VOL. II.
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
FROM RICHARD K ' BOOK OF HOURS
M9 COTTON. DOMIT. XVII BRIT MUSEUM
CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
AS SEEN IN ST. OSMUND'S EITE FOE
THE CATHEDRAL OF SALISBURY
WITH DISSERTATIONS ON THE BELIEF AND RITUAL
IN ENGLAND BEFORE AND AFTER THE
COMING OF THE NORMANS
BY DANIEL ROCK, D.D.
o
CANON OP THE ENGLISH CHAPTER
A NEW EDITION IN FOUR VOLUMES
EDITED BY G. W. HART AND W. H. FRERE
OF THE COMMUNITY OF THE RESURRECTION
LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE
VOLUME II
91806
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1905
urn
CONTENTS OF VOLUME II
PART THE FIRST CONTINUED
CHAPTER VI
The Surplice, i. The Rochet, 14. The Cassock or Pelisse,
16. The Cope, 20. The " tassellus " for the Cope, 27; for
gloves, 28 ; for dalmatics, &c., 29. Orphreys of the cope, 30.
The Morse, 31. Copes, how kept and adorned, 36. The
Canon's Cope, 41. The furred Almuce, 43. The clerical cap,
51. The skull-cup or birettum, 53. Doctors of Divinity wore
scarlet cassocks, 17 ; scarlet hoods and caps, 57. Garlands
of flowers worn by the clergy, 59. Vesture of the clergy in
choir, 63. Canons and their origin, 64. Canon's black cope,
69. Canon's silk cope, 70. Furred Almuce worn with the
cope, 71. The Mitre, 75. Bishops wore golden crowns at the
Divine Service, 76. The white kerchief. 80. The Mitre and
its shape, 82. Materials and colour of the mitre, 86. The
colour of the old mitre, 91. The mitre allowed to Cardinals,
93 ; to a few cathedral canons, ib. ; to some abbots and
priors, 95. The Pontifical Tiara, 99. The Comb, 101. The
Pall, 104; its origin from the Roman Toga, 107. On whom
the Pall was bestowed, 112; its shape, 114; its crosses and
pins, 1 1 6. Way of putting on the Pall, 122. Ceremonies at
receiving the Pall, 124. When and where the Pall was worn,
127. The Rational, 131. The Gloves, 132. Metal balls for
warming the hands, 134. Loose sleeves or brachialia, 136.
The Bishop's ponser, 137. The candle-holder, 139. The
Pontifical ring, 140. The pectoral cross, 143. Reliquary
worn around the neck by all English Bishops whenever they
sang Mass, 145. The pastoral staff, 149 ; its materials and
beauty, 155. The Cambutta, 157. The pastoral staff allowed
viii CONTENTS
to abbots and abbesses, 158. The prior's staff or "bordon,"
163. The ruler of the choir's staff, 164. The Roman Pontiff
does not on any occasion make use of the pastoral staff, 168.
Manner of holding the pastoral staff, 169. The napkin
hanging from the staff, 173. The place and position of the
staff on the bier of the dead prelate, 176. The Papal cross
with three transoms, and the patriarchal cross with two
such bars, 178. The archiepiscopal cross, 184. Ancient
manner of receiving the cross, 186. The cross always carried
before the Archbishop, 189. The Archbishop's cross, how
fashioned, 192. The sandals, 194. Clerical shoes and stock-
ings, 20 1. The stocking or footed legging now used, 204.
The Bishop's stockings, 206. The faldstool, 209. The Anglo-
Saxon, like the Salisbury Ritual, varied the colour of the
vestments, 213. Blessing vestments, and saying a prayer
while putting on each of them, 218. Splendour and beauty,
at all periods, of this country's vestments, 221. Zeal in
beautifying the house of God, 225.
CHAPTER VII
OX PURGATORY
The Anglo-Saxons held with so much steadfastness by the
doctrine of Purgatory, 237. The Anglo-Saxons followed many
religious practices grounded on the doctrine of Purgatory, 241.
The dying asked to be prayed for, ibid. The living prayed
for the dead, 242. The death-knell, 244. How the Anglo-
Saxon was prepared for death, 246. Burial rites of the
Anglo-Saxons, 248. Anglo-Saxons besought to be prayed
for after death, 261. Churchyard Yew-trees, ibid. Gifts
and endowments made in behalf of the dead, 265. The
Anglo-Saxons' ritual shows their belief in Purgatory, 271.
Lay-folks' brotherhood with religious houses, 272. The Love-
cup after dinner, 273. St. Margaret's draught, 274. The
" indulgenced " mazer-bowl, 277. The " Book of life," or list
of souls to be prayed for, 279. Bidding the beads, 286. The
pious fellowship in behalf of the dead which one Anglo-Saxon
CONTENTS ix
minster often formed with another, 306. The death-bill, 308.
The fellowship of prayer kept up by the Normans, 317. Gilds
among the Anglo-Saxons, 319 ; among the Normans and Eng-
lish, 323. Gilds' prayers for the dead, 327. Gilds' almsmen
prayed for the living and the dead, 331. Each Gild had a
livery, 333. Gild processions, 336. Gild pageants, 342. Gilds
gave religious interludes, 344. Gild halls, 351. Gild feasts,
352. Gilds loved the beauty of God's house, ibid. Gilds
upheld the majesty of the Church service, 355. Civic gilds
earnest in praying for the dead, 358. The Anglo-Saxon and
the Salisbury ritual each enjoined the same sacraments to be
given to the dying, 365. The funeral service according to
our old English ritual, 377. Old English funerals, carrying
the body to the church, 391. Hearse-lights in the church,
399. Funeral services, 404. The offering of the war-horse
and armour, 407. Old English royal funerals, 409. Ritual
meaning of these grand burial services, 413. The burial
of the poor becomingly provided for, 415. The month's
mind, 417.
LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS
The plates marked with an asterisk (16) appear now for the first
time in the book ; those marked with a dagger (5) were in the
previous edition, but have been more accurately made for this
edition.
PAGE
Conventual Church (canons stalled and singing office in
choir) ....... Frontispiece
From Brit. Mus. MS. Cotton, Domitian xvii.
*The Mediaeval Surplice . . .... 8
From the Giunta Pontifical, f. io6 v .
*The Chasuble-shaped Surplice . . . . .10
From the Sacerdotale Romanum (Venice, 1564), f. i83 v and 63 V .
* Brass of Thomas Leman . . . . . .14
From Cotman, Sepulchral Brasses.
*Effigy from St. Martin's Church, Birmingham . . 16
From Hollis, Monumental Effigies.
^Coloured Cassocks . . . . . . .18
From Brit. Mus. MS., Tiberius B. viii., f. 41.
f An Anglo-Saxon Bishop in a Cope ' . . . .21
From the [Alet] Pontifical, in Archseologia, XXV., pi. xxx.
An Enamelled Morse, in Dr. Rock's Collection . . 34
A Canon's Choir-Cope . . . . . . - 41
A Canon in his Furred Almuce . . . . . 43
Cumbent figure of William Canyngcs [a person un-
identified] vested in his Furred Almuce . . 48
xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
*Brass of John Strete .... 53
From Waller, A Series of Monumental Brasses.
*Brass of Dr. William Hautryne . 54
From Waller, A Series of Monumental Brasses.
*Effigy of Dean Borew [John de Swinfield] . . -55
From Hollis, Monumental Effigies.
Brass of Christopher Urswick (in silk cope) . . -72
*The Almuce ....... 73
From the Giunta Pontifical, f. 86 and f. 194.
A Priest Blessing Water, attended by an Acolyte wear-
ing a Scarlet Hood over his Surplice . . -75
From a MS. Salisbury Missal.
An Anglo-Saxon Illumination of the Liturgical Golden
Crown ......... 78
From The Ethelwold Benedictional, as edited by J. Gage Roke-
wood in Archfeologia XXIV., pi. xxx.
A Crowned Figure from St. John Lateran's . . .79
|A Group of English Bishops in Pontificals . . .82
From Brit. Mus. MS., Nero C. iv., fol. 37.
St. Cuthberht in Pontificals 84
From the Lawson MS. See Raiue, St. Cuthbert.
|A Group of Ecclesiastics 100
From Brit. Mus. MS., 2 B. vii., f. 308.
A Classic Statue showing the Roman Toga . . .108
A late Roman Consul robed in the Toga Picta . .109
A Roman Magistrate in the Narrowed Toga . . 1 1 o
|A Group of English Bishops in Pontificals . . 130
From Brit. Mus. MS., Nero C. iv., f. 34.
*Brass of Elizabeth Harvey, Abbess of Elstow . .160
From Waller, A Series of Monumental Brasses.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii
PAGE
* Brass of Richard Bewfforest, Prior of Dorchester . 171
From "Waller, A Series of Monumental Brasses.
^Monument of John de Sheppy . . . . .174
From Archteologia XXV., pi. viii.
* Archbishop, with Archiepiscopal Cross . . .192
From Brit. Mus. MS., 2 A. xxii., f. 221.
Various Forms of old open-worked Shoes . . .198
Bishop Waynflete's Episcopal Stocking . . 206
Bishop Waynflete's Episcopal Sandal .... 207
f Enthronement of an Archbishop . . . .210
From Brit. Mus. MS., 2 B. vii., f. 291.
*The Minstrels' Pillar Choir Figures in St. Mary's
at Beveiiey ........ 337
Hearse at the Dirge in Westminster Abbey for Abbot
Islip . . 393
Cf. Alcuin Club, Collections, vol. i. pi. xiii.
* Funeral Mass . . . . . . . .394
From Bodleian MS., Gough Liturg. 3, f. 72 V .
*A Hearse ......... 399
From Bodleian MS., Auct. D inf. 2, n., f. i45 v .
PAET THE FIRST
(Continued)
CHAPTER VI
SECTION I
DURING the first thousand years after the estab-
lishment of Christianity, what we now call the
alb, or long, wide, sleeved tunic, generally of linen,
reaching down to the feet and fastened round the
loins by a girdle, was of the sacred garments that
one most in requisition, for it was always worn
in the celebration of the divine service by every
order of the clergy, whatever might be their other
respective liturgical ornaments, from the lowest
singing-boy up to the Eoman Pontiff himself.
To the under rank of clerks, it was sometimes
indeed the only kind of vestment allowed in their
ministrations at the public worship.
THE SURPLICE
in its present shape was not then known ; nor
can even that word be found in any of the docu-
ments (2) either in this country or abroad belong-
VOL. n. A
2 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
ing to those ages. 32 We ought not to wonder at
this, since, in truth, the surplice is nothing else
but the alb somewhat modified in shape, a change
it underwent in accommodating itself to the every-
day dress which was introduced about the eleventh
century. Then it was that various kinds of fur
were adopted for clothing, if not for the first time,
at least very generally, especially among the Anglo-
Saxon clergy. 33 Having to spend many hours at
church, day and night throughout the year, in
performing the divine office, it was thought well
in a cold country like ours to allow the secular
clergy, at least, to wear (3) raiment lined with
furs. Now, as the outermost garment was the one
so made, immediately over his furred robe the
minor clerk, when he arrayed himself for his
ministry in the church, put the long linen tunic
or alb, the only sort of vestment permitted him
during the late Anglo-Saxon epoch to assume, for
32 A most eminent English canonist, Lyndwood, while speaking
of the surplice, tells us : De qua tamen veste non memini me legisse
in toto corpore juris canonici vel civilis, nee etiam in Sacra Scrip-
tura : fit tamen de ea mentio infra. Provinciate, p. 53, note c.
33 The use as an article of dress of fur among the Anglo-Saxons
of the lower period, as well as its great variety, are both well
marked in the following passage from the life of St. Wulstan:
Cum enim interrogasset, cur agninas pelles haberet (S. Wulstanus)
qui sabelinas vel castorinas vel vulpinas habere posset et deberet ;
eleganter respondit : eum et homines prudentise ssecularis gnaros
versutorum animalium pellibus uti debere ; se nullius tergiversa-
tionis conscium pelliculis agninis contention esse. Cumque ille
instaret referretque ut vel saltern cattos indue ret : Crede mihi,
respondit Wulstanus, ssepius cantatur Agnus Dei quam cattus Dei.
Will. Malmesberiensis, De Vita S. Wulstani, iii. i, in Wharton,
Anglia Sacra, ii. 259.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 3
the use to him had been withdrawn of the chasuble,
which, though of less costly stuffs than those of
the priests, was used no doubt here in Saxon
England by all orders of the clergy, as we know
it was on the Continent in early times. Hence
as it was worn next to the clerk's furred gown, the
alb began to be called " superpelliceum," short-
ened in English into surplice : certain it is that
the word is to be found for the first time among
the laws of our St. Edward the Confessor, 34 (4) so
that we would fain believe that not only the name
but the form of this church robe itself took their
rise in England. It is probable, the more readily
to slip on the alb, especially over a large winter
furred gown, it began to be widened particularly
about the sleeves ; and as " superpelliceum " aptly
expressed the difference between the alb assigned
to the younger churchmen, and the same vestment
worn by their elders, that word crept into currency,
34 Et postea justicia episcopi faciat venire processionem cum
sacerdote induto alba et manipulo et stola et elericis in suppelliciis
cum aqua benedicta et cruce et candelabris et thuribulo cum igne
et incenso. Leges Regis Edwardi Confessoris, De Latron., Thorpe,
Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, i. 460.
Towards the end of the eleventh century, the alb was ordered
to be used at those functions in the performance of which a sur-
plice would now be worn. The council of Rouen (A.D. 1072) enacted
that the holy oils should be distributed by the deans arrayed in
albs ; and that the priest who administered baptism must have
on an alb and stole : Chrismatis et olei distributio a decanis
summa diligentia et honestate fiat ; ita ut interim dum distribuerint,
albis sint induti. \Goncil. Rotom., Can. iii., Harduin, Cone., vi. 1 188],
[P.L. clxxxviii. 341].
Nullus sacerdos baptizet infantem nisi ieiunus et indutus alba
et stola nisi necessitate. Ibid. [Can. v.].
4 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
till at length the alb, from going sometimes under
a new name, and assuming broader skirts and
wider sleeves, and being worn without a girdle,
took its place towards the beginning of the twelfth
century as a distinct vesture for her ministers
throughout the Latin bounds of the Church.
Perhaps it was a peculiarity known in England
alone for the surplice to have, as it had in some
parts of this country, attached to it a hood which
might be drawn up and worn over the head. 35
The surplice, however, was not allowed so
(5) thoroughly to supersede the use among the
lower clergy of its prototype the alb, but what
that latter garment, at the more solemn services,
such as High Mass, and in great processions, 36 was
35 Ministris altaris fiant superpellicea cum caputiis, quee caput
et colli nuda protegant, quum sacerdotal ibus vestimentis induendi
fuerint. Such was one of the regulations drawn up by St. Gilbert
of Sempringham for his order (A.D. 1131). Cap. pro Oanonicis,
in Munast. Anglic., vii. *1.
36 John Brompton, who was abbot of Jervaux, in Yorkshire
(A.D. 1193), in his description of the coronation of our Richard
with the Lion-heart, tells us : In prima f ronte prsecedebant clerici
albis induti portantes aquam benedictam, crucem et cereos et
thuribulos. Hist. Anglic. Scriptores, ed. Twysden, p. 1158.
Till the second half of the twelfth century, not a surplice but
an alb was worn by the sacristan, who, in our cathedrals, had to-
show the relics. Of the practice followed at Durham, about the
year 1 1 70, we are told by one of its monks : Ecclesiae Dunelmensis
ei ostendere voluit reliquiarum sanctuaria sanctiora. Itaque B.
Cuthberti libellus prsecipui honoris exstitit, quern a Benedicto
sacrista albis induto, honorifice ad altare ma jus delatum cum
suspendiculo, archiprsesulis collo circumposuit. Reginaldus Dunel-
mensis, De Admir. S. Cuthberti [Surtees Soc.], p. 198.
That in the thirteenth century it was somewhat new for priests
to wear the surplice, may be gathered from an observation of our
John Garland, a writer of that time, who remarks : Moderni sacer-
PART I. CHAP. VI. 5
required, up to the last day of its being, in the
Use which St. Osmund framed for Salisbury, to
be worn by the younger clerks who had to wait
more immediately (6) around the altar, and minis-
tered as acolytes and incense-bearers at the holy
Sacrifice. 37
dotes habent . . . superlicia vel ut quidam dicunt superpelicia,
quare sacerdotes solebant habere pellicia et desuper ilia ornamenta
in publico mundiciam protendo. Comni entarius Liber, MS. in the
library of Caius College, Cambridge, fol. 209.
37 That the acolytes, according to the Sarum rite, were to serve
at High Mass " albis induti," is clear from chapter xxxiii. (67), De
modo benedicendi aquam, &c. [Use of Sarum, i. 52, as well as from
cap. xxxix. (66)], where it is ordered : Diacono et subdiacono casulis
indutis .... ceteris ministris in albis existentibus (ib., p. 62). Such
a rite was kept here in England up to the last day that the Use of
Salisbury was followed, as may be seen in the Processionale (printed
in London, in Mary's reign, A.D. 1555), where we find this rubric :
Omnibus dominicis diebus per annum post primam et capitulum :
nisi in duplicibus festis et in dominica in ramispalmarum a sacer-
dote ebdomadario alba et cappa serica induto cum diacono et sub-
diacono qui textum deferant, et cum thuribulario et duobus
ceroferariis, et accolito crucem deferente, omnibus albis cum
amictibus indutis, &c. (Kenedictio salis et aquse dominicis ditbus, ib.,
fol. ij). Again : In die Nativitatis . . . Precedat minister virgam
manu gestans, locum faciens processioni : deinde aqua benedicta :
deinde tres cruces a tribus accolitis albis et tunicis deferentibus,
deinde ceroferarii ij albis cum amictibus induti tantum : deinde
duo thuribularii in simili habitu, &c. Quod in omnibus duplicibus
festis observetur in quibus it processio (ib., fol. ix). [Cp. Proces-
sionale, Ed. Henderson (Leeds, 1882), pp. i, n.] Albs for the
clerks who carried the tapers and bore the thuribles on Maundy
Thursday, are specified by St. Osmund. [Use of Sarum, cxiv. (103)
p. 202.]
On the Continent also, the alb still continued, notwithstanding
the introduction of the surplice, to be worn by all minor clerks ;
and Honorius of Autun (A.D. 1130), writing but a few years after
St. Osmund, tells us : Ministris inferioris ordinis, scilicet ostiariis,
lectoribus, exorcistis, acolythis, tres sacrse vestes conceduntur. . . .
Portant namque superhumerale. . . . Tunicam talarem, id est albam
portant . . . Balteo, id est zona jubentur renes prsecingere, &c.
6 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(7) The spirit of St. Osmund's rubrics clearly is,
that though the surplice might be worn by those
(8) of the clergy who sat in the choir, or had to move
(Gemma Animaz, i. 226), [P.L. clxxii. 612] ; and a few years before,
Rupert, abbot of Deutz on the Rhine (A.D. mi), observed that,
as a sign of joy on the higher festivals, the youths belonging to a
church walked clad in albs and carried maniples in their hands, along
with their elders, in the procession : Solemus enim in huiusmodi
festis omnes in albis stare vel procedere. . . . Convenienter ergo
in albis procedentes, simul etiam omnes a senibus usque ad in-
fantes manipulos portamus. Rupertus Tuitiensis, De Divin. Offic.,
ii. 23 [P.L. clxx. 54]. [The reference is to Psalm cxxv. (Vulgate).]
According to the usages drawn up for the Cluniacs by St.
Udalric (A.D. mo), all the monks of that order who could sing
had to wear albs in the choir at High Mass : Ad majorem Missam
omnes qui cantare sciunt sunt in albis (Antiq. Consuet. Cluniacensis
Monast. collect. S. Udalrico, in DAchery Spicilegium, i. 649).
Concerning such a practice, there is a curious notice in that
interesting work Dialogus inter Cluniacensem et Cisterciensem Mona-
clium. Among other reproofs the over-stern Cistercian throws
out against the Cluniacs : In hoc etiam valde reprehensibilis est
consuetude vestra, quod laici monachi albas induunt contra pne-
ceptum canonum, quas in nostro ordine nee tangere 'audent. To
this the meeker Cluniac answers with mildness : Propterea
qusedam monasteria nostra habent albas non consecratas, quas
laici monachi induunt. Martene, Thes. Anecd., v. 1627.
To the very last, the Benedictines in England always wore albs
on grand and solemn processions : at the coronation of Henry
VII. 's queen, "byfor the Prelats went the Monks of Westminster
al in Albes" (Leland, Collect., iii. 223). But the secular clergy of
this kingdom always sought to carry out St. Osmund's rubrics : in
the statutes for his new foundation of St. Mary's, at Ottery,
Bishop Grandison (A.D. 1339) ordained : Quod omni anno in festo
S. Michaelis sacrista faciat fieri ad minus duas albas cum amictibus
pro sacerdote et diacono vel subdiacono, et alias duas pro pueris
thuribulariis (Statuta Col. S. Marie de Otery. Oliver, Man. Dioc.
Exon., p. 271). Our choristers here in England were often pro-
vided with albs. That such was the usage at the king's chapel at
Windsor Castle, we know from the inventory of its vestments,
&c. (taken A.D. 1358), in which are put down : Sexdecim albse pro
choristis, cum duodecim amictibus. These albs for the singers
seem never to have had sewed on them any apparel, for the above
PAET I. CHAP. VI. 7
to another quarter of the church to sing any por-
tion (9) of the office, still for every one employed
about the altar, no matter at what distance from
it, and though even he were not more than an
acolyte, the alb was the allotted garment : if we
may so say, the surplice was the choral, the alb
the sacrificial ministering robe. Such a principle
was nothing new ; it existed in this country as
well as everywhere else, when St. Osmund and
the Normans came over here. Thus then upon
this, as well as upon every other point not merely
of belief but of ritual, there was a perfect agree-
ment between the Anglo-Saxons and their suc-
cessors the Normans, so that from the earliest
times, up to the better half of the sixteenth cen-
tury, the alb was always worn, at the more solemn
services, 38 by (10) every one about the altar even
sixteen are enumerated among the albse et amictus sine paruris.
Dugdale, Mon. Anglic., viii. 1366.
Among the things that "longith (A.D. 1473) unto oure Lady
chirche Sandewiche," were : ij awbys for children (Boys, Sandwich,
P- 375) ; an d in the regulations for the family of the Earl of
Northumberland, in the reign of Henry VIII., we find : It is
Ordynyde by my Lorde and his Counseill that . . . Four Albes for
Children for bering of Candilstiks and Censoures, to be weshid xij
tymes in the yere, &c. TJie Northumberland Household Book, p. 243.
These albs worn by the boys who served at High Mass, were,
like the priest's, the deacon's and sub-deacon's, ornamented with
apparels. In the churchwardens' accompts of St. Mary's, Sand-
wich, there is an entry " for y e makyng of y e paruris of y e childryn
awbys, and for y e settyng on yeroff vij d for iij quarters of a
zerd of rede bokeram for the same paruris " (Boys, Hist, of Sand-
wich, p. 364). Three albys for children and 6 ameses with parells,
and 3 albys and amesis without parells. Illustrations, &c., p. 115.
38 At no time might any clerk minister about the altar unless he
had on at least a surplice, for it was enacted that : Nullus clericus
8 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
by the acolytes. Such a venerable liturgical
custom is still kept up in many places in France
and Belgium.
The shape of our old English surplice is admir-
ably shown on many of our sepulchral monuments,
the brasses especially. 39 Reaching well nigh to
permittatur ministrare in officio altaris, nisi indutus sit super-
pellicio (Constitutiones Walteri Raynold, Cantuar. Archiep. A.D. 1322,
in Wilkins, ii. 5 1 3). On week days, then, or at low Mass, it is likely
that the clerk who waited on the priest wore not an alb, but surplice.
In a grand procession made to welcome Richard II. when he came
back to London (A.D. 1392) there walked more than five hundred
boys clad in surplices, along with the bishop and the clergy : Fertur
in ilia processione plusquam quingentos pueros in superpelliciis
extitisse ; as we are told by Knyghton. Twysden, ii. 2740.
39 The pictures to be found further on (pp. 48, 75) in illus-
tration of the furred almuce one of William Canynges, the other
of the acolyte waiting on the priest blessing the holy water
besides another in Hierurgia (ii. 254, edit. 3), from the beautiful
codex marked 2 B. vn. in the British Museum, will show what was
the flowing graceful shape of our old English surplice ; which, as
may be seen by the accompanying woodcut, did not yield in fulness
From the Roman Pontifical, Giunta, Venice, 1520, f. io6.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 9
the (11) feet, it was very full, and had large broad
sleeves widening as they outstretched themselves
all down the arms to the hands, from which they
hung drooping in masses of beautiful folds. With
a round hole at top, large enough to let the head
go through with ease, it had no kind of opening
in front, not even a short slit above the breast,
thus needing neither tie nor button to fasten it at
the neck. Immediately it was thrown on the
shoulders, it fitted itself in becoming drapery
about the wearer's person, so that this garment
became one of the most graceful and majestic of
those employed in the sacred ministry. 40
and majesty, to the garment of the same kind worn in Italy at the
beginning of the sixteenth century.
40 At first the surplice in this country reached quite down to
the feet, as may be seen in those worn under their copes by the
two singers, shown in the picture given later (p. 41), from a
Psalter written and beautifully illuminated in England in the
thirteenth century, which I possess. Abroad, too, it was made
equally long, as we learn from Stephen of Orleans, Bishop of
Tornay (A.D. 1192), who, speaking of it, says: Superpelliceum
novum, candidum, talare. [P.//., ccxi. 375.]
The sleeve of the old English surplice was so full and long, that
the clergy could muffle their hands within its ample folds, and
thus hinder the service-books which they held from being soiled
by the heat of their fingers. Bishop Grandison says : Mandamus
quod clerici tenendo libros, quantum possunt, manicas superpellicii
inter librum et manum interponant (Statuta Coll. S. Marie de
Otery, Oliver, Mon. Dioc. Exon., p. 270). An " Ordo Missae Pontifi-
calis," printed by Georgi from a Vatican manuscript of the four-
teenth century, gives a like rubric : Unus acolitorum recipiens
ampullas parvas, quas cooperire debet cum manicis superpellicei
sui, &c. Liturgia Rom. Pontif., iii. 577.
The reader may easily imagine the great fulness of the old
English surplice, when among other pious bequests dame Eliza-
beth Andrews (A.D. 1474) says: "I will, that Stoke church shall
have a surplice made of a piece of linen cloth containing twenty-
IO
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(12) That this fine old English surplice, for
whomsoever it happened to be made for the
SACERDOTALE, Venice, 1564, f. 63*.
SACERDOTALE, Venice, 1564, f. 183*.
six yards " (Nicholas, Testamenta Vetusta, i. 329) ; " to the church
of Weston, twenty yards of linen cloth to make a surplice. "-
(B>., 330).
Even now, if the surplice be made according to the dimensions
laid down by Gavanti, who, however, merely copies, word for word,
PART I. CHAP. VI. ii
rector of the (13) church or his poorest clerk was
always of the same proportionate size and shape,
the directions of St. Charles Borromeo for this garment, it ought
to be seven yards wide, by no means slit open in front on the
breast, and fall down below the knees half way on the legs ; it
should have sleeves reaching to the fingers' ends, and more than
two yards in width. [Thesaurus Sac. fiit., pars v.] De Mensuris
propriis sacrse supelledilis, &c. [Ed. Merati, Venice, 1723, ii. 274].
In the north of Italy and other places, the surplice for minor
clerks was often made quite round, without having any sleeves,
but only a circular opening in the middle to let the head go
through, and was worn gathered up over the arms like a full old
chasuble, which it was exactly like in shape, as may be seen from
the woodcuts in the Sacerdotale ad consuetudinem S. Roman&
Ecdesise, Venetiis, 1564, at pp. 17, 63 b , io5 b , i83 b . The learned
Italian prelate Sarnelli tells us, that when he was a young clerk,
and served the church of the " Incoronata " at Naples, he used to
wear one of these old chasuble-shaped surplices : Ne solamente la
Pianeta era della detta forma, ma le cotte chericali eziandio benche
pill corte, le quali non avean maniche, e si cacciavan le braccia con
alzare i lembi laterali, e questo, dice il Ferrari ho io osservato in
Padova : ed io soggiungo, che anche oggi in Venezia si costuma
cosi, ed io medesimo essendo cherico nella chiesa delP Incoronata
di Napoli, le usai simiglianti (Lettere Ecclesiastiche, ii. 64). This is
a work which, though so full of ritual and ecclesiastical learning,
is entirely unknown in England. It does not seem that the sur-
plice cut after such a fashion was ever used in this country. Can
the above round shape of the surplice be a memorial of the
chasuble which, in olden times, even the acolytes wore ?
That acolytes in the early ages of the Church were vested in
chasubles, is shown by some of the oldest liturgical documents.
The earliest of the sixteen Roman Ordoes published by Mabillon
(Mus. Ital. ii.) directs : Parat evangelium qui lecturus est, reserato
sigillo ex prsecepto archidiaconi super planetam acolythi (Ordo
Romanus i ; ib., p. 6). Again, in Ordo v., in the chapter on the
various vestments of those who officiate, such as were assigned to
acolytes are thus enumerated : Acolythi cam. (camisia) et cing.
(cingulum) sestace in sinistra latera ad cing. pendens, tonica alba,
et orarium ad collum, et planeta ; et quando in gradu psallitur,
planeta abstollitur, et orarium portat in manu ('&., p. 65). More-
over, it is expressly said that, at his ordination, the acolyte was
to be clothed in the chasuble : Quomodo in sancta Romana ecclesia
acolythi ordinentur. Dum Missa celebrata fuerit, induunt clericum
12 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
there is no (14) room for doubting : not so, how-
ever, with regard to the material and the orna-
mental accessories bestowed upon it. To the
higher clergy were allotted surplices of the finest
linen, often of the kinds now known as lawn and
cambric ; 41 and judging (15) from works of art still
ilium planetam et orarium (ib., p. 85). But as well as acolytes,
all those who sang in the ambo or pulpit, and those who were in
the choir, were so arrayed : Reliqui vero inferiores gradus ecclesise,
qui in gradu psallunt, sicut et acolythi. Illi vero qui in ambone
non psallunt, si habuerint, similiter induantur (ib., p. 65). In-
deed, Amalarius says : Casula pertinet generaliter ad omnes
clericos (I)e JEccles. 0$c.. ii. 19 [P.L. cv. 1098]). For the "ambo,"
see picture and text, i. 169, 170.
41 A D. 1534. Paid for a surpless for the curate . los. od.
for the clerk . 3 o
for the sexton . 3 o
Illustrations, &c., from the Accompts of the Churchwardens, p. 10.
Nine ells of Hollande clothe for a surplyse and rochet. For
6 ells of Normandy clothe for the clark's surplice (ib.,pp. 100, 102).
The difference noticed above between the price of a surplice for
the curate and those for the clerk and sexton, arose not from the
quantity but the quality of the linen employed for the one and
the other ; for like those mentioned after, the priest's surplice
may have been made of the best linen then known Holland the
clerk's of coarser and cheaper Normandy.
In the same highly valuable work, we find other curious entries :
Eight surplyces for the quere, of the which two have no slevys.
Three rochets for children. p. 115.
A fyne ryben surplis in a lynnyn bag. p. 1 16.
Playne surplices for men aftir chappell gyse.
Reveld surplices for men. p. 117.
These two surplices without sleeves may have been for the
" rulers of the choir " to wear under their silk copes. The " playne
surplices" only show that others in general were ornamented.
The " fyne ryben " one, kept with such care in its own " lynnyn
bag," must have been of some costly material, for it was given as
a token of loving respect by the parish to the parish priest. Ibid.
In connection with this linen vesture, there was a curious usage.
The statutes which Bishop Grandison drew up in the fourteenth
century for the collegiate church of his endowment, Ottery St.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 13
remaining, the part of that garment going about
the throat was curiously and elegantly wrought
with needlework, done sometimes in scarlet, but
more frequently in dark blue thread. 42
(16) By the Roman Missal it is ordered that,
before he vests himself for Mass, the secular
priest should put on a surplice if it can be
conveniently had, 43 and then robe himself with
the amice, the alb, and the other vestments. The
very earliest traces of such a rubric can be found
among the Anglo-Saxons, for a canon enacted
under King Edgar, A.D. 967, says : " we enjoin,
that every priest have a corporal when he cele-
brates Mass, and a ' subucula ' under his alb, and
all his mass - vestments worthily appointed." 44
Mary's, Devon, show that at the time a custom was in some places
in England for the clergy of a church not only to dine together
on one of the great holidays, but to sit down to table each in his
surplice : Statuimus quod omni anno die Assumpcionis gloriose
Virginis totum collegium in claustro si habeatur, vel in aliqua
domo magis competenti simul comedant et in signum candide
virginitatis paradisi care columbe, superpelliciis in prandiis utantur
sine quibus nullus penitus nisi religiosus ibidem comedere per-
mittatur (Statuta Coll. S. Marie de Otery; Oliver, Mon. Dioc. Exon.,
p. 271). Bishop Grandison, the founder, gave these statutes,
A.D. 1339.
42 Ornamental needlework round the neck of the surplice is
shown on the figure of Thomas Leman, rector of South Acre, Nor-
folk (A.D. 1534), given overleaf (from Cotman) ; as also upon those
worn by the canons who are sitting in their stalls, figured in the
frontispiece to the present volume of this work, from a manuscript
in the British Museum of a book of Hours which once belonged
to, and most likely was expressly done for, our Richard II. The
colour of the needlework in this illumination is red.
43 Induit se . . . sacerdos ssecularis, super superpelliceum, si
commode haberi possit, &c. De Pr&p. Sacerd. celebraturi.
44 See note 98, i. 374, for the " Subucula."
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
This Anglo-Saxon " subucula " was, no doubt,
shorter and tighter than the alb, and made of
linen in shape, perhaps, not much unlike a
fat p m i tar mm JOE m
to
modern sleeved rochet as it is made for our pre-
lates, and especially for so many congregations of
canons regular. 45 But again,
(17) THE ROCHET
is only a modification of the surplice, as the sur-
plice is of the alb. In some places, like the short
45 Besides Bonanni's fine work the Catalogo degli Ordini Religiosi,
the curious reader should look into the earlier one, from which the
industrious Jesuit borrowed so much, by Molinet, Figures des
Differ enis Habits des Chanoines Rfyuliers, where the rochet is well
shown.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 15
fine linen tunic called by the same appellation,
and so often employed by bishops, the rochet,
instead of those wide hanging sleeves of the sur-
plice, had narrow ones ; in other places, it was
formed without any sleeves at all, having slits
at the sides to put the arms through. Of this
last kind seems to have been the garment spoken
of by our English ecclesiastical ordinances, for
the use of parochial churches, and the less
dignified among the clergy. 46 (18) This did not
hinder the rochet, properly so called, from being
looked upon as a garment especially belonging
to the episcopal vesture ; for while but a priest,
our countryman, Richard de Bury, who afterwards
46 In the notes, still kept in the library at Salisbury Cathedral,
of the visitations which William, Dean of Salisbury, performed
(c. A.D. 1220), probably from being also Archdeacon of Berks,
mention is made of the rochet. At Ruscomb he noticed : Unum
superpellicium et unum rochettum ; and of that of Horningham
he remarks : Non est ibi superpellicium nee rochettum [Reg. Osm.,
i. 278, 314].
The visitation of St. Paul's, London, A.D. 1295, takes accompt
of the rochets belonging to some of the chapels. Dugdale, Hist,
of St. Paul's, new ed., pp. 331, 333, 334.
By a constitution of Archbishop Winchelsey, sent out A.D. 1305,
among other things that the parishioners were to find their church
in, were : Tria superpellicia, unum rocheturn (Lyndwood, Provinciate,
p. 252). In his gloss upon the text, this learned English canonist
tells us that the difference between these two linen garments
was, that the surplice had, the rochet had not, sleeves : Rochetum
. . . diiFert a superpellicio quia superpellicium habet manicas pendu-
las, sed rochetum est sine manicis, et ordinatur pro clerico minis-
traturo sacerdoti, vel forsan ad opus ipsius sacerdotis in bapti-
zando pueros ne per manicas ipsius brachia impediantur. Ibid.,
in nota n.
From our note 41, it is clear that the boys employed in the
Church-services wore rochets sometimes.
1 6 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
filled the see of Durham so worthily, had given
him by the hands of the Roman Pontiff a rochet,
for a pledge that the Holy See would name him
to the very first bishopric which might become
vacant in England. 46 "
SECTION II
The next clerical garment which asks our notice,
is the one now commonly known as
(19) THE CASSOCK,
but in ancient times called " pellicea," or
THE PELISSE,
which latter name was given to it, not because of
any difference of form, but on account of its being
lined with fur, according to a usage which pre-
vailed amid all ranks, both of men and women, in
those days of yore.
From the ecclesiastical monuments of art that
have been left us in this country, it would seem
the old English cassock differed in its shape but
very little, if anything, from the same kind of
robe still worn by the Catholic priesthood. Varie-
460 Bis adiit (Richardus de Bury) summum pontificem Johannem
. . . et recepit ab eo rochetam in loco bullse, pro proximo episcopatu
vacante ex post in Anglia (Williel. de Chambre, Continuatio Hist.
Dunelmensis, Surtees Soc., p. 127). Among the relics of St. Paul's,
London (A.D. 1295) was: Rochetum S. Edmundi Archiepiscopi
Cantuariensis. Dugdale, Hist, of St. Paul's, p. 339.
1
From St. Martin's Church, Birmingham
page 1 6
PART I. CHAP. VI. 17
ties it had, but they were unimportant : at some
periods we find it made to button all down the
front ; at others, it must have been kept close by
being tied about the waist by a belt or girdle.
For the great body of the clergy its colour no
doubt was black ; in illuminated manuscripts,
however, and on sepulchral effigies, many ex-
amples occur which show it to have been some-
times of other hues : doctors of divinity, for in-
stance, are usually represented in a scarlet-dyed
cassock, 47 and (20) acolytes are to be seen with
theirs sometimes of a purple, sometimes of a
crimson tint. 48
Beginning at an early period and lasting many
47 In the west window of Cirencester Abbey Church may be seen
a doctor of divinity figured in a scarlet cassock under his surplice ;
and in St. Martin's Church, Birmingham, lies the effigy of a doctor
of divinity clothed in his furred almuce, surplice, and cassock, upon
which the few spots of colour still remaining show that this garment
was once painted scarlet.
At the feast after High Mass, when Bishop Alcock was translated
(A.D. 1476) from Rochester to Worcester, "ther came in oon like
a doctour clothyd in scarlet," &c. (MS. C. C. C. Oxford, quoted by
Green, Append., p. xxxv., Hist, of Worcester, t. ii.). According to
Piazza, in his very curious work L 1 Iride Sagra, p. 1 98, Pope Benedict
XII. granted the use of scarlet to the University of Paris for
doctors in theology, and canon law. Very likely the same Pontiff
gave, or confirmed, the same privilege to Oxford.
48 In one of the Cotton manuscripts, Tiberius, B. viii., the minor
clerks are figured some in purple, some in scarlet cassocks, but
all wearing surplices of a texture so thin as to let the colour of
the garment beneath them be clearly seen. The boy who ministers
to the priest blessing the holy water, figured in the Buckland
Missal described just now (note 64, vol. i., p. 344), is clad in a
scarlet cassock, and wears, hanging all round his shoulders, a
scarlet hood over his surplice [see below, p. 75]. Another instance
of scarlet cassocks is noted later.
VOL. II. B
1 8 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
ages, the custom was, both here and in the other
northern parts of Christendom, for all clergymen,
whether secular, or of a religious order, to have
the gown we now call a cassock, lined, like the
garments of the laity, throughout with furs, in
(21) Latin, pelles: hence this vesture got its name,
"pellicea" or pelisse. 49 A line was drawn, how-
49 By the rule which our countryman, St. Gilbert of Sempring-
ham, drew up (c. A.D. 1139), for the religious order which he
founded, it is directed that each Canon of the brotherhood should
have, besides other garments : Una pellicea de adultis agnis
(Regula, &c., iii., De Vestibus, in Dugdale, Mon. Anyl, vii. p.
*xliv.) ; and in another part of the same rule, the saint enjoins
that : Fratres pelliparii congruo tempore . . . habeant unde pellicese
et pennse sanctimonialibus et sororibus, canonicis et fratribus fiant
de optimis agninis pellibus (ib., p. *xli.). From Matthew Paris
we learn that the old pelisses or fur-lined cassocks, of the monks
at St. Alban's, were bestowed in charity on poor women every
year. Vitse S. Albani Abbat., p. 63.
This sheep-skin fur for clerks' use in England is accidentally
noticed in Reginald's description of the dress in which St. Thomas
of Canterbury, who was martyred but a year only before that
monk wrote, appeared clad in a vision to a young knight : Nocte
forte soporatus, gloriosum Christi martyrem S. Thomam Archie-
piscopum Cantuariensem . . . agnovit. Erat . . . pallio nigro
pellibus agninis candentibus obsito indutus, pilleolo capitis vertice
perornatus (Reginaldus Dunelmensis, Libel, de Admir. S. Cuthberti,
p. 256). An interesting notice of the clerical cassock, as the
clergy at Cologne about the beginning of the twelfth century had
it made, is preserved to us by a writer of that period, in his Life
of St. Norbert, of whom we learn that, at presenting himself for
ordination, he laid aside his secular ermine-lined robe for the
cassock furred with lowly sheep-skin : Cum ei sacrista vestes
ofterret benedictas, quas ut ceteri ad ordines suscipiendos indueret ;
ille . . . convertit manum ad unum de famulis suis qui erant
ibidem juxta eum, et innuit sibi prsesentari pelliceum agninum
quod ad hujusmodi opus de industria jusserat praeparari. Quo
accepto exuit varium, et multiformem diabolum indumentum
scilicet mirae aestimationis pretio . . . comparatum . . . et induit
uniformem et simplicem Christum, vestem videlicet hominibus
hujus seculi et maxime illius regionis apud nobiles prorsus insoli-
PART I. CHAP. VI. 19
(22) ever, between the world and the sanctuary : as
plain but well-dressed sheep-skins were thought
quite good enough for such a purpose, to the great
bulk of religious people, it was always strongly
forbidden by the canons to employ the more costly
(23) furs for this or any other use about their
person, and the only individuals exempted from
such a rule were the several dignitaries of the
Church. 50
The Anglo-Saxon must have been, in every
respect, just like the fur-lined cassock of the
English churchman.
tarn, vilissimi pretii et nullius fere momenti, &c. ( Vita S. Norberti,
in A A. SS. Junii, i. 823). The "varium" of the text was the vair
or rich fur so much used by the nobility of that time.
By the ecclesiastical canons enacted during the thirteenth cen-
tury we know that abroad the secular clergy were required always
to come to church in a pelisse which was to reach down to the
heels : Ne canonici ecclesiarum in solennitatibus et stationibus
sine chorali pelliceo vel veste canonicali sub superpelliceo incedant
in ecclesiis conventualibus et in choro. Condi. Coloniensis, canon
ix., c. A.D. 1260 [Harduin, Cone., vii., 522]. Indumenta clericorum
maxime cappas et superpellicia et pellicias decernimus tantum esse
talaria. Statuta ex MS. Alnensis Monas. (circa A.D. 1200), in Mar-
tene, Thes. Anecd., iv. 1191.
It was decreed by the council of Westminster (A.D. 1138) that
nuns should not wear costly furs: Prohibemus sanctimoniales
variis seu grisiis, sabellinis, marterinis, hereminis, beverinis pelli-
bus et annulis aureis uti. Wilkins, Condi., i. 415.
50 Matthew Paris carefully notices that the choir cope of the
Legate, who, in opening the council of London (A.D. 1237) at St.
Paul's, put on his vestments in the church, was lined with " vair " :
Se induit superpellicio et desuper capa chorali pellibus variis
f urrata, &c. Hist., p. 302.
20 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
SECTION III
After the cassock, we come to
THE COPE,
which, though perhaps unknown to St. Beda and
Archbishop Ecgberht, was certainly looked upon
as a sacred vestment, and worn by the later Anglo-
Saxon churchmen. Indeed, one of the earliest
drawings we know of this garment is shown us by
an Anglo-Saxon pontifical, 51 in an illumination of
(24) which, the bishop, who is going through the
ceremonies for dedicating a church, is figured
51 The Anglo-Saxon [Alet] Pontifical, now in the public library
at Rouen, but formerly belonging to the monastery of Jumieges.
Speaking of this precious manuscript in his invaluable work
De Antiquis Ecclesix Ritibus which ought always to be among
the books of every ecclesiastic, as well as antiquary, Martene
(writing A.D. 1702) says: Pontificale Anglicanum eiusdem monas-
terii (Gemmeticensis) annorum circiter 900 (ib., i. 21), and thus
makes it a codex of the early part of the ninth century. This
illumination is given in "The Anglo-Saxon Ceremonial for the
Dedication of Churches." Arch&ologia, xxv., pi. xxx.
Vested in alb, stole, and cope, the abbot of an Anglo-Saxon
monastery blessed the wax-tapers to be carried by his monks on
candle-mass day : Omnes albis induti . . . Deinde abbas stola et
cappa indutus benedicat candelas. Regularis Concordia, in Reyner
[Apost. Benedict], Append., p. 85.
The more general custom in England, especially for bishops and
dignitaries of the Church, was to wear under the cope an alb
with a stole fastened cross-wise upon the breast, as we may see by
the figures in pi. xxxvii. of " The Painted Chamber, Westminster,"
edited by the late J. Gage Rokewode, Esq., my estimable and
learned friend. This is also shown by the carving in oak of
Bishop Barnek. Bishops now never cross their stoles.
From the Alet Pontifical.
22 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
vested in an alb, stole, maniple, and cope, as the
reader will see by the accompanying woodcut of
it. But the use of such a robe was not confined,
in this country, to bishops ; for whatever may
have been the custom, upon this head, abroad,
here at least in the reign of the Confessor, copes
were allowed to be worn by the chanters, or, as
they (25) were at a later period called, the "rulers
of the choir," for Leofric bequeathed three copes
for this specific purpose to his church of Exeter ; 52
and they were, along with the other costly and
beautiful garments for the divine service, provided
with so much care by one of the most distin-
guished saints of this or any other land the
Anglo-Saxon Margaret, queen of Scotland. 53
Like the same kind of vestment in other coun-
tries, 54 the Anglo-Saxon cope was made of silk
62 . iii . cantercseppa and . iii . canterstafas. Kemble, Cod. Dip.
Anglo-Saxonuru, iv. 275.
53 His rebus, id est quse ad divinse servitutis cultum pertinebat,
nunquam vacua erat illius camera; quse, ut ita dicam, qusedam
cselestis artificii videbatur esse officina. Ibi cappae cantorum,
casulse, stolse, altaris pallia, alia quoque vestimenta sacerdotalia
et ecclesise semper videbantur ornamenta. Vita S. Margaritas,
A A. SS. Junii, ii. 329, n. 7.
54 With other beautiful vestments given to the church of his
monastery by the abbot St. Ansigisus (A.D. 820), were : Cappas
Romanas duas, unam videlicet ex rubeo cindato et fimbriis viridi-
bus in circuitu ornatam, alteram ex cane pontico, quern vulgus
Bevurum nuncupat, similiter fimbriis sui coloris decoratam in orbe
(Chron. Fontanellense ab auct. cotevo in D'Achery, Spicilegium,
ii. 280). The cope, " ex cane pontico," commonly then called
beaver skin, must have been made of ermine, which, for many ages
later than St. Ansigisus's time, was thought to be the skin of
the Pontic mouse. Among the rich vestments in the treasury
of St. Riquier's Church, A.D. 831, were : Cappa castanea auro
PART I. CHAP. VI. 23
(26) varying in colour with the festival and season ;
and we may be sure that it was highly adorned
with gold and embroidered imagery : 55a a deep
fringe, which sometimes was formed of little tink-
ling bells made of gold, 556 ran all around it below ;
(27) a morse or clasp, which seems to have been
sometimes studded with jewels, kept its sides in
front fastened across the breast ; while, behind,
it had sewed to it a wide hood, 56 so made as to
parata T, serica I (Chron. Centul. ib., p. 310) [P.L. clxxiv. 1253] ; and
in his will, Bishop Riculf mentions, A.D. 915 : Capas duas, una
purpurea, et alia bition. [P.L. cxxxii. 468.]
55a Besides a large quantity of other rich Anglo-Saxon vest-
ments, submitted to the pilfering fingers of William I., at Ely,
were : xxxiiii cappas, quatuor earum cum aurifriso, alia sine auri-
friso ; iiii taissellos ad opus capparum (MS. Cotton, Titus A. i., fol.
24, b). One of the copes given to the same minster by St. JEthel-
wold is said to have been of singular beauty : Contulit etiam
ecclesise nonnulla ornamenta capas videlicet plures, sed unam
insignis operis (Thomas Elien., Hist. Eliensis in Anglia Sacra, i.
604). Dedit (abbas Egelricus) et choro 24 cappas, scilicet 6 albas,
6 rubeas, 6 virides, et 6 nigras (versus A.D. 984). Ingulph. [ed.
W. de Gray Birch, 1883, p. 91].
636 Our first William sent St. Hugh, Abbot of Cluny, a most
splendid cope, the fringe to which consisted of these very orna-
ments : Misit rex (Willelmus Anglorum princeps) domino abbati
et sacro conventui cappam pene auream totam . . . inferius autem
undique tintinnabula resonantia ipsaque aurea pendent (Vita S.
Hugonis Ab. Cluniac. in A A. SS. Aprilis,iu. 66 1). From all that we
know of the Norman king, there can be no doubt that this gorgeous
cope was filched from some Anglo-Saxon church. Conrad (prior
of Christ Church, Canterbury, A.D. 1108) bestowed upon that
cathedral : Cappam pretiosissimain undique exterius auro puris-
simo intextam, inferius et per circuitum CXL nolas argenteas sed
deauratas habentem, nonnullis lapidibus pretiosissimis interpositis,
fieri fecit, pro cujus expensione centum libras distribuit. Hist.
Prior. Eccl. Cantuar., ed. Wharton, Aug. Sac., i. 137.
56 The fringe and the square jewelled morse are seen in the
woodcut above, from the illumination of the Anglo-Saxon Ponti-
24 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
be drawn up with ease when the head needed
protection from the weather. 57
(28) But in the latter days of the Anglo-Saxon
period, this hood, it is likely, underwent no slight
change ; and if not in all, at least in some churches
of this country, was laid aside to have its place
filled up by a flat piece of ornamental embroidery,
which, hanging loose from the cope, bore the
name while it kept up the remembrance of the
true old hood : nay more, there are grounds for
thinking that this appendage, in its new and
altered form, was sometimes of one sheet of thin
but solid gold, which being held to the vestment
by small chains or fastenings of the same precious
metal, could be easily undone and taken off. 58
Among those who came into power here, after
the Anglo-Saxons, the cope continued to be, in
shape and material, what it was before ; but its
hood, if it had not then, at least very soon after
fical now at Rouen, and figured by Mr. Gage, Archseologia, xxv. 17.
The hood hanging upon the bishop's shoulders is also well marked
there.
57 At the end of the last century, all over the Continent, might
be found old copes with sharply-pointed hoods of a bag-like form,
as if made to be drawn up and worn about the head. Of this sort
were those two red ones still used, in De Moleon's time, at Rouen
Cathedral : II y a encore deux anciennes chappes rouges qui ont
des chaperons ou capuchons pointus . . . On sait que ce chaperon
ou capuchon se mettoit sur la tete. Voy. Liturg., p. 379.
58 His Normans, whom William I. sent all about this country
to rifle the Anglo-Saxon minsters, found at Ely : ii'ii taissellos ad
opus capparum (MS. Cotton, Titus A. i., fol. 24, b). These " taisselli "
filched from the poor monks were, no doubt, movable hoods of
beaten gold or silver.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 25
the arrival of the Normans, fell, as a covering for
the head, quite into disuse, though the place and
form of this original appurtenance remained well
marked by a large flat appendage hung from the
shoulders and bearing its name, just as at the
present day.
Like the Anglo-Saxon, our English cope was
(29) rendered as beautiful as the loom, the gold-
smith's craft, precious stones, and the needle of the
embroiderer, could make it. Cloths of gold shot
with the richest tints of colour, the most costly
silks, and velvets of the deepest pile, were sought
out for it ; 59 these again were wrought all over
in the most tasteful and elaborate patterns, with
branches spreading out into leaves and flowers,
having birds and animals looking forth from amid
them, and formed in part, to heighten the effect,
of plates of silver, or with filigree work in solid
gold; 60 at (30) other times the whole surface of
69 Capam meam de panno ad aurum scilicet baudekin. Wills,
<&c., of the Northern Counties, i. 6, published by the Surtees Society.
Capa facta de baudekinis purpureis cum aquilis aureis extensis
cum floribus.
Duse capse factse de baudekino unius operis varii coloris, cum
bestiis variis intersertis.
Capa Gileberti de Stratton de panno aureo lineato cum sendato
rubeo afforciato.
Capa Johannis Maunsel de panno aureo qui vocatur ciclatoun.
Visit, in Tltes. S. Pauli Londinensis (A.D. 1295), Dugdale, Hist, of
St. Paul's, p. 318.
60 Dederat unam capam rubeam cum leonibus laminis argenteis
capse infixis, et morsum ponderantem quatuordecim solidos et
quatuor denarios (Johannes Glastoniensis, p. 203). Capa domini
Edmundi Comitis Cornubise de quodam diaspero Antioch. coloris,
tegulata cum arboribus et avibus diasperatis quarum capita,
26 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
the cope was overspread with circles, or quatrefoils
enclosing embroideries, each a little picture a
work of art in itself telling some story from
holy writ, or out of the saints' legends. 61
(31) It was, however, more particularly on the
hood, the orphreys, and the morse .of a cope, that
pectora, et pedes, et flores in medio arborum sunt de aurifilo
contexts. Dugdale, St. Paul's, p. 318.
61 Capa Lanfranci nigra frectata auro cum bestiis et floribus
aureis et .ij tassellis aureis.
Capa ejusdem nigra cum magnis tassellis aureis, &c.
Capa sancti Edmundi de morre cum tassellis gemmis ornatis.
Ornam. in Vestiar. Ecc. Ckristi Cant. (A.D. 1315), [Inventories, Christ
Church, Canterbury, p. 53],
Capee duse de samicto rubeo cum magnis tassellis aureis, et
morsibus cum gemmis.
Sex capse de samicto rubeo cum tassellis aureis minoribus.
Duae capse de samicto rubeo cum parvis tassellis aureis.
Duae capae de samicto rubeo sine tassellis, cum lato aurifrigio
veteri. Ibid.
The ten splendid copes which were given (A.D. 1322) by Walter
to the church of Glastonbury, are thus carefully remembered by
the historian of that venerable house : Walterus dedit decem capas
. . . quarum prima preciosior continet historias passionis Christi,
cujus campus aureus est et deasperatus ; secunda similiter continet
easdem historias cum aliis, cujus campus similiter est aureus et
deasperatus. Tercia dicta le velveth coccinei coloris cum ymagini-
bus . . . Quinta de samicto rubeo cum apostolis circulata . . .
Septima de samicto rubeo continens historias Sanctorum Dun-
stani, David, et Aldelmi cum scalopis. Octava de samicto tuleo
continens historias S. Dunstani, cum leopardis et scalopis, &c.
(Johannes Glaston., p. 261). Of such copes so storied the only one
in this country is at Alton Towers, and once belonged to the
nunnery of Syon House, near London, but now in the possession
of the Earl of Shrewsbury : it will be minutely described at the
end of this chapter. Of Durham Cathedral we are told that the
monks walked " in procession with all the rich copes belonging to
the church, every monk one. The prior had an exceedingly rich
one of cloth of gold, which was so massy that he could not go
upright with it, unless his gentlemen, who at other times bore
up his train, supported it on every side whenever he had it on."
The Rites of Durham, p. 85.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 27
the artist who had its making put forth all the
most beautiful of his devices, and the giver of the
vestment exhibited his pious magnificence.
