Vestmanland, on a northern bay of Lake Malar, 60 m. N.W. by W. of Stockholm by rail. Pop. (tooo) 11,999. It is a considerable industrial centre and an important lake port. Its Gothic cathedral, rebuilt by Birger ]arl on an earlier site, and consecrated in 1271, was restored in 1850–1860, and again in 1896–1898. The episcopal library contains the valuable collection of books which Oxenstjerna, the chancellor of Gustavus Adolphus, brought away from Mainz near the end of the Thirty Years War. A castle commands the town from an eminence; it was captured by Gustavus Vasa and rebuilt by him, and again in the 17th century, and remains the seat of the provincial government. Here Eric XIV., whose tomb is in the cathedral., was confined (1573–1575). Several national diets were held in this town, the most notable being those of 1527, when Gustavus Vasa formally introduced the Reformation into Sweden, and 1544, when he had the Swedish throne declared hereditary in his family. The original name of the town was Vestra Aros (“western mouth”), in distinction from Östra Aros, the former name of Upsala.

VESTIBULE (from Lat. vestibulum), the architectural term given to an antechamber next to the entrance and preceding the hall; it is also applied to the anteroom of any large apartment. The word is connected, like (q.v.), with the Sanscrit root vas-, to dwell, inhabit. In medieval Latin it was occasionally used, instead of vestiarium, fora vestry (see Du Cange, Gloss. med. lat., s.v.), which is derived from Lat. vestis, clothing.

VESTINI, an ancient Sabine tribe which occupied the eastern and northern bank of the Aternus in central Italy, entered into the Roman alliance, retaining its own independence, in 304, and issuing coins of its own in the following century. A northerly section round Amiternum near the passes into Sabine country probably received the Caerite franchise soon after. In spite of this, and of the influence of Hadria, a Latin colony founded about 290 (Livy, Epit. xi.), the local dialect, which belongs to the north Oscan group, survived certainly to the middle of the 2nd century  (see the inscriptions cited below) and probably until the Social War. The oldest Latin inscriptions of the district are C.I.L. ix. 3521, from Furfo with Sullan alphabet, and 3574, “litteris antiquissimis,” but with couraverunt, a form which, as intermediate between coir- or coer- and cur-, cannot be earlier than 100 (see Latin Language). The latter inscription contains also the forms magist[r]es (nom. pl.) and ueci (gen. sing.), which show that the Latin first spoken by the Vestini was not that of Rome, but that of their neighbours the and  (qq.v.). The inscription of Scoppito shows that at the time at which it was written the upper Aternus valley must be counted Vestine, not Sabine, in point of dialect.

See further and, and for the inscriptions and further details, R. S. Conway, The Italic Dialects, pp. 258 ff., on which this article is based.

VESTMENTS. The word “vestment” (Lat. vestimentum, fr. vestire, to clothe), meaning generally simply an article of clothing, is in the usage of the present day practically confined to the ceremonial garments worn in public worship; in this sense it may be used equally of the robes or “ornaments” of the ministers or priests of any religion. Ecclesiastical vestments, with which the present article is solely concerned, are the special articles of costume worn by the officers of the Christian Church “at all times of their ministration”—to quote the Ornaments Rubric of the English Book of Common Prayer, i.e. as distinct from the “clerical costume” worn in everyday life. Ecclesiastical vestments may again be divided into two categories: (1) liturgical vestments, (2) non-liturgical vestments. Liturgical vestments, as their name implies, are those which are especially associated with the various functions of the liturgy. Of these again, according to the fully developed rules of the Catholic Church, there are three classes: (1) vestments worn only at the celebration of mass— chasuble, maniple, pontifical gloves, pontifical shoes, the pallium and the papal fanone and subcinctorium; (2) vestments never worn at mass, but at other liturgical functions, such as processions, administration of the sacraments, solemn choir services, i.e. cope and surplice; (3) vestments used at both—alb, amice, girdle, stole, dalmatic, tunicle. Non-liturgical vestments are those, e.g. cappa magna, rochet, which have no sacral character, have come into use from motives of convenience or as insignia of dignity, and are worn at secular as well as ecclesiastical functions.

In the controversies as to the interpretation of the Anglican “Ornaments Rubric” (see below) the term “vestments” has been applied particularly to those worn at the celebration of mass, which is what is meant when it is said that “the vestments” are worn at such and such a church. This restriction of the term has some historical justification: in the First Prayer Book of Edward VI. the word "vestment" is used as synonymous with but one liturgical garment—the chasuble, the “mass vestment” par excellence; in the Prayer Book of 1559 “vestments” are eliminated altogether, “ornaments” being substituted as a more comprehensive term. As to the use of the word, it must be further stated that it is also technically applied to altar cloths, the altar being “vested” in frontal (antependium) and super-frontal (see ).

The subject of ecclesiastical vestments is not only one of great interest from the point of view of archaeology and art, but is also of importance, in so far as certain “ornaments” have become historically associated with certain doctrines on which the opinion of the Christian world is sharply divided. The present article can only give a brief outline of a subject as intricate as it is vast, frequently also extremely obscure, and rendered still more obscure by the fact that those who have applied themselves to it have too often done so in anything but a scientific spirit. It will deal briefly (1) with the general idea and the historical evolution of ecclesiastical vestments, (2) with the vestments as at present worn (a) in the Roman Catholic Church, (b) in the Oriental Churches, (c) in the Reformed Churches, (d) in the Anglican Church. The more important vestments are dealt with in some detail under their separate headings; here it will only be necessary to give short descriptions of those which cannot be conveniently treated separately.

1. The Origin and Idea of Ecclesiastical Vestments.—The liturgical vestments of the Catholic Church, East and West, are not, as was at one time commonly supposed, borrowed from the sacerdotal ornaments of the Jewish ritual, although the obvious analogies of this ritual doubtless to a certain extent determined their sacral character; they were developed independently out of the various articles of everyday dress worn by citizens of the Graeco-Roman world under the Empire. The officers of the Church during the first few centuries of its existence were content to officiate in the dress of civil life, though their garments were expected to be scrupulously clean and of decent quality. The few scattered references in contemporary records to the dress of the clergy all point to this as the only recognized rule.