Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/493

Rh ECCLESIASTICAL.] COSTUME 461 with Europeans. In South-Eastern Europe itself, the costume of the modern Greeks exhibits semi-Oriental qualities. ECCLESIASTICAL. Without extending to any notice of the ordinary attire habitually worn in everyday life, at successive periods, by ecclesiastical personages of all ranks and orders in the Christian church, ecclesiastical costumes here may be considered to imply and consequently to include the vestments, distinctively official and ministerial in their character and use, which such personages would wear only when actually engaged in the functions of their respective offices, or on occasions of special state arid solemnity. The habits, which with the advance of time came to be assumed by the members of the monastic orders, may most appropriately and advantageously be treated apart by themselves. That ministering vestments, properly so called, and with them ecclesiastical insignia, were unknown among Christians of the apostolic age may be considered as un questionably certain ; and, in like manner, in the three succeeding centuries only the faintest traces, if indeed any authentic traces whatever of such vestments can be said either to exist, or to have left indications of ever having existed. The long and flowing garments, suggestive of peaceful repose and enjoyment, and always in some degree endowed with dignified associations, whenever the circum stances of the times would permit, doubtless, were worn by the primitive Christian ministers when discharging their official duties ; but it also is no less certain that on the same occasions precisely similar garments were generally worn by Christian worshippers, whose condition justified their appearing in them. During the prolonged stormy period of the second group of four centuries in the Christian era the primitive ecclesiastical costume the costume, be it remembered, at times of joyous festival and solemn cere monial adopted by all persons of comparatively high social standing still was retained unchanged in its general style and aspect, and having experienced only such slight modifi cations and additions as naturally would have their development with the course of events. As time passed on, keeping pace both with innovations upon primitive doctrine and with vicissitudes of political position, in various ways these modifications became modified, and to these additions fresh novelties gradually were added. Even at the commencement of the 9th century, when the true historic era of ecclesiastical costume may be defined to have commenced with it, the two most remarkable circumstances in connection with ecclesiastical costume were, on the one hand, its approximately unchanged character, and, on the other hand, its close general resemblance, amounting almost to identity, to the old civil costume, which in the state dresses of the Roman official dignitaries survived the sweeping changes of barbarian revolution. It is worthy of especial remark that the earliest evidence of the introduc tion of any insignia distinctive of rank and dignity in ecclesiastical costume is to be derived from the presence of two dark strips of varying width on the long white tunics in which certain early figures, certainly to be regarded as habited in ecclesiastical vestments, are represented ; and these strips can be considered in no other light than as adaptations from the clavi, some broad and others narrow, so well known in classic attire to distinguish the Soman senatorial and equestrian ranks. Equally remarkable is the fact that the Christian hierarchy should have derived the insignia of their rank in the church, through the high position of civil power in the state exercised by the early bishops of Rome, from the official decorations of the Roman magistracy as well of the republic as of the empire. It will be borne in mind that all changes in ecclesiastical vestments, and all additions to those of early date, made by authority during the Middle Ages, were designed to be suggestive of some symbolical motive and to convey some doctrinal significance considerations, however important in many respects in themselves, which it would be out of place here to discuss even superficially, when treating of all ecclesiastical vestments simply in their capacity as &quot; costume.&quot; In connection also with the full development in the llth and 12th centuries of that type of vestments which, when once it had been formally established, has been maintained with but slight modifications in the Roman Church to the present time, no unimportant part was taken by the attempts, first contemplated in the 9th century, that were made to assimilate such vestments as might be dis tinctive of the Christian ministry with those appointed in the Mosaic law for the priesthood in Israel. The idea that any such similitude might exist, or should be made to attain to existence, once having arisen would naturally take a strong nold on the minds of the more ambitious and also of the more learned ecclesiastics of those times. So, when in the first instance the points of difference between the two types of vestments were found to be far more decided than those of resemblance, a process of deliberate assimilation was decreed, which brought about as close an approximation between the two types as was held to be desirable an approximation, it scarcely is necessary to add, that removed the elaborate and ornate vestments of mediaeval Christendom as far as possible from retaining any affinity to the dignified simplicity of Christian ministerial costume in primitive times. VESTMENTS IN USE IN THE WEST. 1. The Alb. In the Acts of the Council of Toledo, 633, the habits and insignia of the three orders of the clergy are thus denned : of the bishop, the orarium, the ring, and the staff; of the presbyter, the orarium and the planeta ; and of the deacon, the orarium and the alba or alb. In this definition it may be assumed to have been implied that the alb was common to the three orders, as the planeta was worn by bishops as well as by presbyters. Its name abbreviated from tunica alba, and at first the simple and yet dignified white linen tunic that in the primitive ages was held to be the costume appropriate for the Christian ministry, in the 9th century the alb began to have its loose and flowing proportions contracted ; and these changes were continued until the vestment was made to fit with comparative closeness about the person of the wearer, when it was confined about the waist by a narrow girdle. The pure simplicity of the early white tunic also was superseded by the addition of rich &quot;orfreys&quot; (aurifrigia) of embroidery and goldsmiths work. These &quot;apparels&quot; (parurce), in the form of masses and stripes, were attached to the lower part of the alb and to the wrists of its sleeves. In the second half of the 14th century the wrist-apparels of albs, instead of encircl ing the sleeves as previously had been the custom, appear only upon the upper part of them. 2. The Stole, the name in the 9th century given to the ancient orarium, itself as it would seem having its pro totypes in the Roman clavi, is a narrow scarf adjusted about the neck so as to have its extremities hanging down in front of the wearer. Originally white and without ornament, stoles after a time were made of various colours, were enriched with orfreys and fringed at their ends. &quot;Worn immediately over the alb, the stole is crossed upon the breast of the wearer, being retained in that position by passing under the girdle. When the chasuble is worn, and worn Flo 18- _ From ~ brass at without the episcopal dalmatic and Horsham, showing Stole, &c. tunic, the ends of the stole appear issuing from beneath it. In some few early ecclesiastical efBgies, which are without a chasuble, but in its stead have a copo open in front, the entire adjustment of the stole is distinctly shown,