Very often the same cope had belonging to it,
not merely one, but several hoods, all of which
could be put off 62 and on with the greatest ease,
(32) so that at a high festival the one figured with
the subject of the day might be worn ; at times,
indeed, these so-called hoods were neither em-
broidered, nor even of silk or velvet, but formed,
as it would appear from ancient records, of sheet
gold, beaten out into some elegant design, and
enchased with precious stones. 63
62 It would seem that the English custom was, in making copes
for the use of churches belonging to the Knights Templars, to put
upon such vestments some badge indicative of that warlike order ;
for among the copes of St. Paul's, London (A.D. 1295) one so
wrought is especially noticed : Capa fact a de baudekino ad modum
Templi cum militibus equitantibus infra, cum avibus super manus,
quam dedit Henricus de Sandwyco Episcopus. Dugdale, St.
Paul's, p. 318.
The hood of the above-mentioned Syon House cope was mov-
able, and is now lost ; but the three golden loops by which it hung
are still to be seen just below the orphrey behind.
63 In the annals of Rochester Cathedral, one of those gorgeous
hoods made of silver-gilt and encrusted with gems, is especially
noticed among the good works of Helyas, the prior of that church :
In capa Gileberti episcopi fecit fieri morsum de argento et capettum
deauratum et preciosis lapidibus ornatum (Thorpe, Registrum
Roffense, p. 122). Archbishop Lanfranc's "capa . . . cum 2 tas-
sellis aureis," was, to my thinking, a cope enriched with two such
movable hoods of pure beaten gold. Of the like precious metal
were the hoods belonging to some of those other magnificent copes
enumerated in the same note 61, just now, p. 26.
But the word tassellus, so often found there, had, with our old
native ecclesiastical writers, more than one meaning; though,
as it should be carefully borne in mind, it was never employed by
them to signify the ornament which we now call in English " tassel."
28 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(33) With regard to the form of this hood, if we
may guess by the few early pictorial representations
Tassellus was used several ways, to express one ornament or another
affixed upon dress, though it became generally limited to the
vestments and adornments of the ministers of religion, upon
almost every article of whose sacred attire it may be discovered
to have been a decorative part. Thus we find tassellus in our
ancient records to mean :
1 . The large thin sheet of gold or silver hanging behind on the
cope, as shown by the authorities above.
2. Any piece of gold or silver plate fastened to a vestment ; for
not only copes, but chasubles, too, had their tasselli sparkling with
gems, hung all about them.
Dedit (Richardus abbas S. Albani) etiam casulam unam, auro,
tassellis ac gemmis pretiosis adornatam. Stolas binas pretiosas
cum manipulo, capam unam purpuream, morsu et tassellis caris-
simis redimitam. Matt. Paris, Vit. Abb. S. Albani, p. 35.
3. The morse was carefully distinguished from the tassellus, as
is shown by the extract just given from Matt. Paris.
4. The ornaments on the back of episcopal gloves, when not
done in embroidery, but made of silver or gold plate, are likewise
called tasselli :
Cirothece.
Item par unum cum tassellis argenteis et parvis lapidibus.
Item par unum de lino cum tassellis argenteis et perulis.
[Inventories of Christ Church, Canterbury, p. 71.]
5. Again, although the hood behind on a cope was called the
tassellus, yet, whenever square or round plates of gold or silver,
having on them pearls or jewels, were sewed by way of orphrey
down in front of the cope, or on any other part of its border, as
was often the fashion, to give it additional radiance, such plates
were called tasselli :
Fecit etiam vij cappas, quarum una auro et lapidibus obducta
est tota. Alia vero pretiosis tassellis, auro et margaritis anterius
et in circuitu parabatur. Alise quatuor, optimo aurifrigio, septima
purpurea, tassellis decenter adornatur. Vita Gaufridi (A.D. 1119),
Matt. Paris, Vit. Abb., p. 62.
Capa Radulphi Herefordiensis episcopi de rubeo samicto cum
tassellis et amauz in medio [Inventories of Christ Church, Canterbury,
p. 54]. The " amauz " were amethysts.
Hence it came that any piece of ornament, whether merely of
simple cloth of gold, or of beautiful and elaborate embroidery,
when it happened to be a different work from the vestment
PART I. CHAP. VI. 29
remaining of it in illuminated manuscripts, it must
(34) have been, among the Anglo-Saxons, of a
straight-sided, three-cornered shape, ending in a
sharp (35) point : afterwards, it took, as we well
know, a somewhat altered figure, keeping the
triangle, but with circular instead of right lines
on two of its sides, and having its downward
point much blunted, like indeed the inverted
head of a gothic window. This shape the hood
on our copes ever retained till the latest days of
Catholicism in England, 64 and at no time was there
itself, and was affixed to it, whatever that vestment might be
cope, chasuble, dalmatic, or tunicle, it mattered not the orna-
ment was called tassellus : Fecit (Ernulfus eccl. Roffensis Ep.) duas
casulas, scil. nigram cum tassello super humeros de auro bruslatam,
et aliam de viridi samith. Thorpe, Itegist. Roffense, p. 120.
Item capa Adse Prioris de viridi samicto cum tassellis rubeo
brudatis. Item due cape de croceo samicto cum rubeis tassellis
brudatse. Item capa una de croceo panno diasperato cum tas-
sellis de viridi. Capa professionis Thome Eboracensis Archiepis-
copi de rubeo panno diasperato cum tassellis nigris rotundis
brudatis. Ornam. in Vest. Eccl. Christi Cantuar. (A.D. 1315) [In-
ventories, ut sup., pp. 53, 54],
Item par unum (Tunic, et Dalmatic.) J. de Bocton de croceo
samicto cum tassellis de Baudekino ante et retro. \Ibid., p. 58.]
Tunicse et Dalmaticse.
Item par unum de panno de Tharse coloris de pounaz cum
stellis et crescenciis aureis, cum tassellis in dorso de martirio S.
Stephani brudatis super Dalmaticam, et martirium S. Thomee
brudatum super tunicam.
Par unum S. Edmundi de samicto de morre cum tassellis ante
et retro consutis. [Ibid., p. 57.]
64 The beautiful English cope made of purple velvet, and pro-
fusely embroidered, of about the end of the fifteenth century,
which belongs to Sir Robert Throckmorton, Bart., and is now
lying outspread before me, has its hood, which is sewed all round
quite close to the body of the vestment, cut to the shape de-
scribed above in the text. Such, too, is the form of hood shown
30 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
ever the custom of making it here as now semi-
circular.
The orphreys were two bands, some eight
inches in breadth, of another material than the
cope itself, and reaching all down from the neck
on both sides in front, as the vestment shows
itself on the (36) wearer's person. These orphreys
were variously made : sometimes they consisted
of rich but simple cloth of gold, or of silk ; at
others, an appropriate design of flowers, branches,
or quatrefoils ran all through them, glittering
with precious stones, pearls, and the finest
enamels 65 tabernacle standing over tabernacle,
each holding a saint exquisitely embroidered a
row of shields, every one blazoned with heraldic
bearings in their proper colours, 66 or one unbroken
string, formed by thin plates of solid gold studded
with jewels, like some of the golden hoods, went
about the sides of this vestment ; while all around
by the woodcuts in the rare edition of the Salisbury Processional,
printed under the editorship of the then Bishop of Winchester,
A.D. 1528. [See Wordsworth, Salisbury Processions (Cambridge,
1901) and Processionale, ed. Henderson.]
Unaware of this, beside a deal else belonging to the subject,
some among those who, with a most praiseworthy zeal, but not
the most thorough good taste, have lately striven with ourselves
to bring back the old English Catholic form to our vestments, in
giving designs for copes, have directed the hood to be shaped in
the modern semi-circular, instead of the old pointed way. Let us
hope that those who have the making of a cope hereafter will
avoid this oversight and wide departure from antiquity.
65 Capa de indico velvetto cum aurifrigio de rubeo velvetto
cum platis et perlis desuper positis. Visit, in Thes. S. Pauli
Londinensis (A.D. 1295), Dugdale, Hist, of St. Paul's, p. 318.
66 The orphreys of the Syon monastery cope are heraldic.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 31
at bottom, instead of fringe or any other trimming,
there hung a great number of little gold or silver
bells. 67
(37) SECTION IV
To hinder the cope from slipping off, it was
fastened over the breast by a kind of clasp, which
here in England was familiarly known as
THE MoBSE, 68
which was, in shape, flat or convex ; from five to
six inches in breadth, either circular, square, or in
67 Capa Lanfranci nigra ornata gemmis et auro, cum .ij cam-
panellis rotundis argenteis deauratis cum magno topacio et quatuor
amauz in pectore. [Inventories of Christ Church, Canterbury, p. 53,
where see also following entry.]
Ernulfus, Bishop of Rochester (A.D. 1115): Fecit fieri . . . capam
principalem cum skillis argenteis. Anglia Sacra, i. 342.
Conrad (who died A.D. 1127), prior of Christ Church, Canterbury,
had already bestowed upon that cathedral the following splendid
cope: Cappam preciosissimam undique exterius auro purissimo
intextam, inferius et per circuitum centum et quadraginta
holas argenteas sed deauratas habentem, nonnullis lapidibus
preciosissimis interpositis fieri fecit, pro cujus expencione centum
libras distribuit [Inventories of Christ Church, Canterbury, p. 44].
This cope must have been most magnificent, for the ^100 spent
on it in the twelfth century would then go further than ^1000
now. The 140 "holse" were, I presume, so many cup-shaped
bells, a favourite ornament, at the time, as a trimming for a
cope. A fine old cope, trimmed all around below with slender
silver bells, is still to be seen in the inner sacristy of the great
church at Aix-la-Chapelle.
68 Ipse archiepiscopus (Cantuariensis Bonifacius) capam illam
preciosam, qua subprior indutus erat, dilaceravit, et firmaculum,
quod vulgariter morsus dicitur, avulsit . . . quod auro et argento
et gemmis fuerat preciosum. Matt. Paris, Hist. Anglic. (A.D. 1250),
p. 522, col. ii.
32 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
some one of those many forms of graceful outline
to be found in the details of pointed architecture.
It was made of gold or of silver, of ivory or copper,
(38) or of wood overlaid with one or other of the
precious metals : gems, too, and pearls were given
for its enrichment. But the workmanship as
much as the material lent a value to this appur-
tenance ; for all the cunning of the goldsmith's
art was exercised upon its design ; and though
it happened to be at times merely of copper, yet
the beautiful enamels with which it glowed,
rendered it even then costly. 69
69 Morsus Alardi decani triforiatus de auro puro cum kama-
hutis et aliis lapidibus multis et perils sine defectu ponderans
xxxiis. vie?.
Morsus Galfridi de Lucy argenteus exterius deauratus cum
limbo triphoriato aureo insertis quatuor magnis lapidibus et aliis
minoribus et perlis, et cum ymaginibus Salvatoris coronantis
matrem suam, et Petri et Pauli lateralibus et angeli superius et
datoris morsus inferius cum duobus bitellis, et continet in circuit u
circulum de albis perlis ; sed deficiunt lapillus unus et xv noduli
cum triphorio, ponderans xls. Cresta ejusdem argentea exterius
deauratus, cum exteriori triphorio aurato, et pomello pulchro
argenteo deaurato insertis cum triphorio cum lapidibus et perlis
majoribus et minoribus . . . et lista de par vis perlis rupta est ad
quantitatem quinque pollicium, ponderans I marc.
Morsus Ricardi de Clifford argenteus exterius deauratus cum
limbo et cresta triphoriata de auro insertis lapidibus ; et deficiunt
tres lapilli ponderans cum brochea argentea appensa xvis. ivc?.
Morsus . . . de cupro exterius deauratus cum octo lapidibus et
berillo in medio representante Crucifixum : cresta ejusdem de cupro
exterius deauratus cum lapillis et perlis amxis.
Item septem morsus lignei ornati laminis argenteis et lapidibus,
et una cresta argentea. Visitatio in Thes. S. Pauli Londinensis
(A.D. 1295), Dugdale, Hist, of St. Paul's, pp. 310, 311, new ed.
Capa de Morre de Kocco distincto cum tassellis aureis et morsu
de ebore. [Inventories, Christ Church, p. 53.]
Though but seldom, yet sometimes the morse was called " pec-
PART I. CHAP. VI. 33
(39) From every cope having in general its own
morse, this ornament must have been made fast on
toral " ; and under such a name we find some very rich ones set
down in the Winchester inventory :
One pectoral of gold set with stones.
One pectoral partly gold, partly silver and gilt, set with stones.
Six pectorals of silver and gilt, garnished with stones. Dugdale,
Mon. AnyL, i. 202.
The name of " ouche," or " noche," was in some few places given
to it. In the list of church-ornaments belonging to Worcester
Priory (A.D. 1540) were :
A noche, called Lyttulton's noche, of golde and precious stones
(pertin. priori et conventui) ;
the supp r ior's noche ;
the chauntor's noche. Green, Hist, of Worcester, ii., App., p. v.
The Annunciation of our blessed Lady St. Mary was a favourite
subject for a morse in old English times, as we find by various
documents. In the inventory (A.D. 1385) of the ornaments be-
longing to the chapel royal of Windsor (see p. 6), are noted down :
Unus morsus argenteus deauratus et aymellatus in cujus medio
salutatio angelica extat, cum armis comitis Warwichise.
Unus morsus argenteus deauratus, cum salutatione angelica in
tabernaculis pulchriter dispositis, cujus angeli deficit ala sinistra,
et de lilio deficit unus flos. Dugdale, Mon. Anglic., viii. 1365.
At New College, Oxford, among what are called the founder's
jewels, is a piece of enamel figured with the Annunciation. That
it was once the centre part of a morse, seems to me quite clear ;
though, from its style as a work of art, I think it later than
Wykeham's time, and must have been the gift of some other
well-wisher to that college.
Unus morsus triangularis argenteus deauratus cujus medium
est aymellatum, &c.
Unus morsus nobilis argenteus deauratus lapidibus ornatus
circumquaque, in cujus medio est lapis camahu in quo sculpitur
imago unius prophetse, &c., ib. sicut supra.
While we read the foregoing list of English morses, we are
struck not so much by the costliness of the materials bestowed
in general for their making, as with the variety of detail and
elaborate delicacy of execution in which such church-ornaments
were wrought. This shows to what a height of perfection our
native goldsmiths had reached, proving that our English, like our
Anglo-Saxon workmen, went beyond those of other nations in
their elegant handicraft.
VOL. II. C
LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE
34 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(40) one side of the vestment, and hitched itself
to the other by means of a tongue, or a set of
hooks, or by a pin like a brooch. 70
(41) As an old morse is among the greatest
ecclesiastical rarities, per-
haps the reader may be
glad to see, in this wood-
cut, the form of a very
good one on enamelled
copper, which once be-
longed to a parish church
in Buckinghamshire, and
is now in my collection. 70a
Not always was it that the cope was held fast
by a metal morse : sometimes the vestment was
confined, as now, by a square piece of the same
stuff as the cope, by the help of large hooks and
eyes, or with loops and knots made of gold
70 In the note above, the reader will have noticed that Richard
de Clifford's morse had attached to it a silver brooch, cum brochea
argentea appensa ; which, no doubt, must have been to fasten it
to one or other side of the cope.
70a This morse is a very good specimen of enamel as done at the end
of the thirteenth century. The green ground upon which the angel-
acolytes stand, is well strewed with daisies, half white, half gold,
and at each side, on a field azure, is a fleur-de-lis or. In French,
the daisy is called " La Marguerite, "and the heraldry is the blazon
of France : can this morse then have been part of the chapel
ornaments belonging to the oratory of Margaret of France, Philip
the Fair's sister, whom our Edward I. married as his second wife P
the style of art shown in it is precisely of that prince's days.
After having been used as a morse, this beautiful piece of enamel
was mounted on wood, and made to serve for what was called a
" pax-brede " : such is its actual shape.
PAKT I. CHAP. VI. 35
lace. 71 But (42) even such morses were not with-
out their adornment; for besides the embroidery
upon them, they shone with jewels, and cones
covered with pearls stood out from them. 72
(43) If every other document showing what, in
olden times, must have been the splendour of our
vestments for public worship when this kingdom
was happily Catholic, had been lost, except the list
[given in the first edition of this work] of those
71 Capa . . . de rubeo sameto cum pectorale optime breudata
cum castro et episcopo et diacono.
Capa . . . de rubeo sameto cum rotundis pectoralibus aurifrigiis.
Episcopus habet duo.
Capa . . . de cendato aflforciato albo cum margaritis ante, loco
morsus. Visit, in Thes. S. Pauli Londinensis (A.D. 1295), Dugdale,
Hist, of St. Paul's, p. 317.
The Syon Monastery cope, now at Alton Towers, and another
rich old English cope of the reign of Henry VII., belonging to
Sir Robert Throckmorton, Bart., and at Buckland, as well as
another fine one now at Slindon, Sussex, have, each of them, a
morse of rich embroidery of the same stuff of which the cope itself
is made.
72 For the beautiful morses embroidered and jewelled on many
of the copes at Salisbury (A.D. 1220), see Wordsworth, Sarum
Processions, 176.
Even now at Rome on great festivals each of the six suburban
cardinal bishops wears in his cope a morse, or as it is there called,
a " formale," which consists of three far projecting knobs, or
cones, covered all over with choice pearls, and these cones are so
mounted that they form a perpendicular line ; while in the morse
of the supreme Pontiff these same pearled ornaments stand in a
triangle. Speaking of the morse used by the Pope, Cancellieri
tells us : II medesimo (formale di perle) era stato lavorato sotto
Clemente VIII., e rifatto da Pio VI. Era tutto d'oro, con un
ramo di ulivo d'oro, smaltato verde, che serviva d'ornamento, e
circondava tre pigne grosse composte di perle orientali, formate
in forma triangolare, a differenza del formale de' sei cardinali
vescovi suburbicarj, che portano le tre pigne di perle, in linea
perpendicolare. Descrizione delta Settimana Santa, p. 9.
36 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
which once belonged to Salisbury Cathedral, we
should still have quite enough to let us know
how enamels, even ancient cameos, silver, gold,
pearls, and precious stones, all rendered more
beautiful from the light and exquisite workman-
ship by which they were set forth, could ever be
found and bestowed by churchman and laic as
freely as they were profusely, on the making and
adornment of what, with truth, might then be
called a " capa pretiosa," or precious cope.
To hold these beautiful vestments, chests, from
the peculiarity of their shape called " triangles," 73
were invented, perhaps as early as the Anglo-
Saxon period. But among our ecclesiastics of later
times, we know that it was not one of their last
thoughts to get together the best kinds of wood
for constructing, and elegant scroll-work in iron
for ornamenting, such repositories, of which some
few may still be seen scattered about the kingdom in
(44) our larger churches. 74 From the form of these
" triangles," we perceive that the cope before being
put by, must, in general, have had its hood taken
off, to be laid flat and unbent upon the wider part of
the vestment itself, which had been folded in two. 75
73 Materiem ad faciendum triangulum ad capas reponendas com-
paravit (Helyas prior Roffensis). Thorpe, Regist. Roffense, p. 122.
74 In the undercroft or crypt, at Wells Cathedral, there is a
good early triangle or cope chest, and two finer still are at York
Minster ; another exists in the vestry at Salisbury Cathedral.
75 Sometimes the hood of the cope was not only sewed to it,
but stitched all round and not allowed to hang with the lower
part free ; in such instances the hood was necessarily left on the
cope and folded with it.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 37
Before leaving the cope, we should remember
that the Church, especially in the western parts of
Christendom, has, ever since she adopted this robe,
looked upon it pre-eminently as her processional,
in the same manner as she has always deemed the
chasuble her sacrificial vestment. While offering
up the unspotted Sacrifice of the Mass, the priest
must ever be clad, together with the rest of his
sacred attire, in a chasuble : 76 for processions, as
(45) well as at every part of the liturgy during
the year more immediately connected with them,
the rubrics according to the Salisbury Use direct
the chief celebrant, at least, to have on a cope ; 77
76 A love for what was new not only in belief but ritual, and
the strongly felt wish of going against catholic antiquity, must
have whispered the use of the cope as a vesture for the priest that
shall execute the ministry of the holy communion, "commonly
called the Mass," to those men who drew up the rubrics for
Edward VI. 's first Book of Common Prayer, and acting under the
lay authority of that boy-king, did away with the old to put in
its stead a new form of prayer and national belief.
77 See the Salisbury Processional passim, but more especially
the rubric for Christmas-day : In die nativitatis, dum hora prima
ante missam canitur sex pueri ad ministrandum vestiti cappas
sericas in chorum deferant : quibus ceteri clerici ad processionem
et ad missam donee cantatur Agnus Dei, et Pax Domini per totum
chorum data fuerit, induantur prseter sacerdotem et ministros.
Quod totiens fiat quotiens in festo duplici, Dominica videlicet, vel
aliis festis quando processio fiat causa festivitatis. Precedat
minister virgam manu gestans locum faciens processioni ; deinde
aqua benedicta ; deinde tres cruces a tribus accolitis deferentibus
albis et tunicis, deinde ceroferarii duo albis cum amictibus induti
tantum ; deinde duo thuribularii in simili habitu. Deinde sub-
diaconus. tune dyaconus dalmatica et tunica indutus textus singu-
los def erat. Post dyaconum eat sacerdos in alba et cum cappa
serica ; chorus itaque sequatur in cappis sericis. Processionale ad
Usum EccL Sarum (A.D. 1528), fol. viii. (see Henderson, p. 1 1). St.
Osmund himself expressly says, that on all festivals kept with a
38 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
so, too, under the same ritual feeling, in collegiate
and (46) cathedral churches, and the wealthier
religious houses, the canons, the monks, and friars,
and as many as possible of the elder clergy, were
arrayed in silken copes, at the principal services
on each Sunday and holyday marked for walking
in any kind of solemn procession. 78
procession : Tune enim omnes capis utuntur sericis ad processionem
et ad missam. (Gap. xix., De Habitu Chori per totum annum in Use
of Sarum, i. 24.) Such, too, was the practice followed at St.
Paul's, London [i.e., on feasts of the first or second class]: ad
missam chorus est in cappis. [Sparrow Simpson, Registrum,
P- 53].
78 It must have been a glorious sight, that of any one of our
dear old collegiate, or cathedral churches St. George's, Windsor,
for example, or Henry VII.'s chapel, York, Lincoln, or West-
minster on some high festival, with its choir brimful of priests,
and as they walked down those long withdrawing aisles, singing
as they went, in majestic strains, psalms to the praises of God, or
the joyous and gladdening " Salve festa dies," each having on a
gold bright cope, beautiful enough to mantle a king at his corona-
tion. Though so common, such a ceremonial was not the less
beloved by our believing forefathers ; our poets liked to dwell
upon it in their lays, and make their personages talk of its
splendour, as the prince does to his forlorn daughter, whom he
strives to soothe by telling her among many other things :
Than shall ye go to your evensong,
With tenours and trebles among,
Threscore of copes of damask bryght
Full of perles they shalbe pyght.
Your sensours shalbe of golde
Endent with azure manie a folde, &c.
The Squire of Low Degree, Ritson's Collection of Metrical Romances,
vol. iii.
These " threscore of copes " were as nothing in some of our
great English processions.
It must have been a glorious sight to have beheld these
jewelled copes as they gleamed with the evening rays of a cloud-
less summer sun, when a long and gorgeous procession, on its way
to meet and welcome a bishop or a prince, wound slowly through
PART I. CHAP. VI. 39
(47) For a like reason was it, moreover, that
the " rectores chori," or rulers of the choir, who,
the streets of London, or some fine old town, each quaint-looking
house of which had hung flaunting from its windows, that beetled
far over the path below, beautiful hangings of cloth of gold, vel-
vet and tapestry. As Princess Margaret, daughter to our Henry
VII., went to Scotland to be married to King James, she was
everywhere met on her road by the clergy in solemn procession,
according as the rubric of Salisbury prescribed; and her reception
by the monks of Durham is thus set down by one who travelled
in her numerous equipage. "At the Gatt of the Church was
my Lord the Byscop of the sayd Place, and my Lord the Prior
revested in Pontificalls, with the Convent all revested of ryches
Copps, in Processyon, with the Crossys, &c." Leland, Collectanea,
iv. 276. When Edward VI. rode from the Tower of London to
Westminster for his coronation : " On the other side of the streets
in many places, stood priests and clerkes with their crosses and
censors, and in their best ornaments, to sense the king ; and by
all the way where the king should pass, on either side, were the
windows ' and waies goodly garnished with cloaths of tapestry,
arras, cloath of gold and cloath of silver, with quishions of the
same garnished with streamers and banners as richly as might
be devised." Ibid., p. 310.
The historian Foxe that true type of what the low and scoffing
dissenters of his own day were speaking in his mendacious book
of our old catholic processions, particularly notices the number
of copes worn on such occasions. Describing the thanksgiving
made A.D. 1536, in London, for the recovery of the king of
France's health, that Protestant writer says : " The king (Henry
VIII.) commanded a solemn and famous procession to be ordeined
through the city of London, with the waits and children of
grammar schooles, with the maisters and ushers in their array:
then followed the orders of the friers and chanons and the priours
with their pompe of copes, crosses, candlestickes, and vergers
before them. After these followed the next pageant of clerkes
and priests of London, al in copes likewise. Then the monkes of
Westminster and other abbeys, with their glorious gardeviance
of crosses, candlestickes, and vergers before them in like sort. Last
of al came the queere of Pauls, with their residensaries, the Bishop
of London, and the abbots following after in their Pontificalibus.
After these courses of the clergy,, went the companies of the city
with the Lord Maior and aldermen in their best apparel, after
their degrees. And lest it might be thought this procession of
40 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
on (48) account of their office, had to be so often
moving to and fro as they led the singing, not
only bore (49) richly ornamented staves in their
hands, but from the Anglo-Saxon, and all through
the English period, were vested, too, in copes, the
most beautiful which their churches happened to
possess. 79
When the number of clergy was great and the
church wealthy in splendid vestments, a custom
existed in some places of England of spreading
a wide linen cloth in the middle of the choir floor,
and heaping it with a pile of copes to be worn at
the divine service. 80 By this method these gar-
ments could be easily got at just before the clergy
the Church of London to make but a small or beggerly shew, the
furniture of the gay copes there worne was counted to the number
of 714. Moreover, to fill up the joy of this procession, and for
the more high service to Almighty God, besides the singing queeres
and chaunting of the priest es, there lacked no minstrels withall,
to pipe at the procession " (Actes and Monuments, ii. 976, col. 2,
London, 1596; v. 102, London, 1838). Writing concerning Queen
Mary, of injured memory, the same Foxe tells us (A.D. 1555) :
"Upon the daie of the conversion of saint Paule, there was
generall and solemne procession through London to give God
thankes for their conversion to the catholicke church : wherein
(to set out their glorious pompe) there were fourscore and
ten crosses, 160 priests and clerkes, who had everie one of them
copes upon their backs, &c." Ibid. (vi. 588, London, 1838).
79 Among the ornaments in Salisbury Cathedral (A.D. 1222) were:
Baculi iiij ad chorum regendum (Wordsworth, Salisbury Processions,
p. 177). Concerning the copes worn by the Anglo-Saxon rulers
of the choir, see note 52, before, wherein their staves are likewise
mentioned.
80 Duo panni linei qui in principalibus festis in choro explicantur
ad capas superponendas continentes in longitudine quilibet sex
ulnas et dimidium ; hinc inde facta sunt duo vestimenta. Cap.
de Wyndesore (A.D. 1385); Dugdale, Mon. AngL, viii. 1364.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 41
had to walk forth in procession, and as easily put
off afterwards.
(50)
SECTION V
But the beautiful silk cope, decked with em-
broidery and storied orphreys, must not be con-
founded with another clerical garment somewhat
like it in shape, bearing the same name, and
which was anciently called
THE CANON'S COPE.
This robe, as may be seen from the woodcut, 81 was
a large, full, flowing
cloak, quite free
and open before,
downwards from the
breast, where it be-
gan to close, and
sewed up as far
as the throat ; all
around which was
attached a hood, so
as to be easily drawn
up over the head,
though it was in
general thrown
81 It is of an illumination at the head of the ninety-seventh
psalm, Gantate Domino, in a Latin psalter, written and illuminated
in England during the second half of the thirteenth century, in
my possession.
42 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(51) back upon the shoulders and left hanging
there. To put on this vesture, the wearer had
to pass his head through the neck. For all the
clergy, high or low, in cathedral and collegiate
churches, this cope was ordered to be black, 82 and
82 Besides the statutes of St. Paul's, London, given in the
Reijist.rum,, also see " De Habitu Chori," Use of Sarum, xix. In
the statutes which he drew up for his cathedral church at Exeter
(A.D. 1337) Bishop Grandisson rehearses St. Osmund's rubrics
for the most part almost word for word, adding however to them
as follows : Quandocumque fit servicium pro mortuis dum corpus
ad ecclesiam deportatur, et ad " Placebo," et ad " Dirige," et ad
" Commendationes," et ad Missam licet duplex festum fuerit, et
etiam in processione causa Temporis vel Tribulationis, et in Roga-
tionibus, licet in festis duplicibus fuerit. Similiter etiam fiat
in festo S. Marci Evangeliste ad processionem que solet fieri ipso
die de jejunio, semper capis nigris utuntur: in vigiliis vero et
quatuor Temporibus semper quando de jejunio dicitur Missa,
utantur clerici in choro capis nigris, excepto ad "Placebo," et
" Dirige," tantum in octavo die Assumptionis et in die Gabrielis
Archangeli.
xxii. Debent itaque omnes indui exterius capis nigris . . . longis
ad minus usque ad pedes : et interius superpelliceis longitudinem
cape non excedentilAis. Et in capite pilleolis nigris : item calcea-
menta habeant honestati et religioni convenientia, et alia indu-
menta clericorum decentia et in nullo forma vel colore reprehensi-
bilia. Coronas fere usque ad medium capitis cum tonsura ad aures
statui condecentes (Ex Ordinali a J. de Grandissono Ep. Exon.
edito A.D. 1337, fol. x.) [see reprint by H. E. Reynolds]. This
manuscript is in the library of Exeter Cathedral, and for this
extract I am indebted to my esteemed friend, the Rev. Dr.
Oliver.
This canon's cope is especially mentioned by some of our native
writers, who contrast it with the richer and more ornamented one.
Describing a discussion which took place (A.D. 1 237) in St. Paul's
Cathedral, London, Matthew Paris tells us : Willielmus de Raele
indutus capa canonicali et superpellicio, &c. (Hist., p. 302 ; not in
&). I* 8 black colour is particularly noticed by Roger Hoveden,
in his account of St. Thomas of Canterbury : Post celebrationem
Missse archiepiscopus imposuit collo suo stolam, deinde induit
cappam nigram canonicalem et profectus est statim ad curiam
regis. [Chronica. Pars Posterior, R.S. LI., i. 226].
PART I. CHAP. VI.
43
most likely (52) they had it made of thin cloth,
or some other woollen texture.
SECTION VI
Along with the canon's cope was worn the
"almucia," or, as it is often found called in our
old documents,
THE FURRED ALMUCE,
an article of ecclesiastical raiment which, while
it has always been so fashioned as to answer its
twofold purpose of cap and tippet, has undergone
no slight variations. Such an appendage became
to the choir-priest, when about the divine offices,
some of which were sung at night or early morn,
and are long, what the hood was to the layman ;
and like (53) that portion of worldly dress, from
which, however, it widely
differed in form, shrouded
the head and neck, at the
same time that it muffled
the shoulders, as we see
here.
This earliest shape of
the furred almuce may
be seen on many old
monuments abroad, and
it is figured on the heads of the canons who are
sitting stalled and at matins, in an illumination
PETRUS DE CINTHIIS, Canon of St.
Peter's, Rome, A.D. 1360.
44 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
of our Richard II.'s beautiful prayer-book, now
belonging to the British Museum, and of which
we have given an etching in the present work. 83
On the outside, this almuce was commonly of
black cloth, 84 and within, lined with fur of a
colour and a quality betokening the wearer's
rank in the church 85 and grade in the choir;
83 See the frontispiece to this volume.
84 W. Sparrow Simpson, Registrum, p. 67.
85 Various kinds of fur were used for the almucia or almuce,
according to the rank of the wearer : the finer sorts were limited
to the dignitaries and upper canons ; but even among the clergy
of the lower grade in a cathedral, there was a distinction marked
by the furring of the almuce. Towards the beginning of the
fifteenth century, the vicars choral of the four great personages in
Lichfield Cathedral were to be known from the others by the
almuce of Calabrian skin which they wore : Succentor . . . ac
vicarii chorales stallorum dignitatum decanatus, cancellariatus et
thesauriatus . . . dietse ecclesiae nostrse (Lichfieldensis) amado
sint sacerdotes, ac almuciis de calabur in prsefata ecclesia utuntur
(Statuta Hey worth, Ep. Lick. c. 1420, in Dugdale, Mon. Angl.,
viii. 1263). That scoffer at everything most holy, Bale, in his
Olde God and the neive, which is a translation from the work of
Hartmannus Dulichius, makes the vicars or " chaplaynes " of a
cathedral thus speak of their choir dress : " Besydes this (a whyte
linen surples) we do on us a calabere amyce (sig. L, fol. vii.).
Afterwards do come in our masters and lordes of the close covered
with grey amyces, and havynge on a very white surples." Sig. L,
fol. viii. 6.
Though only a minor canon, the sub-dean of St. Paul's, London,
was privileged to wear an almuce like to the one allowed to the
upper canons and the dean himself : Subdecanus . . . par erit reliquis
suis fratribus (minoribus canonicis) hoc uno excepto quod amictum
ex grisio, more majoris canonici ferre possit et debet quod erat ei
concessum anno Christ i MCCCC, Willielmo War ham tune episcopo
(De Sub-Decano, Dugdale, hist, of St. Paul's, p. 345). There is a
mistake here in the time ; Warham was Bishop of London from
A.D. 1502 till 1504.
This " amictus ex grisio " was called the " grey almuce," and
made of costly silver-coloured fur : the minor canon's almuce was
formed of a much less expensive fur, of a dark brown colour,
PART I. CHAP. VI. 45
and the tails of (54) the animals, the skins of
which had been employed for that purpose, were
fastened all round its lower (55) hem as a kind
of fringe. To the dignitaries of the Church,
therefore, was allotted a richer sort of (56) almuce:
doctors in divinity or canon law might be at once
which, from its being found in greater quantities in Calabria,
took its name from that Italian province : Sunt in ecclesia S.
Pauli canonici qui minores appellantur, almucium ex calebro
utuntur (ib., p. 353, De Can. Minor.). Being a mark of honour,
the grey almuce was allowed to the royal chaplains. At the High
Mass for Henry VII.'s burial: After the lords and barrens had
made theire oft'eringe, then followed the chapleins of dignitie and
the grey amezes of the Kinges chappell, &c. (Leland, Collectanea,
iii. 308). Moreover, not only in cathedrals and collegiate churches,
but even in a chantry chapel, when endowed to support several
priests, the almuce of fur was allowed to be worn by those
chantry priests, as if they were canons. This we learn from the
statutes drawn up by William, Bishop of Norwich (A.D. 1354):
Domina Matildis de Lancastria . . . unam perpetuam cantariam
quinque capellanorum fundavit. In capella autem eorum dum
divina celebrant superpelliciis et capis nigris et almuciis de nigro
et furratis ad modum canonicorum secularium indui volumus
(Mon. Angl., viii. 1555). The rulers of the choir, even in our parish
churches, wore grey almuces : A.D. 1530. For two stolys for the
rectors in the quyre, and two greyes skynnes 4.9. id. (Nichols,
Churchwardens' Accts.of St. Mary Hill, p. 109). These two "stolys"
or stools were most likely set just before the eagle or lectern in
the middle of the chancel.
Our English prelates sometimes bestowed upon the dignitaries
of the monastic clergy the privilege of wearing the grey almuce.
In the Register of Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter, may be seen,
as Dr. Oliver tells me, a licence granted the yth of January 1508,
to John Carlyon, prior of the Augustinian convent of St. Stephen's,
Launceston (Reg. fol. 34) : Ut Tu et successores tui Priores dicti
Prioratus, valeas et valeant uti temporibus Divinorum et in pro-
cessionibus universis illo habitu amisise de gray quo temporibus
Divinorum in nostris ecclesiis Cathedrali et Collegiatis utuntur
canonici.
46 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
recognised by a scarlet almuce furred with grey ; 86
the full canon had assigned him one that was
outside black, but within made of the same fine
grey skins of a deep silvery hue ; while to every
person beneath that rank it was forbidden, with a
few exceptions, to have any other than a dark
brown and cheaper kind of fur in this article of
Church attire. 87
(57) The end of the thirteenth and the be-
ginning of the fourteenth century saw the pretty
general adoption among the clergy, both secular
86 Doctors of divinity and dignitaries in the Protestant Estab-
lishment of England, still keep up the use of the scarlet gown
in the universities on solemn occasions, and the daily wear of the
scarlet hood hanging behind from the shoulders, in the cathedrals.
This, to my thinking, is not the old, but a modern way of putting
it on : anciently the doctor's hood was placed upon the shoulders
and not behind, as is shown from the ceremonial of our Catholic
kings at the feast of the Epiphany, as is instanced in Henry VII.,
who, "on the xnth even went to the evensong in his surcoot
outward with tabert sieves, the cappe of estate on his hede, and
the hodeaboute his showlders in doctors wise." Leland, Collectanea,
iii. 235.
At the christening of Prince Arthur, Henry VII.'s eldest son,
besides several bishops, there were present " many noble doctors
in riche copes and grey amys." Leland, Collectanea, iii. 206.
' 7 This distinction between the furs of the almuces assigned to
canons and to vicars, is noticed in the statutes of the collegiate
church of Stoke by Clare, in Suffolk (A.D. 1422): Statutum est et
ordinatum quod canonici utantur almuciis griseis, et vicarii nigris,
et utrique capis nigris serico duplicatis sive ornatis et superpel-
liciis albis, matutinis, missis, et aliis horis canonicis, more aliorum
collegiorum, a festo S. Jeronimi usque vigiliam Paschse : et deinde
usque ad idem festum utantur canonici almuciis griseis, et super-
pelliciis albis sine capis nigris, nisi in Missis et exequiis defunc-
torum et processionibus in quibus per ordinale aliter requiritur;
et per idem tempus utantur superpelliciis albis, et almuciis
honestis et consuetis serico duplicatis et furratis (Dugdale, Mon.
AngL, viii. 1419). See also note 85, just before.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 47
and monastic, of a small round cap, which they
were allowed to have on during the less solemn
parts of Divine service : 88 the almuce, as a hood,
became therefore not so much needed as of old,
and perhaps may have been felt, excepting by
night, or during cold weather, even too warm.
Hence arose the custom of throwing back from
the head in the daytime the uppermost part of the
almuce, to let it hang down behind like a hood ; 89
and to hinder the whole, in this loose condition,
from slipping off the shoulders, (58) it was brought
to meet in front by being stitched together all
down the breast, so that in putting it on, the
wearer had to pass his head through it. More-
over, about the beginning of the fifteenth century,
we find that another change was wrought in this
attire, and it came, here in England, to be fash-
ioned more as a tippet for the shoulders than
as a head-covering, though it could be, and very
likely sometimes was, applied to this latter pur-
pose, for it kept a large roomy hood hanging
down from all around the neck : it entirely over-
spread the shoulders and breast, whereon it met
and was still sewed, and reaching as far down
as the elbows, mantled the person, like a modern
short cape, being of the same length before as
88 This closely-fitting kind of skull-cap is seen on the canons
figured in our frontispiece to this volume, and on several of the
grave-brasses that have been given by Waller in his Monumental
Brasses. [See p. 54 for an example.]
89 See note 21 further on.
4 8
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
behind : it kept its fringe of little tails, but to
these were now added two long strips of the same
fur which, stole-like, fell below the
knees, retaining the whole way
down an equal breadth, that must
have been about three inches, as
is shown by this woodcut of the
effigy of William Canynges, in St.
Mary Kedcliffe's, Bristol.* To-
wards, however, the early part of
the sixteenth century, this furred
almuce underwent another though
slight modification ; it was made
to be, like a shawl, (59) longer
behind than before, and the two
strips of fur in front, where they
began, were very wide, but nar-
rowing as they fell, ended in a sharp point. 90
Not the least remarkable thing in these changes
of the furred almuce is, that it became, as it were,
turned inside out : at the beginning, it was out-
wardly of black cloth, and inside, lined with fur ;
in its first variation, nothing could be seen but
its fur: to the very last it kept its little hood
hanging behind and partly around the shoulders.
[* This effigy is not that of Canynges ; see a reproduction of
his monument in Hollis, Monumental Effigies, part vi., published
July 1842.]
90 There are several examples of this among the later brasses :
that of Arthur Cole, canon of Windsor (A.D. 1558) (see vol. i.
p. 472), in St. Mary Magdalen College, Oxford, shows it well.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 49
But how happens it, some may ask, that eccle-
siastics, well known to have been not canons in
any cathedral or collegiate establishment, but mere
rectors in their respective churches, should be
figured wearing the canon's furred almuce ? To
answer this question, we must bring to mind a
custom peculiar to this island.
In many of our parish churches there were both
a rector and a perpetual curate : while the rector
was looked upon as the personage or " parson," '
(60) and held to be its dignitary, to the perpetual
curate fell all the heavier work the cure of souls.
Now as several of our cathedrals, by a curious
anomaly, were served, not as throughout the rest
of Christendom by canons chosen from among the
secular priesthood, but by monks of the Benedic-
tine order, 92 in such dioceses, as a slight compen-
sation to the secular clergy, those of them who
91 The great officials or dignitaries of a cathedral were called
personages or personse; and in England such a title was given,
and not unfittingly, to the rectors of parish churches. The Council
of Oxford (A.D. 1222), says in one of its decrees: Universi rectores
ecclesiarum qui vulgariter dicuntur persone (Wilkins, Concil., i.
596) ; and Lyndwood, in his Provinciate, p. 67, note a, especially
tells us this : " Persona, i.e. rector ; et est persona vulgare Angli-
corum." The title of " parson " is time-honoured in England, and
lays claim to our respect from its frequent recurrence in the decrees
of our venerable and ancient national councils. It will therefore
never be slightingly applied by any one who either knows or loves
the gone-by glories of the Catholic Church in this land. W. de
Wanda, afterwards Dean of Salisbury, thus denominates the
higher clergy of that cathedral : " Ad excellentiores eiusdem
ecclesise filios, viz. personas et canonicos," in contradistinction to
the "clerici inferiores, viz. vicarii." Wilkins, Condi., i. 554.
92 See notes 14 and 15, further on.
VOL. II. D
50 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
were rectors were allowed to assume, as if they
had been really canons, the furred almuce ; and
this privilege, which had long existed, was
formally ratified to them by the Apostolic See,
on the occasion of elevating some of our parish
churches into their new dignity of rectories. 93
93 Fuit nobis expositum quod ... in civitate Cantuariensi
nulli sunt canonici, vel aliae personse ecclesiasticse, quse almucia
de variis sive griseis pellibus deferant, prout in quampluribus
ecclesiis dicti regni illarum canonici deferre consueverunt, et
quse juxta consuetudinem regni ipsius ad decus et ornamentum
ecclesiarum et personarum ecclesiasticarum multum conferunt.
Cum autem, sicut eadem expositio subjungebat, in Cantuariensi
prsedicta, ac diversis aliis dioecesibus dicti regni sint quamplures
ecclesiae parochiales, rectores et etiam perpetuos vicarios insimul
habentes, quarum cura animarum non per rectores, sed per
vicarios praedictos exercetur . . . etsi illarum rectores almucia de
variis sive griseis pellibus hujuscemodi in supplimentum canoni-
corum deferrent, id profecto ad decus et honorem tarn rectorum
eorundem, quam totius cleri civitatis et dioeceseos Cantuariensium
praedictarum cederet. Quare pro parte dicti Thomse cardinalis
nobis fuit humiliter supplicatum ut quod Cherryng et de Aldyng-
ton . . . parochialium ecclesiarum rectores moderni, et qui pro
tempore fuerint, almucia de pellibus variis sive griseis hujusce-
modi deinceps perpetuo deferre valeant, statuere et ordinare,
aliasque in prsemissis opportune providere de benignitate apos-
tolica dignaremus ; nos itaque hujuscemodi supplicationibus
inclinati quod moderni et qui pro tempore fuerint rectores
parochialium ecclesiarum praedictarum almucia de variis sive
griseis pellibus hujuscemodi, tarn in Cantuariensibus praedictis
quam quibusvis aliis ecclesiis dicti regni, necnon processionibus et
aliis actibus perpetuo deinceps, adinstar canonicorum aliarum
ecclesiarum cathedralium secularium praedicti regni deferre libere
et licite valeant, auctoritate apostolica, tenore prsesentium, statui-
mus et ordinamus , . . Dat. Romse, A.D. 1483. Sixti IV., Bulla,
ex reg. Alcock. Wigorn., fol. 129, Wilkins, Condi., iii., 615, 6 1 6.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 51
(61) SECTION VII s f f , r , f , f;
Though not wholly, at least in great part, these
variations were owing to the use of
(62) THE CLERICAL CAP,
at which we slightly glanced just now.
If we are to believe an unknown writer (wrongly
named Alcuin, but who must have lived some
time during the eleventh century), the clergy at
Rome, and in some other quarters within the limits
of the Latin rite, in his days always officiated at
the holy sacrifice bareheaded, differing on this
point from the Greeks, who wore a cap at the
altar. 94 That this so-called Alcuin was mistaken
with regard to the usages of the later Anglo-
Saxons, at least for bishops, we shall be able to
show when we come to speak of the episcopal
mitre : regarding the second order of clergy, how-
ever, he is correct, for no evidence exists to prove
that up to the reign of the Confessor, any sort
of cap was employed in this country at Divine
service by any one in the priesthood, or of a lower
rank in holy orders.
94 Tiara erat vestis, pileolum videlicet rotundum . . . Huiusce-
modi vestis non habetur in Romana ecclesia, vel in nostris
regionibus. Non enim moris est, ut pileati divina mysteria cele-
brent. Apud Grsecos autem hoc dicitur, qui pileos, id est, cuphias
gestant in capite, dum assistunt altaribus. Pseudo-Alcuin, De
Divinis Off.) Gap. De Singulis Vestibus [P.L., ci. 1 239].
52 THE CHUKCH OF OUR FATHERS
Soon after this latter period, the cap must have
Jbeen adopted by our English ecclesiastics, since
, in (63) the next century, we find it noticed as one
of the marks by which a 'churchman might be
known in this country. 95 It must have been, too,
not only a part of his ordinary dress, but of his
ceremonial attire. 96 The monks were not slow in
95 Reginald, the monk of Durham, a contemporary of St. Thomas
of Canterbury, in describing that martyr's dress, particularly
notices his cap : Pilleolo capitis vertice perornatus (De Adm. B.
Cuthberti Virtut., p. 256). Other English writers notice it also:
Then Reynolde with his sword-point put off Thomas's cap, and
smote at his head and cut off his crown (Caxton, Liber Festivalis,
fol. Ixxxviii) : Pilleumque mucrone dejiciens. Capgrave, Nov. Leg.
Anglise, [ed. Horstmann, Clar. Press, 1901 ; ii. 395].
96 Item in sequenti armario inveni sex pilleolos omciariorum et
octo mitras. Invent, an. 1218, i., Hist. Nem., 66.
The term, however, under which this black cap was more
generally known in the colloquial language of the time, was
" hure " ; Matthew Paris tells us of the Bishop of Lincoln, in the
reign of Henry II. (A.D. 1163) : Statimque assurgens, in maim regis
per capitis sui galerum qui " hura " dicitur, resignavit id juris
quod dicebat se habere in ecclesia beati Albani, &c. (Vit. Abb.,
p. 53). Again, in a satire, written during the thirteenth century,
on the Consistory Courts, the ecclesiastic president is described as
wearing a black cap or " hure," and a gown with hanging sleeves,
called a " hery-goud " :
Furst ther sit an old cherl in a blake hure
Of all that ther sitteth semeth best syre,
An heme in an hery-goud with honginde sleven.
Political Songs of England, p. 1 56 (Camden Soc.). By a canon of
the Council of Worcester (A.D. 1240) this sleeved garment was
expressly forbidden to the higher clergy : cappas etiam deferant
clausas sacerdotes et personatum habentes, ubique ; nee utantur
de csetero Heregaudis (MS. Cotton, Claudius A. viu., and Wilkins,
Condi., 670). By some, the " hure " has been mistaken for a
" gown." This hure was required to be worn in church : Utantur
omnes (clerici majores) in choro nigris pileis ancehuris, et nullo
modo capiciis sive cappis monstruosis. Statut. Eccl. Collegiat. de
Stoke juxta Clare. Dugdale, Mon. AngL, viii. 1419.
xaot tujiO: its itot lun Roto Iwf safe
PART I. CHAP. VI. 53
following (64) the example of the secular clergy,
and in the year 1243, the Roman Pontiff, Innocent
IV., on being asked, gave leave to the Benedictines
of St. Austin's Abbey, Canterbury, 97 to wear caps
in the choir during Divine service. After that
epoch, mention of the cap often occurs in our
national as well as foreign documents ; and in
some cathedrals 98 of this country it was a part of
the dress especially (65) ordained by the statutes
to be put on by each prebendary when he came
to sing in the choir.
But it would seem that, truly speaking, the cap
used by our churchmen in the olden times, was of
a twofold kind, of which one, like a skull-cap,"
97 Vestris supplicationibus inclinati vobis utendi pileis vestro
ordini congruentibus cum divinis interfueritis officiis, concedimus
liberam facultatem. Ita tamen quod in lectione Evangelica
et elevatione corporis Domini Jesu Christi, et in aliis debita
reverentia observetur (Raynaldus, Annales ad annum 1243, n. 41).
This same Pope granted a like faculty to the monks of Peter-
borough. Gunton, Hist. Peterb., p. 161.
98 Bishop Grandisson (A.D. 1337), in his statute, "De Habitu
Chori," says : Debent omnes indui exterius capis nigris. . . . Et
in capite pilleolis nigris, &c. See note before, 82, p. 42.
99 This skull-cap, it would seem, was called " birettum," and
Robert, Archbishop of Canterbury, invested Thomas Custe, of
Maidstone, with an ecclesiastical benefice (A.D. 1298), by giving
him the very one which he himself, the metropolitan, had on :
Thomas Custe providimus de beneficio ecclesiastico . . . illudque
eidem Thomse contulimus ac eum de ipso per nostrum birettum
prsesentialiter investimus, &c. (Chron. W. Thorn, p. 1969). This
" birettum " must in shape have been half a circle, so as to cover
the upper part only of the head : such it is figured very often on
the grave brasses set over dignified churchmen : John Strete,
rector of Upper Hardress Church, Kent, and three out of the four
ecclesiastics from New College Chapel, Oxford, all given in their
fine work, by the brothers Waller, are examples. [See overleaf.]
One kind of cap there was which all churchmen were forbidden,
54
THE CHUKCH OF OUR FATHERS
(66) fitted tight to the head ; the other, more loose,
and though quite round and cornerless, widened
at top, (67) from the middle of
which, as we see in the sculptures
A
& ^
under the threat of fine and deprivation, to
wear either in public, except on a journey,
or in any place before their ecclesiastical
superiors ; and such was the coif called also
in the canons " tena " : Nee nisi in itinere
constituti (clerici) unquam aut in ecclesiis,
vel coram prselatis suis, aut in conspectu
communi hominum, publice infulas suas
quas vulgo " coyphas " vocant, portare
aliquatenus audeant vel praesumant (Constit.
Othoboni, A.D. 1268, Wilkins, ConciL, ii. 4).
Archbishop Peckham (A.D. 1281), in the
provincial council which he held at Lambeth,
embodied this among his constitutions, and
made a heavy enactment " contra (clericos)
portantes infulas aut tenas coram prselatis,
aut coram populo publice deferentes" (*&.,
p. 59). To guess from illuminated MSS.,
this coif must have been made of white
linen ; and it sat very close upon the head,
which it entirely covered, and was tied by
two strings rather tightly under the chin. It
might, however, be put on under the hood by the clerk who was un-
well, or in cold weather : " Videtur sentire quod tali infula vel tena
sub caputio, causa frigoris vel infirmitatis, uti non sit prohibitum,"
as the gloss expresses in Lyndwood, Provinciale, lib. iii. tit. i.
p. 1 20. Hence William deBussey"qui . . . captus est coram judici-
bus judicandus. Et cum non posset obiectis respondere . . . voluit
ligamenta suse coifse solvere, ut palam monstraret tonsuram se
habere clericalem." Matt. Paris, Hist.,A.T>. 1259, p. 663 [not in R.S.].
Our lawyers wore, and are still thought to wear, the coif ; and
it is distinctly shown on the head of a cumbent figure in Dor-
chester Church, Oxon, representing one of the Stonor family, in
his days a serjeant of the coif.
To mere laymen it was allowed to keep on the coif even in
church : this we learn from a passage in the Life of St. William,
Archbishop of York, in which we are told of one who crept up
into the loft over the screen during matins, and falling asleep
DR. WILLIAM HAUTRYNE,
Trom New
Oxford.)
1441. (From New College
PAKT I. CHAP. VI.
55
and illuminations of the period, it shot up sud-
denly into a low blunt point. 1
By the end of the fifteenth century, this cap
had already exchanged its round for a square
there, had his coif cut in two upon his
head without being hurt by the stone
pillar of the bookstand which fell upon
him : Dormientibus siquidem in am-
bone quibusdam canonicorum servien-
tibus . . . unus ibidem quiescentium,
caput suum super basim pulpito in quo
legi solet Evangelium, reclinavit. Et
ecce, dum tertia lectio legeretur, per
impulsum fortuitum, lapis columnaris
non modici ponderis, super caput
quiescentis cecidit . . . Surgens vero
ille qui dormierat, nihil mali sentie-
bat : tenam autem suam quam habebat
in capite dissolvens, advertit earn ex
utraque parte capitis .... corrosam,
&c. Ada S. Willielmi, Archiep. Ebo-
rac. in A A. SS. Junii, ii. 144.
1 The larger cap is well shown on
the cumbent stone figure in Hereford
Cathedral of Dean Borew, who died
A.D. 1462 [or John de Swinfield, 1294-
1314]. The cap is low and quite round.
Hollis has published this monument.
It is seen too in our woodcut of Dr.
Christopher Urswick in Section IX.,
p. 72.
By the customs of St. Paul's Cathe-
dral, London, its minor clergy were
forbidden to go during daytime into
the church to sing the Divine office at
the canonical hours with a cap on,
unless it was doubled up on their head : Nullus eorum
cum pilleo nisi dupplicato, super caput ad horas canonicas ingredi-
antur. Reg., p. 67. From this, it would follow that the clerical
cap had, in some churches, a full, broad brim which could and was
required to be turned up on reaching the choir.
JOHN BOREW, Dean of Hereford.
de die
5 6 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
form, but still it was always kept very low though
wide, and in the transition lost that slight eleva-
tion in the middle of the crown which it had
hitherto had : not being then made up with a
harsh stiffness about it, it showed no hard straight
lines and sharp (68) angles, like the modern stiff
pasteboard cap, but took an easy, soft, bending
shape. Most likely at first, only such ecclesiastics
as were either weak of health, or deep stricken in
years, thought of wearing both the close skull-
cap and the larger and more roomy square one
together ; later, however, the hale and youthful,
the old and feeble, all deemed it becoming to do
so ; hence came it that, to take off the two caps
together at those parts of the service where, out
of reverence to the Holy Name or otherwise, the
head should be bared for a short while, they were
sewed one to the other, so that out of this grew
the celebrated " pileus quadratus," !J which time
has handed down to us, though somewhat altered,
in the present trencher-cap of the English uni-
versities.
For all orders of the clergy, from the bishop
downwards to the lowliest clerk, this cap was black ; 3
2 The refusal of some of the heads of the Protestant Establish-
ment, in the early part of Elizabeth's reign, to wear the square
cap and the surplice, kindled the warmest controversy among the
teachers of Protestantism.
