Page:The Parson's Handbook - 2nd ed.djvu/88

 CHAPTER III

1. Liturgical Colours.—It will clear the ground if we consider first the question of colours. Although there is still great confusion on this subject, and almost universal misunderstanding, the question is, in the light of recent research, a simple one, and one also about which the experts are agreed. The following axioms may with safety be dogmatically stated—

(1.) The colours used should be those which were in use at the time specified by the Ornaments Rubric. The Prayer Book does not refer us to the earliest sequence (or fragment of a sequence) that we can find, but to the year 1548-9.

(2.) The colours generally used at that time were the white, red, violet, green, and black sequence, which is again most commonly used in England at the present day, with the addition of yellow or green for Confessors and of red for Passiontide.

(3.) At the same time there was never anything like a rigid uniformity; exceptions of every kind abound in the inventories; and poor churches were not expected to have a complete suite of vestments; nor have the special ‘shades’ of colour sometimes advocated any authority beyond that of certain ecclesiastical shops.

It will be obvious at once to the reader that ignorance of the above facts has led to two very unfortunate 72