3 As extraordinary exceptions to this general rule, Sarnelli
noticed that in his time (A.D. 1682), the skull-cap worn by the
Patriarch of Venice was purple, as were the caps of the canons at
Antwerp Cathedral : A prcposito del berrettino . . . Monsignor
PART I. CHAP. VI. 57
(69) and such a general rule knew of but very
few exceptions : those whom the Supreme Pontiffs
raised to the dignity of the Koman cardinalate,
besides the scarlet hat 4 granted them by Pope
Innocent IV., A.D. 1245, were allowed to wear, at
Divine service, a scarlet cap, 5 by Paul II., A.D.
1464. Moreover, in some cathedrals, by an
especial favour of the Holy See, all the canons,
as at Pisa to the present day, or only a chosen
few of those dignitaries, as in former times at
Cologne, 6 were permitted to (70) have this scarlet
Patriarca 1'usa di color pavonazzo ; siccome ho letto, che dello
stesso colore adoperano le berrette i canonic! d'Antuerpia. Lettere
Eccles., ii. 63.
4 Sandini, Vit& Pontif. Romanor., p. 366, in notis. Venetiis, 1768.
6 Ibid., p. 438.
6 Statuimus (Eugenius Papa III.) ut septem idonei presbyteri
cardinales in prsedicta ecclesia (Coloniensi) ordinentur, qui induti
dalmaticis et mitris ornati, ad principalia duo altaria eiusdem
ecclesise cum totidem diaconibus et subdiaconibus quibus sandali-
orum usum concedimus, Missarum solennia in festivis diebus tan-
tummodo administrarent. Ep.x.Jw#em^///.,c. A. 0.1146; Harduin,
Condi., vi., Pt. 2, p. 1250; and Crombach, Hist. SS. Trium Reg., p. 808.
I saw, A.D. 1847, the Archbishop of Cologne robed exactly like
a cardinal, though he is not one, assist at High Mass in the cathe-
dral of that city ; and in the public picture gallery I noticed, on
the left hand in going into the large room, a small picture of
one of these cardinal - canons, robed in scarlet cassock, surplice,
hood of crimson trimmed with fur, and having his almuce or amys
of grey edged with brown tails hung over his right arm, and a red
cap in his hands.
What was formerly the colour of the doctor's cap in our English
universities I cannot say ; but as it is known the hood was and
still continues to be scarlet, I am led to think that so top was, in
Catholic times, the cap. An illumination in a MS. of the Canter-
bury pilgrimage, copied by Shaw in his beautiful work, Dresses
and Decorations of the Middle Ages (vol. ii. plate 62), shows, among
other riders, a dignified churchman, who has on not only a scarlet
cassock and a scarlet hood about his shoulders above his rochet,
58 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
cap, along with all the other cardinalitial robes.
But purple caps for bishops were, (71) in bygone
but a bonnet on his head of that same colour : this ecclesiastic I
take to be meant for a doctor in theology ; and Henry de Mauns-
field, D.D., and Chancellor of Oxford University, A.D. 1311, is
figured on a window in the chapel of Merton College in that city,
clad in a dark blue gown, and having on a light crimson-coloured
skull-cap.
In some of the French universities, the cap for a doctor in
divinity was ornamented with a white silk tassel ; that for a
canonist with a green one ; and a doctor's in civil law with a red
one having a purple tuft in the middle : Notandum quod sicut
sunt tres gradus, tres floci ex filo serici debent esse super quolibet
boneto doctorandi et doctoris sui prsesentantis, videlicet si quis
assumat magisterium portet flocum album in signum divinitatis
theologize ... si in jure canonico, deferat flocum ex filo serici
viridis in signum castitatis et doctrinse ... si in jure civili,
portet flocum serici rubri in signum veras justiciae et sanguinis,
media vero parte flocum coloris violacei. Stat. Universit. Aquens.
(A.D. 1489), apud Carpentier in Sup. ad Gloss. Du Cangii, verbo
" flocus," torn. ii.
At Salamanca and Coimbra, the doctor of divinity's cap was
black, but wholly covered by a large white silk tassel : Dantur illi
(doctori) insignia illius collegii et illius gradus nempe birretum
nigrum, et Salimanticse et Conimbrise et aliis collegiis ponitur in
apice birreti floccus magnus ex serico albo occupans totum birretum
(Scappus, De Birr. Rub. Cardin. Respon., iv. 64). In Germany, doctors
in civil law were allowed a scarlet cap : Jurisperitorum pileus est
ruber (in Germania) (Theoph. Raynaudus, De Pileo, cap. x.). In
some of the French universities the doctor's cap was round, and
along with it was conferred the privilege of using a golden sash :
Accipite birretum rotundum ad modum coronas . . . Datur
Cadomi zona . . . Accipite zonam auream, &c. (Lenauderius, De
Privil. Doct. in Tractat. de Variis verbis Juris, torn, xviii., fol. 4, b.
quest. 3). In the great yearly procession at Louvain, where the
members of that university used to walk along with the trades of
the town, all doctors, whether of theology, or of law, or medi-
cine, wore a cap and hood of a scarlet colour (Molanus, De Imagini-
bus, ed. Paquot, p. 506). At the university of Salamanca, to
doctors in theology was allowed the " Beca," a very curious kind
of hood of red silk which, after being rolled like a low crown around
the head, fell in large folds all about the shoulders of the wearer.
It is described and figured in A A. SS. Junii, ii. 631.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 59
days, as much unknown here in England, as they
still are, and ever have been, in every other
quarter of the Church.
SECTION VIII
Besides the furred almuce and the clerical cap,
(72) there was another though less usual kind of
adornment, of which our native antiquaries seem
unaware, and no modern liturgist has taken any
notice : on particular occasions the custom was in
England for the clergy to wear
A GARLAND TWINED ABOUT THE HEAD.
Crowned with roses, and honeysuckle, and other
sweet-smelling flowers, the canons and vicars of
some of our cathedrals, 7 and the clergy in not a
7 Sicque hodie cum alibi turn apud Anglos, statis solennibusque
diebus sacerdotes coronati in supplicationibus publicis incedunt et
prsesertim Londini sacerdotes Paulini, mense Junio die divo Paulo
Apostolo sacro, qui simul omnia ejus diei sacra coronati curant,
faciuntque. Polydore Vergil, De Invent. Rer., ii. 17.
Stow mentions the procession at St. Paul's, London, on the
feast of the Apostle, when the dean and chapter " apparelled in
coaps and vestments, with garlands of roses on their heads, issued
out at the west door." Survey of London, iii. 165 (ed. Strype,
London, 1720).
Of old, our English youth, it would seem, were very fond of
wearing wreaths of flowers, for such floral adornments were not
the least conspicuous parts of the holiday attire displayed at Paris
by our young countrymen then studying there, as they went
forth to meet their king, Henry III., when he visited that city
(A.D. 1254) : Scholares autem Parisienses, maxime Anglicse nationis,
certificati de adventu talium regum et reginarum . . . cereos,
vestesque festivas (quas vulgus Cointisas appellant), et omnia quse
60 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(73) few of our parishes, 8 walked forth in solemn
array at the great processions of the year, and on
the festival of the saint under whose name their
dear old church was dedicated to Almighty God ;
and besides this, went through all the Divine ser-
vice of the day having on these wreaths of bloom-
ing flowers.
Such a becoming practice was not confined to
England ; Germany, 9 France, 10 and Italy, 11 followed
gaudium poterant attestari, emerunt et sibi prseparabant, can-
tantes ramigeri et florigeri, cum sertis et coronis et musicis instru-
mentis, processerunt venientibus obviam, &c. (Matt. Paris, Hist.,
p. 604.). Chaucer makes his gaily clad young gentleman
Have hatte of floures fresh as May,
Chapelet of roses of Whitsunday.
The Romaunt of the Rose, Fragment B. 2276, 2277 [Student's
Chaucer, Skeat, p. 24].
8 Garlondes on Corpus Christi day, lod. . . . for rose-garlondis
and wodrove garlondis on Saynt Barnebas day, nd. Nichols,
Churchwardens' Accts. of St. Mary Hill, p. 94.
A dozen and \ rose-garlondes on St. Barnebas day, 8M. Ibid.,
p. 95.
For two doss di (two dozen and a half) bocse garlonds for prests
and clerkes on St. Barnebe daye, is. iod., A.D. 1486. Ibid.
For rosse garlonds on Corpus Christi day, vid.
garlonds on Seynt Marten's day, y e translacyon. Ibid., St. Martin
Outvuich, London (A.D. 1525), p. 273.
9 Sequantur pueri seu scholares lineis induti, et coronas in capite,
non calices tamen, sed candelas accensas, aut insignia passionis
Domini aut nolas in manibus portantes et pulsantes (in processione
in solemnitate Corporis Christi). Synod. Dioces. Wormiens. (A.D.
1610), Cone. Germ., ix. 119.
It was not merely the singing boys of a cathedral who wore a
wreath of flowers on this great festival ; even the Emperor him-
self, of Germany, used, at that period, to walk in this procession
with nothing on his head but a floral crown, for it is recorded
of Ferdinand II. (A.D. 1619), that he used to take part in this
solemnity, "sola florea redimitus corolla." Sarnelli, Lett. EccL, iv.
50, n. 1 8.
Videas eos qui ^va-r^pio^opov sacerdotis cingunt latera viros
PART I. CHAP. VI. 6 1
(74) it ; and as the clergy of those countries went
forth, bearing in triumphant gladness the body of
principes aliosque proximos vel antecedentes vel subsequentes
sertis redimitos : floribus ornatos pueros, rosis coronatas virgines
imo et Moguntiae ecclesiarum omnium canonicos clerumque pene
totum quernis aut hederaceis capita revinctos coronis. Indicant
haec omnia spiritualem laetitiam. Serarius, Opusc., iii. 142, where
the " Corpus Christi " procession is described.
On the octave day of the Epiphany, all the subdeacons belonging
to Cologne Cathedral, at performing a ceremony peculiar to that
church, walked in procession to the chapter-house with lighted
tapers in their hands and their heads crowned with ivy -wreaths :
Hederaceo serto coronati cereisque accensis, &c. Crombach, Hist.
SS. Trium Reyum, torn, iii., lib. iii., cap. xiv., p. 732.
10 Martene found this procession thus figured in an illumination
in a manuscript missal, written for some church at Melun : In
missali Melodunensi, feria 5, post festum SS. Trinitatis habetur
missa de SS. Sacramento, cui appicta est imago sacerdotis sacram
eucharistiam manu gestantis, sub baldachino a quatuor viris delate,
qui perinde ac sacerdos ipse reliquique clerici nudum caput florum
coronis ornatum habent (De Ant. Ecc. Rit., torn, iii., lib. iv., cap.
xxix., p. 197). In his precious but now rare little book, De Pro-
cessionibus Ecclesiasticis, Eveillon tells us, that at the cathedral of
Angers, of which he was a canon, among other rites during the
procession for Corpus Christi, were observed the following : Serta,
festae frondes, corollas e floribus in capitibus puerorum symphonia-
corum et aliorum ecclesise administratorum, &c. (p. 274). Exactly
the same rite was followed in the cathedral of Laon, as we learn
from the work of its learned and pious dean, Bellotte, who tells
us that, among the things got ready for keeping the festival of
Corpus Christi in that church, were : Serta seu f estse frondes in
sanctorum reliquiis apponendae, corollse item e floribus, capitibus
puerorum symphoniacorum, et aliorum ecclesise ministrorum effe-
rendae (Ritus Ecc. Laudunensis, p. 859). In the same church, the
custom was to give away wreaths made of green boughs, as the
hymn was being sung at the hour of prime on the morning of
Twelfthtide eve : Post quemlibet versum Hymni ad Primam decan-
tandi repetenda, Dei solemnia recolat Ecclesia; ac eodem ipso tern-
poris momento fit in eadem Laudunensi Ecclesia, ac illius sumptu,
solemnis ac publica virentibus foliis coronarum largitio (ibid., p.
813). That wearing garlands was peculiar neither to Angers nor
Laon, but adopted all over France, is evident from what a later
writer on the same subject, Vatar, remarks : C'est premierement
62 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
our (75) Lord in the blessed Eucharist, through
the streets and squares of the densely peopled
city, or along (76) the highways and byways of
the lowly village and the little hidden hamlet of
a rural parish, they had nothing on their heads
but a wreath of roses ; and the old men and the
young, the choir of singing-boys, and the youthful
maidens clad in white, who strewed the path,
whereby the Holy of Holies was to come, with
evergreens and sweetly-scented herbs and flowers
all were garlanded with roses. In some towns
abroad was it the custom for the good parish
priest to go every year, his brow entwined with
newly-gathered buds of the rose and (77) orange-
blossom, and holding in his hand a posy of the
sweetest roses nicely arranged, with his loved and
loving flock crowded about him, to do homage
oh paroissent tous les ministres des autels avec les plus beaux
ornemens, des couronnes de fleurs a leurs testes, et des bouquets
a leurs mains. Des Processions de Vfiglise, p. 472.
11 The practice of North Italy is well shown by the rubrics in
the " Sacerdotale " put forth for the diocese of Brescia. Con-
cerning the procession for Corpus Christi, that manual enjoins:
Deputentur principaliores aliquot viri pro portando baldachino,
sub quo sacerdos cum Venerabili Sacramento processionaliter ire
debet : qui viri pro cuj usque facultatibus pulchre sint vestiti,
ferantque singuli sertum in capite ex floribus confectum. Induan-
tur aliquot puerorum paria ad formam Angelorum cum sertis in
capite, quorum aliqui canistris deferant folia rosarum versus
Venerabile Sacramentum quandoque in processione seminanda, &c.
Aliquot viri decenter vestiti cum sertis rosarum in capite qui ab
utraque parte baldachini deferant faces, lampades, seu candelas
accensas. . . . Instrui possent aliquot paria puerorum, puella-
rumque, qui decenter vestiti, et cum sertis roseis processionaliter
irent, &c. Catalani, Rituale Romanum, ii. 214, 215 [ed. Rome,
1757].
PART I. CHAP. VI. 63
to the bishop seated on his episcopal chair in the
cathedral : 12 in other places, did he who had been
just called to the priesthood, walk with a crown of
flowers around his head to the altar upon which
he was then about to offer up, for the first time,
the holy and adorable sacrifice of the Mass. 13
(78) SECTION IX
Another step onwards will lead to
THE VESTURE OF THE CLERGY IN CHOIR.
Till the change in our national belief, many of
England's cathedrals were held and served, not as
abroad by secular canons, but Benedictine monks.
12 Antiquus mos Noise incubuit ut omnes sacerdotes ... ad
urbem episcopumque se conferant. Verumtamen non licet clericis
urbem intrare nisi coronatis atque ordine canentibus, cum plus-
culis tibicinibus. Cantus sunt Dei et sanctorum hymni ; corollas
vero contextse rosis floribusque citreis aliisque quos pulcherrimos
ea dies producere solet ; manu quoque ferentibus fascicules rosarum
affabre contextos, atque arte distinctos.
Eo itaque modo ornati sacerdotes urbem templumque episcopi
ingrediuntur. . . . Vocatur igitur sacerdos ... ad episcopum
accedit coronatus atque floribus redimitus. Deinde solium ascendit,
ac genu flexo extractaque capiti corolla, episcopum veneratur, corol-
lamque et ac fascicules florum omnes illi largitur, et exosculata
manu accedit ad suos. Ughelli, Italia Sacra, vi. 284.
13 Martene, in his most interesting Voyage Litteraire de Deux
Benedictins, tells us : Lorsque nous arrivames a Anchin la premiere
personne que nous rencontrames f ut une chanoinesse reguliere, qui
portoit une couronne de fleurs sur la tete, et comme cela nous
surprit, on nous dit qu'il y avoit en ce jour-la une premiere messe
au monastere, et qu'aux premieres messes le celebrant portoit une
couronne de fleurs a 1'autel, qu'il retenoit jusqu'a 1'offertoire, et
qu'alors on 1'envoyoit a la plus proche parente, qui la portoit le
reste de la journee. Second Voyage, p. 85.
64 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
This custom was brought into use by St. Austin,
himself a monk, and was more widely spread and
strengthened through the way in which the Anglo-
Saxon Church followed the advice that St. Beda
gave for overcoming whatever difficulties might
arise against the erection of new episcopal sees
a thing the saint warmly advocated which was to
set them up in the larger and more wealthy monas-
teries. 14 That monks should serve a cathedral is
(79) so wide a departure from the practice observed
in every other country of Christendom, that it has
awakened the surprise of ecclesiastical writers. 15
Some of our cathedrals, before the coming over
here of the Normans, but after that event many
more, were in the hands of and officiated in by
the secular clergy, embodied together under the
name of
CANONS,
about whom, in general, it may not be amiss to
say a word or two.
14 Quapropter commodum duxerim, habit o major! concilio, et
consensu pontifical! simul et regal! edicto, prospiciatur locus aliquis
monasteriorum, ubi sedes episcopalis fiat. Et ne forte abbas vel
monachi huic decreto contraire ac resistere tentaverint, detur illis
licentia, ut de suis ipsi eligant eum, qui episcopus ordinetur, et
adjacentium locorum, quotquot ad eandem dioecesim pertineant,
una cum ipso monasterio curam gerat episcopalem ; aut si forte in
ipso monasterio qui episcopus ordinari debeat inveniri nequeat, in
ipsorum tamen, juxta statuta canonum, pendeat examine, qui de
sua dioecesi ordinetur antistes. Beda, Epist. ad Ecgberctum An-
tistitem, ex., ed. Stevenson, Opp. Hist., ii. 216 [ed. Plummer, i. 413].
15 Augustinus enim et Laurentius, aliique primi prsedicatores
Anglorum monachi fuerunt et in episcopiis suis vice canonicorum
quod vix in aliis terris invenitur, monachos constituerunt.
Ordericus Vitalis, Eccles. Hist., iv. [P.L., clxxxviii. 322].
PART I. CHAP. VI. 65
The word canonicus, or KCLVOVLKOS, comes from KCLVWV,
which means a straight slip of wood for rectifying what
is crooked. Besides several other ecclesiastical signifi-
cations, " canon" or KCLVM means; i, a rule of life; 2,
a list or roll of the clergy associated to any particular
church. As those who give themselves up more im-
mediately to the worship of God and the service of the
sanctuary, ought always to follow a straighter line of
conduct, and be controlled by a stricter rule of life,
hence it was that, at an early period, all persons,
whether men or women, who had (80) made religious
vows, the clergy, in all its grades, as well as monks and
nuns, were denominated " canonical."
Towards the end of the fourth and the beginning of
the fifth century, the bishops, in some places, gathered
their clergy about them within their own houses, where
they all lived together according to a certain rule, pro-
vided with food, raiment, and the requisites of life out
of the revenues of the church which they served, and
close to which they were dwelling. If not the first, at
least one of the most illustrious examples of such a
society was furnished by the celebrated St. Austin and
his clergy of Hippo, who lived together under the same
roof, and formed a kind of religious brotherhood, ob-
serving one common rule of life or canon, without
making what are now known as the monastic vows,
celibacy excepted, to which all in holy orders bound
themselves. Such a mode of living for themselves
and those among their clergy who served the cathedral
church, became gradually adopted by several other
prelates, especially on the Continent ; and hence arose,
at least in continental Christendom, the system of
cathedral chapters, the members of which were called
" canons," not only because they lived together under
the same roof, slept in the same dormitory, ate at the
same board, and obeyed one common rule, but because
they were all enrolled as brethren upon the list of the
VOL. II. E
66 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
same church which, in return for their services to her,
fed and cherished them as her children. For the clergy
officiating at the cathedral of Metz, in Lorraine, was it
that St. Chrodegang, the bishop of that see from the
year 743 to 756, drew up a code of rules differing,
under a few heads only, from the Benedictine institute.
The common hall, the common sleeping-room, the
dwelling-place enclosed by a wall in which there was
but one gate to be opened and shut at stated hours,
and watched by a porter, (81) are all insisted on by the
rule of St. Chrodegang, which may be seen in Holsten,
Codex Regularum, ed. Brockie, ii. 96. The Council of
Aix-la-Chapelle, held A.D. 8 1 6, drew up a set of statutes
for the canons of cathedrals and collegiate churches,
very much the same as those framed by St. Chrode-
gang, but which were somewhat altered by another
Council at Rome, A.D. 1059.
In that dearth, mourned over so long ago by Gildas,
of documents illustrative of the early British church,
we do not rightly know what was the system adopted
by the bishops of Britain for the service of their
cathedrals, though we are warranted to think that
their episcopal sees were set up in the larger mon-
asteries, and therefore served by monks. The Anglo-
Saxons were acquainted with the use of the term
" canonicus " as applied to the clergy. Ecgberht,
archbishop of York, A.D. 732, tells us: Canones dici-
mus regulas quas sancti patres constituerunt, in quibus
scriptum est quomodo canonici, id est, regulares clerici
vivere debent ([The so-called] Excerpt. Ecgberti, Thorpe,
Ancient Laws and Institutions of England, ii. 97) ; and
the Council of Calcuth (Calchuthense), held A.D. 787, in
its fourth discourse, which is thus headed : Ut vita et
habitus canonicorum, etc., sint de more orientalium, et juxta
canones et decreta pontificum Romanorum, makes the fol-
lowing enactment: Ut episcopi diligenti cura pro-
videant quo omnes canonici sui canonice vivant, et
PART I. CHAP. VI. 67
monachi sen monachae regulariter conversentur tarn in
cibis quam in vestibus, ut discretio sit inter canonicum
et monachum vel secularem (Wilkins, Condi, i. 147).
From such scanty evidence it would be hard to draw
any more distinct conclusion, than that the term
" canonicus " was in use among the Anglo-Saxons
to point out the rest of the clergy from the monks
who were bound to follow the rule (82) of their
order, and to do the bidding of their abbot, as the
churchman was to heed the ecclesiastical canons, and
listen to the voice of his bishop. Perhaps, too, those
of the clergy who were more strict in the fulfilment
of their duties, were, from such a regularity, called
" canons."
It would seem that those of our cathedrals which
were served, during the Anglo-Saxon period, not by
monks but by the secular clergy, had not belonging to
them canons governed by the same rule of common
life, like those on the Continent. When Leofric trans-
lated his see from Crediton to Exeter (A.D. 1050), he
got his new church to be served by canons who dwelt
together under the same roof, slept in the one same
room, and took their meals in the same common hall,
a way of life for the clergy not monks, unheard of
hitherto in this land, as Malniesbury tells us : Huic
(Livingo) tempore Edwardi successit Lefricus apud
Lotharingos altus et doctus qui sedem episcopatus
transtulit in civitatem quse, propter fluvium Exam qui
muros lapsu suo allambit, vocatur Excestre . . . Hie
Lefricus eiectis sanctimonialibus a sancti Petri monas-
terio episcopatum et canonicos statuit, qui contra
morem Anglorum ad formam Lotharingorum uno
triclinio comederent, uno cubiculo cubitarent. Trans-
missa est hujusmodi regula ad posteros, quamvis pro
luxu temporurn nonnulla iam ex parte deciderit,
habentque clerici ceconomum ab episcopo constitutum
qui eis diatim necessaria victui, annuatim amictui com-
68 THE CHUKCH OF OUR FATHERS
moda suggerat. William of Malmesbury, De Gestis
Pontificum Anglorum [ii. 94, R.8., lii. 201].
The end of the eleventh century, however, witnessed
a change in the discipline that had for so many years
been so generally observed on the Continent by the
clergy who served the cathedrals. That intimate com-
munity of life was broken off, and the observance of
the same common (83) rule dispensed with. To every
canon was allotted a dwelling-place apart for himself
and his servants, though each one was expected to live
within the walled space, called, from that circumstance,
the close a good specimen of which is still to be seen
at Wells, near the cathedral or at least within the
neighbourhood of his church. To each was assigned,
besides the commons which he drew every day he
punctually came to choir, a decent provision, called a
prebend, for the support of himself and his household ;
and an uninterrupted attendance at the various daily
and nightly church services was enjoined, unless the
individual was expressly allowed, for some good reason,
to be away. Thus, even after the alteration had been
brought about, a something that bore a likeness to the
ancient discipline was still kept up, and for this reason,
and because they were enrolled in the list of clergy
belonging to the church to which they became asso-
ciated, the cathedral and collegiate clergy of the higher
grades continued to be, and are yet called " canons."
There were some collegiate bodies of canons who
would not relax, but have ever remained steadfast in
the practice of the early discipline of their order,
always living in community under the guidance of
their ancient rule. Such are now known as canons
regular, and are thus distinguished from the other
canons.
Perhaps the canons regular may be the " chanoines,"
and the secular clergy of cathedrals and collegiate
churches the " canons " of our old national writers,
PART I. CHAP. VI. 69
whose distinction between " chanoines " and " canons "
has hitherto puzzled our modern commentators.
In this transition, which was slow, of the canons
regular into secular clerks, the vesture which had been
first used by them in choir underwent little change ;
so that the cathedral clergy continued to array them-
selves, for singing (84) the divine service, in robes like
those employed by their predecessors.
In all cathedrals and collegiate churches, the clergy
who served them might be separated into two grand
divisions, of which one was called the upper, the other
the lower grade. In the first were ranked the personages
or dignitaries, as the dean, the treasurer, chancellor,
precentor, &c., and the full canons ; in the second, the
under canons, vicars, and the rest of the minor clerks :
the boys who sang in the choir, or ministered about
the altar, were looked upon and treated as a distinct
body.
For going to choir, over a cassock or pelisse,
each one put on, in early times, an alb, at a later
period, a surplice. Besides these garments, both
grades of the clergy, without distinction, wore the
canon's black woollen cope 16 throughout the year
16 Some families of canons regular still require their members,
whenever they go out of the house, to wear over their cassock
a linen surplice, and above that a large, full, black canon's cope.
I have often met them so dressed about the streets of Rome.
Such, too, was their habit when they went abroad in England
during olden times, as we learn from our poet Chaucer, who thus
describes one of them :
At Boghton under Blee, us gan atake
A man, that clothed was in clothes blake,
And undernethe he wered a whyt surplys.
* * * *
Al light for somer rood this worthy man
And in myn herte wondren I bigan
70 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(85) by night as at matins, 17 and by day, for prime,
tierce, sext and none, or, as they are called, the
" little hours," excepting at the more joyful sea-
sons, such as Easter and Whitsuntide, and on
high festivals and great saints' days, when they
cast off the black cope and appeared in their
surplices, 18 or were arrayed in rich silk copes for
the procession and the grand High Mass. 19
(86) The almucia or furred almuce was worn
What that he was, til that I understood
How that his cloke was sowed to his hood ;
For which, when I had longe avised me
I denied him som chanon for to be.
The Chanones Yemannes Prologue [556-558, 568-573, Skeat,
Student's Chaucer, p. 657].
17 The morrow-mass priest of Lichfield Cathedral, as he had to
say Mass as early as five o'clock every morning, was allowed to be
away from midnight office : Capellanus S. Ceddae ... in ecclesia
nostra . . . missam matutinalem, viz., hora quinta incipiente, de
mane singulis diebus celebret . . . ita quod idem capellanus . . .
matutinis media nocte decantandis, minime interesse teneatur.
Statuta Heyworth Ep. (c. A.D. 1420), Dugdale, Mon. Angl., viii. 1262.
18 See chapter xix., De Habitu Chori per totum annum [Use of
Sarum, i. 24].
19 The Salisbury rubric on this head was quoted just now in
note 77. The Use of St. Paul's, London, may be found in Sparrow
Simpson, Registrum, p. 53.
In the statutes drawn up by Bishop Hugh Pateshull, for the
cathedral of Lichfield (c. A.D. 1239), we find it ordered: Capse de
samito, vel tantum de auro, vel alia pretiosa in bona custodia
separatim serventur, et nulli vicario tradantur, nisi praecipue in
majoribus festis et processionibus. Et vicarii cum capis sericis
induerint, eas modeste deponant et honeste reponant. Nullus
autem vicarius capam sericam sibi oblatam recuset, nee in choro,
nee in processione, &c. Dugdale, Mon. Angl., viii. 1258.
To the precentor belonged the office of allotting these copes
to the various members of the choir, according to the rank which
each one held in the Church : Ad cantoris officium pertinet capas
in choro, quotiens gerantur. pro qualitate personarum distribuere.
Dugdale, Hist, of St. Paul's, p. 346, De Cantor e.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 71
by the canons of the upper grade, all the year
round, at the church services, 20 both by day and
by night : to those in the lower grade, this vesture
was allowed (87) only at the offices of the choir
which were sung by night, and for such individuals
it was ordered to be made, not only of a smaller
size, but of less costly materials, than the ones
in use among the dignified clergy.
But upon those holydays and particular occa-
sions that the dignitaries of a cathedral, or colle-
giate church, and the parochial clergy, when
doctors of divinity, exchanged the simple black
woollen cope for the rich silk embroidered one,
they still kept on the almuce, which was always
made of a fur, and lined and trimmed with a stuff
of a colour which proclaimed their rank, and wore
it, as the accompanying woodcut shows, under
the splendid processional cope in such a manner,
that the upper portion or hood of this furred
20 When Du Molinet wrote (A.D. 1666) his small, though rich
and well-illustrated work, entitled, Discours sur les Habits anciens
et moderns des Chanoines, he found it a custom, in some places, not
only for the celebrant and his ministers, but for every new priest
at his first Mass to go to the altar having the head covered with
a furred almuce : J'ay trouve qu'il y a encor quelques endroits,
ou les prestres et les ministres allant a 1'autel, portent 1'aumusse
en teste, sur leurs ornements sacrez, et d'autres ou les nouveaux
prestres s'en servent pareillement aux jours de leurs premieres
Messes (p. 18). But even a hundred years after, when De Moleon
gave his book to the world, the furred almuce still continued
to be so worn at High Mass in Rouen Cathedral during the winter
months : Le soudiacre, le diacre, et le celebrant . . . ont en este
1'aumusse sur le bras gauche, et la tete couverte du bonnet quarre,
et en hyver pardessus la chasuble ou tunique ils ont 1'aumusson,
qui leur couvre la tete et les epaules. Voy. Liturg., p. 363.
72 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
almuce overlapped that part of the top which
goes above the neck, and displayed itself, like
a broad ruff, over the shoulders.
Such, too, was the way in which
the rulers or rectors of the choir,
even in parish churches that were
not collegiate, wore their furred
almuce along with the cope of
silk, when they officiated at Mass,
matins, or evensong on great
days.
(88) Another way of wearing
this furred almuce was to throw
it across either the right or left
shoulder, and keep it hanging
there as much before as behind,
with the hand grasping one end
as it had been a little sack. Such
a custom arose towards the be-
ginning of the fifteenth century, and was followed
in many places abroad, and perhaps in some,
though they must have been but few, here in
England. 21
21 In a manuscript book of Hours of the fifteenth century,
in my possession, there are, in one of its illuminations, figured
two minor canons, having the almuce, shaped in the bag-form
as a covering for the head, thrown over the shoulder in such a
way, that the end, with the little points or tails hanging all round
it, falls behind. But the reader may see many examples of such
a custom in the woodcuts, particularly at ff. 2 b. 29, 86, 194, of the
valuable Pontificate Romanse Ecclesise, printed A.D. 1520, in Venice,
by Giunta ; as well as in those to be found in another important
liturgical work, Sacrar. Cserem. Rom. Eccl. Lib. Tres, from the same
press, A.D. 1582, especially at ff. 167, 180.
From the grave-brass of
Christopher Urswick.D.D. ,
in Hackney Church, Mid-
dlesex, A.D. 1521.
From the Roman Pontifical, Giunta, Venice. 1520, f.
From the Roman Pontifical, Giunta, Venice. 1520, f. 194.
74 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
Now, however, a practice, if not everywhere
yet very widely, prevails, of carrying this " almucia "
slung upon the lower part of the left arm ; but
in some churches it is still worn sewed to the
canon's cope, like a hood, and spread all about
the shoulders. 22
(89) The hood as it used to be made and worn
of yore, both by churchmen and the laity, must
not be confounded with the choir almuce : the
article of church attire differed, in many ways,
from that part to which it answered of the common
every-day dress of the period. Then, as now, it
happened, though not always, yet often, that in
small towns, and especially country churches, the
little boys who served the priests at the altar, as
well as the parish sexton, were mere lay-folks, not
having the tonsure, much less any one of the four
minor orders. From such, the same compliance
with the canons on the point of dress could not be
looked for as from ordained clerks, nor was it
asked. Hence came it that those individuals,
while going through the offices of the liturgy
along with the priesthood, might always be known
for secular people by something or another about
their garb, either in its colour, its cut, or
22 Such is the practice at St. Peter's, St. Mary Major's, and
St. John Lateran's, at Rome. But in some of the smaller col-
legiate churches of the Holy City, the canons carry upon the left
arm their almuce, which is neither ermine, like that of the upper
canons, nor grey, as is the one given to the minor canons of the
great basilicas, but of brown skins.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 75
its materials. Perhaps one of the readiest illus-
trations of this to be found, is the attire of the
youth in our woodcut, here
given from an illumination
in (90) a fine old manu-
script Salisbury missal 23
now before me. Over his
surplice, this lad wears a
hood which, like his cas-
sock, is scarlet, thus show-
ing itself, not only in its shape, but tint, to be
an appurtenance of the world rather than of the
sanctuary.
SECTION X
After having thus gone through the list of all
those ornaments and articles of sacred attire used
by the priesthood itself, or by churchmen below
that rank in the hierarchy, as were allotted to each
order of them according to the place it has given
it in the Church's public ministrations, we will
now take a short view of such adornments as
more especially belong to the episcopate : of
these,
THE MITRE
being the first, ought to have our first attention.
Without stopping to try what strength there
23 In the possession of Sir Robert Throckmorton, Bart., and
described at note 64, i. 344 of this work.
76 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
may be in the proofs upon which is rested the
opinion of those who say, that the apostles St.
John and St. James wore each of them, a plate of
gold upon his forehead when ministering before
the people, let us travel upwards through ecclesi-
astical history, and a very few hundred years after
(91) the apostolic age do we meet with facts
showing, some indeed indirectly, others however
most immediately, that in many places of at least
this, the Western Church, during that early
period,
BISHOPS WORE GOLDEN CROWNS AT THE DIVINE
SERVICE.
Unless in reality such was then the usage, the lan-
guage of some of our highest ecclesiastical writers
would have had no meaning : 24 but all doubt is
24 At the end of the fourth, or beginning of the fifth, century,
St. Jerome, a priest, addressed St. Austin, a bishop, thus : Fratres
tuos dominum meum Alypium et dominum meum Evodium, ut
meo nomine salutes, precor coronam vestram (Ep. ad August, n.
26). The " corona," or crown, here spoken of by St. Jerome, was
a something, therefore, not common to himself and St. Austin.
St. Austin, however, writing as follows to a brother bishop, talks
of the " crown " as of what was common to both of them : Per
coronam nostram nos adjurant vestri, per coronam vestram vos
adjurant nostri. Ep. ad Proculianuiti [(Paris, 1836) ii. 94, Epis.
xxxiii.].
Now the tonsure, or cutting away, in the shape of a circle, the
hair from the top of the head, being a mark of having left the
world worn by all clergymen, by St. Jerome the priest equally
with St. Austin the bishop, it is clear the " corona " in the
above letters did not mean the clerical tonsure ; and, not meaning
that, must of consequence be understood of some distinctive
PART I. CHAP. VI. 77
(92) cleared away by the circumstance that, in de-
scribing the sacrificial array of the British epis-
copacy in the sixth century, an author of the
period lets us know, that a jewelled diadem of
gold on the brow of the bishop was one of the
prelate's chief ministerial ornaments ; 25 and such a
ornament then worn about the head by a bishop only, of, in fact,
a circlet or crown, most likely made of gold or silver.
Our own Venerable Beda, himself but a priest, in dedicating one
of his works [Life of S. Cuthbert] to Eadfrid, a bishop, makes use
of the same form of speech while addressing him thus : Vestrse
almitatis corona. Beda, Op. Hist. Mm., ed. Stevenson, p. 47, 2.
But the language of other writers is more precise. Thus of the
great St. Ambrose, sang Ennodius, himself a bishop, and a writer
of the sixth century, A.D. 511 :
Serta redimitus gestabat lucida fronte
Distinct um gemmis ore parabat opus.
Ennodius, Epigram Ixxvii. [P.L. Ixiii. 348].
Three centuries later (A.D. 794), Theodulph, Bishop of Orleans,
thus describes the episcopal crown of gold :
Aurea pontincis cingebat lamina frontem
Qua bis binus apex nomen herile dabat.
Lib. v. carm. iii., v. 610 [P.L. cv. 357].
In all our ancient forms for the consecration of a bishop, the
silence respecting the crown or golden circlet, makes no more
against the use, in olden times, of this ornament, than does the
same silence in all our ordination services now respecting the
clerical cap, which, although it is never formally given by the
Church to any of her ministers, is worn, however, by all ranks of
them, from the bishop downwards to the lowliest clerk, as a
ceremonial part of attire.
25 In the Life of our British countryman, St. Samson, its writer,
who, if not an actual contemporary with that holy bishop (c. A.D.
565), must have lived but a very short time after him, while
affording us a glimpse of the episcopal ornaments in the British
hierarchy at that period, as he describes the vision with which
St. Samson was favoured, particularly mentions these coronals :
Sanctus Samson admirabilem vidit visum. Quadam nocte circum-
septari se a delicatis, ac densissimis canditatorum turbis cernit,
et tres episcopos egregios diadematibus aureis in capite ornatos,
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
coronal, so (93) gemmed, was actually found about
the head of one of our earliest Anglo-Saxon bishops,
St. Cuthberht, when his grave was opened in the
twelfth century. 26 Besides bishops, abbots too, it
would seem, were allowed, during the Anglo-
Saxon period of our
Church, to have on,
most likely but at
great solemnities, a
circlet of gold, set
with precious stones,
the shape of which,
and way of wearing
it, are well shown by
this woodcut of a
(94) figure in St.
^Ethelwold's Bene-
dictional. 27 Our island was not the only country
where, during the sixth and following centuries,
these golden crowns were used by the prelates of
the Church at the celebration of the liturgy ; such
diadems were employed for a like purpose by
those personages in Italy and Germany, and other
atque holosericis ac pulcherrimis amictos vestibus in faciem sibi
adsistere, &c. Vita S. Samsonis, ab auctore anonymo sub&quali,
Mabillon, AA. SS. B., i. 165, n. 43.
26 In fronte sancti pontificis auri lamina non textilis fabrica,
tantummodo forinsecus deaurata, prseminet, quse diversi generis
lapidibus preciosis, minutissimis tamen, undique conspersa renitet.
Reginald of Durham, De Admir. S. Cuthberti, p. 87.
27 Now at Chatsworth, in the library of the Duke of Devon- -
shire, by whom I was kindly indulged with a leisurely inspection
of this truly glorious specimen of Anglo-Saxon art.
PART I. CHAP. VI.
79
parts of continental Christendom. By a very old
Roman " Ordo " it is directed, that at beginning
the Gospel, when the deacon makes upon himself
the sign of the cross,
the bishop and all the
people should do in like
manner ; then turning
themselves reverently to-
wards the Gospel, have,
all the while it is being
sung, neither crown nor
any kind of covering on
the head. 28 If, too, it
were quite certain that
the (95) accompanying
figure, from the bronze
gates put up before St.
John the Evangelist's
28 Et postquam dixerit Sequentia sancti evangelii . . . et reliqua,
facit crucis signum in fronte sua idem diaconus, et in pectore :
similiterque episcopus et omnis populus ; et revertuntur ad evan-
gelium. Sed et baculi omnium deponuntur de manibus, et in
ipsa hora, neque corona, neque aliud operimentum super capita
eorum habetur (Ordo Romanus II., ed. Mabillon, Mus. Ital., ii. 45,
46). This is the Ordo which Amalarius made the ground-work,
(A.D. 820-830) of his Edogx de Officio Missse, in which he says,
while treating of the singing of the gospel by the deacon : Neque
coronam, neque aliud operimentum super caput eadem hora
tenentes. [P.L. cv. 1322].
When the grave of St. Goslin, abbot of a monastery at Turin
(A.D. 1061), was opened in the year 1472, there was found, along
with other ornaments upon his body, one of these crowns : Con-
spicit itaque justi et piissimi patris epitaphium, corpusque pallio,
corona quam mitram dicimus, et baculo, more majorum decent er
contectum. Inventio corp. S. Goslini Abb., in A A. SS. Februarii, ii.
632, n. 4.
8o THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
chapel in the baptistery at the Lateran, during the
fifth year of Celestine the Third's pontificate (A.D.
1 196), were really intended to represent that pope, 29
then herein should we behold an unquestionable
proof, that even to the latter end of the twelfth
century, the ancient custom (96) was not alto-
gether laid aside of wearing these episcopal
crowns along with the chasuble and other sacer-
dotal garments.
But these circlets of gold, if often, were not
always, the only ornament around the brow of
an Anglo-Saxon bishop. Whether through old
age, weak health, or bringing to mind how the
priesthood under the Aaronic dispensation had
its comely head-dress, from feelings that a higher
dignity belonged to the Christian episcopate, or
perhaps from all these reasons mingling together,
certain is it our Anglo-Saxon prelates very soon
began to wear upon the head a ceremonial cover-
ing formed of a white kerchief, the finest in
texture, and called from its use and material the
bishop's head-linen, 30 which fitted quite close, and
was hindered from slipping off by a long bandage
tied behind, so as the two ends of this fastening
might be left to fall free and long about the
29 Ciampini, in his Vetera Monimenta, i. 239, is of opinion that
this figure was meant for Pope Celestine III., and in it he is
followed by Bonanni, La Gerarchia Ecclesiastica, p. 278 ; but
D'Agincourt thinks, and I agree with him, that it does not repre-
sent the Roman pontiff. Hist, de VArt, cfcc., Sculp., pi. xxi., n. 7.
30 Infula . . . Biscop heafod lin. sElfric's Gloss., p. 69.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 8 1
shoulders. 31 From the (97) words of St. Beda it
would seem, at the beginning of the eighth century,
the usage here was to wear both crown and linen
together : 32 at a later period, however, the linen
kerchief with its fillets was often the sole head-
covering for a bishop, as we see by the very
interesting picture of St. Dunstan (vol. i., p.
296), figured in one of our liturgical manuscripts
in the British Museum, of the Anglo-Saxon
epoch. 33 This illumination furnishes us with the
31 Of this kind, seemingly, were the two bands trimmed with
gold (nastolse ex auro paratse), noted down among the treasure
belonging (A.D. 831) to St. Riquier's Church, in Ponthieu; and
very likely the " capellum auro paratum " mentioned just after-
wards, in the same list, was nothing more than a fine white
linen kerchief worked all about with gold, to be worn by the
bishop of the diocese when he came to officiate at that monastery.
Descrip. de Thesaur. S. Richarii, in Chron. Centul. [P.L., clxxiv.
1258]. '
32 Sive ergo coronulse fuerint aurese, claritatem perpetuse lucis
significant: sive fuerint byssinse, ipsam nostri corporis immortali-
tatem, quse perennis futura est, figurate denuntiant. Et recte
sacerdos cum stolis byssinis coronas superadditas gestat ut et in
continentia ipse sua jugiter seterna prsemia meditetur et in sanc-
tificatione continentise, vel bonse operationis simul eadem gaudia
supernee beatitudinis audientibus promittat. Beda, De 7'aberna-
culo, iii. 8 [P.L., xci. 482].
33 From the nimb or circle, betokening endless, heavenly happi-
ness, about the head of St. Dunstan (who died A.D. 988), this
illumination could not have been painted sooner than the end of
the tenth, or early in the eleventh century. Done, however, at
whichever period, we may safely assume it to represent the ritual
custom followed by the holy archbishop, of wearing such an attire
on the head. Thus it shows the liturgical usage of the Anglo-
Saxon church in the tenth century.
At the beginning of an " Evangelisterium," called after St.
Nicholas, in the library of Munich, somewhat later in date than
the before-mentioned Cotton manuscript, there is figured a bishop,
who wears a like kind of close, tight cap, white, and seemingly of
VOL. II. F
82 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
earliest known instance of the (98) shape which the
mitre, properly so called, first took in this country
From MS. Nero C. iv., fol. 37.
linen, all around the lower part of which runs a crimson band ;
and a stripe of the same colour goes from the middle of the fore-
head up to the top of the kerchief. This illumination is given by
Silvestre in his valuable work, Paleographie Universelle, partie iv.
The same form of mitre is seen on the head of St. Amand, figured
in Mabillon's Annales Ordinis S. Benedicti, i. 487, from an illumi-
nated manuscript ; and the bishops sculptured on an old tomb in
Reims Cathedral likewise wear it, as we perceive from the engrav-
ing given of this monument by Martene, Voy. Litt., ii. 81, t. I.
The Anglo-Saxon Archbishop of Canterbury, St. Elphege,
martyred by the pagan Danes (A.D. 1012), used, on the great
festivals of the Church, to wear his pall and mitre all through
the day: Quod si prsecipua solennitas instaret . . . ipse (Elphe-
gus) autem in vestitu candido, desuper amictus pallio, mitra
csesariem constrictus, diem transigebat, quatenus per exteriorem
habitum vest is, interiorem conciret habitudinem virtutis, &c.
Vita S. Elphegi, Arch. Cant. Mart., auctore Osberno (c. A.D. 1070),
in A A. SS. Aprilis, ii. 636.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 83
towards the latter half of the (99) tenth century;
in the next age, the first sproutings, as it were,
of the two horns began to show themselves, and
Winchester Cathedral's very curious font 34 (which,
to my thinking, after a leisurely examination of
it, is a work of St. Edward the Confessor's reign),
lets us see how the mitre here in England arose
into two short points, not raised before and be-
hind as now, but right and left over each ear.
In the twelfth century, these elevations still held
the same place, but instead of being sharp, they
were quite blunt, broad, and very low, as the
figures from an Anglo-Norman manuscript 35 on
the plate opposite will testify.
But about this very time sprang up those
strongly marked and characteristic features which,
with but some small variation, have lasted to
the present day, in this episcopal adornment.
Hitherto no (100) cleft nor parting at top was
discernible : now, however, while the points
or rather slightly swelled out elevations were
brought, from arising on the right and left sides
of the head, to shoot up before and behind, the
mitre was so made, that when put on, its two
horns, now heightened a little, stood apart one
from the other, leaving a wide gap between them.
34 This font is given in large plates in vol. ii. of the Vetusta
Monumenta.
35 MS. Cotton, Nero c. iv., in the British Museum, of the Psalter
done into Anglo-Norman.
8 4
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
This new shape, which was thus given, towards
the end of the twelfth century, to the mitre, is
well displayed in this figure
of a bishop, taken from a
manuscript 36 written and
illuminated, towards that
period, by an English hand ;
and the continental writers
of the time, while unfold-
ing the hidden symbolic
meanings which belong to
this article of episcopal
array, have drawn its form
distinctly to our eyes, in
their circumstantial account
f a ^ ^ s P ar ^ s an d embel-
lishments.
(101) The ribbon or bandage, which at one time
used to be wound about the head, behind which
it was knotted to keep fast the mitre, when that
covering was nothing more than a closely fitting
linen cap, now dwindled into a mere ornament :
its two ends, bordered by a deep fringe of scarlet
silk or golden thread, were made to be quite flat
and stiff, and stretching out to some little length,
fell hanging from the back of the mitre upon the
bishop's shoulders, and thus became the lappets
36 The limner of this manuscript has fallen into an error in
setting the maniple on the right, instead of the left, wrist of the
bishop. This precious little codex [Life of St. Cuthbert] belongs
to Sir William Lawson, Bart.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 85
or pendants. But if a silken or golden fringe
was the ordinary, it was not the exclusive edging
of these pendants, for sometimes they had at-
tached to their ends, by light chains of gold or
silver, a quantity of little bells, wrought out of
these same precious metals. 37
(102) A few years rolled away, and the mitre
grew somewhat higher and wider ; but while it
thus very slowly enlarged, it nowise altered its
olden form.
About A.D. 1300, as our woodcut 38 of Bishop
Giffard well shows, the mitre had reached in
England, as it did abroad, that becoming size and
graceful outline to which it long afterwards stead-
fastly kept, until towards the second half of the
37 Una mitra breudata . . . et ornatur laminis argenteis
deauratis et lapidibus insertis . . . et in altero pendulorum
deficiunt tres cathenulse cum karolis argenteis appensis. (Dugdale,
Hist, of St. Paul's, p. 315). Una mitra . . . ornata perlis albis
per totum campum et flosculis argenteis deaurata (deauratis ?)
lapidibus insertis ordine spisso ; et deficit una campanula in uno
pendulorum. (Ib.) Such bells are found fringeing the pendants to
the mitres worn by the Roman pontiffs, about the same time they
were used in England; and from an inventory taken (A.D. 1295) of
the ornaments in the treasury of the Pope's palace, it would seem
that the number hanging to each pendant was often five, never
more than six : Mitram magnam, &c., et in una de caudis sunt vi
balassi . . . et v campanelle, et in alia cauda sunt vj zaffiri . . .
et v campanelle. Of another rich mitre it is said : In caudis sunt
. . . et xii campanelle. Extracts from this inventory are given
by Garampi, Illustrazione di un Sigillo della Garfagnana, p. 85.
The coronel of strawberry leaves seen round the brow of the
archiepiscopal mitre in modern emblazonments of it, is an heraldic
imagination of late date, a Protestant, not a Catholic idea.
Now, as in all times back, there is not the slightest difference
between the mitre of a bishop, or an archbishop.
38 See i. 306.
86 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
sixteenth century, when classicism in architecture
and every kind of ornament, creeping from the
palace to the cathedral, pushed mediaeval art out
of her very home the Church : soon afterwards,
under this new influence, the mitre swelled itself
out into a bulging shape, and upstretched its
height beyond the bounds of due proportion.
But these tall, barrel-waisted, unsightly mitres,
made especially in France, are shrinking away
before the smaller and more comely ones that are
now fashioned, after the restored type of the
fourteenth century.
(103) From the shape, let us go to
THE MATERIAL AND COLOUR OF THE MITRE.
Though it may have been circled round with a
hoop of beaten gold, though gems of price did
often load its surface, still, from the earliest
glimpse which we are enabled to catch of the
mitre, as used among our Anglo-Saxon brethren
in the faith, since the sainted Beda wrote, up
to the end of the twelfth century, we everywhere
find that it was made, not of silk, but of nothing
more costly than plain (though always the best
and whitest) fine linen, of that kind by the older
ecclesiastical writers called " byssus," J which,
39 Mitra sumitur a lege, quse thiara, cydaris, infula, pileum
appellatur. Ex bysso conficitur, auro et gemmis ornatur, habens
duo cormia, duasque lingulas posterius. et fimbrias dependentes
inferius. (Sicardus, Mitrale, ii. 5) [P.L., ccxiii. 73]. Sicard wrote
PART I. CHAP. VI. 87
during the Middle Ages, (104) was known here
in England under the name of " buckram." The
thirteenth century, however, witnessed new en-
richments heaped upon this episcopal appurte-
nance. Though plain white linen continued still
to be employed for the making of mitres, yet
such as happened to be covered with it were set
aside, as now, to be worn during the seasons of
penance, and at the mournful and less solemn
functions of the Church. Instead of the linen
hitherto exclusively employed, the richest silks
came to be adopted for this purpose. This was
not all : often the ground of the mitre was sown,
as it were entirely overspread with the choicest
oriental pearls ; 40 and not unfrequently was the
c. A.D. 1185. Mitra pontificis scientiam utriusque Testament!
significat ; nam duo cornua duo sunt Testamenta, duse fimbriae
spiritus et litera. Circulus aureus, qui anteriorem et posteriorem
partem complectitur, indicat quod Omnis scriba doctus in regno
coelorum de thesauro suo nova profert et vetera. (Innocent PP.,
c. A.D. 1198, De /Sac. Altaris Myst., I. lix.) [P.L., ccxvii. 796. The
reference is to S. Matt. xiii. 52, Vulgate], Mitra autem, quia linea
est, castitatis candorem munditiamque significat . . . Bene autem
totus a capite usque ad pedes lino episcopus operitur, quia omnis
honor ejus et gloria, castitaset munditia est. Bruno Signien. Ep.,
De Consec. Eccl. [P.L., clxv. 1107]. Bruno wrote c. A.D. 1086.
Honorius of Autun (A.D. 1130) likewise tells us that the mitre
then was made of fine white linen : Mitra quoque pontificalis est
sumpta ex usu legis. Hsec ex bisso conficitur. . . . Mitra ergo ex
bisso facta multo labore ad candorem perducta caput pontificis
circumdat, dum Ecclesia baptismate mundata, labore bonorum
operum candidata, caput suum scilicet Christum in gloria videre
anhelat. Gemma Animse, i. 214 [P.L., clxxii. 609].
40 Hubertus, archiepiscopus, dedit mitram in qua sunt c. et
dimid. et xxv. lapides pretiosi, et iv. esmals. Thorpe, Regist.
Roffense, p. 121.
88 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(105) whole mitre wrought of nothing else but
plates of beaten gold and silver. 41 Every art was
bid to come and lend its beauty to this sacred
diadem : the embroideress was its willing hand-
maid, and her needle storied it with saints ; the
enameller, after his craft, strewed it over with
everlasting flowers (106) and devices, and wreathed
it about with bands of beautiful design in lively
and unfading colours ; the jeweller sprinkled it
with the light from every precious stone, with
the soft green rays of the emerald with the fire
Mitra aurea cum perulis infra et extra, et gemmis preciosis.
H. Regis tercij.
Item mitra aurea. J. de Peccham Archiepiscopi cum gemmis
preciosis.
Item mitra ejusdem argentea cum duabus crucibus super cornua.
Item mitre .iiij. brudate et gemmis ornate.
Item mitre .iij. cum perulis ornate sine gemmis.
Item mitre duse simplices de Bokram. [Invent. Gh. Ch. Canter-
bury, 1902, pp. 70, 71.]
41 About the middle of the fourteenth century, all the better-
most sort of mitres were made in England from thin but solid
sheets of Igold or silver. Such were those worn by the mitred
priors of Winchester Cathedral : Mitris eciam aurif risiatis, aureas
et argenteas laminas et gemmas preciosas habentibus, baculo pas-
torali, cirothecis aurifrisiatis, et anulo in digito, tunica, dalmatica,
sandaliis et aliis insigniis pontificalibus . . . usi sumus. Hist.
Dunelmensis Scriptores Tres, Append, p. cliv.
In the latter times of Catholic England, a distinction was made
by our churchmen between mitres of the old and the new make.
Those formed of thin but solid sheets of gold or silver were called
" standing mitres " ; those of thick parchment, covered with white
silk, or a web of small seed-pearls, fell under the denomination of
"mitres after the old fashion." Hence we read in the Winchester
inventory of Henry VIII.'s reign, of "three standing mitres of
silver and gilt, garnished with pearls and precious stones ; ten old
mitres, garnished with pearls and stones, after the old fashion. "
Dugdale, Mon. Anglic., i. 202.
PAKT I. CHAP. VI. 89
of the burning ruby the blue beams of the sky-
lit sapphire, and the golden twinklings of the
yellow topaz. Nor was the worker in the costly
metals behind the rest with the cunning of his
elegant mystery : when he was asked to fashion
a rich mitre out of gold or silver, he wrought
those two thin, though solid, sheets of which it
was to be made up, out of the precious metal, in
such a way, that they not only opened and shut
with utmost readiness by means of gimmels or
hinges, light though strong, in their frame and
nicely adjusted at the sides, but so bent them-
selves upon the wearer's venerable brow, as to sit
with ease upon it : two other gimmels held loosely,
yet securely, the lappets as they swung behind ;
and all up the edges of the mitre, this master of
his art taught to creep a purfling of crockets in
silver, the thin, leaf-like, veined appearance of
which, cut as they were, and tooled to look so
light, so sharp, so crispy, that they would be gazed
on now as a marvel a very miracle of handicraft,
and perhaps might baffle many, if not most, work-
men of the present day to imitate them. 42
42 Una pretiosissima et magna mitra, cum duobus pend. auro cir-
cumdata et lapidibus pretiosis, saphiris et rubeis, valoris septin-
gentarum marcarum per sestimationem, ex dono Thomse Rotheram
archiepiscopi Eborum (Invent. Ornam. ad Eccl. Cath. Ebor. pertin.
Dugdale, Mon. Anglic., viii. 1203). From what we are told (ib. p.
1286) of "the jewels belonging to my Lord of Lincoln's miter," it
must have been covered with pearls and precious stones, and one
of the most splendid in Europe. Amid a quantity of other church
plate sacrilegiously carried off from Fountains Abbey by the royal
pilferer, Henry VIII., were : One mitre, having the edges of silver
9 o THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(107) To learn how rich and beautiful were our
old English mitres, we have only to look at the
very few remains which still exist of one of
them; 43 and (108) cast an eye upon the list of
and gilt, and set with round pieces of silver, white like pearl, and
flowered of silver and gilt in midward, weight twelve ounces. One
mitre of silver gilt, and set with pearl and stone ; weight seventy
ounces. Dugdale, Mott., v. 290.
Precious stones on a mitre, a hallowed vessel, or in anything
for the house of God, should not be cut as ladies' jewels are, in
facets, but en cabochon, that is, in the unbroken, pebble-like shape.
Apart from the difference which ought always to distinguish the
sacred from the secular, even in ornament, there is greater broad-
ness of colour and depth of tint, a something grander, in gems
when set in the smooth elliptical form. The jewels upon every
kind of church ornaments were invariably mounted en cabochon
during the mediaeval period. This should be minded by such as
have the making of vessels for the altar.
43 Judging from its fragments, which I have more than once
seen at New College, Oxford, the mitre bequeathed to that house
by its magnificent founder, William of Wykeham, must have been
as rich as it was beautiful. The ground was of what, from their
smallness, were called seed-pearls, sewed with great regularity
upon white silk ; all around the lower part went a band of enamels
linked together by hinges, so as to leave them free to bend ; and
up the middle, both before and behind, ran a stripe composed
most likely of the same ornaments. There were silver gimmels
at the sides ; and all the edges were purfled with a border of
exquisitely wrought crockets in silver gilt. Of course there were
jewels, but they are gone.
About a hundred years ago there was still to be seen, in
Belgium, one of our fine, precious, old English mitres, quite
entire. Among other things which were shown to Martene on
his visit to the monastery of Cambron, that learned liturgist
especially mentions : La belle mitre qu'un eveque de Gand, qui
avoit besoin d'argent, vendit a un abbe de Cambron, quoyqu'elle
soit couverte de perles et de pierres precieuses. On dit qu'elle est
venue autrefois d'Angleterre (Voyage Litt. y ii. 108). At Rieux,
in the south of France, Martene was shown another beautiful
English mitre : Nous vimes dans la sacristie une fort belle mitre,
que (Monseig. Bertier dernier eveque) avoit achetee d'un Anglais,
et dont il fit present a son eglise, ordonnant qu'on s'en serviroit
les grandes fetes. Ib. p. 35.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 91
sacred ornaments that once, and in happier times,
adorned the cathedral churches of this country.
With regard to
THE COLOUR OF THE MITRE,
from everything we know about this liturgic
covering for the head, ever since it began as a
piece of plain, (109) simple linen, wrapped around
the brows of the aged bishop, unto its actual
shape, it is evident, that excepting when made
from hard gold, beaten into thin plates, or of cloth
of gold, its ground-colour was invariably white. 44
44 All the old-known mitres still in existence have a white
ground. St. Thomas of Canterbury's, figured by Shaw, vol. i. of
his Dresses and Decorations,; an abbot's, very low in form, kept
along with other curious things in the archives room at Bruges
Cathedral; and the remains of William of Wykeham's, in New
College, Oxford, are such. The Limerick mitre, which Shaw has
also given, is made of thin but solid plates of silver, studded with
many precious stones. All the bishops represented on the walls
of the old painted chamber at Westminster, wear white mitres
(see Gage Rokewode's Description in the Vetusta Mon., t. vi., pi.
xxxvii.). Full of liturgical interest is a beautiful picture belong-
ing to Mr. Eastlake, and painted in oils by some unknown but
able Flemish artist of the fifteenth century. It is thought to
represent the burial of our St. Thomas a Becket at Canterbury.
Of the mitres figured in it, all are white ; two seemingly of thick
silk, purfled with golden crockets ; the third all overspread with
pearls. The striking bluish whiteness of two albs in this picture
is not a caprice of the painter's, but done, as I think, to show that
those garments were of silk, not linen, with the creamy tint of
which, as seen in the acolyte's curiously made surplice, the blue-
ness of the silk is well contrasted.
The two mitres once belonging to St. Denys, near Paris, and
figured in Felibien's history of that abbey, plate I , had a ground
of small pearls, and were studded with precious stones.
In the Ordo Romanus xiii, drawn up by command of Pope
Gregory X. (A.D. 1271), the white colour of the mitre and its three
kinds, plain and enriched, according to the feast-day upon which
92 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
Such a tradition, (110) too, is studiously kept up
at the present day by the Roman ritual, which
allows not of red, green, purple, or black mitres,
but specifically tells us (111) that there are three
sorts of bishop's mitre : the first is called the rich
one, because it is adorned with gems and precious
stones, and often made out of sheets of gold and
silver : the second is the gold embroidered mitre,
which has no gems nor plates of gold or silver
upon it, but, for its (112) ornament, a few small
pearls, and is made out of white silk wrought
with gold, or of simple cloth of gold, but without
any plates of that precious metal, or pearls upon
each had to be worn, is clearly laid down : Dominus Papa tres
mitras diversas habet, quibus diversis temporibus utitur ; scilicet
unam albam totam, imam cum aurifrisio in titulo sine circulo, et
mitram aurifrisiatam in circulo et in titulo. Mitra aurifrisiata
in circulo et in titulo utitur in officiis diebus festis et aliis. . . .
Mitra vero cum aurifrisio in titulo sine circulo, utitur cum sedet
in consistorio . . . Alba utitur diebus dominicis et aliis non
festivis (Mabillon, Mus. Ital, ii. 232, n. 12). The " titulus " is the
stripe of gold running up the middle of the mitre. In our inven-
tories of church ornaments we never find mention made of any
coloured mitres ; they are always either white, or of gold :
Una mitra alba cum stellis et grossis lapidibus.
Una mitra alba breudata cum stellis et frecturis et octo lumbis
in circulo de purpura ornata lapidibus et flosculis. Dugdale, Hist.
of St. Paul's, p. 315.
A rich myter w fc golde, peerlys, and pcious stones (pertin.
priori et con vent ui).
A myter amelde (enameled) w* pcious stones.
A myter w fc peerlys, called the white myter. Inventory of
plate belonging to the Priory of Worcester, A.D. 1540, Green, Hist, of
Worcester, t. ii., Append, p. v.
Una mitra de albo serico cum rebaud. de auro.
Una mitra de albo serico ornata cum argento deaurato, in
circumf erentiis cum pretiosis lapidibus, &c. Invent. Ornam. ad Ecc.
Cath. Ebor. pertin. A.D. 1510, Dugdale, Mon. viii. 1203.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 93
it : the third, which is called the plain mitre, is
without any gold, being covered with plain silk
damask, or other stuff, even linen or white cloth,
with red edging or fringe to the hanging lappets. 45
The use of the mitre was not confined to bishops :
Koman cardinals, in virtue of their dignity, though
not even priests ; abbots of great houses, by espe-
cial privilege granted by the supreme pontiff; the
canons of some highly-favoured cathedrals 4G were
I am aware that examples, though few and far between, of red
mitres can be pointed out. In a sixteenth-century stained-glass
window at St. Jacques, Liege, and upon a late tomb in Maidstone
Church, Kent, a crimson-tinted mitre, edged with gold, appears.
Let not, however, the young student in ecclesiastical antiquities
be led astray upon this or another question, touching the colour
of the vestments, by such weak authority. The Belgian window
is of that gaudy, fantastic age of art known as the "cinque-cento,"
or " renaissance " ; our English instance of sculpture is of the
latest mediaeval period. But works of that time are, by them-
selves, never to be trusted as the faithful likenesses of the things
they figure, and especially where colouring is concerned. Works
of that epoch were done, not by men who were churchmen as well
as painters and sculptors, but under artists uncontrolled by the
clergy ; under those who, even if they happened to know the rules
and the symbolism of the ritual, overlooked both for the sake of
producing what they thought effect and contrast in colours. To
the mere painter, crimson would be deemed much better than
white as a ground for a mitre, to bring out its golden trimmings
and its jewels, as well as to heighten the whole effect of the
window, or stone monument, as a work of art in colouring.
45 Cseremoniale Episcoporum, i. 17.
46 To the canons in a few of the great churches in western
Christendom, the Holy See had granted the privilege of robing
themselves for the divine service in all things just like Roman
cardinals. In some cathedrals, however, such as that of Pisa, and
at Lisbon, all the full canons are admitted to this honour ; in most
others, such as those of Magdeburg, Cologne, Mentz, and Treves,
it was confined to a limited number, to seven priests, seven
deacons, and as many subdeacons, all of whom wore mitres along
with the rest of the cardinalitial vesture. All the canons of
94 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(113) allowed to put on this along with some other
ornaments, such as the dalmatic, tunicle, gloves,
and sandals, distinctive of the episcopate. Nay,
but half a century ago, there were churches in
France wherein priest, deacon, and subdeacon, at
High Mass, used each to wear a mitre : so did the
precentor and rulers of the choir, or chanters, while
about the Divine service, on great festivals. 47
Bamberg Cathedral were allowed to have the mitre. AA. SS.
Junii, \\i. 871.
To the provost of St. Die's collegiate church, at the foot of
Mount Vosge, St. Leo IX. (c. A.D. 1048-1054), besides the use of
the mitre and other pontifical ornaments, accorded the especial
privilege of wearing, over his alb, tunicle, and dalmatic, a silken
net-like ornament, falling all around the body, from the girdle
downwards to the feet, and called the " Rete/' from being fashioned
like a net. This we learn from one of its canons, Riguet, who tells
us : Ex institutione Leonis IX., qui majoris prsepositi titulum et
officium aliquando apud nos gessit, factum creditur, ut successoribus
pontificaliter omciantibus pedum et mytra sit, cum peculiar! quo-
que ornamento sericeo, in formam piscatorii retis cooperiente
albam, tunicellam atque dalmaticam, a cingulo usque ad pedes,
quod vulgo Rete vocant, retiatum Latine diceremus. In tali
ornatu assistit praepositus solenniorum dierum officiis. Riguet,
A A. &S. Junii, iii. 871.
47 [A. S. Maurice de Vienne], a la messe du chceur, le celebrant,
le diacre et le soudiacre ont des mitres aux jours solennels (Voy.
Liturg., p. 10. [A S. Vincent de Macon], a la grand messe du
choeur . . . le celebrant, le diacre et le soudiacre chanoines, aussi
bien que les deux chappiers quand ils sont chanoines, se servent
de mitres (ib. p. 147). Les chanoines de 1'eglise collegiale de S.
Pierre de Macon ont aussi 1'usage de la mitre quand ils efficient
au grand autel (ib.). That such a ritual custom was of very long
standing in France, we gather from an observation made by
Richard, Archdeacon of Poictiers (A.D. 1163), and recorded by our
Matthew Paris in these words : Quod audiens Pictavensis archi-
diaconus, " Meus," inquit, " vicarius in ecclesia beati Hillarii incedit
mitratus in omnibus prsecipuis anni solemnitatibus, nee derogat
mitra episcopali dignitati." Vitas S. Albani Abbatum, p. 80 [ed.
Hodgkinson].
PAET I. CHAP. VI. 95
(114) Not only the abbots over our greater
houses, but even the priors in several monasteries
attached to our cathedral churches, had asked for,
and gotten from Rome, a privilege for wearing,
in the celebration of the liturgy, all the episcopal
adornments the mitre, the ring, the pastoral
staff, the tunicle, the dalmatic, the gloves, the
sandals. These ornaments, the mitre more espe-
cially, the monks often chose to have made after
a kind the richest and most costly ; and never
heeding whether the bishop of the diocese were
there or not, celebrated the Divine service in his
cathedral thus episcopally arrayed. The bishops,
with reason, loudly complained of this to Rome,
and bewailed in becoming speech that such an
unseemly inroad on their pre-eminence should be
let go forwards, with an assurance to the Pontiff
that it raised up no small scandal among the
people, and very much lowered the dignity of
the episcopate, observing at the same time, how
many priors of the cathedral churches in various
parts of the country would not put on such orna-
ments, lest they might seem to be on the same
level with their bishops. Acknowledging the
truth and justice of the episcopal protests, (115)
the holy See forbade all our abbots and priors
to use, when their diocesan was present, any
pontifical ornament, and even in his absence to
employ other than the simple white mitre, or, at
most, the one of gold cloth, but without precious
96 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
stone, jewel, or costly adornment of any sort upon
it. After a time, the monks wearied the Pope
with fresh supplications, and the above decree
was so far recalled to please them, that even a
prior might, with the bishop present in his own
cathedra], wear the cloth of gold mitre ungarnished
with either pearl or jewel, along with the ring ;
but when that personage was away, then could
the prior come forth vested in all the pontifical
array. 48 In the instance (116) of Worcester
48 The Privilegia concessa Priori Ecclesiss Wigorn. per Sedem
Apostolicam, printed by Wilkins, throw much valuable light upon
this question, as regards England. In the year 1351, John of
Evesham, Prior of Worcester cathedral church, had obtained from
Pope Clement VI. the privilege, for himself and successors, of
wearing the mitre, &c. ; and Pope Urban V. added his confirma-
tion of it (A.D. 1363), in the manner following : Urbantis episcopus
servus servorum Dei, dilecto filio Johanni de Evesham Priori
ecclesise Wigorn., &c. Clemens Papa sextus . . . tibi et successo-
ribus tuis prioribus ecclesiae Wigorn. ordinis sancti Benedict! . . .
indulsit, ut tu et iidem successores tui mitra, annulo, baculo,
tunica, et dalmatica, pastoralibus uti, et benedictionem solennem
in Missa et mensa dare libere valeatis, &c. Et licet, sicut exhibita
nobis pro parte tua petitio continebat, multi abbates et priores in
regno Anglise existentes, etiam non exempti, quibus a sede
Apostolica concessum erat, ut mitra uti possent tarn in episco-
porum suorum prsesentia quam eorum absentia, mitris uti solerent
laminis argenteis et gemmis preciosis ornatis ; tamen postmodum
pro parte . . . Reginaldi episc. Wigorniensis extitit suggestum
. . . Innocentio Papae sexto . . . quod si tu et successores tui
vigore indulti hujusmodi mitra et baculo aureas vel argenteas
laminas seu gemmas preciosas habentibus, et aliis ornamentis
preedictis in ejus prsesentia uteremini, non modicum in populo
scandalum generaretur, et pontifical! dignitati quamplurimum
derogaretur ; quodque multi priores cathedralium ecclesiarum
dicti regni Anglise ornamentis talibus non utebantur ne pares
eorum episcopis viderentur ; prsefatus Innocentius prsedecessor,
ipsius Reginaldi supplicationibus inclinatus . . . declaravit quod
tu et successores, praedicti hujusmodi indulti vigore, mitra, et
PART I. CHAP. VI. 97
Cathedral, its prior's staff was a " bordonus," or
stiff wand of silver, ending, not with a crook, but
with a knob.
aliis ornamentis preedictis in prsesentia Reginald! episcopi et
successorum suorum episcoporum Wigorniensium nullatenus, in
eorum vero absentia mitra alba et etiam aurificata sine lapidibus
tamen et gemmis preciosis et alio precioso ornamento tantummodo
uti possetis.
Nos igitur . . . tuis in hac parte supplicationibus inclinati . . .
indulgemus, ut tu et iidem successores tui, in episcopi Wigornien-
sis prsesentia, mitra aurificata gemmarum et perlarum ornamenta
non habente necnon annulo ; in ejusdem vero episcopi absentia,
mitra etiam perlarum et gemmarum ornatum habente, annulo,
tunica, dalmatica, sandaliis et chirothecis episcopalibus ac bordono
argenteo, botonum argenteum habente in capite absque alio ornatu,
uti et benedictionem solennem dare in missa . . . libere valeatis,
&c. (Wilkins, Condi, iii. 201). From these and other documents,
such as those given in the Appendix (pp. cxlvii., cliv.) to the Hist.
Dunelmensis. Scriptores Tres, we learn, that it was not before the
middle of the fourteenth century the great monasteries of Eng-
land sought more particularly to get for their abbots or priors the
privilege of the mitre and other pontifical ornaments.
To understand thoroughly what great privileges came with the
precious mitre, the reader should know that complaints had been
often and justly made that, while sitting in council, the mitred
abbot could not be, as he ought, distinguished in anything from
the bishops of the Church. To do away with such an unseemly
disorder, Pope Clement IV. (A.D. 1 267), decreed, that henceforward,
whensoever present at council or synod, all exempt abbots should
wear no richer mitre than the gold-embroidered one, having
neither precious stones, nor plates of gold or silver on it ; un-
exempt abbots, the plain white mitre : in every other place, the
exempt abbot might assume that kind of mitre which had been
especially allowed him by the Apostolic See (Catalani, Pontificate
tiomanum, Rome, 1738, i. 257). An abbot became "exempt"
when, by an especial favour, his monastery was withdrawn from
the canonical jurisdiction of the bishop in whose diocese it stood,
and it as well as all its inmates were answerable to no other
ecclesiastical tribunal than that of Rome. All such grants and
exemptions are very unwise, being certain to make, sooner or
later, wide breaches in ecclesiastical discipline ; and under all
circumstances, instead of strengthening, weaken that meekness
and lowliness of heart, which a monastic life ever strives to teach
VOL. II. G
98 THE CHUKCH OF OUR FATHERS
(117) Besides the mitre, the Roman Pontiff fre-
quently wears what was called the "regnum," but
is now better known as
its followers. So true indeed is this, that the statutes of some
orders have forbidden their abbots to use pontificals, though
privileged before to do so, alleging this reason : Ne forsan ex
ipsis supercilium elationis assumat, aut sibi videatur sublimis, &c.
(Innocent III.,Epist.,i. 197 [P.L M ccxiv. 173]) ; and St. Bernard writes
in as strong language, while he blames those abbots of the order
who were seeking to get themselves exempt, and win from Rome
the permission to use pontificals: Miror quosdam in nostro
ordine monasteriorum abbates hanc humilitatis regulam odiosa
contentione infringere, et sub humili (quod pejus est) habitu et
tonsura tam superbe sapere, ut cum ne unum quidem verbulum de
suis imperiis subditos prsetergredi patiantur, ipsi propriis obedire
contemnant episcopis (St. Bernard Ablo.,Epist. xlii., seu Opusculum
ii. ; De Moribus d Off. Episcoporum, ix., 33 [P.L., clxxxii. 830,866
also 148]. Verum aperte indicant quidam horum quid cogitent,
dum multo labore ac pretio apostolicis adeptis privilegiis, per ipsa
sibi vindicant insignia pontificalia, utentes et ipsi more pontificum,
mitra, annulo, atque sandaliis. Sane si attenditur rerum dignitas,
hanc monachi abhorret professio : si ministerium, solis liquet
congruere pontificibus [ibid., 832]. The many-headed evil growing
out of these exemptions was seen and deeply regretted, not only
by St. Bernard in France, but in this country too, and among the
monks themselves, one of whom, Jocelin de Brakelond, almoner of
St. Edmundsbury, thus speaks of it : Venit rumor ad abbatem
H(ugonem) quod R(ichardus) archiepiscopus Cantuariensis vellet
venire (A.D. 1176) ad scrutinium faciendum in ecclesia nostra
auctoritate legatie sue ; et, accepto consilio, misit abbas Romam
et impetravit exemcionem a potestate predicti legati. Redeunte
nuntio ad nos de Roma, non erat unde solvi poterat quod ipse
promiserat domino Pape et cardinalibus, nisi ex circumstantiis
crux que erat super magnum altare, et Mariola, et Johannes, quas
imagines Stigandus archiepiscopus magno pondere auri et argenti
ornaverat, et sancto ^Bdmundo dederat. Dixerunt etiam quidam
ex nostris qui abbatem familiarius diligebat, quod ipsum feretrum
sancti ^Edmundi deberet excrustari propter talem libertatem, non
advertentes magnum periculum posse nasci de tali libertate ;
quod si forte aliquis abbas noster qui res ecclesie voluerit dilapidare
et conventum suum male tractare, non erit persona cui conventus
possit conqueri deinjuriis abbatis, qui nee episcopum, nee archi-
episcopum, nee legatum timebit, et impunitas ausum prebebit
PART I. CHAP. VI. 99
(118) THE TIARA,
which, like the bishop's mitre, has had its
changes in shape, and increase of adornment. At
what (119) precise time the popes assumed the
tiara cannot be well ascertained. Bruno of Segni 49
mentions it in the (120) eleventh century, and
from what he, besides Pope Innocent III., 50 says
of this covering for the head, it would appear to
have been looked upon in their days as the sym-
bol of temporal and regal sway, not of spiritual
and priestly power. The papal tiara, as the picture
overleaf (as well as another at p. 380, t. i.)
shows, was at first a conical cap, ending at top in
a small round ball, and wreathed about the fore-
delinquendi (Cronica Jocelini de Brakelonda, ed. Rokewode, p. 4).
Though by no means the first, yet a remarkable and conspicuous
example of an exempt abbot in England, was that of John of
Hertford, chosen abbot of St. Alban's, A.D. 1235. The whole pro-
cess of his election is given at full length, under the title of
" Modus constituendi abbatem exemptum," in Wilkins, Concil.,
i. 631.
49 After noticing the bishop's mitre, St. Bruno says of the pope's
tiara : Summus autem Pontifex propter hsec et regnum portat
(sic enim vocatur), et purpura utitur, non pro significatione, ut
puto, sed quia Constantinus Imperator olim Beato Silvestro
omnia Romani Imperii insignia tradidit : unde et in magnis pro-
cessionibus omnis ille apparatus Pontifici exhibetur, qui quondam
Imperatoribus fieri solebat. Bruno Signien. Ep., De Consecrate
Eccl. [P.L., cxlv. 1108].
50 In his sermon on St. Silvester, Pope Innocent HI. says:
Romanus itaque Pontifex in signum imperil utitur regno, et in
signum pontificii utitur mitra ; sed mitra semper utitur, et ubique ;.
regno vero, nee ubique, nee semper, quia pontificalis auctoritas et
prior est, et dignior et diffusior quam imperialis [P.L., ccxvii. 481,,
482].
100
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
head with a single crown of gold. 51 (121) So
it continued to be adorned until the pontificate
From MS. 2 B. vii., f. 308.
51 That such was the olden form of the pontifical mitre, we may
see in a very curious liturgical roll, an illumination from which
Gerbert has published at the end of his first volume, De Cantu et
Musica Sacra. The pope is sitting on a faldstool, and wears a
triangular-shaped mitre, which is strongly contrasted by the low
mitre with two short very blunted points, worn by a bishop who
is standing on the left, and much like the mitres in our plate at
p. 82 of this volume. That there may be no mistake, the word
" Papa " is written, like the rest of this manuscript, in Longobardic
character, over the pontiffs head. This valuable roll was, and
perhaps may still be, in the Barberini Library, at Rome.
From this particular form of mitre having been adopted at an
early period, exclusively by the Roman pontiff, came the practice
of putting it always upon the figure of the first in the long line of
popes St. Peter. Hence, in most of our English monastic seals,
whereon the Prince of the Apostles happens to be figured, he is
made to have on such a mitre, with the only addition of a crown
around the brow of it, as we may behold in several fine abbatial
seals, some of which are engraved in the new edition of Dugdale,
PART I. CHAP. VI. 1 01
of Boniface VIIL, A.D. 1294-1303, who aUd&d! A
to it (122) a second crown; and but a few y|ea|r$ |f [\ H V
afterwards, Urban V. completed its decoration byr f j~ r
bestowing on it another coronal. But the tiara
with its triple crown always kept to its first and
olden sharply pointed form ; and it was not until
the beginning of the sixteenth century that it
quite exchanged its straight for an oval shape,
swelling out somewhat broad at top. Beneath
the mitre and tiara, bishop and pontiff were
accustomed to have on a closely fitting skull-cap,
which is well shown in some of our woodcuts. 52
SECTION XI
Amid the appliances once needed at solemn
High Mass, more especially when sung by a bishop,
there was ever to be seen a
COMB,
usually of ivory, sometimes quite plain, but at
others adorned with elaborate carving, and even
Monadicon Anglicanum, as that for Peterborough (t. i. pi. v.). for
Athelney (t. ii. pi. xiii.), for Hyde (ib., pi. xiv.). Unaware of this,
some antiquaries, meeting with figures much broken, especially
about the head, where a tapering mitre might easily be shattered,
and finding the remains of a crown upon what is instantly known
for a bishop, have been sadly puzzled to account for this seemingly
regal mark of distinction, and to assign the fragment of ancient
mediaeval art to the right personage.
52 Particularly in those, i. 360, 362. The cap, made of crimson
velvet or satin, edged with ermine, and called " camelacium,"
worn by the Roman pontiffs not many years ago, was the same
kind of covering for the head.
102 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
{ /; |,g@mmed with precious stones. Combs of such a
'kind were often to be found kept among those
costly things belonging to the sacristy of some of
(123) the greater churches abroad, 53 or reckoned
up along with the sacred ornaments in an Anglo-
Saxon minster, 54 and, during later times, in an
old English cathedral. 55
53 In the treasury at Sens Cathedral, they still have a fine large
ivory comb, sculptured with the figures of animals and adorned
with precious stones. On it are cut these words, PECTEN SANCTI
LUPI, and the belief is, it once belonged to, that holy bishop, who
sat in the see of Sens a part of the sixth century. Another
French prelate, Riculf, bequeathed (A.D. 915) to those who should
come after him in his bishopric, among other liturgical ornaments :
Pectenem eburneam unam (Test. Riculfi Epis. [P.-L., cxxxii. 468] ).
Among the chapel furniture enumerated in his will by that holy
nobleman, Everard, who died A.D. 937, in Belgium, we read of :
Pipam auream unam . . . pecten vero auro paratum unum, flavel-
lum argenteum unum. Testam. Evrardi Comitis, in D'Achery,
SpiciL, ii. 877.
54 Along with several other sacred appliances once belonging
to St. Cuthberht, and put along with his body in the coffin, was
his comb, of which Reginald thus speaks : Habet (S. Cuthbertus)
secum in sepulchro altare argenteum . . . forpices adhuc priscse
novitatis gratiam retinentes . . . ubi cum pectine ejus eburneo
hactenus conservantur quod in medio perforatur, ita ut tres pene
digiti in eo possint leviter infundi, cujus magnitude cum consimili
latitudine videtur decenter extendi. Nam longitudo latitudini
pene cosequatur, nisi quod pro ornatu altera alteri in aliquo dis-
similatur (De Admir. S. Cuthberti Virtut., p. 89). By these latter
words of Reginald, it is evident that St. Cuthberht's comb must
have been broader than it was long. Another ivory episcopal
comb, longer than it is broad, measuring 6j inches in height by
4! inches in width, was found in a bishop's grave at Durham
Cathedral (A.D. 1827), and may be seen figured, full size, in Raine,
S. Cuthbert, pi. vii. St. Neot's comb is thus described by Leland :
Pecten S. Neoti ex ossiculo duos digitos lato insertis piscium
denticulis instar maxillae lupi fluviatilis. Collect., iii. 13.
65 The " pecten eburneum " which Archbishop Hubert left to
his cathedral of Canterbury, was thought worth a notice by Gervase
(Ada Pontif. Cant. [R.S., Ixxiii. ii. 413]); and the Sarum inventory,
PART I. CHAP. VI. 103
(124) If it was a bishop who pontificated, the
deacon and subdeacon combed his hair as soon
as his sandals (125) had been put on his feet,
while sitting on his faldstool ; 56 if a priest cele-
drawn up half a century later (A.D. 1222) enumerates : Pectines v
eburnee exceptis iis qui sunt ad altaria [Wordsworth, Salisbury
Cerem., p. 177]. St. Paul's Cathedral, London, had (A.D. 1295) :
Tres pectines eburnei spissi et magni et tres tenues et usuales de
ebore. Item, unum pecten eburneum pulchrum de dono Johannis
de Chishulle. Item duo pectines eburnei sufficientes. Et memoran-
dum quod ad cistam coram cruce est unum pecten eburneum et
unum vas cristallinum ornatum argento cum reliquiis (Dugdale,
Hist, of St. Paul's, p. 316). At a visitation to the treasury in
Canterbury Cathedral (A.D. 1315), among other precious ornaments
for that church's use, were : Pecten . j aureus . H. Regis . tercij .
gemmis ornatus cum nigro Camau et gernettis quadratis. ^[Pecten
. j eburneus cum lamine argenteo et deaurato cum gemmis ex
utraque parte. Ultern . vj pectines eburnei [Christ Cli. Inven-
tories, p. 74]. In the list of relics which the monk of Durham,
Richard de Segbrok, found hanging round St. Cuthberht's shrine,
when he was appointed its keeper (A.D. 1383), are noticed: the
comb of Malachias the archbishop. Item, the comb of St. Boysil
the priest (Raine, St. Cuthbert, p. 127); "the ivory comb of St.
Dunstan " was also there (ibid., p. 125). Among many other
rich church-ornaments carried off from Glastonbury monastery
by Henry VIII. was " a combe of golde, garnishede with small
turquases and other course stones, weinge with the stones viii oz.
di." Dugdale, Mon. Anglic., i. 63, new ed.
56 One of the rubrics in the pontifical written out by order of
Ratold, Abbot of Corby, before the year 986, directs : Deinde
ministretur ei (episcopo) aqua ad manus, et pecten ad caput, after
putting on the episcopal tunic (Gregor. Sacr., ed, Menard, p. 261
[P.L., Ixxviii. 241] ). In the chapter, "De his quse observanda sunt
circa mysterium quando episcopus cardinalis Missarum sollemnia
celebrat," in the Ordo Romanus, drawn up by Cardinal J. Gaetano
just at the closing of the thirteenth century, occurs this pas-
sage: Sunt necessaria pro persona pontificis pecten et tobalea
circumponenda collo ejus quando pectinatur (Mabillon, Mus. ItaL,
t. ii. p. 288) ; and further on, in the same " Ordo," it is directed :
Ipso pontifice super faldistorio residente, diaconus et subdiaconus
accipientes ab acolythis tobaleam suam et pecten, extendant
tobaleam circa collum et caput ejus leviter et decenter pectinent,
104 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
brated, the same office of the comb was done for
him as he sat within his niched seat the first
of those three sedilia in the (126) presbytery, to
be observed in most of our English old parish
churches, built of stone, against the southern wall
of the chancel. 67
SECTION XII
Though holding such a very high place among
pontifical appurtenances, and often spoken of by
writers on ecclesiastical and civil history, the
origin of
THE PALL
has not been sufficiently well searched after by
liturgists and Church antiquaries : few, I imagine,
suspect that this archiepiscopal appendage is the
true and only representative of the Roman toga ;
and yet its legitimate descent from that ancient
classic garment can be accurately traced up.
For almost the last thousand years the shape
of the pall has undergone few if any changes in
videlicet primo diaconus a parte dextra, deinde subdiaconus a
sinistra (ibid., p. 292). Durand writes: Caligis et sandaliis im-
positis pontifex et sacerdos caput pectinat. Rationale, lib. iv.,
cap. iii., n. I.
67 From a ritual belonging (A.D. 1 360) to the church of Viviers,
in the south of France, we gather that the celebrant's hair was
combed by the deacon, not only in the vestry, but several times
during divine service : Sacra celebraturus sedet dum in choro
Kyrie, Gloria et Credo decantantur ; unde quoties assurgebat, ipsi
capillos pectebat diaconus amoto ejus capello seu almucio, licet
id officii jam in secretario antequam ad altare procederet, sollicite
ei prsestitisset. Du Gauge in verbo Sedes Majestatis.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 105
western Christendom, and every archbishop of
the (127) Latin rite, when vested in his full
pontificals for singing solemn High Mass, wears
about his shoulders a pall, nothing different,
except in the length of the band hanging down
before and behind, from that same badge of
ecclesiastical dignity figured on the person of
St. Dunstan, vol. i., p. 296. Now, as then, it is
woven of plain white lamVs wool, 58 and marked
in (128) several places with a cross, and is at
present, as it has been for many ages past,
fastened by three pins, one on the left shoul-
der, another on the breast, and another on the
58 In noticing the garments found upon St. Gregory the Great's
body, when that illustrious pontiff's grave was opened (c. A.D.
827), John the Deacon, who wrote his life some fifty years
after (towards A.D. 875), tells us : Pallium ejus bysso candente
contextum nullis fuisse cernitur acubus perforatum, sic ipsum
circa scapulas obvolutum fuisse, non autem confixum dignoscitur.
. . . Quod autem reliquiarum phylacteria tenui argento fabricata,
vilique pallio, de cpllo suspensa fuisse videntur, habitus ejus
mediocritate" demonstratur. Porro in exilitate baltei, quae unius
pollicis mensuram numquam excedit, speciem propositi regularis
olim a sancto Benedicto statuti . . . eum servasse luce clarius
manifestat (John the Deacon, S. Gregorii Papse Vita, iv. 80
[P.I/., Ixxv. 228] ). De Bralion, and other writers on the subject,
behold in this "pallium" of St. Gregory, the liturgical ornament
known at present exclusively under such a name. To me it looks
no other than the common everyday cloak of that saint, which
was worn by him, not like the higher classes of men in those times
fastened with a brooch, more or less curiously wrought, as we
may see in the monuments of the period but in the way poorer
people then did, unpinned, and wrapped about his shoulders : the
same lowliness of thought, with regard to dress, showed itself in
the pontiff's "baltheum," or girdle, which was of the plainest and
the narrowest ; hence nothing can be drawn from the garments in
which St. Gregory was found clothed to prove that his liturgic
pall was made, not of wool, but " byssus," or thin linen.
106 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
back, over the chasuble ; spread out flat, it takes
this shape.
Towards the end of the sixth century, at
the period when St. Gregory the Great was
head of God's Church upon earth, and
when St. Austin came from Rome to Kent, such
was not, however, either the shape of the Roman
pall or the mode of wearing it. This ornament was
then a long straight band, in width somewhat
broader than now, and so put on, that being thrown
loosely about the neck of the bishop, it hung half
way down his breast and back, and met upon the
left shoulder in a manner that allowed one end to
droop before, the other behind his person, as may
be seen on SS. Maximianus and Ecclesius, 59 each
in (129) his day Archbishop of Ravenna, about the
middle of the sixth century, and in the illumi-
nations of some of the early liturgical codices.
59 Shown in our woodcut, i. 260 of the present work. The earliest
known description of the pall well agrees with the shape and fall-
ing down the breast of this ornament, as we behold it on the
persons of those two Archbishops of Ravenna ; for the writer of a
very curious treatise on the liturgy, as celebrated in Gaul during
the end of the sixth century, much about the period when the
mosaics at St. Vitale's were done, speaking of the pall, says:
Palleum vero quod circa collo usque ad pectus venit, rationale
vocabatur in vetere testamento. . . . Quod autem collo cingit,
antiques consuetudinis est, quia reges et sacerdotes circumdati erant
palleo veste fulgente, quod gratia praesignabat (tixpositio Brevis
Ant. Lit. Gal. [P.L., Ixxii. 97] ). By the same writer we are led to
believe that, if not throughout the year, for Easter-time at least,
both ends of the pall had hung to them a fringe of little bells :
Palleum vero in Pascha cum tintinnabulis Eucharistia velatus
instar veteris testamenti ubi tonica sacerdotis plena tintinnabulis
signans verba preedicationis ostenditur. Ibid.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 107
Such, no doubt, was the way in which our Arch-
bishops of Canterbury and York, for a century or
two after the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons,
wore theirs ; and at the present time, after this
same fashion is it that throughout the Greek
Church every bishop (for there, all bishops are
allowed this adornment) still continues to put on
his pall or u omophorion."
In going back to the rise of the pall, our readers
should be told that the old Roman toga was a
kind of white woollen mantle, cut in the
shape of the upper section of a circle,
or, to speak better, in the form of a
cycloid. Of this, the end (i) was let
(130) fall to the ground, in front, from
the wearer's left shoulder; the other ex-
tremity (6) was then brought down the back and
wound under the right arm, so as to leave it quite
free and bare, and going athwart the lower part
of the breast, was cast over the left shoulder again
(5), entirely muffling it, till at last it drooped upon
the heels, as may be understood more clearly
by the figure (p. 108) of a statue in the Vatican
gallery, representing one of the " gens togata," or
citizens of Roma, in the last days of the Republic.
However majestic, the old toga was cumber-
some ; hence, in the reign of Augustus, it began
to be laid aside as an article of clothing, though
as a robe of (131) imperial state and official
dignity its use at court and in the provinces was
io8
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
ceremoniously kept up, in one curtailed form or
another, until the overthrow of the Koman empire.
During this long interval, although its first name
was never quite dropped, it lost all its early ful-
ness, as we may perceive from the representation
(p. 109) of Anastasius Probus, 60 who was consul
60 Our woodcut is a much reduced copy of one out of the two
consular figures cut on Probus's ivory diptych, which once be-
longed to St. Martin's Church, at Liege, where one of its leaves,
surrounded with a border of jewels, served as the binding to the
upper side of a book of the Gospels for High Mass. Along with
Wilthem's learned dissertation on it, this Liege diptych was pub-
lished by Gori, in his highly valuable and curious Thesaurus
Veterum Diptychorum, i. 280. This " toga picta," or, as it was some-
times called, <l palmata," bestowed upon the consuls by the reign-
ing emperor, shone with gold embroidery upon a ground of the
brightest purple ; and besides the name of " toga," had those^of
" lorum " and " trabea " given to it.
PART I. CHAP. VI.
109
A.D. 517, and is here shown to us robed in
his "toga picta" of office. Its abridgment went
imperceptibly (132)
on, until at last it
dwindled down to
be a mere broad
band, and was put
on, not as any por-
tion of dress, but as
a badge of their
authority, whenever
they came forth in
public for the dis-
charge of theirduties,
by the officers of the
state, as we see by
the woodcut (p. no),
representing the pre-
sident of some council of provincial magistrates.
(133) No sooner did the Roman emperors, in
the person of Constantine, forsake heathenism,
than those who had to manage the outward
economy of the Church were brought very often
FL. ANASTASIUS PAUL. PROBUS SAVINIANUS
POMP. ANAST.
01
61 The learned and laborious prelate, Bianchini, in his magni-
ficent edition of Anastasius Bibliothecarius (De Vitis Rom. Pontif.,
t. iii. p. xxviii. Proleg.), furnished the engraving from which we
have borrowed the illustration (p. 1 10) of our subject, which receives
further light from a like figure inscribed Pr&ses Concilii, which the
same writer gives in plate in. of the before-named work; both
figures are taken by Bianchini from old paintings, or, as he tells
us, to quote his own words : Ex veteri pictura in libris Antiquit.
Oamilii Cardinalis de Maximis. Ibid.
no
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
before the eye of the world, by being allowed to
watch openly over religious discipline, and to do
more of their pas-
toral duty in pub-
lic than they dared
before. Instead,
as hitherto, of
trying to crush the
faith of Christ, the
state now sought
to uphold it, and
stretched forth
honours and
afforded help to
its teachers : the
emperors were but
too glad on be-
holding the officers
of the ecclesiastic
co-ordinate, as it were, with the civil government ;
and rejoiced at finding the same grades of power
and dignity among the bishops of the Church as
existed between the secular authorities of the
empire. It is very likely, therefore, that from the
reign of Constantine, the local boundaries of each
diocese throughout the Christian world were made
to coincide, as near as possible, with those of the
civic jurisdiction, so that every city should have
its own bishop, every province its archbishop, and
every large tract of country its primate.
PRJESES.
PAKT I. CHAP. VI. in
As the official dress of the civil functionaries
showed at first glance the rank of its wearer, so,
we may warrantably presume, it was deemed but
fitting that his position, in the hierarchy, of the
ecclesiastical superior should be pointed out by
some mark upon his sacred garments. But as
the old toga, through all its changes, had always
(134) been looked upon as the everywhere-known
and honoured token of high authority and magis-
terial jurisdiction, a new, though slight, modifica-
tion of this Roman emblem of power was adopted
by the Church, as a badge of that higher, because
ghostly, prerogative to which archbishop, primate,
and the supreme pontiff himself each according
to his degree is uplifted over those beneath him.
To such a sacred ornament, from its first use in
the sanctuary, the name of "pall " has been given.
Let it not, however, be imagined that all at
once this ornament became the ecclesiastical
badge and appurtenance of every archbishop
throughout the Church : 62 such was not the fact ;
it crept but slowly into general use, and upon this
62 That a bishop might be the metropolitan of a country and
still not be allowed the use of the pall, at the end of the fifth or
beginning of the sixth century, is clear from the following passage
in the life of St. Ceesarius of Aries, written by three of his con-
temporaries : Papa Symmachus tanta meritorum ejus (Csesarii)
dignitate permotus, non solum verissime emn metropolitans
honore suspexit, sed et concesso specialiter palii decoravit privi-
legio (Vitse, $. Csesarii Arelat. i. 4 ; AA. SS. August., vi. 71). Not
because he happened to be an archbishop, but through an especial
favour was it that the pall came to be allowed to St. Csesarius, in
the opinion of those writers, all of whom were bishops.
ii2 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
liturgical subject the practice of western differed
widely from that of eastern Christendom. Being
one among (135) the ensigns of imperial dignity,
the pall on its adoption as an article of sacred
array was, as such, exclusively worn at first by
the head of the Church, the bishop of Rome,
the great western patriarch ; afterwards, the other
and lesser patriarchs those of the East assumed
it. Very soon each of these dignitaries thought
well to confer this distinguishing vesture upon
the bishops within his own particular patriarchate,
but after a different manner : those of the East
granted it in time, not merely to archbishops, but
indiscriminately to all their brother bishops under
their jurisdiction. Such was not the way followed
by the Latin portion of the Church : the bishop
of Rome at first allowed the Roman pall to be
worn by his vicars only, that is, by those bishops
in far-off countries to whom he had entrusted
powers for acting there on his behalf; and he
bestowed the Roman pall, not only on bishops of
the Latin, but upon those of the Greek rite : the
archbishops of Aries had through a lengthened
period a hundred years and more been suc-
cessively nominated his vicars in Gaul by the
supreme pontiff, who had therefore decorated
them with the pall at each renewal of their com-
mission ; 63 and when he sent forth a like charge
63 Popes Symmachus (498-514), Vigilius (538-555), Pelagius I.
(555-559), and St. Gregory the Great, each in his pontificate sent
PART I. CHAP. VI. 113
(136) to John, bishop of Corinth, Pope St. Gregory
the Great conferred upon him a like honour. 64
The same great Roman pontiff having sent Austin,
then but a priest, to convert the heathen Anglo-
Saxons, afterwards wrote to him to go over and
receive episcopal consecration from the bishop of
Aries, 65 who was the nearest papal vicar. But
while St. Gregory constituted the first archbishop
of Canterbury his vicegerent in this island, with
fullest metropolitan jurisdiction 66 over all its
bishops, and sent him the pall, 67 he told our new
primate he was not to exercise any authority over
the Church of (137) France, because of old to the
bishops of Aries had the Holy See deputed a
vicariate power there. 68
Some time before St. Gregory's pontificate, had
the pall to the then archbishop of Aries along with his appoint-
ment of papal vicar in Gaul. Vigilius writes thus to Auxanius :
Et quia digna credimus ratione compleri, ut agenti vices nostras
pallii non desit ornatus ; usum tibi ejus, sicut decessori tuo
predecessor noster sanctse recordationis Symmachus legitur con-
tulisse, beati Petri functa auctoritate concedimus. Vigilius Papa,
Epist. vii. [/'.-//., Ixix. 28]. See also Ep. x. of the same pontiff to
Aurelianus, ibid. Pelagius addresses Sapaudus in the like words
Nos fraternitati twe hujusmodi curas injungimus ut sedis nostrse
vicarius institutus ad instar nostrum in Galliarum partibus primi
sacerdotis locum obtineas, &c. . . . Usum quoque pallii tibi ala-
criter affectioseque concedimus pariter etiam pallium dirigentes.
Pelagius Papa I., Epist. xi. [P.L., Ixix. 105, 106]. St. Gregory sent
the pall to Virgilius, bishop of Aries. S. Gregorius, Regist. Ep.,
v. 53 [P.L., Ixxvii. 785].
64 Ut supra, Ep. Ivii. [P.L., Ixxvii. 790, 791].
65 Beda, Hist. Ecc. i^xxvii.
66 Ut supra.
67 Cap. xxix.
68 Cap. xxvii.
VOL. II. H
LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE
ii4 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
it been the custom for many archiepiscopal sees to
write to the Apostolic See and beg to have the
pall, the new prelate asking for the privilege of
this ornament rather as a kindness shown to him-
self, than because to wear it was looked upon as
a right belonging to his bishopric. Though but
seldom, yet sometimes the badge of honour thus
sought for was withheld, as the Roman pontiffs
acted upon the principle, that such a mark of
their favour should be awarded according to the
circumstances of the case. 69 However, by the
eighth century, this ceased to be their rule of
action ; and from that period to the present day,
all archbishops, without distinction or demur, may
receive the pall at the shrine of St. Peter, or have
it sent them, nay, cannot lawfully exercise any
solemn nor episcopal function without it.
As was just now observed, the first time we be-
hold it on the monuments of Christian antiquity,
figured as a metropolitan adornment, this pall (138)
shows itself to have been, in those early days, a
long narrow strip, so wound once only about the
upper part of the person as to meet upon his left
shoulder, down from which one end hung before,
another behind : this the reader will see in our
69 In his letter to Brunchild, queen of the Franks, telling her
that, as she had requested, he had sent the pall to Syagrius,
bishop of Autun, Pope Gregory writes : Prisca consuetude ob-
tinuit ut honor pallii nisi exigentibus causarum meritis, et fortiter
postulanti dare non debeat. S. Gregorius, Eegist. Ep. ix. n.
[P.L., Ixxvii. 952].
PART I. CHAP. VI. 115
picture,* as well as from illuminated manu-
scripts. Since the invariable custom has long
been in the Latin Church for no one to wear
the pall without having it from the Holy See
itself, it always happened that there were no
local differences in its shape, ornament, or make ;
for being wrought at Rome, whence it was sent
to those honoured with it, only when they could
not come and fetch it away themselves, it was
everywhere alike at the same periods throughout
western Christendom. By the beginning, however,
of the ninth century, the pall, though it still kept
its olden shape of a long stole, began to be put on
in a way slightly different from its first fashion ;
for instead of both ends falling at the side from
the left shoulder, they fell down the middle, one in
front, from the chest to the feet, the other just as
low behind on the back of the archbishop : this
we perceive from an interesting mosaic which yet
exists at Rome, and was done about that period. 70
* See i. 260.
70 The mosaiced apse belonging to one of those large halls built
in the Lateran palace, at Rome, by Leo III. (A.D. 795-816), still re-
mains, and of the subjects figured upon it, one represents St. Peter,
throned and wearing a liturgical pall. With his left hand the
prince of the apostles gives a flag to Charlemagne, who is kneeling
at that side of the apostolic chair ; with his right, he outstretches
a pall to a successor of his, Leo, who, like the emperor, is on his
knees, and has on a pall already. This mosaic, which may be seen
well engraved in Alemann's De Lateranensibus Parietinis Dissert.
Hist., p. 45, tab. vi., a work full of varied research, was done under
Leo's pontificate, and shows extremely well, not only how the
liturgical pall was worn at that time, but, fortunately too, its
then exact shape in the one quite like a stole held out to the
pontiff by St. Peter.
u6 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
Such a change must (139) have arisen thus: of
the two parts which crossed, and very likely
were pinned to each other upon the left shoulder,
the one which hitherto had stopped there and
been let fall down at once, instead of this, came
now to be still further carried forwards till brought
to the middle of the breast, where it was twisted 71
over its first fold and only then left free to hang
in front, not as formerly, by the side of the person ;
the other end coming from the breast and going
over the left shoulder was drawn behind the back,
and arranged there after the same mode : if any
one will look at those venerable monuments to
which we just now referred, he may soon see how
this was done. After a time, the pall underwent
another alteration : to (140) get rid of the un-
sightliness of what, if clumsily managed, must
often have looked like a knot, its upper roll,
instead of being lapped about, was kept fastened
in its place at the breast and back upon the under
one, as at the left shoulder, by a golden pin.
Furthermore, owing to the nicety with which the
two parts were laid one over the other, although
the left side of the pall was in fact double, it did
not seem so : liturgical writers have spoken of this
occurrence. 72
71 This " twisting " of the front pendant of the pall is well shown
in the figure of St. Gregory the Great, copied as a frontispiece by
Menard, in his edition of the Liber Sacramentorum, from an illumi-
nation of an old manuscript.
72 Est autem pallium in sinistra duplex ... in dextra vero
pallium duplex non est. . . . Fit autem pallium ex lana, vili
PART I. CHAP. VI. 117
At this point, the next step into its last and
actual shape was easy : ceasing, as it then did, to
be made in one long straight band, which needed
to be pinned in a way to sit well upon the wearer,
the pall was so woven as to form at once a flat
circular band, some three inches in breadth, from
which hung down two straight bands just opposite
each other, about a yard in length and as broad
as the circle. To this day such is its form, with
the exception that the pendants now barely go
beyond a foot of our measurement.
From the time that its ends were brought from
the left side to hang straight down the middle of
the wearer, before and behind, instead of falling no
(141) lower than the waist, the pall was made to
reach the feet, as we may behold from written and
pictorial 73 evidences. Judging, too, from the
scilicet materia (S. Bruno Signiensis, Quid sig. vest. Episc.) [P.L.,
clxv. 1 1 06]. So, too, remarks Pope Innocent III. (De Sac. Altaris
Myst., i. 63) [P.L., ccxvii. 797].
73 In the following extract from an Anglo-Saxon Pontifical, not
only its woollen texture, but its reaching down to the wearer's
feet, are both severally noticed : this precious codex once belonged
to St. Dunstan, and is now in Paris. It has a particular prayer
part of which we here give to be said when either the archbishop
of Canterbury (archiepiscopus ecclesise Christi) or the archbishop
of York (ecclesise S. Petri) received the pall ; and in this prayer,
the consecrator was thus to beseech heaven for the new archbishop :
Consecratio post pallium. Sit ei honor pallii ornamentum animse, et
unde advenit fastigium visibile, inde florescat amor invisibilis, et
sicut exterius ovinae vestis jugum prse ceteris sacerdotibus in
summo indumentorum deportare videtur : ita interius mitia coram
Christo prsecordia gestet, &c. . . . Et sicut orsum est istorum
lanigenae vestis fimbriaa pedes pertingunt, sic famulum tuum
omnipotens Deus in theoricis practicisque coram tuis obtutibus
providum et innocentem usque ad finem vitae perseverare con-
n8 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
oldest mosaics and illuminations, the pall for
many ages bore marked upon it but two crosses,
and they were not black, but coloured almost
always bright purple, 74 though occasionally red :
one cross was (142) on the end in front, the other
cedas. Dunstan Pontifical, in Martene, De Antiq. Ecc. Rit., t. ii.,
lib. i., c. viii., art. xi. t p. 41.
Our pictures of St. Dunstan [vol. i., p. 296] and of an archbishop
seated on his faldstool [vol. ii., p. 210], testify this length of the pall.
74 That the crosses on the pall were purple, is certified by the
written and pictorial monuments of antiquity. In his work on
the liturgy which he put forth A.D. 847, Rabanus Maurus
observes : Summo pontifici (qui archiepiscopus vocatur) propter
apostolicam vicem pallii honor decernitur, quod genus indumenti
crucis signaculum purpureo colore exprimit (De Instit. Cleric., i. 23)
[P.L., cvii. 309], Three centuries and a half later (A.D. 1 198), Pope
Innocent III., in his full description of the pall, tells us that its
four crosses were purple : Fit enim pallium de Candida lana con-
textum, habens desuper circulum humeros constringentem, et
duas lineas ab utraque parte dependentes. Quatuor autem cruces
purpureas, &c. (De Sac. Alt. Myst., i. 63) [P.L., ccxvii. 797]. With
regard to the artistic monuments of past ages, Pope Pasqual I.
is figured among the mosaics of two churches at Rome in that of
St. Cecilia, and that of St. Praxedis wrought during the ninth
century : in both, the pontiff is represented in the same way, and
the cross seen in front at the end of his pall is purple, or rather,
crimson. These mosaics show moreover that, at the time, the pall
had on it but two crosses one at each extremity. In the Ravenna
mosaics, St. Maximianus's pall exhibits but one cross in front : of
course, it had another on the end hanging behind. When the body
of St. Leo the Great was the last time translated, one of the
crosses and it was red still remained of those which were
marked upon the pall that most likely had been put upon this
holy pontiffs relics at a former translation of them. Grimaldi, an
eye-witness, in his written account of this occurrence (A.D. 1607),
says : Remanserat super humero dextro crux parva rubri coloris,
quae erat pallii pontificalis. Item aliam crucem paulo longiorem
ejusdem pallii juxta pectus in parte dextra tenebat. In medio
pectoris conspiciebatur aurea una spinula pallii infixa planetse.
Grimaldus, Lib. Instrum. in Sac. Vat. Basil. Crypt. Monum., p. 46,
ed. Dionysio.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 119
in the same place behind : afterwards, four crosses
were mentioned (143) as adorning it ; 75 but now
it has six, and all these are black. 76
A thousand years ago and more, we find the
custom was to fasten the pall to the chasuble itself
(144) by three pins, one on the left shoulder, another
at the breast, and the third upon the back. 77 As may
75 Pope Innocent III., quoted in the note before.
76 Of the pall, as it is now formed at Rome, there lies before me
at this moment an exact and well-executed facsimile, for which I
am indebted to the ready kindness of the present archbishop of
Dublin, the Most Rev. Dr. Murray. From the description which
his Grace was pleased to send along with the facsimile, we learn
that one side of the pall is single, the other double ; and the parts
where each of the two pendants is attached to the circle, have
three folds : there are altogether six crosses, four on the round
part, one on each of the pendants, and of that shape which heralds
call patttfe, every one made of black silk, and edged with fine black
cord : at the ends the pendants are, for about a couple of inches,
sheathed in thin lead, covered over with black silk.
From Pertsch's account (Tractatio de Orig., Usu, et Auct. Pallii
Archiep., p. 20) of the archbishop of Cologne's pall, received from
Rome (c. A.D. 1750), it would seem, that ornament not only varied
somewhat in shape, but in the number and colour of the crosses
which, he says, amounted to eight, six being purple, two black
from the pall as now fashioned : he talks, too, of several little
strings sewed to the edge of the pall ; but I cannot help thinking
that Pertsch, somehow or another, has fallen, in this instance,
into a deep mistake.
77 In the Ordo Bomanus ii. (which must have been drawn up
before the beginning of the ninth century, since we find Amalarius
commenting upon it about that time), directions are laid down
for pinning the pall to the chasuble when the Pope solemnly pontifi-
cated : Novissime per diaconum vel subdiaconum cui ipse jusserit,
pallio superinduitur (pontifex), et corifigitur per acus in planeta
retro et ante et in humero sinistro (Ordo Rom., ii., ed. Mabillon, Mus.
ItaL, ii. 42). Earlier still we observe the same rubric ; for in
the " Ordo i.," it is said : Induit (pallium) super pontificem, et
configit eum cum acubus in planeta retro et ante et in humero
sinistro (ibid., p. 7). In giving us the symbolic meaning of the
pall, St. Bruno of Segni notices the use of three pins, thus : Acus
120 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
be well supposed, such pins were of silver or of
gold, and often, if not always, headed, in this
country as well as abroad, with precious stones. 78
(145) Upon some archiepiscopal chasubles were
sew r ed little hooks, through which these pins,
instead of (146) running into the. texture of that
autem non ad pungendum . . . sed ad planetam palliumque
jungendum inventse sunt. The little hooks sewed on the chasuble,
and for catching and holding fast the pins, are then expressly
mentioned by that holy writer : Qusedam ansulae antiquitus in
planeta positse erant,quibus acus inserebantur^ et pallium simul cum
planeta firmabant, ne a suo loco pallium moveretur. Possumus
autem per acus, quia tres sunt, fidem, spem, et charitatem in-
telligere. S. Bruno Sig. Ep., Quid Pallium signijicet [P.L., clxv.
1107].
78 Among the sacred jewels once belonging to St. Thomas of
Canterbury, and still kept in that cathedral in the year 1321,
when an inventory was taken, were, along with the " lapides
ejusdem (Sancti Thomse) in auro situati, . . . Firmacula tria
parva vetera unde .ij cum parvis gemmis et .j cum nigro saphiro "
\C1irist Church Inventories, pp. 71, 72], These "firmacula" could
have been nothing else but those pins used for the pall of our
glorious martyr : the morses for copes are noticed by themselves
in the same list of church-ornaments. Gervase, the monk of
Canterbury, tells us, that Archbishop Hubert left to the same
church, besides other sacred things : Spindulus iii de auro (Act.
Pontif. Cantuar.) [.R..,lxxiii.,ii.4i3]: these three golden "spindulse,"
or spinulse, as they are more commonly called, were the pins for
the pall.
By foreign writers the jewel-headed pins are often noticed :
Cencio Savelli, in the Ordo Romanus which he drew up c. A.D. 1191,
tells us that the pall was put on the Roman pontiff thus : Archi-
diaconus . . . aptat idem palleum super pontificem ; et intromissis
spinulis aureis tribus, ante, et retm, et sinistro latere, in capite
quarum sunt innixi tres hyacintini lapides (Mabillon, Mus. ItaL,
ii. 212). The inventories of the papal ornaments (of which
copious extracts from the manuscripts in the Vatican library are
given by Garampi), furnish us with many curious items ; and we
find that Pope Boniface VIII. possessed many of these rich pins
for his pall : Novem accus de auro cum novem zaffiris, quarum
sex sunt ponderis unius uncise, et dimidium quart, et tres denar.
(Del Sigillo delta Garfagnana, p. 122). In another of these Roman
PART I. CHAP. VI. 121
costly vestment itself, were made to go ; 79 after-
wards, these pins were not allowed to touch the
chasuble at all, but pierced the pall only, and
it is interesting to find them marked, though
perhaps not quite correctly, upon some of our
archiepiscopal effigies. 80 For the (147) last three
inventories (A.D. 1314), mention is made of "tres acus pro palleo
cum tribus zaphiris " ; and later (A.D. 1371), "acus auri pro pallio
cum lapidibus pretiosis " (ibid., p. 123). In fact,, when Boniface
VIII.'s grave was opened (A.D. 1605), Grimaldi saw upon the
pontiff's body some very small pieces of the pall, of which the
pins were riot only rich but perfect : Cruces pallii serico nigro, ut
hodie summi pontifices utuntur, necnon spinulee aureee saphyris
preciosis ornatse, quarum una in medio pectoris, altera in armo
sinistro aderant, interse adhuc extabant (in Dionysius, Sac.
Vat. Basil. Crypt. Monum., p. 130). These pins are shown upon
the cumbent figure of Pope Nicholas V. who died A.D. 1455, and
lies buried in the subterranean church of St. Peter's, Rome : his
monument is etched in Dionigi, ut supra, p. 139, tav. liii.
79 St. Bruno of Segni expressly speaks of these hooks : see his
words at the end of note 77, p. 120.
80 On Archbishop Stratford's effigy, which lies in the south aisle
of the choir in Canterbury Cathedral, may be seen, well marked,
not only the pall (without, however, its crosses), but these pins ;
but they are placed, one below the right shoulder, the other below
the left, the third on the middle of the breast, the two latter
just as they should be. Putting a pin at the right shoulder is
against the rubrics, which are, and ever have been, followed by the
church ; and we must look upon this archiepiscopal monument at
Canterbury rather as an oversight of the sculptor, than as any
evidence that our English primate wore the pins upon his pall
otherwise than his fellow archbishops throughout western Europe
at the period. Unless he knew better, an artist, for the sake of
uniformity, would of course be led to fix a pin upon the right as
well as the left shoulder. By the like carelessness, because some
crosses were to be indicated on the pall, artists, not over-exact,
put any number they happened to fancy, as we may observe in
illuminated manuscripts. The reason why the crosses on the pall
are not now to be found in the Canterbury archiepiscopal effigies,
is, that having been done in colour, and not cut, they have, like
the rest of the painting once all over them, faded away.
122 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
hundred years and more, however, the way for
attaching these pins has been, that they should
pierce neither pall nor chasuble ; but from out
each of those crosses, whereon the old custom
was to stick them, there should come two or
three little eyes or loops of black silk, passed
through which, the pin hangs fast upon the pall
at that place whereat formerly it ran into that
ornament. 81
(148) The way for putting on the pall was
(during at least the Middle Ages), to make the
two pendants drop, one before, the other behind,
directly upon the orphrey of the chasuble, and
the circular part to go round the person in such
a manner that it might sit, not about his neck,
but over his arms, midway between the shoulder
and the elbow : 82 at present it is hung upon the
81 From a manuscript pontifical of the fifteenth century, Giorgi
quotes a long rubric for the putting on of the pall. Part of this
rubric says : Nulla spinula perforet pallium, et nullo modo acumen
ejus tangat planetam (Lit. Rom. Pontif., i. 222). Such, too, is
the present rubric, as may be gathered from the Cseremoniale
Episcoporum, which directs thus : Diaconus capit unam ex tribus
spinulis . . . videlicet pulchriorem eamque infigit cruci anteriori
pallii ante pectus existenti, aliam in cruce sinistri humeri, tertiam
subdiaconus infigit cruci posteriori quse omnes ita infigantur ut
tertio transeant per crucem in qua sint ocelli tres, seu ansulse
tres sericse ejusdem coloris nigri, ita tamen ut nee crucem, neque
pallium perforent, neque planetam tangant ; et gemmae spinulis
appositse remaneant ad dextram infigentis. ii. 8, 20.
82 Est autem locus conveniens pallii super brachia, ut videlicet
nee tantum ascendat, quod appropinquet ad cubitum, sed sit quasi
in medio, &c. (Ordo Rom. xiv, auct. J. Gaietano (c. A.D. 1298), in
Mabillon, Mus. Hal., ii. 285). Again the same Ordo says: Pallium
componat (diaconus) ita, quod crux anterior sit ante pectus super
aurifrigium planetse et . . . trahat pallium super dextrum brachium
PART I. CHAP. VI. 123
shoulders. That part which is double for so it
still continues to be made is let fall upon the
archbishop's left side, and there one of the three
golden pins is fastened to it ; the second of these
pins is stuck in front, at the part whence the
pendant starts down from the circle ; the third
behind, in a like position.
As will be readily believed, such a badge of
metropolitan jurisdiction coming as it did from
the very shrine which held, and yet holds, the
body of St. Peter himself, and sent through the
hands of his successor as head of Christ's Church
on earth, the Bishop of Rome 83 has always been
pontificis versus cubitum ; postea . . . cum manu dextra pallium
super sinistrum brachium pontificis trahat, providens quod ipsum
pallium super brachia descendat quasi ad medium inter armum et
cubitum, &c. (ib., p. 294). Such, in fact, is the way that the pall
is shown on many of the sepulchral figures of the Roman pontiffs,
as the reader may see in Dionigi, Sac. Vat. Basil. Crypt. Monum.,
pp. 126, 142, 146. Such, too, is the way in which it is worn by St.
Andrew, on a seal belonging to Wells Cathedral, and engraved at
the end of t. ii., pi. xii. of Dugdale's Mon. Anglic.
83 Every year, on the morning of St. Agnes's feast, the 2ist
of January, a horse, bearing, slung over his back, two baskets, each
of which holds a lamb of the fairest and the whitest, is to be seen
walking into Rome from the country, towards the Pope's palace?
before which it awaits till the Pontiff comes to a window, thrown
wide open, and standing there, makes the sign of the cross upon
the bleating burden below him. Borne hence to the fine old basilican
church of St. Agnes-out-of-the-walls, where solemn High Mass
is to be sung, these lambs, decked with ribbons and flowers, are
taken to the altar, and kept at its foot while the holy sacrifice
is offered up. Formerly at the Agnus Dei, but now after divine
service is ended, the celebrating priest goes through the ceremony
of blessing these little animals. They are then given over to the
canons of the Pope's cathedral (St. John Lateran's), and the
chapter of that church sends them to the Pontiff himself, who
orders them to be conveyed unto the dean of the apostolic sub-
124 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
looked (150) upon with due regard, and received
by its future wearer with every becoming respect.
If not kept at home by great hindrances,
each archbishop has ever had to go to Rome
and fetch back his pall from the tomb of the
prince of the Apostles. 84 (151) When, however,
deacons, by whom they are entrusted to the care of some nunnery,
where they are kept and fed. In due time these lambs are shorn,
and their fleeces, along with which is put, if need be, other fine
wool, are spun and woven by the nuns into palls, against the
festival of SS. Peter and Paul. On the eve of that day, these
palls are carried to St. Peter's, and laid upon the high altar, when
they are shortly afterwards taken down into that hollow space
below it, and when evensong is done, blessed in due form either
by the Pope himself, or in his stead, by the cardinal arch-priest
of that basilica. They are then shut up within a rich silver-gilt
box, and put close by St. Peter's shrine, and so kept there until
wanted for bestowing upon new archbishops. I have more than
once seen both functions, the blessing of the lambs at St.
Agnes's, and of the palls at St. Peter's. The form of blessing
them is given by De Bralion from an old codex belonging to the
Vatican basilica.
For other notices on the pall, the liturgist should read over
with care an admirable dissertation, full of all kinds of ecclesiasti-
cal learning, from the pen of Dom. Ruinart, entitled, Disquisitio
Historica de Pallio Archiepiscopali, to be found among the Ouvrayes
Posthumes de Mabillon et de Ruinart, ii. 400. Afterwards he may
go through the short but well-arranged, and neatly-written, work
of De Bralion's, Pallium Archiepiscopale ; and along with it he can,
if he choose, look into the larger and later book on the same sub-
ject, by Pertsch, Tradatio Canonica de Origine, Usu, et Auctoritate
Pallii Archiepiscopalis.
84 When they went to Rome to fetch the pall, our Anglo-Saxon
archbishops with their own hands took it from off St. Peter's altar,
as we learn from the " letter of privileges " given by Pope John
XIII. to our St. Dunstan, and printed whole, for the first time,
by Mabillon: Incipit epistola privilegii, quam jubente Johanne
Papa suscepta benedictione ab eo Dunstan archiepiscopus a suis
manibus accepit, sed pallium a suis manibus non accepit, sed eo
jubente ab altare sancti Petri Apostoli. A A. SS. 0. Z>., vii. 643.
One of our Anglo-Saxon prelates, Elf sin, died upon the Alps
PART I. CHAP. VI. 125
it came to him who could not undertake the
journey, no small ceremony has on occasions been
shown in this kingdom on the pall being brought
hither. With a crowd of bishops, abbots, and
nobles of the land about him, Archbishop (152)
St. Anselm barefoot, though otherwise arrayed
in all his sacred vestments, walked forth as far
as the gates of Canterbury to meet the papal
messenger his own nephew, who had brought
him from Rome his pall, which the younger An-
selm carried to his uncle in a box of silver. Borne
from the city's walls in solemn procession, the
pall was laid upon the high altar of that cathe-
dral, and from off of which, as if from St. Peter's
own hand, 85 the archbishop took it himself, in
virtue of his primatial authority, but not until
while going to Rome for the pall, as archbishop of Canterbury:
Ipse (Elfsinus) vero archiepiscopatus Cantuariensis fungeretur
honore, Romam de more pro pallio proficiscens, cum Alpes ascendis-
set, acerba tactus infirmitate exspiravit ibidem. Gervasius, Act.
Pontif. Cantuar. [R.S., Ixxiii. ii. 353].
When Archbishop Lanfranc went to Rome, after having taken,
as the custom then was, his pall from the altar, he received a
second one, as a token of especial friendship, from the hands of
the supreme Pontiff himself, as we learn from one of our monastic
writers, William of Malmesbury : Romam ivit (Lanfrancus), et
honorifice a sede apostolica susceptus, unum quidem pallium ab
altari Romano more accepit, alterum vero in inditium videlicet
sui amoris, cum quo missam celebrare solebat, Alexander ei papa sua
manu porrexit (De Ges. Pontif. Anglorum [Lib. i. 25, R.S., lii. 40]).
This was the first and last example of such a favour.
85 Statutum est ut a quo pallium in Angliam delatum est f ab
eodem Cantuariam super altare Salvatoris deferretur, et inde ab
Anselmo quasi de manu beati Petri pro summi quo fungebatur
pontificatus honore sumeretur. Eadmer, Hist. Novorum, ii. [/..,
Ixxxi. 72],
126 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
he had made a profession of canonical obedience
to the Koman pontiff. Then all present came
up and kissed, out of reverence to St. Peter, the
metropolitan's pall, which was afterwards put
on St. Anselm, who was led with much state to
the English primatial chair and enthroned upon
it : this done, the archbishop began solemn High
Mass, at which he consecrated Theobald to the
bishopric of Worcester. 86
86 Praefatus Anselmus (nepos Anselmi domini archiepiscopi
domino papae familiaris) pallium in vase argenteo honorifice
ferens, Cantuariam venit, itumque est illi obviam usque ad por-
tam civitatis, ab utroque conventu duarum ecclesiarum, archiepis-
copatus scilicet, et vicinee abbatise Sancti Augustini cum omnibus,
qui pro hoc ipso illo confluxerant. Pater stipatus episcopis et
indutus, ut alii, vestibus sacris, nudis pedibus devotus occurrit.
Sicque delatum super altare Salvatoris pallium est, et a pontifice
inde susceptum facta prius Romano pontitici de ndelitate, et can-
onica obedientia, professione. Deinde pro reverentia beati Petri,
ab omnibus deosculatur, et indutus eo, pontifex summus ad cathe-
dram patriarchatus Anglorum gloriose perducitur, et inthronizatur.
Ante quam cathedram dictis orationibus et aliis quse ipsius ecclesiae
sacer usus dici instituit, mox ecclesias Wigornensis antistes electus
Theobaldus nomine, ei consecrandus prsesentatur. (16. v. 113) [B.S.
Ixxxi. 230]. It was barefoot, too, that St. Thomas a Becket went
forth to meet the pall sent to him by Pope Alexander : Alexander
papa tertius ei pallium misit perclericum ejus JohannemSarisberien-
sem. Archiepiscopus contra illam fasciam pectoralem et humeralem
suscipiendam devotus, pronus et nudus pedes ivit (William Fitz-
stephen, Vita S. Thomx Cantuar., 24) [JB.S., Ixvii. iii. 36]. Bare-
foot, also, but a very few years later, Archbishop Hubert went
forth to receive his pall : Deinde alba indutus et cappa, sequente
conventu, nudus pedes incedens, pallium suscepit per manum
nuntii Celestini papse. Gervase, Chron., ed. Twysden, ii. 1585.
Moreover, as it would seem, the custom was, before enthroning, to
hoist the newly-elected archbishop upon the high altar in Canter-
bury Cathedral : Defuncto itaque archiepiscopo (Huberto, A. D. 1205),
. . . adolescentiores quidam de conventu Cantuariensi. . . . Regin-
aldum suppriorem suum in archiepiscopum elegerunt ; et media de
nocte, post factam electionem hymno Te Deum laudamus cantato,
PART I. CHAP. VI. 127
(153) Before he may exercise any of his archi-
episcopal functions, every new archbishop must
have gotten (154) from Rome his pall, which,
however, he can wear, not each time he may like
to sing High Mass, but only upon set occasions
and the greater festivals of the year, 87 although
prius super maius altare, deinde in archiepiscopali cathedra
posuerunt (Matt. Paris, Hist. Anyl, p. 148) [R.S., xliv., ii. 104].
Such a rite is still kept up in Rome at the election of a new
pontiff, who, no sooner chosen, is carried into St. Peter's, and
seated on a throne upon the high altar, to receive the homage of
the cardinals.
The words uttered by the bearer of the pall from Rome to Can-
terbury, on handing it over to the English primates, were as fol-
low : Forma dandi pallium Johanni archiepiscopo Cantuariensi, anno
MCCCXXXIV. Ad honorem Dei omnipotentis et B. Virginis, et SS.
Petri et Pauli, et D. Papse Johannis XXII., et S. R. E. necnon
et Cantuariensis ecclesise tibi commissse tradimus tibi pallium de
corpore B. Petri sumptum, plenitudinem videlicet pontificalis
officii ; ut utaris eo infra ecclesiam tuam certis diebus, qui expri-
muntur in privilegiis ei ab apostolica sede concessis. (Wil. de
Dene, Hist. Roffensis, in Wharton, Anglia Sac., i. 372). The
reader, perhaps, may ask why, in the above form, this archiepis-
copal ornament is said to have come from St. Peter's body. An
account of the ritual observances, during the twelfth century, for
blessing these palls, we still have from a history of St. Peter's on
the Vatican, from the pen of a canon at the time of that church,
Petrus Mallius, who tells us that they were consecrated in the con-
fession, and laid upon the shrine of the prince of the apostles ; and,
to speak in this mediaeval writer's own words : Et inde est quod
legatus sanctse Romanse ecclesise dicit : Accipe pallium de corpore
beati Petri sumptum, in plenitudinem officii tui. AA. SS. Junii,
vii. 38.
87 The festival days, and episcopal functions, on which the arch-
bishop may wear his pall, are always set down in the apostolical
letter which is sent with it. When, upon one celebrated occasion,
St. Thomas of Canterbury wore his pall whilst he said mass upon a
common week-day, the occurrence, being so unusual, is thus noticed
by one of the writers of his life ; Et hanc quidem missam, praeter
morem, eo die qui f estus non erat, cum pallio celebravit (S. Thomas
Cantuariensis). Vita S. Thomse Cantuar, ed. Lupo, i. 53.
128 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
during the days of our Anglo-Saxon (155) Church,
as it would seem from St. Gregory the Great's
instructions on this head to St. Austin, 88 this or-
nament was borne by an archbishop whenever
(156) he solemnly offered up the holy Sacrifice.
Hence is it that the pall never has been worn over
any other vestment but the chasuble. Except by
particular permission from the Holy See, no metro-
politan has at any time been allowed to wear his
pall when he leaves the kingdom, or goes beyond
the boundaries of his canonical and recognised
jurisdiction. 89 Therefore, when he dies, the arch-
88 At the same time he sends St. Austin the pall, that illustrious
Roman pontiff tells the newly-consecrated archbishop of Canter-
bury : Pallium prseterea per latorem prsesentium fraternitati tuae
. . . direximus, quod videlicet tantum in sacrosanctis celebrandis
mysteriis utendi licentiam impertivimus. Beda, Hist. Ecc., ii. 8.
The following were the days and occasions upon which our
archbishops, in Anglo-Saxon times, might wear the pall. "Pal-
lium," says John XIII. to St. Dunstan, " fraternitati tuas ex more
ad missarum solennia celebranda commendamus, quod tibi non
aliter ecclesise tuse privilegiis in suo statu manentibus, uti conce-
dimus, nisi solummodo in Nativitate Domini, et in Epiphania,
atque in Resurrectione, et Ascensione Domini, ac Pentecosten
pariterque in Assumptione Dei genitricis Marise, seu in nataliciis
Apostolorum ; verum etiam in consecratione episcoporum atque in
natalis tui die, nee non et in die consecrationis ecclesias quern
usum antecessores nostri prodiderunt." A A. SS. 0. B., vii. 643.
89 By an especial favour,, the Roman pontiff, Calixtus II. (A.D.
1 1 19), allowed Turstin, archbishop of York, as long as he remained
in banishment, to wear his pall upon the same days, and for the
same functions, as he would had he been at home in his own pro-
vince. Not having such a leave, surprise was awakened among
the officers of the Roman court, on hearing that Radulf, arch-
bishop of Canterbury, had used his pall when out of this kingdom,
and in places, and on occasions, unbefitting ; Nam et usum pallii
quam diu in exilio esset (Turstinus) illi concessit (Kalixtus papa)
illis diebus et officiis quibus in provincia sua ex prsedecessorum
PART I, CHAP. VI. 129
bishop is buried (if within the limits of his own
province), with his pall about his shoulders ; 90 if
(157) abroad, with it folded up and put beneath
his head. But the use of this badge is not so ex-
clusively archiepiscopal that none below such a
step in the hierarchy may wear it ; for there are
some few bishoprics in Germany, France, and
Italy, to which the right of the pall has been,
through especial favour, granted for ever by the
Holy See for the use of their prelates, notwith-
standing they be but simple suffragans. 91 Though
no archbishop may take and put on his pre-
decessor's pall, 92 but must ask for and get a fresh
suorum consuetudine uteretur. Etenim extra provinciam et
regnum absque permissione summi pontificis metropolitse pallio uti
non licet : unde et in curia Romana aliquociens inter se contu-
lerunt, Radulphum archiepiscopum excessisse quod in alio regno,
et in capellis et in locis non decentibus palliatus cantabat. Th.
Stubbs, Actus Pontif. Eboracen., ed. Twysden, ii. 1716.
90 Gervase, the monk of Canterbury, one of the few who helped
to bury St. Thomas a Becket the day after the saint's martyrdom,
tells us that, along with his other pontifical vestments, the arch-
bishop had on the pall : Habet .... albam in qua sacratus est ;
tunicam quoque et dalmaticam, casulam, pallium, et mitram.
Act. Pontif. Cant. [R.S., Ixxiii. ii. 396].
91 Bamberg, in Germany ; Autun and Dol, in France ; and in
Italy, Lucca, Pavia, and Verona, besides the suburban bishopric of
Ostia the cardinal bishop of which see always consecrates the
newly chosen Pope though but simple episcopal cities, have be-
longing to each of them the privilege of the pall for their prelates.
92 In the Council held, A.D. 1070, at the bidding and in the pre-
sence of the first Norman William, one of the three reasons put
forth for dragging Stigand, the last Anglo-Saxon archbishop, out
of his primatial chair of Canterbury, was : Quia vivente archiepis-
copo Roberto, non solum archiepiscopatum sumpsit sed etiam ejus
pallio quod Cantuarise remansit .... in missarum celebratione
aliquamdiu usus est. Roger de Hoveden [Chronicle R.S., Ii. i. 123].
VOL. II. I
1 30 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
one for himself, it is not so with those bishops
whose dioceses enjoy the hereditary privilege of
its use, for they need (158) no new pall nor
From MS Nero c. iv., f. 34.
personal leave to assume the one belonging to
their see. 93
93 On meeting with old monumental sculptures, or while looking
over illuminated manuscripts, the antiquary must be careful and
distinguish between the archiepiscopal pall and the mere orphrey
of the chasuble, since it is known that the latter embroidered
decoration was not always sewed to the vestment itself, but made
in a way to be easily shifted, and put on and off, much after
the fashion of the pall. Unless warned of this fact, the young
liturgical student might often, at first sight, mistake a priestly
monument for that of some archbishop.
Moreover, it is clear that, towards the end of the Anglo-Saxon
period of our Church, the pall was employed by our artists in their
PART I. CHAP. VI. 131
(159) Concerning another beautiful adornment,
THE KATIONAL,
which was worn alike by all the episcopate, whether
bishops or archbishops, in this country, from the
beginning of the twelfth to about the end of the
fourteenth century, as several monuments show us,
we have spoken elsewhere in this work. 94 Here,
however, the student should be warned that, al-
though mistaken by some few among the eminent
liturgical writers of the Church, the real " rational "
has nothing to do with the "pall." True is it,
that in comparing the vestments of the Aaronic
with those of the Christian priesthood, our metro-
politan badge by a few has been called " super-
humerale " as well as " rationale" ; but after what
the reader has had brought before him in a former
section upon this very subject, it is thought that
works, not solely as the ritual badge of an archbishop, but as a
symbol also for catching the gazer's eye., and telling him unto
what a loftiness of popular veneration, or high authority above all
his fellows, some great saint's holiness of life had uplifted him ;
to say, in fact, by a liturgical figure of speech, that the blessed man
upon whom the limner in his admiring love, and not the Roman
pontiff, had bestowed the pall, stood as high over all other saints
of his own time, country, and order, as an archbishop does amid
the bishops of his province. To convey such a meaning, doubtless,
was it that the good Winchester monk, who so beautifully illumi-
nated the benedictional which his brother in religion, Godemann,
wrote out at St. ^Ethelwold's behest, has arrayed Bishop St. Cuth-
berht and Abbot St. Bennet each in a pall over his chasuble, like
Pope St. Gregory the Great, who is grouped along with them ; as
may be seen in Arch&ologia, xxiv. pt. iii. p. 48.
94 See i. 302.
i 3 2 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
he will easily acknowledge there is the widest
difference between the mediaeval "rationale,"
beaten out of gold and studded with jewels, and
the woollen " pallium."
That
GLOVES
formed a part of the sacred attire for the solem-
nities of religion, and were worn by all bishops in
the northern parts of the Latin Church, is shown
by some of the earliest liturgical monuments that
(160) have come down to our times. 95 A form of
prayer in the ninth century was already framed
for the bishop to say as he drew them on, which
has continued, in one shape or another, to be set
forth in all pontificals ever since ; and from the
notices of them scattered among the documents of
those times, 96 we may conclude that they were
always made of the best material, and often orna-
95 Quidam enim sacerdos inibi suos wantos perdidit dum prse-
dictum sacraretur templum ; quos quidam clericus inveniens,
furtim de ipsa ecclesia nova exportare cupiens, de prsedicta
sancti Stephani et omnium sanctorum ecclesia exire non potuit,
nee ipsos wantos secum deferre valuit. Gesta Domini Aldrici
Cenomanicae Urbis Ep. (c. A.D. 832), a discipulis suis [P.L., cxv. 34].
96 In that valuable Ordo Sacramentorum, printed first by the
Lutheran M. Flaccus Illyricus, and afterwards by Cardinal Bona,
then by Martene, there is a prayer to be said by the bishop whilst
he draws on his gloves ; and it is headed in the codex, " Ad in-
duendas manus " (Martene, De Antiq. Eccl. Rit., t. i. cap. iv. art.
xii. p. 177, Bassani, 1788). In a monument of the tenth century,
the Missa Vetus ex Codice Ratoldi, the rubric, after the bishop has
washed his hands, says : Tune ministrentur ei manicse . . . postea
detur ei annulus in dextra manu desuper manica. Menard, p. 261
[P.L., Ixxviii. 241].
PART I. CHAP. VI. 133
mented with gold. Though no positive mention
occurs of them in our Anglo-Saxon evidences, there
can be little doubt they were in use among the
Anglo-Saxon hierarchy.
After St. Osmund's days, however, there is no
(161) lack of national proof concerning the use, in
the liturgy, of gloves by our bishops. We know,
too, they were of the richest description : gold,
pearls, and precious stones often glistened on
them as they covered the hands of our English
prelates. 97 We see their shape upon so many
existing monuments (162) in sculpture and paint-
ing of their times, from which we perceive that
these pontifical gloves were so long as to reach
some way up above the wrist, and had, in later
97 Among many other gifts to Canterbury, of which he had been
chosen archbishop A.D. 1 193, Hubert bestowed upon it : Mitras vi.,
chirothecarum paria iii., omnia gemmis et auro parata decenter, prae-
terea mitras et chirothecas sine auro (Gervasius, Act. Pontif. Cantuar.
[R.S., Ixxiii. ii. 413]). St. Paul's Cathedral, London, was rich in these
gloves : Mitra bene ornata bendis aureis triphoriatis, insertis lapi-
dibus et perils. . . . Item cirotecse simul apparatus. Item duo
paria cirothecarum ornata laminis argenteis deauratis, et lapidibus
insertis. Visitatio facta in Thes. S. Pauli, A.D. 1295, ^ n Dugdale,
Hist, of St. Paul's, p. 315, new edit.
In the year 1321, belonging to Canterbury Cathedral, there were :
Cirothece. R. de Winchelesee cum perulis et gemmis in plata quad-
rata. IF Item. Par unum cum tasselis argenteis et parvis lapidibus.
IT Item. .iiij. paria cum tasselis argenteis. IF Item. Par unum de
lino cum tasselis argenteis et perulis [Christ Ch. Inventories, p. 71].
That these tassels, as we said before, were thin plates of beaten
gold or silver, is further shown by a passage in the Gesta Gaufredi
de Loduno, telling us that, among many other gifts to the church
of Le Mans (of which he was bishop about the middle of the thir-
teenth century), he bestowed upon it : Quinque paria cerotecarum,
et duas paraturas argenteas deauratas ad opus earumdem cerote-
carum. Mabillon, Vetera Avalecta, iii. 335.
i 3 4 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
times, a tassel hanging from a point in which
their cuffs were made to end, at the under side of
the wearer's arm. 98 But gloves were not the only
things employed of old by our English dignitaries
for keeping their hands warm (163) in cold weather,
during the celebration of the holy offices at church.
Most likely long before, assuredly soon after, the
coming over here of the Normans, certain
METAL BALLS,
sometimes of copper, but oftener of silver parcel-
gilt, were so contrived that the hollow inside
might be safely filled either with burning char-
coal or hot water, if not indeed with some
chemical preparation apt to give out heat for a
98 Upon our countryman Hadrian IV.'s gloves was embroidered
a lamb, with this inscription, Agnus Dei, as we learn from Grimaldi,
a canon of St. Peter's at Rome, who was present when the pontiff's
coffin was opened (A.D. 1606) and his vestments found quite entire
(Dionigi, Sac. Vat. Bas. Crypt. Man., p. 124). At New College,
Oxford, among other pontifical appurtenances once belonging to
their munificent founder, William of Wykeham, they have a glove
of purple silk, with a broad ornament woven in gold thread on the
back of it. In the very interesting cumbent figure found not long
ago walled up in Rochester Cathedral, and presumed to represent
Bishop John de Sheppy, a very good example of episcopal gloves
may be seen. They were richly embroidered, had jewels on the
back, and reached far up over the wrist [see p. 174],
This form of the episcopal glove, with its tassel, or tuft of silk,
is well seen on Archbishop Chicheley's eftigy, in Canterbury Cathe-
dral, and engraved by Britton. It shows, too, those small silver
plates sewed on the back and called " tasselli " a term not to be
mistaken for our English word "tassel." The "cirothecse auri-
frisiatse" worn by the priors of Winchester, are noticed among
their pontifical ornaments at note 41, p. 88, of this volume.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 135
length of time." (1 64) One of these warming-balls,
the bishop, at those parts of the Mass and the
other portions of the Divine service when he could
becomingly do so, as he was sitting down, used
to hold within both his hands and thus easily
chafe them, a usage which has hitherto been un-
known to, or overlooked by, every one who has
written on the liturgy.
99 The "pomum argenteum" frequently occurs in the lists of
ecclesiastical ornaments. Among the things given to the abbatial
church of Sherborne by its sacristan William, in the middle of the
twelfth century, was : Unum pomum argenteum incisum et per
partes deauratum (Cartularium Abb. de Sereb., in the possession of
Sir T. Phillips, Bart.). Belonging to St. Paul's Cathedral,
London (A.D. 1295), there were: Pomum Eustachii episcopi argen-
teum factum de opere levato de ymaginibus deauratis, ponderis
xvis. viid. cum scutella in capsa de corio. Item pomum argen-
teum de opere gravato de ymaginibus representantibus xii
menses deauratis cum scutella, de dono F. Basset xiis. Item
pomum argenteum album planum, ponderis cum scutella i marc.
Item pomum cupreum parvi pretii (Dug dale, Hist, of St. Paul's,
p. 312, new edit.). In the year 1321 there were in the vestry of
Canterbury Cathedral : Tres calepugni de cupro deaurato. The
use of this " pomum," though hinted by the word " calepugnus,"
is unmistakably set forth by the Salisbury inventory, in which
we find : Pomum unum argenteum ad calefaciend. manus (see
Wordsworth, Salisbury Ceremonies, 170). The " scutella," or little
dish, noticed above, was, no doubt, to hold the "pomum," or ball,
when it was handed to, or taken from, the bishop. In the
treasury of York, as late as A.D. 1530, there were: Unum cale-
factorium argenti deauratum cum nodis curiosis insculptis ponderis
unius uncise. Item unum calefactorium de cupro deaurato cum
nodis insculptis ponderans decem unc. (Monast. AngL, viii. 1205);
and the "Inventory of all jewels," &c., stolen by Henry VIII.
from Lincoln Cathedral. A.D. 1536, enumerates: A calefactory,
silver and gilt, with leaves graven, weighing nine ounces and a
half (ibid., p. 1281). Belonging to Ely Minster at the suppres-
sion, was : A ball, silver and gilt, fourteen ounces. Illustrations,
&c.,from the Accompts of Churchwardens, p. 136.
136 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
Besides their gloves, our bishops wore, on occa-
sions, a certain kind of
LOOSE SLEEVES,
called " brachialia," 1 which could be easily drawn
(165) over the alb high up almost to the elbow,
and thus hinder the cuffs of that vesture and its
beautiful apparels from being splashed when the
bishop, on Holy Saturday, baptized the new-born
infants in the font which he had just hallowed.
For as the sacrament was always, during Catholic
times, no otherwise administered than by holding
the child with both hands, and plunging it three
times quite beneath the water, 2 the wrists needed
1 An imperfect Pontifical, after the English use, now in the
British Museum, MS. Vesp. D. i, gives the following rubric at the
service: In dedicatione ecclesiae. Induat se episcopus brachialia
et manicas lineas, ne vestes sordescant. Cencio de' Savelli, who
drew up his Ordo Romanus some time about the end of the twelfth
century, in his chapter, " Quid debeat dominus papa facere in
Sabbato sancto," says: Exuit se de pallio et planeta, et induit
bracalia cerata, et revertitur ad fontes et baptizat tres parvulos.
Mabillon, Mus. Ital., ii. 184.
2 The Salisbury rubric says : Accipiat sacerdos infantem per
latera in manibus suis et . . . baptizet eum sub trina immer-
sione tantum, sanctam Trinitatem invocando, ita dicens, N. Et ego
baptizo te in nomine Patris (et mergat eum semel versa facie ad
aquilonem et capite versus orientem), et Filii (et iterum mergat
semel versa facie ad meridiem), et Spiritus Sancti, Amen (et mergat
tercio recta facie versus aquam (Manuale ad Usum Eccl. Sarum, a
manuscript of the fifteenth century in my possession). [Cp.
Surtees Soc., vol. Ixiii., p. 14*]. On this account was it that all
the original fonts to be still found in our old parish churches
throughout the land were deep and wide. It is to be much
wished that, along with other good old Catholic English religious
practices, baptism by immersion should be brought back into
PAKT I. CHAP. VI. 137
guarding (166) from being wetted: hence came
the use of these loose sleeves, which for better
security were made of cere-cloth.
There was again another exclusively episcopal
appurtenance, never beheld now, and of the use of
which, in olden days, liturgical writers seem quite
unaware : such is
(167) THE BISHOP'S PONSER,
or thumbstal, made either of beaten gold or silver,
and jewelled. It was put upon the right hand
thumb, that had been dipped into the chrism, or
the other two holy oils, for anointing anything
general use. Our present Ordo for baptism allows of it, for the
rubric says : Ubi autem est consuetude baptizandi per immersio-
nem, sacerdos accipit infant em, et advertens ne Isedatur, caute
immergit, et trina mersione baptizat, &c. Though this sacrament
is as good to the soul, and as truly given, according to whichso-
ever of the three ways it may happen to be administered, whether
by sprinkling, by pouring, or by dipping, yet, as the last was the
common form for baptism in this country through the British,
the Anglo-Saxon, and the English periods, from Lucius of holy,
to Henry VIII. of wicked, memory in our annals ; and as this
method more clearly brings before our eyes the symbolic meaning
of St. Paul, when he tells us : Know you not that all we who are
baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized in his death ? For we are
buried together with him by baptism into death ; that as Christ
is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may
walk in newness of life : for if we have been planted together in
the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his
resurrection (Romans, cap. vi. vv. 3, 4, 5), its restoration is
heartily to be longed for. In the waters of baptism, the infant is
buried a child whose soul is stained with sin ; it arises spotless as
an angel, and the child of God. How can this truth be so well
told to the lookers-on as by plunging the little one beneath the
cleansing waters ! St. Paul makes a burial in, and immediate rising
from, the water the outward sign of this sacrament of baptism.
138 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
with the sign of the cross : out of respect to
these oils, which are hallowed with such form on
Maundy Thursday, and to hinder the vestment
from being unduly rubbed with them, this
"ponser" was put upon the bishop's thumb and
kept there until that part of the liturgy whereat
he always washes his hands. That these thumb-
stals were often very rich, and laden with pearls
and rubies, is certain from a description by William
of Wykeham, in his will, of the best he had, for
he possessed several. Perhaps they were peculiar
to England, as in our national ecclesiastical docu-
ments is the only notice of them to be found. 3
3 A Pontifical belonging to the church of Salisbury, in the
service for ordaining priests, has the following rubric of what the
bishop is to do after having anointed the new priest's hands :
Postea lavet (episcopus) manus suas si voluerit, vel imponatur
digitale .i. ponsir quousque lavat manus suas (Maskell, Monum.
Bit. Ecc. Anglic., iii. 213 [new ed., ii. 225]). That this "digitale,
id est, ponsir," was to go upon the thumb of the bishop's right
hand, is shown by the rubric a little before the last : Episcopus
depositis chirothecis . . . intingat pcllicem manus dexterae suse
in oleo et chrismate commixtis super patenam . . . dicendo hsec
verba, Per istam unctionem, faciat crucem super manus sacerdotis
cum dicto oleo et chrismate, &c. Ibid.
My gifted friend, Mr. Maskell, has put in between two brackets
a note of interrogation of his own, after the word " ponsir," as
much as to say, What does it mean? Well might he ask the
question, for the term is not to be found in Du Cange or any other
lexicographer. The will of that truly great English churchman,
William of Wykeham, happily lets us see almost its very shape,
and tells us how handsomely it was often made, thus clearing away
the difficulty about this word. That good bishop of Winchester,
besides his larger gold pontifical ring, and his better gold chalice,
bequeathed to his successor, "item ponsere meum meliorem,"
worked and ornamented with four rubies, and cxli pearls (Testam.
Vet., ed. Nicolas, ii. 767). I need not add that, hitherto, the word
" ponser " has been a puzzle to our antiquaries.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 139
(168) Another small occasional ornament, most
likely set aside for the exclusive use of the bishop,
in the several dioceses of England, was a little
sheath, or
CANDLE-HOLDER,
made of silver and gilt, with which the prelate
could take hold on and clasp the wax taper he
bore in his hand, as he walked, along with his
clergy, in solemn procession on Candlemas-day,
in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary. 4
(169) SECTION XIII
Not as the least conspicuous among the em-
blems of the episcopacy has been long looked
upon the properly 5 so-called
4 The celebrated Anthony, bishop of Durham (dying A.D. 1310)
left, among other ornaments, to his cathedral : Crucem patriarch-
alem argenteam et deauratam, et unum manuale ejusdem operis
pro cereo suo in die Purificationis. Wills and Inventories, ed.
Raine, i. 12.
5 Not every ring worn by a bishop was, truly speaking, the
pontifical one ; but that only which he put, when vested, on the
annular, or last finger but one of the right hand. Our bishops,
while singing High Mass, wore several rings, and particularly a
large one upon the thumb. This, as well as the pontifical and
every other ring, seems to have been never passed below the
second joint of the finger, whereas now, bishops, like other people,
wear their episcopal ring below the second joint, or between it
and the knuckle. Archbishop Chicheley's figure, in Canterbury
Cathedral, shows the thumb-ring and the pontifical one, and both
rest at the middle, not bottom of the finger. With our English
bishops, a custom seems to have, at one time, prevailed, of
bequeathing a ring (not, however, the pontifical one) to the
reigning king. Such tokens of episcopal goodwill towards
i4o THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
PONTIFICAL RING,
which, to judge from the notices we have of some
(170) of them, and the few specimens that are
still to be met with, must have been in general
rich often quite beautiful. From its very use
(being worn over gloves made of silk, much
thicker in their texture than now), this ring was
larger and, in conformity with the style of those
times, wrought more heavy than the same kind of
ecclesiastical ornament is in our days. 6 Though
Edward I. fill up a somewhat lengthy space in the very curious
wardrobe accounts of that prince, wherein we see that these
everyday rings worn by bishops had usually set in them either a
sapphire or a ruby. Among them were : Annulus auri cum saphiro
qui fuit (fratris Willielmi quondam Dublin archiepiscopi defuncti).
Lib. Quotid. Garderobaz Edwardi Primi, p. 343. Anulus auri cum
rubetto perforate qui fuit (Roberti Coventr' et Lich' episcopi
defuncti). Ib., p. 344. Anulus auri cum saphiro qui fuit J. Ebor.
archiepiscopi defuncti (ib., p. 345). Anulus auri cum quatuor
rubettis magnis qui fuit fratris J. de Peccham, nuper Cantuar'
archiepiscopi defuncti (ib., p. 346). Anulus auri cum saphiro qui
fuit A. Assaven' episcopi defuncti. Anulus auri cum rubetto
legatus regi per W. de Cornera, quondam Sarum episcopum,
receptus in garderoba . . . de executoribus testamenti ejusdem.
Ibid.
6 Among the " anuli pontificales " at Canterbury Cathedral
(A.D. 1315) are mentioned: Unus anulus quadratus magnus cum
smaragdine oblongo . et quatuor pramis et quatuor gernettis. Item
anulus magnus cum saphiro . et quatuor pramis cum quatuor
margaritis. Item anulus Johannis Archiepiscopi, cum saphiro
nigro, cum 'viij granis smaragdinis. Item, anulus R. de Winchelsee
archiepiscopi, cum saphiro, &c. [Invent, of Christ Ch., Cant., p. 71].
The rings of St. Thomas a Becket were kept apart; and his
great ones are thus mentioned : Anulus pontificalis magnus cum
rubino rotundo in medio. Item annulus magnus cum saphiro nigro
qui vocatur Lup. Ibid.
In the will of that great and good man, William of Wykeham,
we find that he bequeathed to his successor in the bishopric of
PART I. CHAP. VI. 141
commonly having (171) for its stone a sapphire,
it not unfrequently bore a deep broad emerald, or
a ruby; and to keep it in (172) its right place,
another plain but smaller ring was put upon the
finger just above it. 7
Winchester, his best book, De Officio Pontificali, his best missal, his
larger gold pontifical ring, with a sapphire stone, surrounded with
four balas-rubies, and two small diamonds and eleven pearls ;
also his better gold chalice. Nicolas, Testaments Vetusta, ii. 767.
As now, so then, a bishop's ring, after the Anglo-Saxon period,
was never graven, and could not therefore be used as a signet ;
hence grew the necessity for each prelate to provide himself with
his own proper seal, which at his death was publicly broken up :
and being, in general, of silver, the fragments of the matrix were
offered at the shrine of the patron saint of his diocese. It is a
common observation in some of our English ecclesiastical docu-
ments, for example, in the bishopric of Durham : Audita morte
istius, statim fracta fuerunt ejus sigilla et sancto Cuthberto
oblata (Wills and Inventories of the Northern Counties of England,
i. i). Post cujus mortem fracta fuerunt sigilla ejusdem, &c. (ib.,
p. 2). In exequiis Ricardi primi habuit ecclesia (Dunelm.) . . .
unum anulum aureum pontificalem, et in die sepulturee ejus fracta
fuerunt sigilla ejusdem et Sancto Cuthberto oblata (ib., p. 5).
The pieces of these seals were afterwards melted down and
wrought into chalices (ib., p. 26). That these seals were broken
in public, and with some ceremony, is clear from the following
notice of the fact : Obiit Robertus de insula Dunelmensis episcopus.
Quo sepulto, sigillum ejus publice coram omnibus a magistro
Roberto Avenel est confractum (Hist. Dunelm. Scriptores Tres,
p. 63.) Very likely the episcopal was broken in the same way as the
abbatial seal, which the monks thus destroyed at the burial of the
abbot, and in the open church, upon one of the steps of the high
altar ; as we learn from Matthew Paris, who tells us, while
noticing the death and funeral ceremonies of William, abbot of St.
Alban's (A.D. 1235): Pulsato igitur solernni classico, deportatum
est corpus in ecclesiam, sequente conventu et psallente consueta.
Et illico, vidente toto conventu et quolibet introducto, confractum
est sigillum abbatis uno martello super unum graduum lapideorum
ante maius altare, ita ut tota cselatura, imaginis scilicet et
litterarum, deleretur. Vitas, S. Albani Abbatum, p. 87.
Tune sedendo cirothecas manibus imponat et anulum pontifi-
calem magnum, una cum uno parvo strictiori anulo ad tenendum
142 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
The use of the pontifical ring is of very early
date in the Church : 8 among the Anglo-Saxon
hierarchy, this is shown in various ritual docu-
ments of the time, 9 as well as by the finding of
one of these (173) very rings when the grave of
an Anglo-Saxon bishop was opened. 1
10
fortius super imponat. Modus induendi episcopum [Barnes, Lacy
Pontifical (Exeter 1847)], p. 3.
8 St. Isidore of Seville is a witness that, in the sixth century,
the rubric of the Spanish Church was, to give a ring, with all
ritual form, to the bishop at his consecration : Datur et annulus
(episcopo) propter signum pontificalis honoris, vel signaculum
secretorum. De Ecc. Ojfficiis, lib. ii. cap. v. 12 [P.L., Ixxxiii.
784].
9 In the three Anglo-Saxon pontificals now in France two at
Paris, one at Rouen the pontifical ring is especially noticed by
the rubrics at the consecration of a bishop. Archbishop Ecgberht's
pontifical says : Cum anulus datur hsec oratio dicitur : Accipe annu-
lum pontificalis honoris, ut sis fidei integritate munitus [Surtees
Soc., vol. xxvii. p. 3]. The pontifical at Rouen, and St. Dunstan's at
Paris, both have Cum annulus datur hsec oratio dicitur : Accipe ergo
annulum discretions et honoris, fidei signum, ut quae signanda
sunt, signes, et quse aperienda sunt, prodas, &c. (Martene, De Ant.
EccL Bit., I. viii. Ordo iij.). I am led to think, by the wording of
this prayer, that the rings of Anglo-Saxon bishops were graven ;
and that they were employed by those prelates for sealing, and
thus giving authority to their pontifical instruments, if not on
every, at least on some occasions. Pontifical seals like those of our
English epoch were quite unknown in Anglo-Saxon times.
10 At the beginning of the thirteenth century, on opening, in
Dorchester Church, near Oxford, the grave of a bishop, supposed
to be St. Birinus, among other things, was found a ring : In vent us
quoque est annulus, itemque crux plumbea super pectus eius, &c.
De S. Birino Ep. Dorcestrensi, in Surius, Vit., vi. 688.
Though by right of their degree, doctors in divinity wear a ring,
they must put it off while saying Mass, as none but a bishop, or
a mitred prelate, may keep it on in offering up the holy Sacrifice.
The wearing of a ring is forbidden to those of the clergy who have
not been created mitred prelates, or taken the degree of the
doctorate.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 143
SECTION XIV
From a subject which has been but slightly, if
(174) at all, handled by our English ecclesiastical
antiquaries, we have to pass, and speak of
THE PECTORAL CROSS,
now worn by the bishops of the Church whenever
they sing or say Mass.
Of all our several kinds of figured monuments
done in this country at any time while it was
Catholic, v whether in sculptured stone, grave-
brasses, enamels, embroidery, silversmiths'-work,
stained glass, wall-painting, illuminations, seals,
or glazed tiles, not one shows either a bishop or
an abbot wearing hung upon his breast and over
his chasuble from a string or chain around his
neck anything like what is now called the
pectoral cross. Moreover, in none of our written
documents belonging to the same period in
none of our rituals, wills of bishops, nor in-
ventories of cathedral jewels and precious things,
is there once a mention of it. What we say of
England may be with the same truth said of the
whole Church ; and it is remarkable, that while
both Pope Innocent III. and St. Thomas of
Aquino are most minute in reckoning up the
vestments and ornaments distinctively belonging
144 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
to bishops in their days, and always worn by
them when solemnly arrayed for the holy sacri-
fice, those two writers never drop a word about
the pectoral cross, as one of those adornments
which the prelate should have on. 11 From all
this (175) we are led to believe, that the formal
use of the pectoral cross, as now worn over the
chasuble, goes no farther back than the middle
of the sixteenth century. 12 At the same time,
11 See. i. 405 of this work. As late as the end of the twelfth
century, when Innocent III. wrote, it seems from what he says
that, at least according to the Latin rite, no one but the Roman
pontiff formally put on the pectoral cross while vesting for Mass ;
for in a chapter expressly on this subject, and headed " Quare
Romanus Pontifex post albam orale, et post orale crucem assumat,"
the Pope, in comparing the liturgical vestments worn by the high-
priest of the old law with those of the high-priest of the Christian
dispensation, observes : Et quia signo crucis auri lamina cessit,
pro lamina quam pontifex ille gerebat in fronte, pontifex iste
crucem gerit in pectore. . . . Ideoque Romanus pontifex crucem
quamdam insertam catenulis a collo suspensam, sibi statuit ante
pectus (De Sac. Altaris Myst., i. 53 [/ J .-L., ccxvii. 793, 794]). Not a
word is spoken, either here or elsewhere, by this eminent liturgist,
of drawing out this cross from beneath the chasuble ; hence, though
hanging round the neck but hidden under this vestment, it is never
shown on any of the old figures of the popes.
12 Though Durand follows the same enumeration of episcopal
ornaments as Innocent III. and St. Thomas, as we find in his
Rationale (lib. iii. cap. i. n. 7), still, however, in a pontifical of his,
when he had been made bishop of Mende, he has inserted this
rubric : Crux pectoralis. si quis ea velit uti (Martene, De Antiq.
Eccl. Bit., lib. i. cap. iv. art. xii. Ord. xiii. p. 221). The whole of
Durand's rubric is, as is usual with him, borrowed without acknow-
ledgment from other documents, and seems nothing but an
abridged transcript of a passage in an Ordo Romanus which Mabillon
and earlier ritualists have upon good grounds attributed to
Cardinal Gaetano, Durand's contemporary. Among the sacred
ornaments which according to the writer of this Ordo should be
got ready for a cardinal bishop, are : Amictus, alba, cingulum cum
subcinctorio . . . crux pectoralis, stola, &c. (Ordo Rom. xiv., Mabill.,
PART I. CHAP. VI. 145
however, there (176) is undeniable proof that
what we may safely say gave rise to the present
pectoral cross, was in existence many ages ago,
and this is
THE KELIQUARY WORN AROUND THE NECK BY
ALL ENGLISH BISHOPS WHENEVER THEY
SANG HIGH MASS.
As in other countries, 18 so from the earliest days
(177) of Christianity in this island among the
Anglo-Saxons, the practice was for lay-folks and
Mus. ItaL, ii. 288). From the way in which the Ordo and its copyist,
Durand, speak, we may conclude that the cross was put round the
neck over the alb, and left to hang there quite hidden by the
chasuble.
13 The reliquary which St. Gregory the Great used to wear com-
monly about his neck, is thus described by John the deacon, who
wrote the pontiffs life, A.D. 875 : Reliquiarum phylacteria, tenui
argento fabricata, vilique pallio de collo suspensa fuisse videntur.
Vita S. Gregorii Papse, iv. 80 [P.L., Ixxv. 228]. Another illustrious
ornament of God's Church, and the Roman pontiff's contemporary,
called, too, by the same name, St. Gregory of Tours, in telling us
of a miracle which he himself witnessed wrought by the Almighty
through the relics which the holy bishop wore in a gold cross hung
within the folds of his garments on his breast, lets us know that
such was the pious usage of those times in Gaul ; and considering
the neighbourhood and Christian intercourse between the two
countries, what he says must be looked upon as evidence of the
Britons' practice : Hujus beatse Virginis reliquias (writes the
Gaulish prelate) cum sanctorum Apostolorum, vel beati Martini,
quadam vice super me in cruce aurea positas exhibebam. Cumque
per viam graderemur, conspicio haud procul a via hospitiolum
cujusdam pauperis incendio concremari. . . . Tune extractam a
pectore crucem elevo contra ignem, &c. De Gloria Martyr., i. 1 1
[P.L., Ixxi. 716]. The wording of this passage, " extractam a pectore
crucem," shows that the cross holding these relics was not worn
outwardly, but muffled up beneath the bishop's daily dress.
VOL. II. K
146 THE CHURCH OP OUR FATHERS
churchmen (bishops in particular) to wear at all
times a reliquary, often fashioned in the shape of
a cross, hanging on their breast. Of St. Wilfrid,
Eddi, his friend and the writer of his life, tells us,
that Queen Ermenburga had the one which that
holy archbishop of York always carried about his
person, stolen from around his neck while he lay
in the prison into which he had been thrown by
her husband Ecgfrith, king of the Northumbrians. 14
(178) Moreover, the golden reliquary made like a
cross, which our countryman St. Willibrord used
to carry about his person whenever he travelled,
and after his death was stolen by a worthless
deacon from the church wherein that holy bishop
lay buried, as we gather through the prose and
poetry of another star in our annals the learned
Alcuin must have no doubt been worn hanging
from around his neck by the Anglo-Saxon apostle
of the Frisons. 15 Besides his sandals, the neck
14 Regina vero . . . chrismarium hominis Dei sanctis reliquiis
repletum . . . de se abstractum in thalamo suo manens aut curru
pergens, juxta se pependit (Eddius, Vita S. Wilfridi Ebor., cap.
xxxiii., ed. Gale, iii. 69). That St. Wilfrid wore this reliquary
about his neck, we are expressly told by Eddi : Sanctas reliquias
quas regina de collo spoliati (Wilfridi) abstraxit. 76., cap. xxxviii.,
p. 71.
15 In his prose life of St. Willibrord, Alcuin speaks thus of that
theft : Quidam etiam officio diaconus, et nonmerito, in ecclesia
sancti viri crucem auream, quam vir sanctus secum in itinere
portare solebat . . . non horruit subtrahere furto Alcuin, Op.,
I. xxvii. [P.L., ci. 709!. From what he says in the metrical notice
of the saint, we are able to collect that the stolen cross was in fact
a reliquary :
Altaris juvenis corrupta mente minister
Clam rapuit qusedam sancti donaria templi
PART I. CHAP. VI. 147
cross (for so it was then called in this country) of
our glorious Anglo-Saxon martyred archbishop of
Canterbury, St. Elphege, is particularly noticed by
Osbern, the monk of Canterbury. 16
(179) The reliquary so often fashioned in the
shape of a cross most probably because it held
a hair-like splinter of the true holy rood, either
stuck upon, or shut up within a little one made
out of common wood 17 was not only worn in
Tollitur ac ssevo quaedam crux aurea furto
Quam Christ! famulus secum portare solebat
Dum plus egit iter, Christo comitante, viator,
Reliquias propter multas quas condit in ilia.
Ibid., cap. xxxii. [722].
16 Collariam martyris crucem (Vita S. Elphegi, in A A. SS. Apr.,
ii. 40, p. 641). Besides a ring and a psalter, Archbishop ^Elfric
bequeathed to Archbishop Wulf ston a neck-cross : And he becwaeS
Uulfstane aercebiscope ane sweor-rode, and anne ring, and anne
psaltere ; and ^Elfheage biscope anne rode (Kemble, Codex Dip.
Anglo-Sax., iii. 352). When the body of a bishop, thought to be
that of St. Birinus, was taken up out of its grave in Dorchester
Church, near Oxford, A. D. 1224, a metal cross was found lying on
his breast : Quidam canonicus dixit . . . invenisse corpus episcopi
integrum cum duplici stola et infula rubra e panno serico, atque
cum cruce e metallo confecta, pectori ejus imposita: denique cum
calice ad umbilicum ejus posito. De S. Birino ep. Dorcest., in Surius
Vit., vi. 688.
Reginald of Durham says not a word of any cross being met
with amid the episcopal ornaments in which the body of St.
Cuthberht was dressed, when the monks opened and looked
into his coffin at the translation of the saint's relics (A.D. 1104).
Reginaldus Dunelmensis, Libellus de Admirand. S. Cuthberti, p.
84. But upon the unknown bishop, whose body was, as late as
A.D. 1827, ungraved in Durham Cathedral, a gold cross, studded
with one large and several small garnets, and evidently hung by a
string from around the neck, was found hidden among the folds
of silken vestments on the breast of the prelate : the shape of it
may be seen in Raine's St. Gutlibert, pi. i.
17 Large crosses of wood, upon which short thread-like chips
from the true cross were glued, have been at times mistaken by
i 4 8 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
England as much (180) after St. Osmund's days
as it used to be among the Anglo-Saxon bishops,
but in time came, by the rubrics of our English
pontificals, to be a required ornament for the
prelate whenever he vested himself in all his
pontifical array. 18 From this it follows, (181) that
the heedless traveller, or shamelessly passed off by exaggerating
and boastful sacristans, for so many portions of the true cross
itself : hence those who are always but too glad to throw a slur
upon the Catholic Church and her practices, have laughed and said
that, were all the fragments which are, throughout Christendom,
shown as pieces of the cross gathered into one heap, there would
be enough timber to build a ship of war. What though the
remark be accurate with regard to the crosses themselves of
common wood on which are pasted, or within which are shut up,
these little, thin, almost indiscernible parings from the true cross,
the sneer cannot apply to these parings themselves, all of which,
if brought together and put into a scale, would not weigh many
ounces.
18 In Bishop Lacy's pontifical, a liturgical manuscript written
here in England some time during the fourteenth century, there
is " Modus induendi episcopum ad solempniter celebrandum,"
according to which : Induat (episcopus) amictum, albam, et
stolam, et reliquias circa collum. Liber Pontificates, ed. Barnes,
P- 3-
Not only were the " relics to be hung around the bishop's neck,
after he had put on his amice, alb, and stole," inclosed within a
cross-shaped reliquary, but sometimes in little cases, and of these
no mean specimen, I suspect, is the one found, not many years
ago, by a labourer in a field near Devizes, where I lately saw it :
measuring if inch in breadth by if high, and made of the purest
gold, it is enamelled on one side with the figure of St. John the
Baptist, on the other, with an archbishop's, in all likelihood St.
Thomas of Canterbury, arrayed in his pontificals : at bottom it
shows this inscription, A mon >J< derrayne, which may perhaps
mean, To my after-comer, thus willing it to be a kind of heirloom in
the bishopric. It opens in two, so that relics might be put inside ;
and at top there is a small ring, through which could have been
run a cord or chain for hanging it about the neck. It now belongs
to the Rev. W. Maskell, and may be seen figured in the Archaeo-
logical Journal, v. 157.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 149
what is now rightly known under the title of the
bishop's pectoral cross, was, strictly speaking,
never among an English prelate's liturgical ap-
purtenances according to St. Osmund's rite for
his church of Salisbury; and, in all likelihood,
the use of this ornament, as it is now worn over
the chasuble, began in those countries which
adopted the Roman pontifical, only just after the
fall of the Catholic Church in this kingdom.
SECTION XV
The next prelatic ensign that asks our notice, is
THE PASTORAL STAFF,
the very ancient liturgical use of which is beyond
a doubt ; whatever darkness may hang over its
first form, and how unknown at present the exact
(182) material, the practice was to choose for the
making of it.
That a staff of some kind was solemnly put into
the hands of the newly-consecrated bishop, for a
token of ghostly rule over his people, we are told
by St. Isidore of Seville, 19 in the sixth century ;
19 Huic autem (episcopo) dum consecratur, datur bacillus, ut
eius indicio subditam plebem vel regat, vel corrigat, vel infirmit-
ates infirmorum sustineat. St. Isidore, De Eccl. Officiis, ii. 5.
[P.L., Ixxxiii. 783]. Almost a hundred years before the days of
this eminent Spanish bishop, who nourished towards A.D. 596, we
have proof of the importance given to this emblem of episcopal
authority ; for we find recorded in the life of St. Csesarius, bishop
150 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
and ecclesiastical documents of our own island
show it to have been looked upon as one among
the emblems of episcopal jurisdiction, and there-
fore it was delivered with ritual solemnity to the
Anglo-Saxon bishop at his consecration. 20
(183) The origin of the pastoral staff perhaps
was twofold : needed at first to uphold the
tottering feebleness of the aged priest who had
been called to watch as head shepherd over his
own little corner of Christ's fold, the old man's
walking-stick crept slowly into liturgical use, till
at length it came to be acknowledged the emblem
of the overseeing office entrusted to the Church's
bishops, and, like every other appurtenance of
the sanctuary, had befitting decorations bestowed
upon it. But if it afforded help to the venerable
personage who bore it in his hands, it became
a symbol of his spiritual authority. From the
earliest monuments in sacred or profane art
from the most archaic fictile vases of Greece and
of Aries, A.D. 502, written by one of his own clergy, that the
saint's pastoral staff was on public occasions borne before him by
one of his clerks as he went to church : Cum vir Dei ... ad aliam
ecclesiam pergeret, clericus cui cura erat baculum illius portare,
quod notariorum officium erat, oblitus est, in quo ministerio ego
serviebam. Tune loci illius incolse cum eum invenissent . . .
virgam ipsam de pariete suspendunt. Vita S. Csesarii Arel. in A A.
SS. dugusti, vi. 79.
20 Gum datur baculus hzec oratio dicitur : Accipe baculum pastor-
alis officii, et sis in corrigendis vitiis sseviens, &c. [in Egbert Pont.
(Surtees Soc.) p. 3] (Ordinatio Episcopi, 32). The same rubric and
the same prayer are to be found in an Anglo-Saxon pontifical now
at Rouen, and in St. Dunstan's, at Paris. Martene, De Ant. Ecc.
Hit., I. viii., Ordo iij.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 151
Sicily, as well as from the oldest frescoes in the
Roman catacombs, we find that during all periods,
and among every nation, a wand was considered
the emblem of power and command : so has it
continued to be, and still is, under one form or
another, from the king's sceptre down to the
lowliest staff of office. This will explain why,
from a very early period until now, not only
bishops, but abbots, nay, even abbesses too,
should have been allowed the use, after a certain
manner, of the pastoral staff.
What at first may have been the shape of the
(184) pastoral staff, it is hard, at such a wide
distance of time, to determine ; but from those
found in the ninth century hanging over the
graves of bishops, then long since dead, it would
seem they were bent at top. 21 The very word,
too, of " cambutta," or crook-headed walking-
stick, 22 one of the terms (185) employed at an
21 In relating a miracle which happened in the church of St.
Denis, near Paris, an unknown writer of that house tells us that
a poor countryman: Videt . . . introire senem clericum ponti-
ficalibus vestibus exornatum, ferentemque in manu baculum a
capite arcuatum in ima reflexum, qualibus antiquiores pontifices
usos fuisse, ad memorias eorum suspensi declarant. Vita S. Dionysii
Ep. Paris, ab anon, in Mabillon, A A. SS. O.B., iv. 312.
22 This was the first meaning of " cambutta." The reader should
know that, for many centuries, a usage prevailed for aged and
sickly ecclesiastics to carry along with them into church a short
staff, upon which they might lean as they stood in the choir, or
about the altar, taking part in the public service ; and in some
countries, though the bishop might have even his pastoral staff in
one hand, in the other he held this short stick, for Mabillon met
with an illumination wherein bishops having both staves at the same
time were figured. De Cursu Gallicano, p. 435 [P.L., Ixxii. 414].
152 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
early period, and borrowed by the Church from
the Armoric, or rather, our own insular British
tongue, to signify this liturgical appliance, 23 tells
us that the pastoral staff of olden times, like what
the shepherd's crook has always (186) been, was
curved at the upper end. Such, however, was
not the invariable form, at least in this island,
for at one time our Anglo-Saxon bishops used
pastoral staves which were quite straight all up
These low staves are mentioned in several old documents. St.
Martin of Tours gave his own to the youthful Victurius (who was
afterwards bishop of Le Mans), as we learn from an old manu-
script life of the latter saint, quoted by Mabillon : Cui (S. Victurio)
Martinus dedit baculum (seu) sustentaculum super quod solent
sacerdotes fusis orationibus sustentari (ibid.). While the gospel
was being read, these staves were laid down, as Amalarius tells
us: Usque ad istud omcium baculis sustentabamur ; modo, ut
oportet servos ante Dominum stare, humiliter stamus, deponentes
baculos e manibus (De Eccl. Off., iii. 18) [P.L., cv. 1126]. About
Amalarius's time, the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle, A.D. 816, pub-
lished a rule for canons regular, and in chap. 131 ordained:
Studeant summopere canonici prsedictas horas vigilantissima
cura custodire . . . Nee cum baculis in choro exceptis debilibus,
sed religiosissime illis standum et psallendum est (Harduin, Gone.,
iv. 1 1 39). As late as the middle of the twelfth century, the use
of these low, plain staves lasted, for Honorius of Autun, in his
beautiful Gemma Animae, i. 24, De baculis, says : Dum evangelium
legitur, baculi de manibus deponuntur [P.L., clxxii. 552].
23 In many old documents the pastoral staff, whether it be for
bishops' or abbots' use, is called "cambutta." Writing (c. A.D.
842) the life of St. Gall, who died A.D. 646, Walafrid Strabo speaks
of St. Columbanus's abbatial staff under such a name : Baculum
ipsius (Columbani) quern vulgo cambottam vocant, per manum
diaconi transmiserunt (Vita & Galli, cap. xxvi., in Mabillon, A A.
SS. 0. B., ii. 233) ; and in our own Anglo-Saxon pontificals, such as
St. Dunstan's, we find the episcopal staff so designated : Pontifex
ter super liminare ecclesise cambuta sua aut baculo percutiat, &c.
Ordo quomodo domus Dei consecranda est, Pontificale S. Dunstani, in
Martene, De Ant. Ecc. Rit., t. ii., lib. ii., cap. xiii., p. 255.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 153
and capped by a knob or ball, as is shown by the
figure of a bishop, vested in a cope and holding
his pastoral staff in his right hand, preserved to
us by an illumination in an Anglo-Saxon ponti-
fical, and well copied in our picture, which we
gave while speaking of the cope. 24 This, too,
must have often been its shape abroad, for while
Charlemagne was away carrying on war against
the Huns, a bishop, whom he had left at court,
so far let his vanity outstrip his good sense, as
to try and get the absent emperor's sceptre for a
pastoral staff; 25 which emblem of kingly power,
then as now, was a straight rod or wand, not
crooked at top, but ending in a flower, or some
such ornament. 26
24 A picture of an Anglo-Saxon illumination, given before,
p. 21 of this volume, shows the form of the pastoral staff used in
this country at that period.
25 Idem quoque episcopus, cum bellicosissimus Carolus in bello
contra Hunos esset occupatus ... in tantam progressus est proter-
viam, ut virgam auream . . . Caroli quam ad statum suum fieri iussit,
f eriatis diebus vice baculi ferendam pro episcopali ferula improvidus
ambiret. On hearing of such an idle wish, Charlemagne, after he
came home, took an opportunity to rebuke the bishop, in these
words : Sceptrum nostrum quod pro significatione regiminis nostri
aureum ferre solemus, pro pastorali baculo nobis ignorantibus
vendicare voluisset. Monachus Sangallensis, lib. i., cap. xix., De
EccL Cum Caroli M., in Duchesne, Hist. Franc. Script., ii. 113.
26 Not unlike a tall, tapering walking-stick, are two out of the
three sceptres used by Charles the Bald, as we find by the illumina-
tions in the Bible given him by the monks of Metz, and in his
own prayer-book. Some of these curious paintings have been
engraved by Baluze, and may be seen at the end of vol. ii. of his
Capitularia Reg. Franc., pp. 848, 849. One sceptre is short, and
flowered at the top ; another, the tall one, has neither flower nor
ball ; the third, as tall and tapering as the second, is tipped, like
the Emperor Lothair's (Voyage des deux Bene'd., ii. 136), with
154 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
Wood, no doubt, though perhaps of the choicest
kinds, such as ebony, cedar, or cypress, furnished
the material for the pastoral staff in the earlier
ages of the Church in this island ; 27 and of wood,
though (188) hidden by gilding, it is often made
for the Catholic bishops of this country to the
present day. Churchmen in the twelfth century
purposely composed it from several materials : its
stem was made of wood, shod with iron, blunted,
not sharp, at its foot, and surmounted by a small
knob of rock-crystal, or of one or other of the
a smallish ball. In the same Bible is figured a bishop, holding
in his left hand a pastoral staff slightly curved at top.
27 That the pastoral staff, among the Anglo-Saxons, used to
be made of wood, is shown by the one of simple elderberry-tree,
once belonging to St. Burchard, and which hung for many ages
over his grave. St. Burchard was one among the several Anglo-
Saxons whom our holy countryman, St. Boniface, called over to
Germany as helpers in the harvest of souls, and where Burchard
was consecrated, by that apostle of Franconia, the first bishop
of Wiirtzburg. While speaking of the saint's pastoral staff, Egil-
ward the monk says : In loco sepulturse ejus servatur virga sam-
bucea . . . pastor Burchardus cum sua pastorali virga modernis
pastoribus, qui pascentes semetipsos, vix in ipsis baculis suis aliqua
carent pompa ( Vita S. Burchardi, in Mabillon, A A. SS. 0. B., iii. 650).
It is not, however, unlikely that here, as well as abroad, the
pastoral staff was composed of gold and silver, and adorned with
crystal, during the ninth century : Baculus auro, argento, et
crystallo paratus ii, prseparatio baculi unius ex crystallo. Descrip.
Thesau. S. Richarii, A.D. 831, Chron. Gentul. [P.L., clxxiv. 1258].
For later times, many evidences might be brought forward :
when Stephen, Abbot of St. Genevieve's, at Paris, was chosen,
A.D. 1 1 59, bishop of Tournay, together with their congratulations,
he had sent him from the abbot and the brotherhood of a
religious house, a pastoral staff of cypress wood : Munusculum
vobis mittimus de remotis partibus nobis missum, baculum pas-
toralem cypressinum, officio vestro et qualitate mysterii congruum,
et quantitate ministerii condignum. Stephanus Tornacensis,
Epist., 234 [P.L., ccxi. 528].
PAET I. CHAP. VI. 155
precious metals, from which sprang out the crook
itself, carved in ivory, with this sentence running
round it Dum iratus fueris, misericordise recorda-
beris ; while upon the ball beneath was written
the word Homo, and the spike at the lower end
bore this injunction Parce. Thus the bishop,
by the very emblem of his high spiritual power,
was warned, though (189) angered, not to be
wrathful to keep in remembrance, being but a
man himself, he ought to watch over his own
heart, and let not the thoughts of his dignity uplift
him and even while bringing the iron strength
and correction of Church discipline to bear against
sinners, still he must be mild, not harsh. 28
Very soon, however, it became to the ecclesias-
tical artist an object of thoughtful concern ; and
the ivory, 29 the silver, and the gold, the precious
28 Baculus ex auctoritate legis et evangelii assumitur, qui et
virga pastoralis, et capuita, et ferula, et pedum dicitur (Gemma
Animae, i. 217, De baculo episcopali). Hie baculus ex osse et ligno
efficitur, crystallina vel deaurata sphserula conjunguntur, in
supremo capite insignitur, in extreme ferro acuitur, &c. (ibid.,
219). Os recurvatur, ut populus errans per doctrinamad Dominum
retrahatur. ... In curvatura est scriptum, Dum iratus fueris,
misericordise. recordaberis (see Habakkuk, iii. 2) ; ne ob culpam
gregis superet ira mentem pastoris. ... In sphserula est scrip-
tum, Homo, quatenus se hominem memoraretur, et de potes-
tate collata non elevetur. Juxta ferrum est scriptum, Parce, ut
subjectis in disciplina parcat . . . unde et ferrum debet esse
retusum, &c. Ibid., 220 [P.L., clxxii. 609-611].
29 A few years ago I saw. amid several other ecclesiastical
appurtenances, in a private collection of mediseval antiquities in
London, a most delicately-carved pastoral staff, the whole in the
finest ivory. By its style it seemed to be a work of the early
part of the fourteenth century, and done by an English hand.
Of this kind may have been the ivory one mentioned among the
156 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(190) stones, 30 and the enamels 31 brought to him
for its formation and adornment, were all wrought
up (191) with such skilful cunning, especially by
the hands of workmen in this country, that it
often happened a bishop's pastoral staff, belonging
to one of our larger churches, came to be valued
for its beauty as a work of art, quite as much as
it was for the richness and worth of the gold and
jewels which shone about it : such was the mag-
Salisbury ornaments, A.D. 1222 : Baculi pastorales iiij, quorum
unus est eburneus. [Wordsworth, Salisb. Cerem., 177.]
30 The treasuries of our English cathedrals could, in olden days,
display many a splendid pastoral staff. Salisbury had hers :
Baculus pastoralis argenteus pretiosus bene deauratus cum lapidi-
bus pretiosis. Ut supra.
31 The variety of material employed in England for making
pastoral staves, may be seen from the list of those belonging to
Canterbury Cathedral, A.D. 1315 :
Baculi pastorales.
Baculus cedrinus cum .ix angelis aureis . J. Archiepiscopi.
Item Baculus ejusdem argenteus anelatus cum floribus de Liz.
Item Baculus albus eburneus.
Item Baculus Sancti Thome de Piro cum capite de nigro cornu.
Item Baculus de lynde cum capite de nigro cornu et paucis
gemmis ornatus.
Item Baculus . B. archiepiscopi cum gemmis ornatus cum mages-
tate et Episcopo argent' in capite. [Christ Ch. Inventories, p. 70.]
At Winchester Cathedral there were : Three pastoral staves
of silver and gilt. Item, one pastoral staff of an unicorn's horn.
Dugdale, Mon. Angl., i. 203.
Kept to this day, at his magnificent foundation, New College,
Oxford, is William of Wykeham's pastoral staff, which, studded
as it is all over with enamels, and with its beautifully wrought
little tabernacles running storey above storey, peopled by small
but graceful figures of saints, exhibits a bright proof of how able
were our ancient silversmiths. Another precious, though hitherto
seldom noticed, specimen of old English workmanship, is the
pastoral staff of Bishop Fox, at Corpus Christi College, built by
him at Oxford.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 157
nificent pastoral staff which one of the Norman
robbers of our Anglo-Saxon minsters, Odo,
bishop of Bayeux, ran away with from Durham
Cathedral. 32
Both in this country and abroad, it was a
custom of early introduction, to speak of the pas-
toral staff (192) as distinguishable into two differ-
ent portions, the long straight part, or staff itself,
and the twisted top, appropriately called " cam-
butta " or crook. 33
32 Qusedam etiam ex ornamentis ecclesise (Dunelmensis) inter
quse et baculum pastoralem materia et arte mirandum, erat enim
de saphiro factus, preefatus episcopus abstulit : Simeon of Durham,
Hist, de Dunelm. Ecc., iii. 24 [fi., Ixxv. 118]. Not only Nor-
man bishops, but Norman monks, were guilty of pilfering our
Anglo-Saxon church ornaments : "Isto enim tempore," says the
historian of Abingdon monastery, "erant in hac domo quidam
monachi et sacristse de coenobio Gemeticensi qui ornamenta
quamplurima a beato ^Ethelwoldo laboriose adquisita et huic
domui collata, tarn aurea quam argentea eruderato penitus argento
a rota memorata, secum in Normaniam fraudulenter asportaver-
unt." Dugdale, Mon. AngL, i. 516.
33 Such a distinction of parts is well expressed in the inventory
of ornaments belonging (A.D. 1295) to St. Paul's Cathedral, Lon-
don : Baculus Bicardi episcopi, cujus cambuca de argento deaurato.
Baculus ejusdem cum cambuca cornea continens interius vineam
circumplectentem leonem de cupro deaurato. Baculus cujus
cambuca est cornea continens massam cupream deauratam fusam
in ymagines multas, et pomellum similis operis insertis lapidibus.
Baculus cum cambuca eburnea continente agnum. Baculus qui
fuit Henrici di Wengham, de argento triphoriato et deaurato,
cujus cambuca continet ymaginem Pauli ex parte una, et cujus-
dem archiepiscopi ex parte alia, et in circuitu inseruntur lapides
turkesii et gernectse et baculus ligneus de tribus peciis ornatus
tribus circulis argenteis insertis lapidibus . . . cujus pes est de
argento deaurato. Dugdale, St. Paul's, p. 316. Gaufredus de
Loduno, bishop of Le Mans (A.D. 1254), gave to that church :
Cambutam argenteam magni ponderis deauratam et opere decoram
158 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(193) With respect to abbots and abbesses, the
usage was in Catholic England for the bishop
who consecrated them, to put into the hands,
both of one and the other, as the case might be,
a pastoral staff : besides this, the abbess received
a ring, 34 (194) which, however, was not bestowed
cum baculo pastorali. Gesta Gaufridi de Loduno, Ep. Cenoman-
nensis, in Mabillon, Vet. Analect., iii. 390.
The head, or crook, of the pastoral staff, called "cambutta"
and " cambuca," seems to have been, in some parts of this country ;
known under the name of " cruche-head," as we may gather from
the inventory of church plate stolen by Henry VIII. from Foun-
tains Abbey, at the same time that we learn how beautiful and
costly must have been those two which belonged to that house ;
and are thus described, along with what must have been a pro-
cessional cross : One cross-head, silvered and gilt, with an image,
weight thirty-two ounces ; one cruche-head, gilt, weight forty-six
ounces ; one staff of silver, ungilt, for the same cruche-head ; one
head of a cruche of silver, gilt, weight a hundred ounces ; the staff of
thecruche, gilt, weight seventy ounces. Dugdale,M(w. Angl.,v. 290.
But earlier still, Jocelin, the monk of St. Edmund's, marks
this distinction, while he records the donations bestowed upon
that house by his friend, its abbot, Sampson (A.D. 1197): Optulit
conventui casulam preciosam et mitram auro intextam, et sandalia
cum caligis sericis, et cambucam virge pastoralis argenteam et
bene operatam. Cronica Jocelini de Brakelonda (C. S., ed. Roke-
wode), p. 64.
34 Not only to the abbess, at her installation, but to every nun,
on taking the veil, a ring was, and yet is given. The celebrated
John Duke of Bedford bestowed a ring each upon those nuns who
made their religious vows at the opening of Syon House Convent,
founded by his brother, King Henry V., as is recorded in the
original martyrology belonging to that monastery. At folio iL,
verso, of that manuscript,, now in the possession of the Earl of
Shrewsbury [now Add. MS. 22,285], there is the following entry:
Anno Domini MCCCCXXVI. In die See. Agathe Virginis et Martiris,
feria iij, positus erat primus lapis in fundamento ecclesise monas-
terii de Syon in parochia de Istilworthe, per Johannem Ducem
Bethfordie fratrem fundatoris nostri (Henrici Quinti Regis
Angliae) presente magistro Henrico Bewforde episcopo Wyn-
chestrie et magistro Johanne Kempe episcopo Londinensi qui
PART I. CHAP. VI. 159
upon any abbot, unless his house were a mitred
abbey. 35 According to the present Roman ponti-
fical, abbots still receive a pastoral staff, but not
abbesses, when they are blessed for their respec-
tive offices by the Church, after their election :
abbesses, however, in our English convents,
though they have ceased to be solemnly pre-
sented with it after the old rite of Sarum, 36 keep
up, in a certain way, a remembrance (195) of the
ancient custom, and usually have a pastoral staff
leaning by the side of their chair in the choir.
Not only bishops, but abbots took their pastoral
benedixit et sanctificavit eundem lapidem iacentem in aquilonari
angulo ad orientalem plagam predicte ecclesise. Dux iste dedit
omnibus sororibus prime professionis anulos quibus profitebantur.
35 Postea tradat ei (abbati) baculum, dicens modesta voce :
Accipe baculum pastor alis officii, quern prefer as caterve tibi commisse ad
exemplum juste severitutis et correctionis. Si sit anulandus et mitran-
dus tune dentur sibi. Benedictio Abbatis, in Barnes, Lacy Pontifical,
p. 105. Matthew Paris calls the abbot's staff "baculus choralis,"
and lets us know that, at St. Al ban's, though elected, no abbot
might carry his staff until he had been solemnly blessed : In pro-
cessionibus supremus procedet, ut alius senior, non in medio
choralem ferens baculum. Vitse Abb., p. 92.
36 Post det ei (abbatissae) baculum, dicens: Accipe baculum pas-
toralis officii, &c. Tune det ei annulum, dicens : Accipe annulum,
fidei signaculum, Spiritus Sancti ut sponsa voceris, et sic ei fideliter
servias. Postea installetur per episcopum si in proprio monasterio
fuerit benedicta, ut abbates installantur, &c. Benedictio Abbatissse,
ib., p. 113. Several of our church monuments show us abbesses
with the pastoral staff; among the rest, the interesting high
tomb, in Oxford Cathedral, of the lady Montacute, one of whose
four daughters, figured below on the sides, became a nun and
abbess, who stands with her hands joined, and having her staff
leaning against her left shoulder. The abbess in the Louterell
Psalter holds in her right hand a staff, the crook of which is
beautifully carved ; so, too, does Elizabeth Harvey, abbess of
Elstow. in her grave-brass, etched by Waller. [See overleaf.]
i6o
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
staff with them when they went to a council. 37
Every reader of English history will readily call
to mind that touching
passage in the life of St.
Wulstan, bishop of Wor-
cester, whom Archbishop
Lanfranc, with most
blameworthy obsequious-
ness to King William's
unlawful wishes, and
quite forgetting the
canons of the Church,
sought to depose the
Anglo-Saxon bishop of
an Anglo-Saxon people
from his see, because
forsooth he could not
talk the language of the
Norman stranger. Re-
fusing to yield up his
ELIZABETH HARVEY, Abbess of Elstow.
37 Speaking of the council held
at Rheims (A.D. 1119), Simeon,
the monk of Durham, says : Ad
hoc concilium multiplex factus est
archiepiscoporum, episcoporum,
abbatum et principum diversarum
provinciarumconcursus cum cleri-
corum . . . numerosa multitudine.
Numerates sunt ibi personarum
pastoraliumvirgse ccccxxiiii., Inter
quos et Turstinus Eboracensis
ecclesiee archiepiscopus elect us,
&c.Hist. Regum, 197 [R.S.,
Ixxv. ii. 254].
PART I. CHAP. VI. 161
bishopric to any one but his late sovereign, Edward
the Confessor, the good (196) bishop went to that
king's grave in the church of Westminster, where
they were then assembled, and thrusting his pas-
toral staff into the hard stone which covered the
royal corpse, left it standing there, miraculously
upright, and so fastly rooted that no other hand
but his own could draw it out. 38 (197) In those
38 Apud hunc (Lanfrancum) vir Domini Wulstanus simplicitatis
et imperitise accusatur, et quasi homo idiota et sine litteris de-
ponendus, rege consentiente, vel etiam hoc ipsum prsescribente
decernitur. Igitur in synodo quam apud Westmonasterium rege
praesente celebravit Lanfrancus, inter csetera quse tractavit negotia,
jubet venerabilem virum baculum resignare cum annulo. At
vir Domini nee vultu mutatus nee animo, erexit se, et virgam
pastoralem manu tenens : " Vere," inquit, " domine archiepiscope,
vere scio quia nee hoc honore dignus sum, nee huic idoneus oneri
nee sufficiens labori : sciebam hoc cum me clerus eligeret, cum
episcopi cogerent, cum me dominus rex meus Edwardus ad hoc
officium invitaret. Ipse auctoritate sedis Apostolicse in meos
humeros hoc onus ref udit et per hunc baculum me episcopali gradu
investiri prsecepit. Et nunc pastoralem tu virgam exigis quam
non tradidisti, officium adimis quod non contulisti. Et ego
quidem insufficientiam non ignorans, et tuse sanctseque synodi
sententise cedens resignabo baculum, sed non tibi, sed ei potius
cujus eum auctoritate suscepi." Hsec cum dixisset, cum suis
accessit ad lapidem quo gloriosissimi regis exuvise claudebantur,
et stans ante sepulchrum : " Tu scis," inquit, " domine mi,
Edwarde, quam invitus hoc onus susceperim . . . Et ecce novus
rex, nova lex, novus pontifex, nova jura condunt, novas promulgant
sententias . . . tibi, inquam, resigno baculum, tibi curam eorum
quos mihi commendasti dimitto. . . ." Hsec cum dixisset, elevata
paululum manu, in lapidem quo sanctum corpus tegebatur infixit
baculum. " Accipe," inquiens, " domine mi rex, et cui libuerit
trade ilium." Et sic descendens ab altari exutus pontificalibus
inter monachos ipse monachus simplex resedit. Admirabantur
omnes cernentes virgam immersam silici et quasi radicibus nitere-
tur, neque ad dextram neque ad sinistram declinare. Temptant
earn quidam evellere ; sed ilia stabat immobilis. . . . Tune prsesul
Lanfrancus, novitate miraculi stupefactus, et regem volens tantse
VOL. II. L
LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE
162 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
days, too, it would seem, that our bishops carried
about with them their pastoral staff on most
occasions, for we find that Ranulf, Bishop of
Durham, had his with him when he was shut up
a prisoner in the Tower of London ; and took
care not to forget it when he escaped. 39
(198) But the pastoral staff, fashioned like a
shepherd's crook, was not the only emblem which
the head of a brotherhood of monks could wield,
in this country, for a sign of his spiritual authority
within the house entrusted to his jurisdiction :
a plain, thick, silver wand and, instead of the
crook, bearing at top a solid knob or ball, some-
what resembling the pilgrim's staff, and, like it,
called
admirationis esse participem, mittit qui eum in synodum evocarent.
Advenienti cum proceribus assurgit Lanfrancus, simulque ad
regis tumulum properantes, facta oratione manum apponit ponti-
fex, baculum tentat eruere, sed obsistente sancti Regis virtute
conatus ejus desiderate caret eftectu. . . . Tune Lanfrancus ad
sanctum (Wulstanum) accedens, inquit : " . . . Accede, f rater mi,
accede ad dominum tuum, imo et nostrum : credimus enim quod
sancta ejus dextera quse nobis baculum negavit, tibi laxata manu
facile resignabit."
His dictis, sanctus pontifex sua usus simplicitate paruit im-
peranti, et accedens ad altare, " Ecce," inquit, " ego, domine mi,
Edwarde, ecce ego quime tuo commisi judicio " Hsec dicens,
levi tactu virgam tentat evellere, quse manu ejus secuta, ac in
molli luto fuisset impressa desiliit. Aelred, Abb. Rievallis, De Vita
et Miraculis Edwardi, lib. ii. [P.L., cxcv. 779, 780].
39 Ranulfus Flambardus, . . . episcopus funem ad columnam,
quse in medio fenestrse arcis erat, coaptavit, et baculum pastoralem
secum sumens, per funem descendit. Ordericus Vitalis, Ecclesias.
Hist., lib. x. [P.L., clxxxviii. 759].
PART I. CHAP. VI. 163
THE BORDON,
was used in some of the monastic establishments
of England. As not a few of our cathedrals were,
against the universal practice of the Church,
served, not by secular canons, but Benedictine
monks, in such communities, not an abbot, but a
prior had assigned to him its government. In
these instances, this latter personage often was
honoured with the privilege of arraying himself
for Mass, and other liturgical functions, in full
pontificals; 40 but the (199) probability is, there
might be found more examples than that of
Worcester Cathedral, where, instead of the regular
pastoral staff with its crook, like the one carried
by a bishop or an abbot, the cathedral prior was
suffered to use only the silver bordon, 41 which
may be not unfitly here called
40 For the privilege granted to John de Evesham, Prior of
Worcester, and to all who should come after him, as such, in that
church, see note 48, p. 96, of this volume, as well as the following
one.
As late as the last century, the provosts of some cathedrals
abroad had the use of the pastoral staff on solemn occasions. Of
his visit to Toulouse Cathedral, Martene says : On nous fit voir
dans la sacristie le baton pastoral que le prevot porte lorsqu'il
officie solemnellement. Voyage Lit., t. i. pt. ii. p. 47.
41 Nos (Urbanus V., A.D. 1363) indulgemus ut tu (Johannes de
Evesham, prior ecclesise Wigorniensis) et iidem successores tui
. . . mitra, annulo, tunica, dalmatica, sandaliis et chirothecis epis-
copalibus, ac bordono argenteo botonum argenteum habente in
capite absque alio ornatu, uti . . . libere valeatis. Volumus autem
quod hujusmodi bordonus, quo tu et successores tui utemini, ad
1 64 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
THE PRIOR'S STAFF.
When some of our native writers speak of the
(200) choir-staff as the one borne by an abbot
whenever he walked in procession along with the
monks of his house, 42 let not the reader think
that by this was meant what is properly called
THE RULER OF THE CHOIR'S STAFF,
which quite differed from the true pastoral staff,
both with regard to shape and emblematic signifi-
cation. The " rectores chori," or rulers of the
choir, who were few or many, according to the
modum pastoralis baculi non sit factus. Privilegia Eccl. Wigorn.,
Wilkins, ConciL, iii. 201.
In Worcester Cathedral may yet be seen, within a niche at the
back of the modern altar-screen, a cumbent figure of one of its
priors ; at whose side there lies this bordon, or crookless staff, cut
in stone, and shaped according to the injunctions of the above
papal indult. The industrious Abingdon thus described it two
hundred years ago : There ariseth a tomb .... wherein lyeth the
portraiture of a bishop, or prior, vested for the altar, his head
supported with angels, and covered with a mitre ; at his feet a
lyon, gloves on his hands, suitable to his function, the right lifted
up to give a benediction, in the left a staff, not with a cross, as a
metropolis, nor yet a crosier, as a bishop, but curiously wrought,
and such as I have seen the archichoristse, or rulers of the choir,
use in a most solemn and high Mass. Survey of Worcester Cathedral,
1723, p. 20.
42 Electus autem (abbas) etsi fuerit unus de ultimis novitiis loco
supremo illico statuetur ... In processionibus supremus ex parte
abbatis procedet, ut alius senior, non in medio choralem ferens
baculum, ut antiquitus temere consuevit, ne forte in posterum
cassatus retrocedat (Matthew Paris, Vit. S. Albani Abbatum, p. 92).
Very likely the pastoral staff used in the choir by the abbots of
St. Alban's, though precisely the same in shape, was of much
inferior materials to the one employed at Mass : hence this plainer
one was called the choir-staff.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 165
solemnity of the festival, but always arrayed in alb
and cope, 43 and often having the precentor at their
head, 44 directed the singing of the choir all through
(201) many parts of the Divine service at matins
at Mass at evensong. As they arose from
their stools, 45 or went down from their stalls to
cluster (202) around the large brazen eagle, upon
43 Besides their silken copes, the rulers of the choir wore the
canons' grey furred almuce. See note 85 before, p. 44.
44 His staff at St. Paul's Cathedral, London, judging from the
following description, must have been very fine : Baculus cantoris
de peciis eburneis, et summitate cristallina,, ornata circulis ar-
genteis, deauratis, triphoriatus lapidibus insertis ( Visit, in Tliesaur.
S. Pauli, Lond., in Dugdale, Hint, of St. Paul's, p. 316). At the
royal chapel at Windsor (A.D. 1385), this dignitary's staff is thus
noticed : Unus baculus pro precentore in choro, ligatus in quinque
locis, cum puncto argenteo in fine, habens in summitate ejusdem
imam partem eburneam ex transverse cum christallo in finibus
(Mon. Anglic., viii. 1365). At Winchester Cathedral there was:
One rector's staff of unicorn's -horn (ibid., i. 202). The beauti-
fully wrought staff-head, figured in Dibdin's Tour through the
Northern Counties of England, was, I suspect, one of those carried
in his hand by the ruler of the choir.
The royal abbey of St. Denys, near Paris, had in its treasury a
very fine chanter's staff, given by one of its precentors (A.D. 1394),
and figured, plate I, in Felibien's Hist, de I'Abbaye de Saint Denys.
45 Very likely the " scampna ferrea plicancia et argentata,"
brought from the Countess Goda's chapel in her manor-house at
Lambeth, by Ralph the monk, to Rochester Cathedral (Regist. Roff.,
p. 119), as well as the "v cathedrae ferr. pro choro cum lectrino
ferr.," mentioned in the indenture of things belonging to Cobham
College, Kent (A.D. 1479), and printed by Thorpe (ibid., p. 239),
were as many iron stools for the rulers of the choir, and set near
the iron lettern, on the floor of the chancel. In such a place are
they seated at present in the churches abroad, either on high
wooden chairs, or upon benches. Sometimes,, too, they all sat in
a row upon one form, put quite by itself, in the middle of the
choir. For throwing upon, and covering such benches, a carpet of
the finest kind was often employed. Geoffrey de Loduno, Bishop
of Le Mans, in France, gave to that church : Duos tapedas subtus
pedes servientium ad altare, et duos minores mirabili opere quo-
1 66 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
the outstretched wings of which lay open the
heavy Grail, or widely spreading Antiphoner
from the noted and illuminated leaves of which
they were chanting ; or as they walked to and
fro, giving out to each high-canon in his turn the
anthem to be sung, these rulers of the choir bore
in their hand a staff, sometimes beautifully adorned
and made of silver, ending, not with a crook, but
a short cross-beam, which carried some enrich-
ment, elaborately wrought and richly decorated. 46
rum unus operit sedem regentium chorum. Gesta Gaufridi de
Loduno (A.D. 1255), in Mabillon, Vet. Analect., p. 335.
Our chanters' stools were not without their ornaments, as we
find from the inventory of St. Paul's, London, where the plainer
stools served, most likely, for the under-rulers of the choir.
Quatuor cathedrae lignese debiles. Item tres cathedrae f errese debiles.
Una cathedra ferrea cum capitibus et pomellis deauratis quse est
cantoris. Visit, in 77ies. S. Pauli, Londini (A.D. 1295), Dugdale, St.
Paul's,?. 315.
46 The enamelling, the imagery, the lace-like tabernacle-work,
bestowed especially upon the head of the English staff, for the
rector of the choir, may be almost seen from the description of
the " Baculi pro chori regentibus," set down in the list of plunder
carried off by Henry VIII. from Lincoln Cathedral : Imprimis, a
staff covered with silver and gilt, with one image of our Lady
graven in silver at one end, and an image of St. Hugh in the
other end ; and having a boss, six squared, with twelve images
enamelled, having six buttresses, wanting one pinnacle and two
tops. Item, two other staves, covered with silver and gilt, having
an image of our Lady, and a chanon kneeling before her at every
end, with this scripture, Pro nobis ora, &c., having also one knop,
with six buttresses, and six windows in the midst, one of them
wanting a pinnacle, with this scripture about the staff, Benedictus
Deus in donis suis. Item, two other staves, covered with silver
parcel gilt, having a knop in the midst, having six buttresses, and
six windows in every staff, gilt, wanting one round silver plate of
one crouches end. Dugdale, Mon. Anglic., viii. 1281. From these,
and other descriptions, it would appear that the head of the staff
was made like St. Anthony's cross, or the capital letter ~|~. Upon
the top of this were set the images.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 167
Of such a liturgical (203) practice we have evi-
dence for Anglo-Saxon 47 as well as English times; 48
and on this, like almost every other ritual observ-
ance, St. Osmund merely (204) retained for his
rite of Sarum a usage which he found established
in the rubric of this country before the coming
of the Normans ; in fact, the Anglo-Saxon, the
English, and, until a late period, even if they do
not still, several churches on the continent put
staves into the hands of the choir-rulers, 49 as is
still practised in Belgium. 1
50
47 Bishop Leofric left to his cathedral at Exeter : iii. canter-
cseppa and .iii. canterstafas, &c. Kemble, Codex Dipl. Anylo-Saxo-
num, iv. 275.
48 At Salisbury (A.D. 1222), there were, in the treasury : Baculi
viij ad chorum regendum [Wordsworth, Salisbury Oerem., 177].
These staves at Canterbury Cathedral were as rich as they were
curious, in the year 1315, and are thus enumerated :
Baculi Cantorum.
Baculus sancti Thome argenteus et deauratus et gemmis
ornatus.
Item, baculus sancti Dunstani minor argenteus cum gemmis et
capite eburneo.
Item, baculus ejusdem major in parte argenteus et gemmis
ornatus, cum dente Sancti Andrese.
Item, .iiij. baculi de cornu cum capitibus eburneis.
Item, quinque baculi argentei, cum capitibus eburneis. [Ghrist
Church Inventories, p. 74.]
The royal chapel at Windsor had (A.D. 1385): Duo baculi de
una secta pro rectoribus chori in principalibus. Duo baculi pro
rectoribus secundariis, &c. Duo baculi harnizati cum berillo.
Dugdale, Mon. Anglic., viii. 1366.
49 Martene tells us that, being at Toulouse during the feast of
the Assumption, he saw the processions : Les chanoines de la
cathedrale vinrent aussi en procession ... Us avoient six chantres
revetus de tuniques portant sur leurs epaules des batons d'argent,
qu'ils appellent des bourdons (Voyage Lit. des deux Benedict., t. i.
1 68 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(205) Of all the prelates of the Church,
THE ROMAN PONTIFF
is the only one now who
DOES NOT ON ANY OCCASION MAKE USE OF THE
PASTORAL STAFF, 51
nor has he for the last six hundred years at least ;
although before the beginning of the twelfth cen-
tury, there can be no doubt the successor of St.
(206) Peter employed, like every other bishop, a
pastoral staff at those parts of the liturgy where
it is still employed. This we know from those
partie ii. p. 49). De Moleon (1700-1718) found, at the church of
S. Maurice de Vienne : Les chantres chappez ayant leurs mitres
en tete et leurs batons en main (Voyages Liturg., p. 29) ; and speak-
ing of Rouen Cathedral in his times, he tells us that : A la grand
messe, les fetes triples,, le chantre en chappe avec son baton gou-
verne le chceur (de la cathedrale de Rouen). II annonce au
celebrant le Gloria in excelsis, et le Credo. Pendant le Gloria in
excelsis, il avertit deux chaplains pour chanter le Graduel ou jube,
&c. (ibid., p. 360). At Rome, in Sicily, and at Malta, these staves
were at one time in use, as Magri tells us ; see Hierolexicon, in
verbo Baculus.
50 During the High Mass which I heard, on a Sunday not long
ago, at Bruges Cathedral, there were two rulers of the choir,
vested in albs and copes, and seated on high oaken chairs placed
in the middle of the choir, with the eagle of latton before them.
They bore staves in their hands whenever they moved about the
choir ; and behind their stools, two little acolytes were standing,
who arranged the fall of these chanters' copes, as they came back
and sat down again.
51 What Pope Innocent was the first to observe, in the twelfth
century, is equally true now : Romanus autem pontifex pastorali
virga non utitur. De Sacro Altar is My 'St., i. 62 [P.L., ccxvii. 796.]
PART I. CHAP. VI. 169
pictorial 52 as well as written testimonies 53 we
possess upon the (207) subject, though both of
them let us see that the shape of the papal differed
from that of the episcopal staff; the pontiffs
seems never to have had the crook upon it, but
was topped either by a small cross or a ball.
In connection with the pastoral staff, there are
two or three questions about which the reader
may perhaps like to hear a few words. By some
(who do not, however, let us learn upon what
authority) are we told : "It is well known, that
one distinguishing mark between the mode of
carrying this staff by a bishop or by an abbot was,
52 The brothers Magri, in the new edition of their Hierolexicon,
have given engravings of two old works of art, figuring one St.
Gregory the Great ; the other, Pope Gelasius II., who sat in St.
Peter's chair, A.D. 1118, just eighty years before Innocent III.'s
time. St. Gregory holds in one hand a long staff, headed with a
little cross ; and Gelasius's is an equally tall wand, bearing at the top
a small egg-like knob. The first may be seen at the word Baculus,
the second under Mitra, in the Latin edition of the above-named
excellent book, printed at Venice, A.D. 1735 [also Venice, 1677].
" 3 Luitprand, Bishop of Cremona, while writing on the events
of which he had been an eye-witness, in his description of Pope
Benedict's deposition (A.D. 964) tells us : Post hsec pallium sibi
abstulit (Benedictus) quod simul cum pontificali ferula, quam
manu gestabat, domino papse (Leoni) tradidit. Quam ferulam
idem papa fregit, et fractum ostendit populo. De rebus Ottonis
Magni Imperatoris gestis, lib. vi. [P.L., cxxxvi. 910.]
That the Roman pontiffs used the pastoral staff as late as the
end of the eleventh century, is clear from the discourse of Pope
Urban II. (A.D. 1092) to the monks of La Cava, near Salerno, when
he went and with much solemnity consecrated their church ; for
among other things, the pontiff tells them: Nam quo ego utor
aureo baculo, ut magnse sit dignitatis, est tamen integumentum
molestissimarum curarum, fastidiosissimi stomachi. Cavensis Cceno-
bii Dedicatio, ex MS. Chron. Caven. in AA. SS. Martii, i., 336, n. 8.
1 70 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
that the first turned the crook outwards to denote
his jurisdiction over a diocese, the other, inwards,
towards himself, to denote that his jurisdiction
reached over the members only of his own house." M
True is it, that belonging to the mediaeval period
of our ecclesiastical history, there still exist many
monuments, such as sculptures upon tombs and
over graves in our fine old cathedrals and minsters,
episcopal and monastic seals strung to deeds and
grants, and illuminated manuscripts, wherein we
behold an abbot or an abbess figured, carrying
the pastoral staff of office in such a way that its
crook is turned inwards. But true is it also, that
from amid these very same evidences of gone-by
days may be gathered examples, and not a few,
in which (208) we see those same monastic digni-
taries represented as holding this staff with its
crook away from themselves and pointed for-
wards. 55 This, however, is not all, for instances
54 Monumenta Ritualia Ecdesix Anglicax, by the Rev. W. Mas-
kell, M.A., iii. p. cxxxvii. [In the later edition (Oxford, 1882), II.
cl., this runs, "It is commonly said," &c.]
55 In the beautiful Louterell Psalter there is figured an abbess
with her pastoral staff, the crook of which is turned outwards.
Richard Bewfforest, Prior of Dorchester Church, Oxon, in the
sixteenth century, and Elizabeth Harvey, Abbess of Elstow, Bed-
fordshire, about the same period, have each a pastoral staff, the
crook of which in both instances is outwards [p. 1 60]. Upon his
grave-brass in Westminster Abbey, its abbot, John Esteney, is
drawn arrayed in his pontifical vestments, giving his blessing with
his right hand and holding in his left a pastoral staff, with the
crook turned out. Abbot Thomas de la Mere is represented on
his magnificent brass in St. Alban's Abbey Church, lying with
his staff, the crook of which is outwards, under his left arm ; and
an old cumbent figure of an abbot, now placed in the south aisle
PART I. CHAP. VI.
171
abound of bishops who have the crook of the staff
put inwards, 56 that is, in the (209) very way as-
of the choir at Peterborough, has
a staff in the same position.
The same thing may be observed
in many of our abbatial seals, such
as that for Croyland (Dugdale,
Mon. Anglic., t. ii. pi. x., new ed.) ;
for Pollesworth Nunnery (ib., pi.
xiii.); and for Thorney (ib., pi.
xvi.).
66 To show this, a great many
examples from among the ecclesi-
astical monuments of the medi-
aeval period, still left all about this
country, might be cited. In the
woodcut we gave not long ago,
p. 84, of an English illumina-
tion, St. Cuthberht is figured
bestowing the episcopal blessing
as usual with his right hand,
and holding with the left the
pastoral staff, the crook of which,
however, is turned not away, but
towards himself. Just so is
placed Bishop Giffard's, as we
may find by looking at i. 306 of
this work. On the seal of St.
Nicholas's Priory, Exeter, that
celebrated archbishop of Myra
wears his pall and holds his pas-
toral staff in his left hand, with
the crook turned inwards. At
Lichfield Cathedral there is a
statue of a bishop whose pas-
toral staff is in the same posi-
tion ; and near to where once
stood the altar of " our Ladie of
pitie," in what is yet called the
Galilee, or west end of Durham
Cathedral, may be seen the paint-
ing of a bishop, the crook of whose
staff is inwards. Indeed, in the
very beautiful series of episcopal
RICHARD BEWFFORBST, Prior of
Dorchester.
172 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
serted to be one among the well-known distinc-
tive marks that he who so carries it must be an
abbot. The argument then resting for its ground
upon monumental examples and without leaning
upon any other prop, although deemed strong
enough to uphold such an opinion about the
difference between the way in which a bishop's
and an abbot's crook used to be turned, will very
soon break down. If, too, we look elsewhere, and
seek within the rubrics and the texts of the liturgy
(210) itself, or among those writers who have so
beautifully set forth to view the mystic significa-
tion of the Church's ceremonies, we shall be
equally unsuccessful in our search : in fact, there
is nothing in the ancient ritual, nothing in the
works of those who have written on its symbolism
and unfolded to us its hidden meanings, to war-
rant the above assumption, or which helps us to
believe there ever was this well-known acknow-
ledged distinction, and that such may be trusted
as a safe and unerring rule upon these matters. 57
seals belonging to that great northern see, there are more
perhaps which show us the crook turned inwards than outwards,
as may be seen by those figured in the Surtees Society's Priory
of Finchale, pp. xxv. 2, 20, 168, 173, 180.
In the very old Sacramentary of Gellone, St. Matthew is figured
holding in his right hand a pastoral staff, the crook of which is
turned towards that apostle's head, as may be seen in Silvestre's
fine work, Paleographie Universelle, partie iii.
57 Had such a distinction been at all known when Honorius of
Autun lived, that copious writer on ecclesiastical symbolism would
never have overlooked it, more especially while speaking of the
abbot's staff, and noticing its very crook thus : Abbati conceditur
pastoralis virga, quia ei traditur Dominici gregis custodia . . .
PART I. CHAP. VI. 173
Again, in the works of some few modern writers
on the liturgy, it has been laid down as a rule,
that the abbot's staff, by way of discerning it from
a bishop's, must always have hanging, just under
the crook, a long linen napkin. 58 The only formal
sanction given for such an ordinance came from
St. (211) Charles Borromeo, 59 for the usual rubrical
authorities, even as yet, say nothing concerning
this observance. 60 But whatever may have, before
the sainted archbishop of Milan's days, been the
practice of Italy upon this point, here in Eng-
land such a rite was at no time followed under
this meaning ; nor did our old churchmen ever
recognise in the towel fastened to the pastoral
staff, any mark announcing that he who carried
it so muffled, was an abbot not a bishop. The
truth is, of the many effigies whereon we find
this napkin, in general hanging down, though
sometimes rolled about the staff, by far the
greater number show us the person, not of an
abbot, but a bishop; 61 and there can (212) exist
Hujus baculi flexura non ex albo, sed ex nigro debet esse, quia in
commissa cura non debet mundi gloriam quaere re. Summitas
curvaturse debet esse sphserica, quia cuncta ejus disciplina debet
esse deifica. Gemma Animae, i. 238 \P.L., clxxii. 615],
58 Gavantus, ed. Merati, Thesaur. Sac. Bit., t. i. pars i. tit. xix. ;
In Processionibus, pars ii. tit. i.
59 Baculus pastoralis . . . orario aut sudario non ornatur si
episcopalis est quo insigni abbatialis ab illo distinguitur. Ada
Eccl. Mediolan. De Baculo Pastorali, Instruct. Supell. Eccl., ii. 627.
60 Neither the Roman Pontifical, nor the Cxremoniale Episco-
porum, nor any decree from the Congregation of Rites, says a
word upon the subject.
61 There are many monuments in England to show that the
174 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
no doubt, such a linen or silken appendage used
to be employed by both those dignitaries indis-
criminately. If we may venture an opinion, this
napkin was never meant as a token of difference
at all, but became adopted early in the fourteenth
century rather for the sake of cleanliness than as
a badge of a fettered and narrower jurisdiction,
and not only to hinder the brightness and the
gilding of the burnished staff from being tarnished
by the hand's clamminess, but to keep the hand
itself from being tainted with a no very grateful
smell, which its heat would always take up from
clenching, though for a short length of time, any-
thing of copper, however strongly coated it might
be with gold ; and the tubes of those staves, from
being of wood, came, about the above-named
pastoral staff, whether in the hand of a bishop, or an abbot, had
hanging to it a long piece of linen, or of silk. This appendage is
discernible, among others, upon the grave-brass, in Westminster
Abbey, of John Waltham, Bishop of Salisbury (A.D. 1395); upon
that, in the same church, of its abbot, John Estney (A.D. 1498);
upon Bishop Branscomb's effigy, in Exeter Cathedral ; as well as
on another, in the same church, of Bishop Oldham, with this
difference, that, instead of drooping straight down, it is rolled
two or three times round his staff. It is shown also upon William
of Wykeham's cumbent figure at Winchester Cathedral; upon
Bishop Mitford's in Salisbury; and upon Archbishop Walter de
Gray's in York Minster ; also upon that truly beautiful monument,
said to be of John de Sheppy, in Rochester Cathedral.
The Nuremberge Chronicle has, scattered up and down through
its highly curious pages, many a woodcut of a bishop; and in
almost every one we find, hanging to the pastoral staff, the same
long kind of napkin ; but instead of being wrapped and knotted
at top about it, a string fastens it there, and it is capped by a
sort of funnel-shaped ornament, which is never seen in our English
monuments.
JOHN DE SHEPPY
page 174
PAKT I. CHAP. VI. 175
period, to be usually made, if not of gold or
silver, at least of metal gilt.
(213) The thorough good taste shown by our
forefathers in colouring all their sculptures, has,
besides lending so much beauty to those works 62
62 Those among us of the Puritan school in decoration (the
lovers of whitewash, who scruple at anything beyond yellow-ochre
in a place of worship) are, happily for the beauty of God's house,
and the resurrection of the fine arts in this country, becoming
fewer every day ; and we have good hopes that, ere long, colour
will be again as much employed for heightening the effect of
architectural ornaments (the sculptures especially) in our churches,
as it used to be throughout this land in bygone days. Let not
people, however, be led astray by thinking that the wretched
manner in which some figures and carvings have been lately
daubed, is a revival of the true old style. Nothing can be farther
from the truth ; and, after a short search, we shall find that, to
paint sculpture, whether in wood or stone, must have been an art
by itself, so nicely, so neatly, so becomingly, was it done, without
flaunting or garish dazzle. Carter (no weak authority upon such
matters) speaks thus about the cumbent figure of Bishop Walter
Branscomb, in Exeter Cathedral : " From these and other, the
like objects, in various parts of the kingdom, are adduced the
strongest proofs of the taste of the painting, gilding, &c. . . .
Hence it may be accounted why the present statue is so minutely
coloured in the above mode, the execution of which (painting) is
most wonderfully elaborate. I speak without fear of contradic-
tion, but by those who have never studied, or drawn from this,
or other like remains. Having most scrupulously copied this
example, to the fullest scale, in many large drawings, I may thus
presume on the certainty of what 1 now advance in its praise ;
indeed, too much cannot be said to cause general observation and
general regard," &c. (Specimens of English Ecclesiastical Costume, &c.,
by John Carter, p. 1 8). I have in my possession a small " Calvary,"
or representation of Christ going to be crucified, the crucifixion
itself, and the taking down from the cross, made as a rere-doss
for an altar, in a little domestic oratory. It is carved in wood,
and every one of its fifty tiny statuettes is so well and so delicately
painted and finished, that the golden embroidery upon some of
the garments nay, the very woof itself is admirably done. The
painting and embossed gilding of the rere-doss in the Lady Chapel
of Gloucester Cathedral, are, by themselves, worth a journey to
that beautiful piece of architecture.
176 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
of art, (214) made them the truthful keepers, as
it were, of some valuable liturgic knowledge,
which at this far-off time we could pick up no-
where else. But from several of our cumbent
episcopal effigies, though their bright gilding be
now almost quenched though their once warm
tints be dimmed and sadly faded, still enough of
both is left for the sharpened eye of the keen
archaeologist to find out, among other things, that
this napkin was always white, and frequently had
one or two tassels hanging to, or a fringe of gold
running round the lower edge ; 63 whether wrought
of silk or of linen cannot at present be seen,
although most likely the former, if not invariably,
may have often been the material with which this
towel used to be made.
When borne to church for his burial, the dead
abbot, stretched out on an open bier, and arrayed
in full sacrificial vestments, and, if belonging to
any one of our greater monasteries, with a mitre
on his head and sandals on his feet, had his
gloved hands placed crosswise, or sometimes
clasped as in prayer, upon his breast, and his
pastoral staff was placed at his right beneath his
arm. 64 Such a rule, however, was not so strictly
63 Such was the colour and ornament of the napkin hanging
down from Bishop Branscomb's pastoral staff, in his effigy, still in
Exeter Cathedral. Carter's Specimens, &c., p. 18.
64 Portabatur igitur corpus a camera quae dicitur abbatis ubi
expiraverat (Willielmus abbas S. Albani monasterii) in infirmariam
et ibidem pontificalibus est indutum, mitra capiti apposita, mam-
bus chirothecse cum annulo et dextro sub brachio baculus con-
PART I. CHAP. VI. 177
followed but what, to judge from sepulchral
monuments, this abbatial staff often rested, like
a bishop's, on the abbot's left side. 65 Examples,
too, are not wanting in which we may see
that even the archbishop's cross was not always
laid on his left, but sometimes on his right. 6 * 5
Again, we often find the pastoral staff so (216)
represented on effigies as not to lie straight
down alongside, but diagonally from the feet to
the shoulder, athwart the person of the departed
prelate ; and although we have not as yet found
out why, we may be sure that to such a funeral
rite there belonged in those days a well-under-
stood symbolic meaning.
It has been assumed that among the well-
known distinguishing marks between the mode of
carrying this staff by a bishop and by an abbot,
one was, "the first carried his staff in his left
hand, the latter in his right." 67 True is it,
bishops did, and still do, bear the pastoral staff
in the left hand ; but that abbots carried theirs
suetus, manibus cancellatis, sandalia in pedibus decenter aptata.
Et deposito cooperculo a feretro positum est corpus super illud, et
fasciis caute ligatum ne caderet cum portaretur evolutum. . . .
Pulsato igitur solemn! classico deportatum est corpus in ecclesiam,
&c. Matt. Paris, Vitx S. Albani Abb., p. 87.
66 In St. Alban's Abbey Church, the fine grave-brass of Thomas
de la Mere (abbot of that house A.D 1396) shows the staff lying on
his left side.
66 Archbishop Chicheley has his cross on his left, Archbishop
Warham on his right side, as may be seen in their effigies at
Canterbury Cathedral.
67 Monumenta Rit. Eccl Anglic, by the Rev. W. Maskell, t. iii.
p. cxxxvii. [ii. cl.].
VOL. II. M
1 78 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
always, by way of difference, in the right, is
incorrect : John Esteney, Abbot of Westminster,
is figured on his grave-brass in that church, as
holding his staff in his left hand and giving his
blessing, like a bishop, with his right. The old
English, just as the present Eoman rubric, directed
the bishop to take hold of his staff with the left
hand ; and the reason is obvious : it was that he
might keep his right hand free to bestow, while
uplifting it, his blessing upon the people, either
formally, as at High Mass and other public ad-
ministrations of the Church, or as he (217) walked
to and from the altar in processions. But as our
mitred abbots had the privilege of giving, at the
High Mass they sang in pontificals, the solemn
blessing, which could be imparted by the raised
right hand only, they were forced to hold the staff
in their left, while going through this ceremony
of the ritual.
Our next step leads us to a question of some
interest, both for the liturgical student and the
mediaeval antiquary, on the so-called
PAPAL CROSS WITH THREE TRANSOMS, AND THE
PATRIARCHAL CROSS WITH Two SUCH BARS,
each shorter than the one beneath it, and running
athwart the top of an otherwise tall, plain staff.
Nothing is there in the Ordines Romani, nor
in any pontifical ritual, old or new nothing in
PART I. CHAP. VI. 179
ancient or actual practice to afford the narrowest
grounds whereon to rest the slightest opinion that
such a form of a cross has at any time or any-
where been borne about him by the Roman pontiff.
From the period when it became usual to carry
before this vicar of Christ upon earth the symbol
of man's redemption a cross it was always
fashioned like the one now employed for such a
purpose, being a plain common cross, having very
often fastened to it by nails an image of our
Divine Redeemer, in other words, a crucifix, let
into a small ball on the top of a staff, both of
which were of silver, or of gold.
(218) Respecting the two-barred, or so-called
PATRIARCHAL CROSS,
the question cannot be cleared up either so soon
or with the same readiness. Though from such
liturgical documents as have reached us, we do
not learn it was anywhere the strict ritual usage
for patriarchs to have carried before them a cross
with two bars, but on the contrary, theirs, like
the supreme pontiff's, always has been what it
now is the common simple one ; nevertheless
there are grounds for believing such a sort of
cross has been in some few instances employed,
even in this country, during a brief period of
the mediaeval epoch. The celebrated bishop of
Durham, Anthony Beck, had bestowed upon him
i8o THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
by the Holy See the honorary title of the Jeru-
salem patriarchate, and in consequence of this
must he have possessed, among the rest of his
episcopal array, a certain silver-gilt patriarchal
cross, 68 especially mentioned (219) as a part of his
mortuary gift to his cathedral; but whether it
was short and stemless and so made as to hang
against the wall ; or with a foot, that it might
stand somewhere about the altar in his domestic
chapel for a badge of Beck's titular dignity; or
whether it was mounted on a staff and borne
before this bishop of Durham, we have not now
any means of positively deciding. In all proba-
bility, however, it was fashioned like, and answered
the purpose of this latter kind of cross ; for it is a
curious fact, that among those exquisite illumina-
tions in the truly magnificent manuscript Queen
Mary's Psalter 69 a work painted during the latter
years of the thirteenth, if not at the beginning of
the fourteenth century, therefore done about the
very time of Beck's episcopate, and, as it would
68 The famous Anthony Beck, Bishop of Durham, was one of the
very few English prelates who have had bestowed upon them the
nominal dignity of patriarch: Clemens V., primo anno (1305)
papatus sui creavit Antonium Dunelmensem episcopum in Patri-
archam Jerosolomitanum (Hist. Dun elm. Scriptores Tres [Surtees
Soc.], p. 83). In consequence of such a title, Beck had, among his
episcopal ornaments, a patriarchal cross, made of gilt silver, which
we find set down along with the other splendid things which went
from his chapel to Durham Cathedral at his death: Ex capella
ejusdem (Antonii episcopi) unam crucem patriarchalem argenteam
et deauratam. Wills and Inventories of the Northern Counties of
England, p. 12.
69 In the British Museum, MS. 2, B. vu.
PART I. CHAP. VI 181
seem too, by an English hand, there is one (of
which, when we come to speak a little later of the
bishop's faldstool, we shall give a woodcut [p. 210])
that shows a patriarchal cross upon a staff, held by
a seated archbishop. Furthermore, upon some of
our monastic seals, St. Peter, arrayed in pontificals,
and wearing on his head the old one-crowned papal
tiara, supports in his left hand what looks very
like a double-barred or patriarchal (220) cross, 70
though perhaps the lower bar may have been
originally meant as the two branches of a floria-
tion, from out of which the usual papal cross was
made to seem springing.
If we look around us, we shall soon behold
other, though foreign instances, wherein these
double-transomed crosses may be found, and they
are the coins struck by the emperors of Constanti-
nople, as well as several monuments of Byzantine
ecclesiastical art. 71 But, it may perhaps be asked,
70 St. Peter is thus figured on the seal of John Islip, Abbot of
Westminster, etched in the new edition of Dugdale, Mon. Anglic.,
i., plate 4 of seals ; on the Gloucester Abbey seal (ibid., pi. 6) ; and
on that of Muchelney Abbey (ibid., ii. pi. 13). Upon our super-
altar the lamb holds a staff, with a flag and a double-transomed
cross at top, as the reader may see in the woodcut, vol. i. p. 204,
of this work.
71 Golden coins from the mint both of the elder and of the
younger Theodosius, as well as of Arcadius, of Honorius, and of
other Greek emperors, show, on the reverse, a cross of two bars.
Cardinal Borgia possessed a Greek-made cross, in iron, coated with
copper, so shaped ; and has given a rough engraving of it at the
end of his admirable work, De Cruce Vaticana. From another
equally learned book of his, De, Cruce Veliterna, p. 203, we learn that
at the monastery of the Holy Cross, near Avellana, he found a
reliquary fashioned after the same form. In one of the illumina-
iS2 THE CHUECH OF OUR FATHERS
how (221) could such things bias our customs in
the far west limits of Christendom ? We answer :
very easily. Let it be kept in mind, that first, the
crusades, then pilgrimages to the Holy Land, took
many of our people our churchmen especially, in
these latter expeditions through the chief cities
and the capital of the Greek empire, and over
Asia Minor, as they wended their way to and
from the birthplace and sepulchre of our Lord.
Meeting with this form of cross not unfrequently
during their eastern travels, nay, at Jerusalem
itself, not only often but always they may have
thought it, with other western Christians, so char-
acteristic of the Holy Land, so very much so of
the Holy City, that its Latin patriarch and its
Latin king must each of them needs assume it
as their respective distinguishing badge. From
being thus adopted as his episcopal and cere-
monial cross by one among the several patriarchs
in the Church, it became, to the painter's eye, a
recognised symbol for pointing out every other
ecclesiastical personage honoured with (222) the
patriarchal title. But as the two-barred cross,
tions in a Greek manuscript belonging to the Vatican library, and
figured by D'Agincourt (pi. 57, Peinture), our Divine Redeemer,
uprising from the grave, holds a two-barred cross in his left hand ;
but the crucifixion just over this plate shows that the upper beam
was to express the board with writing on it ; so, too, does the
crucifixion, painted after the Greek style, in fresco, in the now
burned down church of St. Paul's-beyond-the-Walls, at Rome, and
engraved likewise by D'Agincourt (pi. 96). Giunta di Pisa, follow-
ing the tradition left by the Greek teachers of painting in Italy,
often fashioned his crosses just in the same way. Ibid., pi. 102.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 183
imagined for all primates, told to the world that
they stood higher in the hierarchy than any arch-
bishop, whose cross had but one single bar, so the
cross with three was then thought of for the pope,
to announce the headship and supremacy of the
Roman pontiff over every other primate.
That the Latins, however, quite misunderstood
the shape of the cross as they saw it fashioned in
Palestine, is beyond a doubt ; for while looking at
the above-mentioned Greek monuments and orna-
ments of the Eastern Church, we are very soon led
to believe that the uppermost of the two bars upon
what is sometimes called the patriarchal, at others,
the Jerusalem or Lorraine 72 cross, is nothing else
than a representation of the piece of board with
the writing on it, set by Pilate's order above the
head of our Saviour on the cross. In fact, then,
the cross with three bars attributed to the Pope, is
nothing more than the arbitrary and unauthorised
invention of painters a mere emblem thought of,
(223) and not very long ago, by artists to symbolise
the first bishop the head of the Church the
Roman pontiff. The patriarchal cross, in a very
few places, and for a very short period, formerly
72 Godfrey de Bouillon, Duke of Lorraine, being chosen by the
Crusaders the first Latin king of Jerusalem, adopted the use of
this double-barred, or, by some called, Jerusalem cross. In memory
of one of their princes, whose holiness as a Christian, and bravery
as a soldier, shed such 'glory on their country, the Lorrainers be-
came very fond of it ; and its frequent appearance in that province
made it be known to very many under the name of the cross of
Lorraine.
1 84 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
was, but now never is used, and has become the
sign in works of art of patriarchal dignity.
With respect to
THE ARCHIEPISCOPAL CROSS,
we have strong evidence to show that a cross used
to be carried before the archbishops of this island
during the British period of its Church history :
the one employed for such a purpose by St.
Samson, Archbishop of York, while the Britons
held this land, is spoken of in the very valuable
life of that saint ; 73 and most probably the staff
accustomed to be borne before St. Csesarius,
Archbishop of Aries, the contemporary of our
British countryman, had, like his, a cross upon
the top of it. 74 Throughout the Anglo-Saxon
epoch, we have nothing positive on this subject,
although we find that a procession was then often
headed by a clerk carrying aloft a (224) golden
or a silver crucifix : in such a manner was it that
St. Austin went before King Ethelberht ; 75 thus,
too, did Abbot Ceolfrid leave his monastery at
73 Post ejus obitum aliquod intervallum, imago crucis quse ante
eum ferri semper solebat, quamque benedixerat, quse denique auri
atque argenti, gemmarumque venustatibus circum fuerat solidata,
a quodam malefico ac pessimo homine furtim detecta, ao de-
honestata est. Vita S. Samsonis Ep. Dolen. ab anonymo subaequali,
ed. Mabillon, A A. SS. B.\. 171.
74 See note 19, p. 150.
76 Veniebant crucem pro vexillo ferentes argenteam. Beda,
Hist. Ecc. AngL, i. 25.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 185
Wearmouth, when he started on his pilgrimage
to Kome. 76
By the end, however, of the eleventh century
did the custom formally begin, both here and on
the continent, for all archbishops to have carried
before them by one of their chaplains, a staff,
ending not like a bishop's, with a bend in imita-
tion of the shepherd's crook, but topped by a
somewhat small cross, often richly ornamented
with precious stones. Such a liturgical practice
was at first solemnly observed by the Roman pon-
tiffs, who at length granted, among other privi-
leges, this same right in favour of their legates.
Afterwards, primates, then archbishops, in some
quarters of Christendom, were allowed its authori-
tative use, as a personal distinction awarded them
from the Holy See. But since each corner of
God's one Church is, or ought to be, equally dear
as another (225) to its visible head upon earth,
our common father the Pope, and since personal
favours are often invidious, still oftener unjust,
they were in this instance wisely dropped, and by
the beginning of the twelfth century, to have a
cross borne before him became, not a partial, but
a general rubric, for every archbishop ; and the
76 Conveniunt omnes in ecclesiam beati Petri . . . Hinc fletibus
universorum inter letanias resonantibus exeunt . . . Veniunt ad
litus . . . Ascendunt et diacones ecclesise cereas ardentes et
crucem ferentes auream, transit flumen (Ceolfridus), adorat
crucem, ascendit equum, et abiit. Beda, Vita S. Ceolfridi, in Hist.
Abb., ii. 17 [Plummer, i. 382].
1 86 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
ecclesiastical records of no country furnish for
those times more curious or more interesting
illustrations of it than our own. Until he had
gotten his pall from the Roman pontiff, no arch-
bishop might let the cross be carried before him ;
hence it was, that St. Anselm, Archbishop of
Canterbury, admonished Samuel, Bishop of Dublin,
to leave off doing so. 77
The way in which our archbishops of Canter-
bury solemnly received their cross was very im-
pressive. As the primate of all England rode for
his enthronisation towards the metropolitan see,
he was met at a short distance from that city by
a crowded procession, amid which came one of
the monks from Christ Church, bearing the archi-
episcopal cross ; and no sooner did the prelate
catch a first (226) view of this symbol of our
belief, than he got down from his horse, and
throwing himself flat upon the earth, with out-
stretched arms awaited its approach, showing by
this lowly posture his inward love and homage
for his Redeemer. Then did he who carried the
holy emblem of God made man, standing over the
archbishop, warn him of his future duty to love,
defend, and govern well that Church which had
77 " Audivi," says the saint, " quia facis portari crucem ante te
in via. Quod si verum est, mando tibi ne amplius hoc facias, quia
non pertinet nisi ad archiepiscopum a Romano Pontifice pallio
confirmatum ; neque decet te, ut ulla prsesumptione insolitse rei te
notabilem et reprehensibilem hominibus ostendas." St. Anselm,
Epist., iii. 72 [P.L., clix. no]. He refers to the same thing again.
Ibid., iv. 27 [P.L., clix. 216].
PART I. CHAP. VI. 187
been entrusted to his pastoral charge. These few
words said, he put the cross into the hands of
the kneeling archbishop, who immediately gave
it unto that one of his chaplains whom he had
chosen for his cross-bearer or " croyser," and then
arising from the ground, followed the procession,
which brought him with a joyful singing of
psalms to the walls of Canterbury. But no
sooner did he reach its gates, than the archbishop
put off his shoes and walked the rest of the way
barefoot, even up to the high altar of that magni-
ficent cathedral, where, robed in his chasuble and
wearing his pall for the first time, he offered up
the eucharistic sacrifice, and was led in due form
and seated in the primate's chair. 78
78 Gervase, the monk of Canterbury, who bore forth, and gave
the cross to Archbishop Hubert (A.D. 1193), has purposely written
an account of the ceremony, that we might know how it was done :
G(ervasius) ab electo (Huberto) recedens, et in crastino rediens,
crucem portans, obviavit electo a Lundonia venienti, crucemque
tradidit cum devotione apud Leveseham iij. nonas Novembris.
Et ut sciant posteri quomodo fieri debeat, modus susceptionis hie
erat :
Cum igitur Cantuariam tendens prsedictum G(ervasium) qui
hsec scripsit, crucem bajulantem appropiare videret, equo de-
scendit in terram corruens extensis brachiis crucem adoravit,
astante praefato G(ervasio) cum episcopo Roflensi et innumera
multitudine. Surgenti autem et in genibus statim erecto, dixit
Gervasius: "Nuntius sum, venerande pater, nuntium ferens
optimum, non hominis sed Dei, immo Illius Qui Deus est et homo,
Jesus Christus . . . Qui salutat te salute seterna, rogat, mandat,
et prsecipit, ut ecclesiam Suam regendam suscipias, eamque diligas
et protegas in fide non ficta. In hujus signum nuntii summi
Regis vexillum tibi trado ferendum. Accipe libenter, porta
fideliter, ut cum sanctis praedecessoribus tuis Cantuariensis
ecclesiaa patronis in seternum gaudeas. Amen."
Cruce itaque suscepta, et clerico ferenda tradita. . . . Deinde
i88 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(227) The first, the last, indeed the only time our
metropolitan ever touched, according to the ritual,
his archiepiscopal cross, was the day and on the
occasion when he took it from the hands of the
monk who brought it to him on the road as he
went to make his first primatial visit to Canter-
bury : ever afterwards, not the archbishop, but a
chaplain of his, called of yore the "croyser," ;
(228) carried it aloft before that prelate in all pro-
cessions, and kneeling at his feet, held it up
before him while at pontifical High Mass and
other solemn occasions he had by the rubrics to
give his pastoral blessing. So much indeed was
it thought beside the usage of the ritual for an
archbishop to carry this cross with his own hands,
that when St. Thomas a Becket deemed it, under
a most remarkable circumstance, fitting to do so, 80
one of his suffragans present, the bishop of Here-
alba indutus et cappa sequente conventu nudus pedes incedens,
pallium suscepit per manum nuntii Celestini papte. Quo redi-
mitus pallio cum ca?teris episcSpalibus indumentis intronizatus est
et miannm celebravit. Gervasius, Chronica [1LS., Ixxiii, i. 521, 522].
79 In the Golden Ltgendt, the account of St. Thomas of Canter-
bury's martyrdom says: And one Syr Edwarde gryrne that was
his croyser, put fort he his anne with the crosse to bere of the
stroke, : the stroke smote the crosse on sondre, and his anne
almoost of. Ed. Wynkyn de Jl'orde, fol. Ixvi.
* Obiter precedent i eum ait (Sanctus Thomas) Alexandra
crucis suae bajulo, "melius egissem, si in nostris instrumentis
venissem." Proposuerat enim quod nudis pedibus incedens, et
revestitus, et crucem bajulans, ad regem intraret, ei pro pace
ecclesite supplicaturus . . . cum equo descendisset, crucem, quam
primam bajulaverat Alexander Wallensis, in manus accepit.
William Fitz-Stephen, Vita S. Thorns Cant., 47 [B.S., bcvii iii.
56, 57]-
PART I. CHAP. VI. 189
ford, immediately ran up and offered to act as
that brave martyr's chaplain, and bear the archi-
episcopal cross before him. 81
(229) Wherever they went, throughout the king-
dom, the archbishops of Canterbury, being the pri-
mates, had their cross carried before them ; 82 but as
the archbishops of York laid claim to a like privi-
lege, there arose between the two sees a litigation,
which after a time was settled in this manner :
when the two archbishops happened to walk in the
same (230) procession, their respective crosses, as
81 Intraturus (S. Thomas Cantuar.) came ram regis ... ad
ostium ipsum bajulat propria crucem manu. . . . Occurrit autem
Robertus Herefordensis inquiens : " Pater, sustine, ut ego vice
capellani crucem deferam ante prassentiam vestram ; sic enim con-
decet." Alan of Tewkesbury, Vita S. Thomx Cantuar., 8 [E.S.,
Ixvii. ii. 330]. John de Stratford, another archbishop of Canter-
bury, following St. Thomas's example, went to Westminster Hall,
carrying his cross with his own hands, and demanded to be let
into Parliament, the doors of which the king had ordered to be
kept shut against him (A.D. 1341) ; and on this occasion the bishop
of Ely took and bore the archiepiscopal cross: Archiepiscopus
crucem suam bajulans, se a dicto loco nullatenus recessurum
asseruit. . . . Ego tanquam obediens domino meo regi humiliter
venio ; et crucem meam hie in manibus meis gesto . . . idem
archiepiscopus postmodum cum episcopis et cum domino Simone
Eliensi episcopo crucem dicti archiepiscopi de manu sua capiente,
parvam aulam Westmonasteriensem est ingressus, &c. Stephen
Birchington, in Vit.Archiep. Cantuar., ed.Wharton,yltt<7. Sac., i. 39, 40.
82 Returning from his seven years' exile, St. Thomas of Canter-
bury had his cross, that was always carried, throughout all Eng-
land, before him, hoisted on high in the ship which brought him
over from France: In nave vero archprsesul vexillo crucis quod
archiepiscopi Cantuarienses tanquam totius Anglise primates,
coram se semper bajulare consueverunt, erecto, per quod navis
ejus ab aliis discerni poterat (ut supra, p. 112). On going into
church, just before his martyrdom, the saint : Crucem praeferri
sibi praecepit. Alan of Tewkesbury [?], Vita S. Tliomse, Cantuar., ed.
Lupo, i. 128.
1 9 o THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
often as the road was wide enough, were both to
be carried together, that of Canterbury on the
right, that of York on the left side of the way ;
but when too narrow for both to go abreast,
York was to yield room and let Canterbury march
first : the same pre-eminence was given to the
archbishop of Canterbury in provincial councils,
at coronations, and all public ceremonials within
this kingdom. 83 While making his visitations,
or going through the country in solemn array,
the cross was borne before the prelate by his
chaplain, the croyser, who, like the archbishop
himself, as well as everybody in his train on such
occasions, always rode on horseback. 84 At (231)
83 After this controversy had been carried on for many years, it
was at last happily agreed (A.D. 1353) that : Archiepiscopus
Cantuariensis tanquam praeeminentior ad dexteram partem regis
sedebit, et Eboracensis in sinistra. Et Cantuariensis et Ebora-
censis archiepiscopi, si via lata fuerit, simul incedent ; sed in
introitu ostiorum vel aliis locis strictis, ubi cruces simul deferri
non possunt, crux Cantuariensis praecedet, et crux Eboracensis
subsequetur. Stephen Birchington, in Vit. Archi&p. Cantuar., in
Wharton, Ang. Sac., i. 44 ; and again at p. 77.
84 Sicut erat (Simon de Langham, archiep. Cantuar.) per stratam
regiam itinerando versus Otteford, de equo cruciferarius suus ad
terrain cadens, hasta crucis eriormiter fracta est, sed celeriter
reparata (ibid., p. 47). Fitz-Stephen told us just now (note 80,
p. 1 88) how St. Thomas of Canterbury rode to court on horse-
back ; but whether the steed mounted by our archbishops used to
be of any particular colour, or had certain trappings, we cannot
say. If, however, our doctors of divinity bestrode jet-black mules
so richly caparisoned as we behold one of them in a troop of
pilgrims on their way home from Canterbury, shown in an illumi-
nation from a manuscript of Lidgate's Storie of Thebes, and
published by Shaw (Dresses, <bc., of the Middle Ages, ii. 62), then
may we be sure our primate's horse was splendidly appointed in its
housing. Some of our bishops, we know, kept up much state
PART I. CHAP. YI. 191
each one of those parts, however, of the liturgy
whereat a bishop should ; so did, and yet does an
archbishop, employ the usual pastoral staff, which
he held in his own left hand. 85 When therefore
(232) examples are met with of mediaeval sculp-
ture and painting, in which an archbishop is seen
figured leaning on the staff of his cross, or folding
it within his arms, let not the reader take them
as so many proofs to show that such was in truth
the ritual usage followed in those times : the
cross, instead of a pastoral staff, is put by the
side, or in the hands of the archbishop, not to
mean that he used so to carry it, but to signify,
by such an emblem, the high place which, as a
prelate of the Church, he held in her hierarchy.
about their horses. Of one bishop of Durham, Anthony Beck, an
old writer, Robert de Graystanes, tells us : Pannum maximi
pretii comparavit ; et ex eo palefredis suis coopertoria, quse huces
nuncupantur, fecit. Hist. Dunelmensis Scriptores 7'res [Surtees Soc.],
p. 64. Abroad in Italy in particular to several archbishops
was granted, by the Pope, a privilege of riding a white palfrey,
the trappings of which were also white, when they went in pro-
cessions ; thus, of Pisa, for example, we learn: Equo albo cum
naco albo in processionibus utendi et crucem per subjectas vobis
provincias portandi . . . licentiam damus (Ughelli, Italia Sacra,
iii. 409). The Pope's horse was white, too, but covered with
crimson, and had a silver bridle : Pontifex induit planetam albam,
pallium, et mitram sollemnem, descendensque de palatio usque ad
exitum porticelli, ubi albus palafridus cum nacco scarlatse super-
posito et argenteo freno sollemniter prseparatus est . . . equitando
incedit. Ordo Rom. xn., auct. Cencio, in Mabillon, Mus. Ital., ii. 185.
85 Archbishop Thomas Arundell, besides many other splendid
gifts to his cathedral of Canterbury, presented it with : Unum
baculum pastoralem magnum argenteum et totaliter deauratum
(Ang. Sac., i. 62). Other rich and curious pastoral staves, pos-
sessed by Canterbury Cathedral before ArundelPs times, are
mentioned in a note of this volume, p. 156.
192
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
Never of a metal less costly than silver, this
archiepiscopal cross was sometimes wrought of
gold, and sparkled with jewels. 86 Although fre-
quently shown in monu-
ments as a mere cross
without any kind of
image upon it, still we
have good (233) reasons
for believing that not
unoften it bore on each
of its two sides a figure
of our Lord hanging
nailed to the rood. 87
From MS. 2, A. xxii., f. 221.
86 Item .ij cruces portatiles
pro domino Archiepiscopo unde
unus baculus tornatilis.
Item Crux Johannis Archie-
piscopi argentea deaurata cum
duabus ymaginibus argenteis.
Item Crux ejusdem parva de
auro cum ligno dominico et dup-
plici patibulo [Inventories of Christ
Church, Canterbury, p. 69].
87 Though the archiepiscopal
cross is very often figured with-
out an image of our Lord upon it,
yet there are several instances
to the contrary. An archbishop
from a manuscript in the British
Museum (Biblioth. Reg. 2, A.
xxii.), engraved by Shaw (Dresses
and Decorations of the Middle Ages, i. 16), bears an archiepiscopal cross
upon which hangs the crucified body of Christ ; and in the grave-
brass of Thomas Cranley, Archbishop of Dublin (A.D. 1417), at
New College Chapel, Oxford, we find the same thing.
The "crux cum ij ymaginibus," and another " cum dupplici pati-
bulo," or two images of Christ crucified, both mentioned in the
foregoing note, warrant the idea that our English archiepiscopal
PART I. CHAP. VI. 193
Perhaps such a double crucifix was peculiar to an
archiepiscopal as distinguished from the common
processional cross ; thus letting us see that for-
merly a figure of Christ crucified was turned look-
ing towards the archbishop as he followed it, while
another met the eyes of the crowd who gazed
upon the fore-side of this cross, as it came borne
along immediately in front of our primates. Now,
the cross carried before the Pope has always a figure
of Christ upon it, and this is always turned to face
the pontiff; so too should the cross be held, if it
have a crucifix, and be carried before an archbishop.
(234) Till towards the end of the twelfth cen-
tury, no ecclesiastic, however high his rank, did
once presume to have a cross borne before him
in any part of this country, except our two arch-
bishops : about that period, however, to the no
small grief of some English churchmen, papal
legates, though not even bishops, by virtue of
their office had a cross carried before them, and
wore mitres. 88
crosses, if not always at least often, had an image before, and an
image behind, on them, and each the same subject our Saviour
as hanging on the cross.
88 Non est ante hsec tempora (A.D. 1186) archiepiscopo Cantua-
riensi talis illata injuria, ut in provincia ejusdem archiepiscopi,
immo et in ecclesia, ut de cruce sileam, legatus aliquis mitratus
incederet. Nunc autem quidam Romanse ecclesise Cardinalis qui-
dem sed diaconus, alter vero Cantuariensis ecclesise suftraganeus
necdum sacratus sed Coventrensis ecclesise electus, ambo mitrati
incedentes, ambo prse se cruces ferentes in Cantuariensi provincia
honorem et reverentiam habuerunt legationis. Gervasius, Chronica
[R.S., Ixxiii. i. 346]. Gervase was a monk at Christ Church,
Canterbury.
VOL. II. N
i 9 4 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
SECTION XVI
The next article of solemn ministerial attire
among the Anglo-Saxon priesthood asking our
notice, are
THE SANDALS,
which we know from a variety of sources were, in
make and material, like those worn at the public
service in other quarters of the Church 89 during
(235) that period, and in after times in this
country ; though perhaps our English bishops
may have bestowed more ornament upon this
individual portion of their pontificals than their
Anglo-Saxon forerunners in the episcopacy. At
the same moment he finds a mystic signification
in the liturgical attire of the altar's ministers,
many an ecclesiastical author has incidentally
let us know some curious particulars about their
shape and ornament, and among the rest, of these
89 In his interesting Iter Alemannicum, p. 264, as well as in his
excellent work, Veins Liturgia Alemannica, i., 252, Gerbert has
given an engraving of a very old pair of episcopal sandals, which
he happened to find at Reichenau, near Constance. They are
of leather, apparently once stained purple, and still have their
original embroidery down the front. With good reason Gerbert
supposes them to have belonged to St. Egino, who was bishop of
Verona, and died A.D. 802. From these we may judge of the
shape and ornament of the sandals worn at that period by our
Anglo-Saxon prelates. The form of the episcopal sandal, about
half a century before St. Austin began his mission among the
Anglo-Saxons, may be seen from the Ravenna mosaics, of which
we have given two pictures at p. 260, vol. i., of this work.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 195
sandals. Our own St. Beda, 90 who, in fact, is the
earliest writer (236) and founder, as it were, of
' such a symbolizing school for western Christendom,
in speaking of these sandals, leads us to think that
during his day, they must have been so fitted
upon the foot as to leave a good part of the
instep, if not quite bare, at least transparent
through the open work of the pattern according
to which the upper-leather was cut : after such a
fashion were those found upon St. Cuthberht. 91
9l) St. Beda says : Proinde Marcus dicendo calceari eos sandaliis
vel soleis, aliquid hoc calceamentum mysticse significationis habere
admonet, ut pes neque tectus sit, neque nudus ad terrain, id est,
nee occultetur Evangelium, nee terrenis commodis innitatur. In
Marcum, vi. 9, lib. ii. [P.L., xcii. 187].
91 The sandals found on St. Cuthberht's feet when his grave
was opened (A.D. 1 104), are thus described by Reginald, who wrote
but a few years afterwards : In pedibus calciamenta pontificalia
gerit (S. Cuthbertus) quae vulgus vocare sandalia consuevit. Quse,
ex regione superiori inultis foraminibus minimis patere videntur
quorum operamina artificiosa ex industria taliter confecta com-
probantur (De adm. virt., p. 88). These sandals had not, how-
ever, been worn by the saint during his life-time; for imme-
diately after death, when he was laid in his first grave (A.D. 687),
the shoes with which he was then buried, though new, seem to
have been no other than those in common use, about that part of
the country, at the period. The unknown but earliest writer of
St. Cuthberht's life, while describing the taking up of that holy
bishop's body eleven years afterwards, remarks : Omnia autem
vestimenta et calceamenta . . . attrita non erant . . . et ficones novi,
quibus calceatus est, in basilica nostra inter reliquias pro testi-
moniis usque hodie habentur (Vita S. Cuthberti, Auct. Anon, in
Ven. Beda, Opera Hist. Minora, ed. Stevenson, 1841, p. 282). It was,
therefore, not before the year 698 that the sandals which Reginald
describes could have been put on St. Cuthberht's feet. While he
was a priest the saint used to wear leathern leggings : Semel cal-
ceatus tribracis, quas pelliceas habere solebat, sic menses perdu-
raret integros. Ven. Beda, Vita S. Cuthberti [P.L., xciv. 758].
In these boots St. Cuthberht must have often said Mass, as he
196 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(237) St. Osmund and his Norman brother
bishops wrought, as far as we can learn, no
alteration in the sandal ; and it still continued
to be made here as elsewhere 92 of leather, stained,
however, with the finest tints, and with the upper
part so perforated with small holes as to resemble
a beautiful design, and making it look as if pierced
with windows. 93 (238) Hardly had a hundred
years rolled by, when more costly materials were
sought for and employed : not only the " win-
let whole months pass away without taking them off, through a
spirit of mortification.
92 Hildebert, a writer of the eleventh century, gives the follow-
ing symbolic meaning to the open work in the upper part of the
sandal spoken of by Reginald : Optima enim misistis sandalia, in
quibus et ostensa est amicitia, et oblata doctrina. Ea namque
torporem nostrum secretis excitant stimulis, et quasi quadam
manu pulsant ut evigilemus et assumamus nobis pedes evangeli-
zantium bona. . . . Nimirum consuetudinis est et rationis pertusa
desuper esse sandalia, ut totus appareat pes, nee totus sit coopertus.
Prsedicator enim nee abscondere omnibus, nee omnibus evangelica
debet aperire sacramenta. Hildebert, Epist. iii. 31 [P.L., clxxi.
302]. The true reading seems to be : Ut nee totus appareat pes,
&c. At the end of Povyard's Dissertazione sopra VAnteriorita del
bacio de' piedi de? Sommi Pontefici, the reader will find figured many
shapes of episcopal sandals.
03 Innocent III., towards the beginning of the thirteenth cen-
tury (A.D. 1 196-1216), while he assigned the same before-mentioned
emblematic signification to the episcopal sandals, describes them
thus: Sandalia vero de subtus integram habent soleam, desuper
autem corium fenestratum quia gressus praedicatoris debent subtus
esse muniti, ne polluantur terrenis : secundum illud Excutite pul-
verem depedibus vestris (S. Matt. x. 14), et sursum aperti, quatenus
ad cognoscenda ccelestia revelentur. . . . Quod autem sandalia
quibusdam locis aperta, quibusdam clausa sunt, designat quod
Evangelica prsedicatio nee omnibus debet revelari, nee omnibus
debet abscondi. Sicut scriptum est : VoUs datum est nosse mysteria
regni Dei, c&teris autem in parabolis (S. Luke viii. 10). De Sacro
Altaris Mysterio, i. 48 [P.., ccxvii. 792].
PART I. CHAP. VI. 197
dowed " leather spoken of by Pope Innocent, but
the richest silks, elaborately embroidered, were
used here in England for making episcopal san-
dals, when that pontiff wrote his beautiful work
on the Mass ; for among the ornaments of Salis-
bury Cathedral (A.D. 1222), were "two pair of
sandals . . . one of blue silk, the other of green
cendel embroidered " ; 94 and not only were these
(239) English episcopal shoes curiously adorned
with gold and silver needlework, but often might
they be seen ornamented with the finest pearls. 95
Judging from our sepulchral monuments and illu-
minated manuscripts, the " corium fenestratum,"
or open-worked leather episcopal sandal, fell into
disuse about the fourteenth century in England,
and such a style of shoe was left in possession of
the laity, among whom, at that period and later,
we know it was the fashion to wear shoes with
the upper-leather cut into a variety of beautiful
94 Duo paria sandaleorum, unum de serico indico quod sunt
Episcopi Goscelini, et aliud de viridi cendell. brusdato quod fuit
Episcopi Herbert!. Wordsworth, Salisbury Cerem., 177.
Along with the rest of his pontifical ornaments, in which our
countryman, Pope Hadrian IV., was arrayed for his burial (A.D. 1 1 59)
and which were found quite whole when the large granite sarco-
phagus, that as yet serves for his coffin, was opened, and officially
examined by the canons of St. Peter's Church, at Rome, one of
them, Grimaldi, noticed, and thus described, that pontiff's sandals :
Sandaliis corii Turcici ad flores margaritis ornatis sine cruce, &c.
Sac. Vat. Bas. Cryp. Mon. ed. Dionigi, p. 124.
95 In the treasury of St. Paul's Cathedral, London (A.D. 1295),
there were : Sandalia Henrici de Wengham episcopi cum flosculis
de perlis indici coloris, et leopardis de perlis albis, &c. Dugdale,
Hist, of St. Paul's, new edition, p. 315.
i 9 8
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
designs resembling the tracery of window-heads,
through which the bright colour of the green,
blue, or scarlet stock-
ing beneath was
shown to great ad-
vantage. Of the
smart dressy lay-
man, who acted as
" parish clerk,"
Chaucer says :
With Powles window
corven on his shoos,
In hoses rede he wente
fetisly; 96
and the words of
our poet are well
illustrated by (240)
the accompanying
woodcut of a paint-
ing, now unhappily
no more, but which
once adorned the
walls of St. Ste-
phen's Chapel, in the
old palace at West-
minster. 97
On some of our
English bishops'
sandals, the sign of
90 The Mill&res Tale, 132, 133. Skeat, Student's Chaucer, p. 460.
97 To the kindness of Mr. H. Shaw am I indebted for the use of
this block of a painting, which, being done in the reign of Edward
PART I. CHAP. VI. 199
the cross was wrought, either in gold needle-
work or with precious stones. 98 Its form may
often be well seen marked upon the feet of our
prelates in illuminated manuscripts, of which we
gave a specimen just now," and upon their
sepulchral effigies, several (241) of which yet
show, not only streaks of their ancient gilding
and colour, but the now empty sockets scooped
out in the stone all about the mitre, the chasuble,
and the sandals too, for holding mock jewels.
The monument in Worcester Cathedral to Bishop
Giffard, figured in this work, 1 shows that (242)
his crimson sandals were ornamented with a cross
marked out by gems. 2
III., admirably illustrates the words of a provincial council held at
London, A.D. 1342, wherein such shoes, as well as scarlet and green
stockings, are forbidden to the clergy, some of whom are thus re-
proved for wearing these worldly ornaments of attire : In sacris
etiam ordinibus constituti . . . velut effoeminati militari potius quam
clericali habit u induti . . . caligis etiam rubeis scaccatis et viridibus,
sotularibusque rostratis et incisis multimode, &c. (Wilkins, Concil.,
ii. 703). Mr. Roach Smith is fortunate in having, among his col-
lection of English antiquities, several fine specimens of these shoes
themselves, and of men's pattens, found during some recent ex-
cavations in London. That the pattens were worn by the clergy
without any blame, and in the church itself, is clear from the
following extract: "For two pair of pattens for the priest."
Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Mary Hill, London (A.D. 1491), illust.
by Nichols, p. 100.
98 In the treasury of St. Paul's Cathedral, London (A.D. 1295),
there were : Sandalia de rubeo sameto cum caligis breudatis . . .
sotulares sunt breudatae ad modum crucis. Dugdale, Hist, of St.
Paul's, p. 315.
99 See the figure of the Pope in the picture at p. 100 of this
volume.
1 The picture of it may be found at p. 306, vol. i.
2 Geffrey de Loduno, Bishop of Le Mans, bequeathed (A.D. 1255)
to that church, among other pontifical ornaments : Sandalia et
200 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
These episcopal sandals were, from the days of
St. Osmund, made in England of almost every hue
green, light blue, black but more generally
scarlet : in other parts of the Church they were,
with few exceptions, either black or red. Indeed,
as a liturgical writer during the twelfth century
(Sicard) observes, this kind of shoe took the name
of sandal from the red dye with which the leather
they were made of had been coloured. 3
During the Anglo-Saxon period, sandals were,
no doubt, allowed to be worn at the holy Sacrifice
by priest, deacon, and subdeacon, in this country,
as they were upon the continent. But they must
have differed in shape and adornment, according
to the office and dignity of the wearer : this we
gather from Amalarius, who wrote between A.D.
820 and 830.*
sotulares rubri serici auri preciosorumque lapidum varietate dis-
tincta. Gesta Gaufridi de Loduno, in Mabillon, Vet. Analect., p. 335.
This is an exact description of Bishop Giffard's sandals. They were
coloured crimson ; and, from the sockets on them, were evidently
jewelled. See our picture, vol i., p. 306.
3 Sandalia dicuntur ab herba sandarical (sandyce), vel sandalico
colore quo depinguntur. Est autem genus calceamenti, quo partim
pes tegitur inferius, partim relinquit superius, factum ex pellibus
animalium mortuorum. Intus album, foris nigrum vel rubeum,
multis filis et lineis context um, gemmis ornatum, &c. Sicardus,
Ep. Cremonensis, Mitrale, ii. 5 [P.//., ccxiii. 72].
4 Varietas sandaliorum varietatem ministrorum pingit. Epis-
copi et sacerdotes pene unum est officium : at quia nomine et
honore discernuntur, discernuntur etiam varietate sandaliorum
. . . Episcopus habet ligaturam in suis sandaliis, quam non habet
presbyter . . . Diaconus, quia dissimilis est episcopo ab officio,
non est necesse ut habeat dissimilia sandalia, et ipse ligaturam
habet, quia suum est ire ad comitatum. Subdiaconus, quia in
adjutorio est diacono et pene in eodem officio, necesse est ut
PAKT I. CHAP. VI. 201
But if not about, at least soon after, the time of
St. Osmund, this kind of shoe began to be with-
held from the clergy of the second order, and has
ever since been exclusively confined to bishops
and mitred abbots. 5
From the time that the Church reserved the use
of the sandal to the episcopal order, she has shown
herself, especially here in England, most watchful
in hindering the second order of the clergy from
wearing shoes or stockings dyed either green or
(244) scarlet, colours which our old national
councils have, over and over again, loudly for-
bidden to them in their garments, and especially
and expressly, in any kind of covering for the
feet or legs. The council of Exeter, held A.D.
1287, ordained that the clergy should use no
other but black boots ; 6 and in the council of
London (A.D. 1342) a more pointed prohibition
against the use of green or scarlet-coloured leggings
caligse rubese scaccatse et virides by the clergy,
is inserted in the second of its canons. 7 Even as
habeat dissimilia sandalia, ne forte sestimetur diaconus. Amalarius,
De Eccles. Officiis, ii. 25 [P.L., cv. iioo].
5 Diaconi non debent uti compagis, id est sandaliis, neque
manipulis, id est calciamentis episcopalibus, absque indulgentia
sedis apostolicse speciali. Olim enim utebantur, quia eorum erat
discurrere per comitatum. Hodie ergo nee ipsi nee sacerdotes
utuntur : sed episcopi solum, ufc per varietatem sandaliorum,
notetur varietas officiorum. Durandus, Ration., iii. 8, n.
6 Prsecipimus quod pannis sericis, vel viridibus, aut rubeis
sotularibus consutiis, caligis aliis quam nigris . . . non utantur
(clerici). Synodus Exoniensis, cap. xvii. in Wilkins, Condi. Mag.
Brit., ii. 141.
7 Wilkins, Condi., ii. 703.
202 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
late as about the year 1480, Bishop Waneflete,
in the statutes which he drew up for his college
at Oxford, " restrains all and singular the fellows
and scholars from aniwise using within the uni-
versity or abroad, high-lows, or red, or peaked
boots, or dresses of any other form than those
which appear to be suitable and agreeable to the
priestly state, the holy canons," &c. ; and still
later, Bishop Fox (A.D. 1517), the munificent
founder of another college in the same university,
forbids the members of his establishment " to pre-
sume to use in the university, or away from it,
red, ruby-coloured, (245) white, green, or motley
high-lows, or peaked shoes, or of other shape or
die than shall seem ... to be suitable to and
becoming the degree of priests." Nothing,
therefore, could display a greater want of know-
ledge about the antiquities of our old English
Catholic Church and the canons of her mediaeval
councils, than representing, in their Mass-vest-
ments, mere priests arrayed in scarlet boots, thus
making them appear guilty of breaking the ordi-
nances of the Church while about the most solemn
act of their office offering up the holy Sacrifice.
Yet this, and other like grievous blunders, are
often met with in works which undertake to
teach what were the liturgical usages of olden
8 Statutes of Magdalen College, Oxford, translated by Ward, p. 127.
The Foundation Statutes for Corpus Christi College, Oxford, ed. Ward,
P. 137.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 203
time in this country. If Strutt, whose labours
have afforded such invaluable aid to the student
of English ecclesiastical antiquity, could see how
some of his plates have, in a late republication of
them, been capriciously coloured, that carefully
exact artist would stare in pained amazement.
Though doctors of divinity were in Catholic
England allowed, as a mark of honour, to wear a
scarlet cassock and a scarlet hood, lined with
ermine (and effigies of them clad in such a
coloured dress are to be met with), yet they never,
on the strength of this privilege, put on the
episcopal sandal the scarlet shoe. The only
seeming exception (246) to the canonical enact-
ments were acolytes : in by-gone times, as now,
those who acted as such in the Church services
were, very often, lay youths. Then, too, as at
present in some places, they were clothed in
cassocks of scarlet, and on their feet they had,
like Chaucer's layman parish-clerk, black, win-
dowed shoes, which let the scarlet stockings be
seen from beneath, or a kind of low boot, all
scarlet. One of the illuminations in a manuscript
done about the beginning of the fifteenth century,
and in my possession, shows two tonsured clerks,
in surplices and scarlet cassocks, waiting on the
celebrant at a funeral ; and in the highly curious
illuminations of that beautiful manuscript con-
taining the coronation service for the kings of
France (Tiberius B. VIIL, in the British Museum),
204 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
an acolyte, wearing scarlet boots as well as scarlet
cassock, is more than once figured. 9
Whether our Anglo-Saxon bishops, along with
their sandals, wore that kind of wide ornamented
STOCKING, OR RATHER FOOTED LEGGING
NOW USED,
and denominated, formerly " campagi," but at
present, " caligee," is uncertain ; nor are we able
to ascertain if the sandal itself was like a low
slipper, or a species of short boot reaching, not
only beyond the ankle, but some way up the leg :
in illuminations, the alb is necessarily figured as
falling down over the instep, and thus hides the
higher part of (247) the bishop's sandals. Those,
however, upon the feet of St. Swithin, in the
Benedictional of St. ^Ethelwold, 10 and of St.
Benedict, 11 are so distinctly and carefully drawn,
that we may see they were, in shape, like a high
shoe, yet made, not only of another sort of
material but after a much more ornate fashion
than such as are worn by the various lay-folks,
and even virgin saints, represented in that magni-
ficent work of Anglo-Saxon art and penmanship.
Amalarius takes no notice of any other sort of
ceremonial covering for the feet and legs of
9 [See Henry Bradshaw Society, vol. xvi.].
10 Archgeologia, vol. xxiv., plate 29.
11 Ibid., plate 30.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 205
bishops than the sandal, which he makes to be
the same thing as the " campagus." 12 Theo-
dolphus, who wrote A.D. 794, but a very few
years earlier than Amalarius, while telling us
that these " campagi " were a part of a bishop's
ministerial garments, lets us know, that before
arraying himself in them, the episcopal wearer
drew upon his feet and legs a species of linen
stocking. 13
Towards, however, the end of the tenth century,
(248) these stockings became a formal article of a
bishop's vestments. This we learn from a pre-
cious manuscript of the Mass, written out by
order of an abbot of Corbey, Ratoldus, who died
A.D. q86. 14
12 Congruum est ut nosmetipsos absolvamus de sandaliis, sive,
ut alio nomine, campobis, qui supersunt in pedibus. De Ecc. Off.,
ii. 1 8 [P.L., cv. 1095].
13 Linea crusque pedesque tegant talaria ut apte,
Qui super addatur campagus ipse decens.
Carm. v. 3 \P.L., cv. 35 5]. Indeed,, the same thing is hinted at by
Amalarius : Sicut per linum, quo pedes vestiuntur, castigatio pedum
significatur, ita per sandalia profectus est praedicandum. De Eccl.
0/.,ii. i8[P.L., cv. 1095].
Not only after, but very long before, St. Osmund's days, did the
Church in this country strive to wean all ecclesiastics from follow-
ing the fashions set by laymen, with regard to dress : hence the
Council of Clovesho (A.D. 747) strictly forbade all clerks to swathe
their legs with those narrow bandages so often seen in Anglo-
Saxon illuminations : Vestibus consuetis juxta formam videlicet
priorum, sive clerici, sive monachi deinceps utantur : nee imitentur
seculares in vestitu crurum per fasciolas, &c. Condi. Clovesoviense,
cap. xxviii., Wilkins, i. 99.
14 Among other interesting rubrics in this valuable codex, we
read the following : Primo quidem minister deferat caligas, usque ad
genu tendentes, &c. Respondet episcopus . . . jube sanctificari has
caligas ; ut et in gressu resplendeat Evangelii veritas, &c. Deinde
206
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(249) With respect to this country and the times
which immediately followed the coming over here
of the Normans, and the introduction into so many
places through the land of St. Osmund's Use for
his church of Salisbury, amid the scanty memorials
left us upon this point, we see
enough to show us that our
English bishops began at an
early period to wear these
" caligse " or episcopal stock-
ings, and upon which they
bestowed costly materials
and elaborate adornment. 15
Among the few episcopal
ornaments still to be found
in England, not the least in-
teresting is one of the caligse,
or vestmental stockings of
Bishop Waneflete's, kept at
Oxford, in St. Mary Magdalen
Bishop Waneflete's episcopal
stocking.
minister det sandalia, &c. Vet us Missa ex Cod. Ratoldi, in Menard's
notes on S. Gregorii Lib. Sacram. [P.L., Ixxviii. 239] ; and from the
allusion made to the symbolic meaning of these "caligae," or
bishop's stockings, in that part of the prayer to be said at putting
them on, given above, we may infer that, even then, they had be-
come highly ornamented. Indeed, at the very beginning of that
same century, Riculfus Helenensis (A.D. 915) deemed his episcopal
stockings, as well as sandals (caligas et sandalias paria duo), to be
worth bequeathing, along with several other vestments, sacred
vessels, and books, to a church, for the use of all future bishops of
that see. Testamentum Riculfi, in the Append, to Regino of Priim
[P.L., cxxxii. 468].
15 Belonging to the church of Salisbury (A.D. 1222) there were
"iiij. paria caligarum " [Wordsworth, Salisbury Cerem., 176] : and
PART I. CHAP. VI. 207
College, which he built and so munificently en-
dowed : it is of cloth of silver, embroidered with
birds in gold, with flowers in coloured silks, and
with sun-rays darting from a cloud, seemingly the
device of Edward IV.; along with it, one of (250)
the same good
prelate's sandals
of crimson vel-
vet, dotted with
bright small
spots of gold,
and worked with
large flowers and
t . i Bishop Waneflete's episcopal sandal.
leaves in col-
oured silk, preserved with equal care in the same
place, the reader will see figured in these two
plates. 16
among the splendid vestments in the treasury of St. Paul's Cathe-
dral, London (A.D. 1295), we find set down: Sandalia cum caligis
de rubeo sameto diasperato, breudata cum ymaginibus regum in
rotellis simplicibus. Item sandalia Henrici de Wengham episcopi
cum flosculis de perlis indici coloris, et leopardis de perlis albis, cum
caligis breudatis et frectatis de armis palatis et undatis. Dugdale,
Hist, of St. Paul's, new ed., pp. 315, 316.
16 This crimson velvet is of a deep rich pile, and wrought with
flowers, in gold, and with leaves, like ivy, of silk, half yellow, half
green; the little dots of gold, with which the velvet is thickly
sprinkled, are found very often on English velvet vestments of the
latter part of the fifteenth century. As the reader may see, in
shape the sandal was made like a high half-boot ; it is lined with
very thin white kid. It has no heel, properly so called, and its
size is large, being one foot in length, and six inches high.
The stocking is of silver tissue, worked with gold birds, flowers,
blue, yellow, and white, and a peculiar ornament a nebule, white
and blue, with yellow rays shooting from its edge. It is two feet
two inches high, and in width seven inches. For the obliging use
208 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(251) Our Catholic bishops, all through the
Latin Church, wear these ornamented stockings
along with their sandals whenever they pontificate,
except at Mass for the dead.
The use of purple stockings for every-day wear
by bishops and the higher class of prelates, was
quite unknown to our old English Catholic
Church ; and is but of a comparatively modern
introduction at Rome itself, where, however, it is
regulated by strict rules. Bishops chosen from
the secular clergy have the right of wearing purple
stockings, purple collar, and purple cassock every-
where, and at all times ; but mere prelates, though
of the higher order, are strictly forbidden to wear
either purple stockings, purple cassock, or purple
collar, anywhere out of the city of Rome, or away
from the court of the supreme pontiff. 17
of these two woodcuts I owe my best thanks to that accomplished
antiquary,, M. H. Bloxam, Esq.
17 By an Apostolical Institution, issued by Pius VII. (A.D. 1818),
it was declared, concerning the higher rank of prelates, or titular
apostolic Prothonotaries : Jus erit Protonotariis apostolicis titu-
laribus extra Urbem duntaxat, et quando eo loco, ubi degunt, non
adsit summus pontif ex, uti habitu prselatitio, videlicet veste talari,
et palliolo nuncupate mantelletto, nigri coloris.
Usus collaris, et caligarum coloris violacei omnino interdicitur.
Sacrum operantes a simplicibus sacerdotibus minime differunt,
Scc. (Manuale Ecclesiasticorum sen Collectio Decret. Auihent. Sac. Hit.
Cong., Romse, 1841, pp. 183, 184). If any individual, therefore,
even were he an apostolic prothonotary, were to use, for instance
here in England, purple cassock and collar at Mass ; were he to
presume to dress like a bishop, and go into society in purple stock-
ings, he would not only be acting in direct opposition to a papal
mandate, but run the risk of being deprived of his prelacy if he
did not heed the second admonition addressed to him by his
ecclesiastical superior, on account of such a breach of discipline ;
PART I. CHAP. VI. 209
(252) SECTION XVII
The last of those distinctions generally, though
not exclusively, assigned to bishops is
THE FALDSTOOL, 18
the very name of which teaches us to understand
by it a kind of chair or seat which can be opened
out or shut just as may be needed. From the
(253) ease with which it could be put up and
carried about, the faldstool usually accompanied
a bishop 19 when he went about his diocese, or
celebrated in his own city away from the cathedral
which, as that word itself indicates, is no other
than the church wherein the episcopal " sedes "
see or bishop's chair is erected, 20 and thus be-
f or it is ordained by the same pontiff : Qui secus facere, aliisque
preeter memorata privileges ac juribus uti auserint, si ab ordinario
tanquam ab apostolica sede delegate semel et bis admoniti, non
paruerint, eo ipso privates honore se sciant. Ibid., p. 186.
18 The word " faldistorium " undoubtedly sprang, not from a
Latin, but a Teutonic root ; and in its first true form, " fald-
stool " (folding stool) sounds so very English, as to make us
believe it was given to this sort of chair by our Anglo-Saxon
fathers.
19 The provision of a faldstool for the use of a bishop is particu-
larly required by our old English ritual. In the Consecratio Episco-
porum, the rubric said: Comprovinciales episcopi deducant eurn
(consecrandum) per manus coram consecratore sedente super faldis-
torium in medio majoris altaris, dorso verso ad altare, sedilia
episcoporum in modum corone a dextris et a sinistris electi. The
Liber Pontificalis of Bishop Lacy, ed. Barnes, p. 92.
20 The one cathedral holding the one chair of a diocese is well
marked in our old English rubrics. Bishop Lacy's Pontifical at
VOL. II.
210
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
came (254) substituted for it in every other place,
and was, in a certain manner, employed in its
stead.
Of the shape according to which the faldis-
torium used to be fashioned, some faint idea may
be formed by the one upon which an archbishop
is figured sitting, in an English illumination,
which we put before the reader in this plate.
From MS. 2, B. vii. f. 291.
Exeter says : Cum ad sedem episcopii sui consecratus episcopus
pervenerit, priusquam in cathedra ponatur, ab aliquo episcopo
cui a metropolitano injunctum fuerit, hec oratio ante ipsam cat he-
dram dicatur (p. 100). The bishop's chair in our old cathedrals
was often a work of great beauty, and elaborately wrought in
stone : such, to be seen even yet at Durham, was the one erected
by Bishop Hatfield (c. A.D. 1350): Dominus Thomas Hatfeld per
plures annos ante mortem suam, fecit sedem episcopalem inter
chorum et magnum altare ex parte australe, de opere lapideo valde
sumptuoso, &c. Wills of the Northern Counties, published by the
Surtees Society, i. 38.
Unaware that a bishop may not have two sees or chairs at once
in the same diocese, and knowing but little of ancient ecclesiasti-
PART I. CHAP. VI. 211
On a very few occasions was it wrought out
(255) of gold itself, and jewelled; 21 sometimes,
too, of silver, 22 oftener, however, as now, of gilt
metal, or of ebony 23 and the more common sorts
cal history, even less of the canons of the Church, some architects,
when left to themselves in such matters, have wished to set up
an episcopal throne in a college chapel (or, as they would wrongly
call it, collegiate church), and even in the parish church near the
bishop's dwelling, though he has his see already elsewhere. How-
ever great or crowded may be a college ; though its chapel, like that
of King's College, Cambridge, be very large and one of the finest
buildings in the kingdom, still it is never called, nor ought we
to think it, anything more than " a chapel." To be " collegiate,"
a church must have daily choir-service sung in it, support a dean
and canons, and possess a chapter, as if it were a cathedral. More-
over, to be talking of " enthronisations " and " cathedrals " in
England, is and will be inaccurate, until we get back our hierarchy.
No church that does not really hold the " cathedra," or see, from
which a bishop takes his title, can be a cathedral. A vicar-apos-
tolic's cathedral, with its chair, is deemed to be in that city of
which he is called bishop ; and before he can celebrate in the one,
or be enthroned in the other, he will have to travel, " in partibus
infidelium," and go, as it may need, to Egypt or to Asia Minor. Ere
using the terms, let us strive and get back the Church's true, old,
canonical form of government the hierarchy ; not, however, the
half of it, but its entireness, that is, for the clergy of the second
order, as well as for the bishops.
21 The magnificent faldstool given to Pope Clement IV. (A.D.
1 269) by Charles, King of Naples, is thus described in the Vatican
inventory : Facistorium magnum aureum, cum lapidibus pretiosis,
quod D. rex Carolus fel. rec. dementi Papse IV. donavit et dedit.
Garampi, Illustrazione di un Sigillo della Garfagnana, p. 81.
22 Of Hugh Pudsey, Bishop of Durham (A.D. 1187), Geoffrey of
Coldingham tells us, that on taking the cross for the holy war,
he had made, among other things, to carry along with him a
magnificent silver chair : Episcopus vero cruce suscepta . . . fecit
sibi vasa diversa ex argento, sedile quoque argenteum mirandi
operis et decoris, ut ma jorum episcoporum sive ducum gloriam
superaret (Hist. Dunelmensis Scrip. Tres, p. 13). Surely such a
chair must have been the bishop's liturgical faldstool.
23 In Pope Boniface VIII.'s inventory we find : Unum falcis-
torium parvum de ebano, quod jungitur simul sicut una tabula.
Item unum facistorium de ebano. Garampi, p. 81.
2i2 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
of wood. 24 (256) Cloths of great price, such as
golden baudekin, and silks of a rich texture,
elaborately embroidered, were always thrown over
it ** by way of covering, but after such a graceful
manner, as not to hide the artist's beautiful handi-
work which he had bestowed upon its paw-like
feet, as well as the four corners at top, which,
if not always, very often at least, were made to
end in the likeness of an animal's neck and head.
In later times in this country the faldstool was
" a chair of woode, covered with crymsen velvet,
and the pomells and handells thereof garnished
with silver." 26
Not only to bishops was the use of the faldstool
always allowed, but also to abbots, 27 and even to
24 Una cathedra lignea quse fuit Johannis episcopi quam habet
episcopus Ricardus. Visit, in Thesaur. S. Pauli, Londini (A.D.
1295), Dugdale, St. Paul's, p. 315.
25 Such hangings are enumerated thus in the Salisbury inven-
tory : Pannuli ad faldestolium ij. Wordsworth, Salisbury Cerem.,
p. 176.
26 A faldstool of this kind was " parcell of such stuffe as came
from Canterberye." Mow. Anglic., i. 67.
27 At the service which took place when the new abbot went to
the bishop for the solemn blessing, our old English rubric directed
a faldstool to be set for the abbot on the steps before the altar :
Et ordinetur pro abbate unum faldistorium ante gradum altaris
(Benedictio Abbatis, in Bishop Lacy's Liber Pontificalis, p. 103).
The casual notice, by Matthew Paris, of the faldstool, is bound up
with a very touching scene which took place in the chapter-house
of St. Alban's a few days before the death (A.D. 1214) of John,
abbot of that far-famed monastery : Et fecit (abbas Johannes)
apportari secum unam cathedram quam vulgariter " faudestolam "
appellamus. Et cum prsesidisset loco suo, ut moris est, superiori,
obortis lacrymis uberrimis cum crebris singultibus, . . . ait, &c.,
prsecepit abbas ut illud sedile de quo prsedictum est, allatum
poneretur in medio super tapetium quern locum " Judicium " appel-
PART I. CHAP. VI. 213
(257) some high personages among the laity, such
as the Queen at the coronation, when " for her
shalbe ordeyned, on the left side of the high
aulter (in the churche of Westmynster) a folding
stole, wherein she shall site while the king shalbe
requyred of the keeping the customes and lawes
of England." 2S
SECTION XVIII
Here perhaps the liturgical reader may wish to
know whether
THE ANGLO-SAXON, LIKE THE SALISBURY, RITUAL
VARIED THE COLOUR OF THE VESTMENTS.
From some of the most interesting monuments
of ecclesiastical antiquity which have come down
to us, we learn that the Church, especially in
Gaul, (258) began at an early period to distinguish
the higher festivals of the year by the employment,
as at Easter, for example, of white vestments in
her service for that time ; 29 those sacrificial gar-
lamus. Et ivit sessum super illud ; petensque sibi dari a singulis,
singulas disciplinas expoliavit se usque ad carnem nudam, &c.
Matt. Paris, Vitas, S. Albani Abbatwm, p. 72. [R.S. xxviii., Gesta
Abbat., i. 245.]
28 Device for the Coronation of King Henry VII., p. 13, Rutland
Papers, edited by .Terdan, for the Camden Society.
29 St. Remigius, Bishop of Rheims, in his will (A.D. 499), be-
queathed to his successor in that see, his white chasuble for Easter
use : Futuro episcopo successori meo, amphibalum album pascha-
lem relinquo. S. Remigii Ep. Hem. Testamentum [P,L., Ixv. 971].
Contemporary with St. Remigius lived St. Csesarius, of whom we
2i4 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
ments must have been therefore of some darker
hue at the less solemn seasons. A practice which
then obtained in Gaul was no doubt followed,
during the same epoch, throughout this island
by the British priesthood, and afterwards among
the Christianised Anglo-Saxons, with whom we
know the kingly purple for sacerdotal ministering
vesture found much favour. 30 Other colours were
adopted (259) (the very same, in fact, as we now
use 31 ), but whether employed after the same ritual
laws and on the same occasions, we have not at
present the means of ascertaining. Certain is it,
that between the Roman rubric now in force, and
the old Sarum practice upon this point, a slight
are told by the friend who wrote the life of this illustrious bishop
of Aries : Casulamque quam processoriam habebat albamque Pascha-
lem dedit ei, &c. ( Vita S. C&sarii, ed. Mabillon, A A. SS. 0. B., i. 643).
Having occasion to speak of one of this same holy bishop's chasubles,
St. Gregory of Tours incidentally lets us know that it had a hood
just like the white chasubles worn at Easter : Cappa autem hujus
indumenti (casulse) ita dilatata erat atque consuta, ut solent in illis
candidis fieri quae per Paschalia festa sacerdotum humeris impo-
nuntur. S. Gregorius Ep. Turon., Vitge. Pat. [P.I/., Ixxi. 1045].
30 The dalmatic and tunicle found on St. Cuthberht's body were
purple, as we before observed (i. 322); St. Beda mentions the
hyacinthine colour of the tunicle (ibid., p. 324) ; and purple is the
hue of the chasuble worn by the Anglo-Saxon bishop of whom
we gave the figure (vol. i. p. 1 52).
31 Theodore, Bishop of London, bequeathed (c. A.D. 962) white,
yellow, and red chasubles to different friends : And ic an Deodrad
min wyte messe hakele ]>e ic on pani bouthe. and al jSat j>er to birefc
. . . and ic an Odgar J>e gelewe messe hakele . . . and ic (an) Sprat-
ache J>e rede Messe hakele -3 al }>e >er to bireS, &c. The will is
given at length by Blomefield (County of Norfolk, iii. 458). For the
white, red, green, and black copes provided for the church of his
minster, by the Anglo-Saxon abbot, Egelric, see note 550^ on
p. 23 of this volume.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 215
difference does exist ; Rome herself never uses
sky-blue, 32 England (260) in Catholic times did; 33
32 In Spain, and at Naples, I observed sky-blue vestments are
used on the festivals of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Though at
Rome light blue is never seen in the sanctuary, there was a time
when it was employed as a substitute for black, or purple, as we
learn from the Or do Romanus xv., drawn up by Peter Amelio,
who nourished c. A.D. 1393: and in cap. xxiv., De die cinerum, he
tells us : Papa recedit, et vadit ad recipiendum paramenta sua in
revestiario . . . nigri aut violacei indii coloris. Verumtamen
modernis temporibus Romana ecclesia istis tribus utitur quasi pro
uno colore. Mabillon, Mus. Ital., ii. 462. Whether light blue
vestments were here, in England, ever worn on holy days of the
Blessed Virgin, we know not ; white ones were, we are certain :
Unum vestimentum album bonum de panno adaurato pro princi-
palibus festis beatae Marise, &c. Unum vestimentum album de
camoca pro commemoratione beatse Marise, &c. Registrum Capellse,
Regix de Wyndesore (A.D. 1385), Dugdale, Hon. Anglic., viii. 1363.
33 In all our great lists of English vestments, blue, as distin-
guished from purple, is invariably to be found ; in earlier times,
"indicus," at a later period "blodium,"is the term employed to
designate it. Thus, among the copes belonging (A.D. 1295) to St.
Paul's Cathedral, London, there were : Capa de purpureo sameto,
capa de rubeo sameto, capa indici coloris, capa de baudekino indici
coloris, &c. (Dugdale, Hist, of St. Paul's, pp. 316, 317). So of the
chasubles (ibid., p. 323). The register of the royal chapel at
Windsor Castle (A.D. 1385) mentions unus (coster) pannus magnus
de velvetto purpureo, &c. Unus pannus de panno adaurato
palliatus rubro et blodio coloribus, pro sepulchro Domini (Mem.
Anglic, viii. 1363). York Cathedral enumerated its copes under
the different heads : Capse rubese, blod, virides, purpurese, &c.
(ibid., p. 1208); and at Lincoln, under " Casulse et capse blodei
coloris," are set down all the vestments of a blue colour, as " a
chesable of blew damask, &c., a cope of the same colour, a cope of
cloth of gold, of bawdkin of blew colour," &c. (ibid., p. 1284) ; while
the "casulse et capse purpurei coloris," as a chesable of purpur
velvet, a cope of purpur colour of gold, &c., are put by themselves
(ibid., p. 1283). That truly good and munificent prelate, Bishop
Wykeham, bequeathed to his church of Winchester his " new vest-
ment of blue cloth, striped, and embroidered with lions of gold,
with thirty copes of the same cloth, embroidered with the history
of Jesse in gold" (Testamenta Vetusta, ed. Nicolas, ii. 768). What
may have been the precise times for using blue we cannot tell,
216 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
Rome enjoins black for Good-Friday, 34 England
prescribed red. 35
although we now and then catch such stray notices as the follow-
ing : Casula de panno Tarsico, indici coloris . . . de dono Magistri
J. de S. Claro, qui voluit ut cum ilia celebretur in festis omnium
Sanctorum et Sancti Erkenwaldi (Dugdale, Hist, of St. Paul's,
p. 323). Furthermore, among the " blue " vestments, or " vesti-
menta blodia," at York Minster, there was a set for Advent and
Septuagesima time : Una secta blod del baudkin pro Adventu et
Septuagesima. Dugdale, Mon. Anglic., viii. 1209.
34 The use of black on Good Friday is of some antiquity in the
Roman ritual, though purple might be substituted for it : Colore
nigro utitur feria sexta in Parascheve, in missis defunctorum, et
in processionibus quas Romanus pontifex nudis pedibus facit.
Sciendum tamen est, quod diebus quibus est usus nigri coloris, uti
violaceo non est inconveniens. Ordo Romanus xiv., auct. J. Gaietano,
(c. A.D. 1298), ed. Mabillon, Mus. ItaL, ii. 291.
35 Not only on this day, but all through Lent, the vestments
were to be red, according to the Sarum rite. In a fine folio-sized
Salisbury missal, written out towards the end of the fourteenth
century, and now open before me, are to be found the following
rubrics: Feria iiij. in capite ieiunii . . . episcopus vel eius decanus
vel excellentior sacerdos indutus vestibus sacerdotalibus in capa
serica rubea, &c. Dominica in ramis palmar um . . . sequitur
benedictio florum et frondium a sacerdote induto capa serica
rubea, &c. Feria v. in cena Domini in primis fiat reconciliatio
poenitentium . . . sacerdos . . . indutus vestibus sacerdotalibus
in capa serica rubea, &c. Feria vi., in die Parasceves dicta hora ix.,
accedat sacerdos ad altare indutus vestibus sacerdotalibus et
casula rubea, &c. The same rubrics are in all the printed copies
of the Missal and Processional, according to the use of Salisbury.
Peterborough Minster had twenty- seven "red albs for Passion
week" (See vol. i. 353). But England was not singular in this;
the Ambrosian rite prescribed red albs for the same solemn season
(ibid.) ; and, until very lately, red was the colour of the sacred
ornaments worn at the services of Passion time and on Good
Friday especially in many great churches in France, at the
cathedrals of Bourges, Sens, and Mans, as we learn from De
Moleon ( Voyages Liturg., pp. 144, 172, 222). For the same symbolic
reason which induced St. Osmund to ordain red for the colour of
the vestments all through Lent, was it that the plain, figureless,
wooden cross, borne in procession during the same penitential
season, used to be painted red here in England : Dominica ij., et
PART I. CHAP. VI. 217
(261) With regard to the substance and the
colour of their lining, no exact rules seem to have
been laid (262) down : the dye of the stuff with
which a vestment was lined in many instances
differed, but in some (263) exactly agreed with
that of the robe itself, and oftentimes the stuff
omnibus dominicis per xl., excepta prima dominica, deferatur crux
lignea rubei coloris depicta, sine ymagine crucifixi, &c. Crede
Michi [Wordsworth, Tracts of C. Maydeston (H.B.S.), pp. 49, 50].
In England, as abroad, yellow-coloured vestments were worn in
some places. At Lincoln Cathedral there was " a chesable of yellow
silk, with an orphrey small, with a crucifix of gold, in red, upon
the back, and two tunacles, with three albes, and the whole
apparel, with two copes of the same suit and colour, for Lent
(Dugdale, Mon. Anglic., viii. 1285). In the same church, however,
red was the colour for Good Friday, as a "chesable, with two
tunacles of red, for Good Friday," are specifically noticed (ibid.,
1282), and "lined with white" (ibid., 1290). No later than the
year 1762, when the learned and zealous liturgist, Bellotte,
published his work on the ritual followed at the cathedral of
Laon, of which he was dean, the custom was, in that church, for
the celebrant to wear a yellow vestment on Good Friday : Color
autem croceus locum habet in ecclesia Laudunensi in solo prse-
sanctificatorum oificio, quod feria sexta in Parasceve quotannis
consuevit celebrari (Observations ad Ritus Eccl. Laudunensis, 771).
Of the yellow garments worn by the celebrant and his assistants,
at Angers Cathedral, on Good Friday, we have already spoken in
another part of this work (i. 351); and as the Jews, up to the
end of the last century, in several countries, were obliged, by
law, to wear a yellow badge somewhere about their dress ; and as
the mediaeval painters almost always figured Judas Iscariot, the
betrayer of our Lord, not only very ugly, but with yellow- reddish
hair most likely the symbolic meaning assigned by Bellotte for
the liturgic use of yellow, especially on Good Friday, is the true
one, being : Adversus biliosos videlicet Judaicse gentis animos,
qui pertinacibus improperiis in Christum salvatorem insiluerunt.
Croceo namque, seu flavo colori bilis assimilatur, cujus sedes et
imperium in prsecordiis et visceribus Judseorum nedum iram sed et
irse furorem provocavit adversus Dominum et adversus Christum
ejus. Ibid., 772.
2i8 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
was of silk ; though less costly (264) in its kind. 33a
All of the vestments now existing in this country
from Catholic times, which the writer has met
with, are invariably lined with a thick coarse kind
of linen, either blue or red in colour.
SECTION XIX
The ritual practice of
BLESSING VESTMENTS AND SAYING A PRAYER
WHILE PUTTING ON EACH OF THEM,
demands a short notice.
Not only did the Anglo-Saxon 36 and the Salis-
35a Casula de Indico cendallo, lineata cum rubeo cendallo. Visit,
in Thes. S. Pauli, Londini, Ibid., 323.
Casula de albo diaspro, lineata cum cendallo purpureo. Ibid.
Casula de rubeo sameto lineata sendato rubeo. Ibid., 322.
Some high personages wore their copes lined with costly fur,
such as vair, or ermine : Ingressus ecclesiam (S. Pauli, Londinensis)
. . . pontificalibus se induit, scilicet superpellicio, et desuper capa
chorali pellibus variis furrata, et mitra. Matt. Paris, Hist., p. 302
[in anno 1237]: (Paris, 1644).
36 Archbishop Ecgberht's Pontifical enumerates the vestments
in one of the prayers , used at the blessing of them : Exaudi pro-
pitius orationem nostram ut hanc planetam famuli tui ill. seu
pudorem, albam ac stolam, cingulum, orariumque dextra tua
sancta benedicere, sanctificare, consecrare, et purificare digneris.
Quatenus haec vestimenta ministris et levitis ac sacerdotibus tuis
ad divinum cultum ornandum et explendum proficiant, sanctisque
altaribus tuis mundi et ornati his sacris vestibus ministraturi
irreprehensibiles in actu et dictu interius exteriusque appareant,
&c. [Egbert Pontifical (Surtees Soc.), p. 17]. "Pudorem" is
evidently a blunder of the scribe's ; the word should have been
" poderem," as was observed before in this work, i. 374,
PART I. CHAP. VI. 219
bury 37 (265) rituals agree with one another, but
also with the present and very ancient custom
of the Church, (266) in the principle of always
blessing after a solemn manner every vestment
that had been offered and set aside for liturgical
use within the sanctuary.
Moreover, while arraying his person in those
garments for offering up the mystic sacrifice, the
Anglo-Saxon priest said to himself, in a low tone
of voice, a little prayer as he put on each one of
them, just as is done at present ; 38 and although
37 John de Burg, chancellor of Cambridge University (A.D.
1385), tells us that all vestments are to be blessed either by the
bishop, or by one having a faculty to do so : Sine vestibus ab
episcopo, vel altero potestatem habentem, benedictis celebrare
non licet . . . Sex autem sunt hujusmodi vestimenta sacerdotalia
.s. amictus, alba, cingulum, stola, manipulus, et planeta (Pupilla
Oculiy cap. vii., De his que sunt de ornatu). The same is asserted by
another English canonist, William Lyndwood (Provinciale, lib. i.
tit. 6, nota a, p. 33) ; and in the Exeter Pontifical, 239, we see the
forms of each of these benedictions. But besides this, the amount
of fees paid on the occasion may not unfrequently be met with ;
for instance, to give a few out of many examples :
At Bilibro, for halwyng of the pyx auter clothis, and a tonych,
an aube, an amyte, and expens, is. 8d. Churchwardens' Accts. of
Walberswick, illustrat., &c., by Nichols, 185.
Pd. to Robt. when he browght the clothes from the bishope,
y* was halowyd. Id. of St. Michael's, York, ibid., 314.
38 Ad Superhumeralem
Virtus summa ds cunctorum rector opimus,
Tu benedic lirum quo nunc ornamur amictii,
Ut servire tibi valeamus corde pudico.
Ad Albam
Vestibus angelicis induti rex pi&atis,
Poscimus a libare pium b libamen odoris,
Ad citius delenda male contagia mentis.
220 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(267) nothing of this precise kind may be found
in St. Osmund's treatise, or amid those liturgical
codices of his ritual which have reached our hands,
still we cannot bring ourselves to think that no
such sort of prayer was said by our English
Ad Cingulum
Scrutator cordis et caste mentis amator,
Tu lumbos precinge meos d intime judex,
Mortificans pravos in casto corpore mores. c
Ad Stolam
Colla jugo subdenda tuo ds alme sacrator,
Ad cuius dignum pra&iosa morte sepulchrum,
Virtus angelica consederat ordine munda.
Ad Vasulam
Spes aeterne d ds cunctorum certa salusque,
Tu memor esto mei toto te corde petentis,
Exequar ut dignus cselestis munia vitse,
Dumque meis manibus trectator 6 mistica Justus/
Dispereat quicquid contraxit 6 ' ordo veterni.
Ad Manipulum
Qui super astra sedes qui regni sceptra tuearis A
Summus adesto ds michimet tua jussa sequenti
Adq.* levant capiti conplexibus adhibe dextram,
Ut valeam casta tibi sistere perp&i vita.
Warren, Leofric Missal, p. 59 ; in another, but an Anglo-Saxon
hand. These same prayers, along with those at putting on the
stockings, sandals, belt, tunicle, gloves, and ring, when a bishop
pontificates, are given in the missal written out for Ratold, Abbot
of Corbey (A.D. 986), and published by Menard in his S. Gregorii
Liber Sacramentorum, p. 259 [P.L., Ixxviii. 240, 241], in a much
more correct form than that of Leofric's missal.
a possimus (Menard, d aeterna (261) h tueris
ibid., p. 260). e tractatur * ac
6 pii / virtus j levem
c gestus o contraxerat
Some whole lines, too, are left out in Leofric's missal.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 221
priests, or that they merely recited the preparation
for Mass, set forth in the Salisbury missal, while
vesting.
SECTION XX
SPLENDOUR AND BEAUTY AT ALL PERIODS OF
THIS COUNTRY'S VESTMENTS
Now that we have reached the end of this (268)
branch of our subject, well may we look back and
point exultingly to those glowing examples of
zeal shown by our forefathers in everything be-
longing to the decency and becoming splendours
of God's public worship. Whether the Anglo-
Saxons, the Normans, or the English ruled, it
mattered little ; our island home, the while
Catholicism spread throughout its length and
breadth, was quickened by the one same undying
wish to make the house of God, the church and
the throne of Christ, the altar more glorious
than the houses of men, more dazzling with
beauty than the thrones of earthly kings. The
brightest of our national worthies, those who gave
us our lofty birthright as freemen, the framers
of our wisest, soundest laws, our incomparable
Alfred, our holy Edward the Confessor, deemed it
not beneath them to provide splendid vestments
for the Church's ministers ; and our royal Anglo-
Saxon dames, our JElfflseds, our Emmas, our
Margarets, busied their minds and bethought
themselves how they might procure the most
222 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
beautiful sacerdotal garments for the service of
the altar.
The vestments of the sacrificing priest, and the
deacon and sub-deacon who ministered to him,
were always of seemly, often of most beautiful and
precious stuffs, curiously wrought with the figures
of saints in needlework, 39 at the same time that
(269) they were literally stiff with gold, and
twinkling with star-like gems. 40 The daughters
39 Kept in the chapter library of Durham Cathedral, and en-
graved for Raine's St. Cuthbert, is the stole which ^Elfflaed, Edward
the Elder's queen, got made for Frithestan, Bishop of Winchester.
This Anglo-Saxon liturgic ornament is all over-wrought with
figures of the apostles. [See vol. i. p. 338.]
40 See note 1 1, p. 295, and note 12, p. 297, vol. i., of this work.
Of the richness of Anglo-Saxon vestments we may catch some
slight idea from the minute description furnished us by Reginald,
the monk of Durham, of the dalmatic found (A.D. 1 104) on the
body of St. Cuthberht, and of which we spoke before.: Cujus
dalmaticre fines extremos limbus deauratus, instar aurifraxii ali-
cujus, undique perambiendo circumluit, qui pree auri copia, quae
in ejus fabrili textura inseritur, non facile, et tune quidem cum
aliquo stridore, reflectitur. Ita est volubilis ac replicabilis, at
tamen pro spissitudine sua, sine alicujus adjutorio, iterum ad
rigorem pristinum per se reductibilis. Qui ad mensuram palmae
virilis latitudine distenditur ; cujus operis industria satis artificiosa
fuisse videtur. . . . Circa collum vero ubi caput emittitur limbus
aureus priore latior opere et precio etiam incomparatior esse
videtur. De Admirand. B. Cuthberti, c. xlii. (Surtees Soc.), pp. 87,
88. In his notice of St. Oswald (Archbishop of York in 971) the
English Dominican friar Thomas Stubbs, writing A.D. 1360, tells
us that the Anglo-Saxon saint's chasuble, a purple one, adorned
with gold and precious stones, and still as beautiful as ever, was
kept at the church of Beverley : Hujus infula purpurea et auro,
gemmis ornata et prisca pulchritudine fulgida, Beverlacensi adhuc
servatur ecclesia (Th. Stubbs, Ada Pontif. Eboracen., ed. Twysden,
ii. 1699). Misit rex (Willelmus Anglorum princeps) domino abbati
et sacro conventui cappam pene auream totam, in qua vix nisi
aurum apparet vel electrum vel margaritarum textus et gemmarum
series ; inferius autem undique tintinnabula resonantia, ipsaque
PART I. CHAP. VI. 223
and the (270) wives of kings, and the great ones
of this world, thought their leisure but too well
filled up, and their wealth meetly bestowed,
when they themselves plied, or made others ply,
the needle in stringing their jewels on those
sacerdotal garments they had worked from the
correct and canonical, no less than beautiful,
patterns which had been sketched for them by
a Dunstan's hand. 41 Such was the skill with
which these designs were executed, that our
Anglo-Saxon ladies became famous abroad for
their ability in needlework ; and so highly was
embroidery esteemed among themselves, that
lands (271) even were bestowed as a reward for
teaching this womanly accomplishment. 42 Italy
herself could show nothing to be compared with
some of our vestments ; and a cope which
^Egelnoth, the Anglo-Saxon primate, had given,
together with many other presents, to an arch-
aurea pendent ; regina auteni planetam plane dignissimam mittente
et accipientibus quia sic rigidam, ut plicari non posset (Vita S.
Hugonis, Alb. Cluniac., in A A. SS. Aprilis, in. 66 1). If not niched
from some Anglo-Saxon minster, this cope and chasuble were
wrought by Anglo-Saxon hands, and after Anglo-Saxon patterns.
41 Nobilis qusedam matrona, ^Edelwyrm nuncupata, quodam
momentulo vocavit eum (S. Dunstanum) familiari precatu ad se :
quatenus ille ad divinum culturn, quamdam stolam sibi diversis
formularum schomatibus ipse prsepingeret, quam postea posset
auro, gemmisque variando pompare. Vita S. Dumtani, a co&vo, in
A A. SS. Maji, iv. 350.
42 Under Achelei, in Buckinghamshire, it is stated that Godric,
the sheriff, granted to Aluuid half a hide of land so long as he
should be sheriff, on condition that she should teach his daughter
the art of embroidery. Description of the Public Records, p. 10.
224 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
bishop of Benevento (who once came here to beg
alms at Cnut's court for Apulia), long remained
without an equal in that countiy ; where Eadmer,
years afterwards, found it still unmatched, and
by far the most beautiful among all those like
vestments worn by the bishops at a council pre-
sided over by the Roman pontiff at Benevento,
whither this Englishman had gone, along with
another archbishop of Canterbury, St. Anselm. 43
(272) In going through the life of that pearl
amid women, Edmund Ironside's grand-daughter,
and little niece to Edward the Confessor our
own Anglo-Saxon Margaret we meet with many
a touching scene. On becoming Malcolm King
of Scotland's wife, this Anglo-Saxon princess
wedded, as it were, that country to herself, and
toiled so long and well to civilise its then rude
people. If we stop awhile to behold the royal
but unlettered husband, who doated, as well he
might, upon her, taking up with religious rever-
ence Margaret's prayer-book, and as he gazed
43 Archiepiscopus Beneventanus cappa prse omnibus qui conventui
ipsi intererant preciosiori decoratus . . . concilio prsesidebat. . . .
Pontifex quoque sedis ipsius (Cantuariensis, regnante Cnutho)
^Egelnothus nomine, inter reliqua quse homini (archiepiscopo Bene-
ventano) dedit, cappam illi valde preciosam aurifrigio ex omni
parte ornatam dedit, quse et illius ecclesise decori et ecclesise Can-
tuariensis futuris temporibus tantse existeret testimonio et pro-
bationi. . . . Mox celebrate concilio ubi Beneventanum ipsum adii
et . . . cospi de eadem cappa loqui et unde illam haberet quasi
nescius interrogavi . . . earn ordine quo descripsi suam ecclesiam
ab ecclesia Cantuariensi adeptam esse declaravit. Eadmer, Hist.
Novorum, lib. ii. [R.S., Ixxxi. 107, 109, 1 10].
PART I. CHAP. VI. 225
upon its beautifully illuminated leaves and golden
letters which he knew not how to spell, kiss it
for his queen's sake (for it was almost hourly in
her hands) ; still more shall we wish to linger in
thought within that chamber of hers, where she
watched the labours of her waiting-maidens and
worked along with them ; and where copes, and
chasubles, and stoles, and altar frontals, might
always be seen, some in the workers' hands,
others already done, and most beautifully wrought
by the needles of those high-born dames and
worthful females whom Margaret the queen had
drawn about her to spend their talents in em-
broidery upon the adornment of God's altar and
the sacrificial garments of its ministers : 44 all the
44 His rebus, id est quse ad divinse servitutis cviltum pertinebant
nunquam vacua erat illius (Margaritse) camera ; quse, ut ita dicam,
qusedam coelestis artificii videbatur esse officina. Ibi cappse can-
torum, casulse, stolse, altaris pallia, alia quoque vestimenta sacer-
dotalia et ecclesise semper videbantur ornamenta. Alia manu
artificum parabantur, alia, jam parata admiratione digna habe-
bantur. . His operibus feminse deputabantur quse natu nobiles, et
sobriis moribus probabiles interesse reginse obsequiis dignse judi-
cabantur. Vita S. Margaritas Reginse Scotise, auct. Theodorico,
Monacho Dunelmensi, cosevo, in A A. SS. Junii, ii. 329.
Another Anglo-Saxon lady, and one of high birth, celebrated for
her skill in working with her needle, was ^Elfswide,, who, at the
death of her mother, Leoflaed, went to live in holy retirement
hard by Ely Minster. Here, along with her waiting-maids, she
spent much time in embroidery, and upon the loom ; and, besides
other vestments, wrought, with her own hands, a very beautiful
white chasuble : Filia eius ^Elfeswida cum possessione de Stevesche-
worde secclesise se tradens viri consortium aspernatur, illic jugiter
professa est permanere ; cui tradita est Coueneia locus monasterio
vicinus ubi aurifrixorise et texturis secretius cum puellulis vacabat ;
quse de proprio sumptu albam casulam suis manibus ipsa talis
ingenii peritissima fecit. Thorpe, Cod. Dip. Anglo-Sax., iv. 270.
VOL. II. P
226 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
stars of Anglo-Saxon royalty (273) set well. But
what was the practice of the latest, was the prac-
tice of the earliest Anglo-Saxons ; and in the very
act of affording us the symbolic meaning assigned
by that people to the gold and purple of the
sacerdotal garments, St. Beda lets us know how
richly adorned must have been the robes of the
sanctuary in his days. 45
(274) Though not outstripped, the Anglo-Saxons
were equalled by the Anglo-Normans and the Eng-
lish in a becoming zeal for the beauty of God's
house and its servants' ministering array. Still,
however, the higher merit belongs to the first, for
Anglo-Saxon feelings suggested, and Anglo-Saxon
fingers wrought those tasteful designs on the
sacred garments 46 that, however rich they might
45 Cuncta autem fiunt de auro pretiosisque coloribus : quia nihil
vile ac sordidum in sacerdotis ore vel opere debet apparere ; sed
cuncta quae agit, universa quae loquitur, omnia quse cogitat, et
coram hominibus prseclara, et in conspectu interni arbitrii oportet
esse gloriosa. Beda, De Tabernaculo, iii. 3 [P.L., xci. 466]. De auro
videlicet, et ante omnia in habitu sacerdotis intellectus sapientise
principaliter emicet. Cui autem hyacinthus, qui serio colore re-
splendet, adiungitur ; ut per omne quod intelligendo penetrat,
non ad favores infimos, sed ad amorem coelestium surgat . . .
Quamvis, ut superius ssepe dictum est, in purpureo colore possit
ipsa effusio sanguinis pro Christo, vel diversarum tolerantia pres-
surarum intelligi. Ipsa enim est crux, quam sequentes Dominum
quotidie ferre jubemur. Unde merito talis species inter alias
humero sacerdotis refulget, ut ipsum ad patienda adversa semper
doceat esse paratum. 7ta'd., iii. 4 [P.I/., xci. 467].
46 If Anglo-Saxon Winchester had its school of illuminators, so
had it its female artists in embroidery, for Matilda the first
William's queen, particularly mentions one of them the wife
of Alderet as she specifies her bequest to the church of the Holy
Trinity, at Caen, of a chasuble, being wrought by this Anglo-
PART I. CHAP. VI. 227
be in their (275) materials, were thought richer
still from their beauty, and, as works of art, have
earned for themselves the historian's notice : at the
same time a sight of them always called forth the
admiration and awakened the wishes of foreigners
to possess them. 47 A change of kings brought
Saxon matron : " Do," says Queen Matilda in her will, " Sanctse
Trinitati Cadomi casulam quam apud Wintoniam operatur uxor
Aldereti . . . atque aliud vestimentum quod operatur in Anglia," &c.
Cart. S. Trinit. at Bib. Nat., Paris, No. 5650, given at full length
by the Abbe De la Rue in his interesting Essais Historiques sur la
Ville de Caen, t. i., Preuves, No. i. Anglo-Saxon nuns seem to
have begun, from an early period, to bestow their time upon
embroidery ; for St. Aldhelm (A.D. 680) sings of them :
A urea dum exili Christo filia virgo acu dedicata
Manu pallida torquet, sereo turn ego calamo
Crinigeris pingo paginas. . . .
Epist. ad Acircium, Opp. S. Aldhelmi, ed. Giles, 273.
47 It is evident that, during former times, in England, vestments
were admired, not merely for the costliness of their materials,
but, from being looked upon as works of art, were tried by that
standard, and appreciated accordingly. Enumerating all that
Lanfranc did for his cathedral at Canterbury, William of Malmes-
bury tells us, in a marked manner, of the beautiful vestments
which that primate bestowed upon his see : Jam vero ex habun-
danti est dicere, quantum ibi ornamentorum congesserit, vel in
palliis, et sacratis vestibus, in quibus, cedente materia, manus
aurificum vincebat expensarum pretium, vel in diversicoloribus
picturis, ubi lenocinante splendore fucorum ars spectabilis rapiebat
animos, et pulchritudinis gratia sollicitabat oculos ad lacunaria.
De Gestis Pontif. Anylorum, lib. i., 43 [R.S., Hi. pp. 69, 70].
Our Anglo-Saxon ladies, as we are told even by foreign writers,
were famed for their skill in embroidering, in weaving stuffs of
gold, and in plying the needle ; nor were our men behind their
countrywomen in works of the nicest handicraft : " Anglicse
nationes feminse," says an old French writer, " multum acu
et auri textura, egregie viri in omni valent artificio." William
of Poitiers, Gesta Gulielmi [P.L., cxlix. 1267]. The first William
and his Norman followers were not slow in availing themselves
of this superiority in English art, for bettering their outward
appearance ; and such was the elegance of the dresses worn by
228 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
no change in (276) the religion of our country,
whose sons and daughters remained, under Nor-
man rule, as warm-hearted and as able as ever
in the holy work of decorating the altar ; while
our English women especially kept up that high
reputation for embroidery bequeathed to them by
their Anglo-Saxon mothers. Not (277) merely
foreign bishops sought for, but the supreme pontiff
himself asked to have vestments from this coun-
try ; 4S and the admiration and praises bestowed
the king and his court on their going over, for the first time,
from England to Normandy, that the people there were quite
dazzled with the splendour and beauty of the new attire, anything
like which they had never before seen, as we learn from the same
pen : Regis autem regiorumque satellitum indumenta spectantes
intexta atque crustata auro, quaeque antea viderant vilia sesti-
mavere (ibid.) [P.L., id. 1268]. Another unexceptionable witness,
the Frenchman Gotselin, who came over here during the reign
of William the Norman, and was a monk at Canterbury, speaking
of England and its people, says : His (margaritis) aurificum
ingenia inter prseclaros lapides aurea ecclesise adornant monilia.
Ipsos etiam sequat aut superat aurea Anglicarum virginum textura,
quse regia et pontificalia insignia, intincto murice coccoque bis
tincto flammantia, splendidis unionibus et margaritis cum prsecel-
lentibus gemmis prsetexto auro instellant, et pretiosa stemmata
artificii mixtura amplius irradiant. Vita S. Augustini, Ep. Cantuar.
[P.L., Ixxx. 51, 52].
48 Vestments that had been wrought in England awakened
such admiration abroad, that even the Popes wrote hither, and
begged to have them (Matt. Paris, Hist. AngL, p. 473, Parisiis,
1644); and in the inventory of vestments belonging to Pope
Boniface VIII., mention is particularly made of such among them
as had orphreys of English needlework : Una stola cum frixio
Anglican o (Garampi, Del Sigillo della Garfagnana, p. 86) ; plane ta,
cum aurifrixio Anglicano (ibid., p. 119). When Robert, the Abbot
of St. Alban's, went to pay his respects to Nicholas Brakespere,
who on being chosen Pope took the name of Adrian IV., and
filled the apostolic chair from A.D. 1154 till 1159, he carried along
with him, to Benevento, many rich presents for the supreme
PART I. CHAP. VI. 229
(278) by some of our native writers, upon the best
of our home-wrought vestments 49 as real works
of art, are fully borne out by the few remnants
of those liturgical garments which have happily
reached us 50 through so many perils from wanton
destruction or ordinary decay.
pontiff, who was born, and had been bred, in one of the hamlets
belonging, and near, to that far-famed abbey in Hertfordshire.
But of these gifts, our exalted countryman would keep nothing
besides the three very beautiful mitres, and the pair of sandals
wrought by Christina, the Abbess of Markgate, because they were
so surprisingly handsome : Obtulit igitur abbas (Robertus) domino
papae, aurum, et argentum non minimi ponderis, et alia munera
pretiosa ; mitras etiam tres, et sandalia operis mirifici, quse domina
Christina, priorissa de Markgate, diligentissime fecerat. Et cum
omnia serenissimo vultu intuitus est dominus papa,-omnia acecp-
tavit, sed non accepit, prseter mitras et sandalia, quia admirabilis
operis. Matt. Paris, Vit. Abb. S. Albani, p. 46 [.R.S., xxviii. i. 127.
49 In recording the good deeds and pious munificence of
Margaret Duchess of Clarence (A.D. 1429), the monk of St. Alban's
passes the following encomium upon the beauty of the splendid
set of vestments which she had bestowed upon that church :
Obtulit etiam unum vestimentum integrum cum tribus capis
choralibus de panno Tyssewys vulgariter nuncupate, in quibus
auri pretiosa nobilitas, gemmarum pulchritude, et curiosa manus
artificis stuporem quendam inspectantium oculis reprsesentant.
Monast. Anglic., ii. 222.
50 The oldest, as well as most beautiful, specimen of English
embroidery I know of, is a cope which once belonged to the
monastery of Syon, near Isleworth, but is now the property of the
Earl of Shrewsbury. It is quite a storied vestment. On the higher
part of the back is the Assumption, or crowning of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, beneath which is the Crucifixion, and lower down
still, the archangel St. Michael overcoming the dragon ; then high
up on the right, the death of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Thomas
putting his finger to the wound in our Lord's side, St. James the
Less holding a club, another apostle with a book and spear, St. Paul,
St. James the Greater, the burial of the Blessed Virgin Mary ; high
up on the left, St. Mary Magdalen and our Lord the touch me not
St. Philip holding three loaves and a book, St. Bartholomew, St.
Andrew, and ten cherubim winged and standing on wheels, besides
two figures, seemingly religious men, holding scrolls'. The hood,
2 3 o THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(279) From the plentiful store which we have of
written documents illustrating the period between
St. Osmund's and Henry VIII. 's days, we learn
that all through the existence of the Sarum Use,
the materials employed in the making of our
chasubles, copes, dalmatics, and tunicles, here in
England, were at all times the most beautiful and
the richest that our own handicraft might bring
forth, or our traders could find out for the country
in far-off lands : ciclatoun and baudekin and every
other sort of cloth of gold, either plain or shot
with colour ; samit and satin ; velvet, as soon as
it was known ; silks of all kinds damasked,
rayed, watered, clouded, or as the term then was,
" marbled " ; cloth of Tars, and fabrics from
Saracenic (280) looms, were each put into requisi-
tion as they came to hand. 51
which was hung by three loops, is lost ; the orphreys are two broad
bands of shields, charged with the armorial bearings of some of our
most illustrious English families ; and running all about the edge,
at bottom, is a narrow band of emblazoned shields ; but this, as well
as the orphreys, is not so old as the body of the cope, which, by
its style, seems to have been worked towards the second half of the
thirteenth century, but before the end of our third Henry's reign.
51 Capa de panno aureo qui vocatur ciclatoun ( Visit, in Thes. S.
Pauli, Londin. A.D. 1295, Dugdale, St. Paul's, p. 318). Capa de
panno ad aurum scilicet Baudekin cum vestimento plenario de
panno Yspaniae ad aurum (Wills, &c., of the Northern Counties of
England, part i., p. 6, Surtees Society). The celebrated Anthony
Beck, who died Bishop of Durham A.D. 1310, had in his chapel
vestments of all the following costly and foreign stuffs : De rubeo
panno tartarico brudatum cum archangelis deauratis . . . de panno
de satyn purpurei coloris cum archangelis argenteis brudatis . . .
de rubeo welveto . . . de satyn indici coloris, cum flourdelies et
aliis floribus et stellis intextis . . . de panno Sarracenico . . . de
panno albi, indici et rubei coloris palliatis . . . de panno aureo
PART I. CHAP. VI. 231
(281) Thus we see that the love for the beauty 52
of God's house, glowing as it did like a hallowed
indici coloris, &c. (ibid., p. 13). The "indicus color" in the above
is light blue.
At the burial of Ralph Lord Neville, of Raby, the church of
Durham had given to it, for making vestments : ij pannos aureos
unum rubeum cum floribus Sarracenicis intextis . . . et ex alio
panno nigro aureo cum ramis arborum et foliis et bestiis et albis
rosis in finibus, &c. (ibid., p. 27). Casula Hugonis de Orivalle de
albo diaspro (Visit, in Tlies. S. Pauli, Londin. A.D. 1295, Dugdale,
Hist, of St. Paul's, p. 323.). Casula de quodam panno Tarsico
cum rubeo panno diasperato auro, &c. Ibid.
Casula de sameto radiato. Ad Altare S. Michaelis, ibid., p. 334.
Tunica de quodam panno marmoreo spisso, &c. Ibid., p. 322.
Tunica de diaspro marmoreo spisso. Ibid., p. 322.
Parura de serico marmoreo. Ibid., p. 320.
Tunica et dalmatica de panno indico Tarsico besantato de auro.
Ibid., p. 322.
Tunica et dalmatica de quodam panno Tarsici coloris, tegulata
cum besantiis et arboribus de aureo filo contextis. Ibid.
Vestimentum . . . de Albo panno de Tharse, de opere de
Turkye, &c. [Inventories of Christ Church, Canterbury, p. 63.]
Vestimentum . . . de panno de Inde samicto, &c.
Vestimentum de rubeo panno de Antioche, &c.
Vestimentum de Inde panno de Antioche, &c. Ibid.
Capam meam de panno ad aurum scilicet Baudekin. Wills, &c.,
part i., p. 6.
A cope of cloth of gold of bawdkin of blew colour. Inventory of
Lincoln Cath. in Dugdale's Mon., viii. 1284.
Four good copes of blew tishew. Ibid.
A cope of green cloth of gold. Ibid.
A black cope of cloth of silver. Ibid., p. 1285.
52 By no nation throughout Christendom was more done than
by old Catholic England, for the splendour and majesty of public
worship. Let any one read over the inventories of all those rich
vestments and sacred vessels which once belonged to St. Paul's
Cathedral, London, to Canterbury, York, and Lincoln ; let any
one cast an eye upon those churches that yet stand, and on the
beautiful ruins of those which once were, and he will be imme-
diately convinced of this, indeed, it is a remark of old writers,
foreigners as well as natives. An English divine of the fifteenth
century puts into the mouth of one of the speakers in his book,
the words following : As men saye, God is in no londe so well
LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE
232 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
fire, (282) amid the Anglo-Saxons, was fed with
the same earnest zeal by the Normans, and burned
on with (283) a steady, nay, increasing flame, from
serued in holy churche as he is in this londe. For so many fayre
churches, ne so good arraye in churches, ne so fayre seruice, as
men say is in no lande, as it is in this londe. Dives and Pauper,
&c., Tlie Fyrste Command., fol. 69, Berthelet, 1536.
Late in the same century, a Venetian gentleman, who had been
in this country and looked well about him, was much struck with
the splendour of our ecclesiastical ornaments ; for he noticed that
the wealth of the kingdom showed itself more particularly in
adorning the house of God ; lor throughout the land there was
not a parish church so lowly but what had its crosses, candle-
sticks, thuribles, basins, and bowls of silver ; there was not a
convent of begging friars, wherein the same things, as well as
many others that would do for a cathedral, were not also of
silver : Sopra tutto tale richezza si conosca espressamente nelli
tesori ecclesiastici ; imperd che in tutto quel regno non vi e par-
occhia si vile, dove non sieno croci, candellieri, turribili, bacili,
e boccali d'argento ; ne e si' povero convento di mendicanti, dove
non sieno tutte le medesime cose d'argento, e molti altri orna-
menti pur d'argento convenienti ad una chiesa cathedrale (A
Relation of the Island of England, printed for the Camden Society,
p. 29). In the Bodleian library, Oxford, there is a curious manu-
script, containing "The Declaration off Thaccompte of Sir John
Williams, Knight, late Master and Treasurer of the Jewelles and
Plate which were the late Kinges Henrye the Eighth, and found
in sundry monasteries, priories, cathedrals, churches, and colleges,
at his Majestie's visitation," &c. This list of royal theft fills up
a roll of parchment no less than fifty-four feet long ; and the mere
weight of the gold and silver is something enormous.
So far we have evidence of the material grandeur of our old
Church; but of its high moral worth a thing of much greater
importance we possess the weighty testimony of that bright
light of the age and country he lived in, Sir Thomas More, who
tells us of the priesthood of England : So dare I boldly say that
the spiritualitie of England, and specialtye that parte in whiche
ye fynde most fault, that is, to wit, that part which we commonlye
cal the secular clergy, is, in learning and honest living, well able
to matche and (saving the comparisons be odious, I would say
further) farre able to over match number for number the spiritu-
altie of anye nacion christen. Dialogues, iii. 225 ; Works, London,
I557-
PART I. CHAP. VI. 233
their coming over here, up to those sad mournful
times under Henry VIII., Edward, and Elizabeth,
when, in both senses, the light of the sanctuary
was darkened put out, as cathedral and parish
church were rifled of their material splendours ;
but what must be wept for as immeasurably worse,
as the brightsomness of the Gospel was dimmed
in becoming shorn of many of its grace-working
ordinances, and a new religion, framed by strangers,
was brought over hither from a foreign land, and
thrust by worldly-minded men upon our unwilling
people instead of their olden national belief. A
faithful few held fast to the truth ; and notwith-
standing fines and dungeons, the gibbet, and civil
(284) degradation, kept up the faith and belief of
their Catholic forefathers in this country. Better
days have come, the clouds are melting away, the
Gospel of Christ is once more shedding its soft
rays on men's hearts in England, and the voice of
the Church makes itself heard amid a people that.
Babel-like, talks with so many tongues in matters
of religion. The age, the land in which we Catho-
lics live, throw a duty on our shoulders : we, in
our day, must do as did those who have gone
before, be they Anglo-Saxon, Norman, or English :
like them, we are guided through this to a better
world by the same unerring teacher of God's truth
the one, holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church : like
them must we light up the sanctuary of Christ
with all the beauties which man's adoring heart
234 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
and head can plan, and man's grateful hand can
execute : to the Almighty is due the best of every-
thing. A great experiment has been tried ; in
stripping the holy place of outward ornament,
Protestantism leads on its hearers to strip the soul
of an inward reverence 53 for holy things and holy
(285) institutions : it is therefore the duty of
Catholicism to strive and awaken among men
those olden and better feelings towards the ordi-
nances of heaven, by making the adornments of the
altar, and the sacrificial garments of its ministers,
bespeak the deepest reverence for, whilst they tell
of those awful mysteries wrought upon it.
53 Like the Catholic Church, Protestants of the Establishment
deem the Eucharist the most holy among the institutions of
Christ. Yet such were those soul-benumbing effects of the change
in religion upon Englishmen, that very soon the establishment
had (A.D. 1640) to fence her communion-tables with rails, and
thus hinder people from sitting upon them in service-time, as
well as to " preserve them from such or worse profanation." This
canon was enacted not without reason, for among many other
documents of a like kind, the Visitation Books in the registry
of Durham afford us several instances of such disrespect : A.D.
1578. Nicholas Palmer pr., detected. He ministered in a milke
boule.
A.D. 1610. Rowland Scot pr., for quarrellinge and drawing his
dagger on lo. lackson, and for appointing combat in the church at
the communion-table (St. Cuthbert, &c., by James Raine, M.A.,
p. 63). This respectable Protestant minister adds of his own:
'' This is worse than the story of the men, who, in the recollection
of persons still alive, or not long since dead, retired from an ale-
house in the village, and finished their game of whist upon this
selfsame table " (ibid.). Many such instances might be collected.
Some few years ago, a party of men, during the wakes at the
village of Alton, Staffordshire, brought the communion-table out
of the parish church, and played at cards upon it in the middle of
the street.
PAET I. CHAP. VI. 235
Let us hope that such of our Catholic ladies as have
the time, the talents, and the means, may soon begin
to follow that good example set them by their high-
born Anglo-Saxon, their Norman, and their later
English sisters in the faith. Then, indeed, the never-
ending working of fire-screens and 'slippers will some-
times, at least, give way to a (286) stole, or maniple, or
the figured orphrey for a cope, or a chasuble, if not to a
pall, storied with passages from Holy Writ, or the life
of a patron saint, to be hung during festivals upon the
chancel's walls, or before the altar as a frontal. Then,
too, instead of seeing our Catholic ladies follow their
own ideas of millinery prettiness, with regard to the
shapes and ornament of Church vestments, we shall
find them consulting some competent authority for the
true old forms and the traditional symbolism of the
sacred garments.
But to be able, like a St. Dunstan, to furnish the
proper designs when asked for, it is necessary that the
clergy be well taught our national ecclesiastical an-
tiquities. Such studies, however, have unhappily been
quite overlooked in the training of our youth who are
being brought up for the priesthood; and yet the
elements of these studies are to be found in almost
every village throughout the kingdom, and may be
searched after without the slightest hindrance to other
avocations. How can the afternoon of a college play-
day be more healthfully spent than in a cheerful walk
over a beautiful country, while going to look at, inside
and out, some venerable parish church ? Even the
lay-boy will find much to delight, much to uplift,
much to ennoble, much to edify his young mind, and
teach him to value his country, and love his religion
more. But it is to the student in divinity more
especially that our glorious old Catholic cathedrals,
our beautiful old Catholic parish churches will be
sermons in stones, eloquent treatises on the sacra-
236 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
ments and sacrifice of his olden faith, loud-speaking
witnesses to what his forefathers believed, and his
forerunners in the sacerdotal office taught for ages
upwards to the sad time of England's change of re-
ligion, begun by Henry VIII. and finished by Elizabeth.
From out of them may be drawn arguments which go
home (287) at once to the heart and understanding of
every Englishman.
St. Dunstan was not the only churchman artist :
most of the architects who built, and the painters who
ornamented the churches of this island, were clergy-
men; and when freemasonry was an association exist-
ing for no other than artistic purposes, and was not
only harmless but holy in its tendencies, and sanctioned
by the Church, the highest order in it consisted ex-
clusively of priests.
Now, though it be not wished to make our clergy
working artists, still it is much to be desired, nay, it is
in a manner needful, that they should, from their know-
ledge of ecclesiastical antiquities, be able to direct
artists in the building and the embellishment of our
churches ; for without the guidance of a well-informed
ecclesiastic, no layman, however talented and clever
he may be, can at all hope to build churches without
faults, or decorate and fit them up without some de-
parture from the traditions and the symbolism which so
truthfully tell the belief of bygone ages. To do either,
it is necessary to have a more thorough acquaintance
with the canons of councils and ecclesiastical literature
in general, than the education or the leisure of any
layman artist can allow him to make ; and for the last
three hundred years, the architects, painters, and
sculptors, who have best succeeded in the ecclesias-
tical correctness of their various productions, have
always been those who most enjoyed the advantage
of having the private advice of some learned clerical
and communicative friend.
(288) CHAPTER VII
IF our Anglo-Saxon forefathers' love towards their
Maker burned forth with so much brightness, and
showed itself by the way in which they lit up
the house of God with beauty, and arrayed the
ministers of his altar with magnificent vestments,
the love they bore to their fellow-man shone out
no less sweetly through those many holy practices
of religion by which they strove to help him in his
ghostly wants, and more especially to shorten the
punishment undergone by his soul in the next
world, for his sins he committed whilst in this. As
THE ANGLO-SAXONS HELD WITH so MUCH
STEADFASTNESS BY THE DOCTRINE OF
PURGATORY,
no wonder they afforded, by their devotional and
religious exercises, such strong demonstration of
this article of their Catholic belief. They were
taught to remember that, without the slightest
doubt, the very instant after death, the soul of
each one, whether good or bad, was individually
judged. 54 Furthermore, they believed that " some,
64 Futurum quoque judicium esse bonis et mails, statim post
hujus vitae terminum nulli Catholicorum dubium est. S. Bonifacius,
237
238 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(289) who on account of good works have been
preordained to the lot of the elect, but who,
because of some bad deeds, stained with which
they went forth out of the body, are, after death,
seized upon by the flames of the purgatorial fire,
to be severely chastised, and either are being
cleansed, until the day of judgment, from the filth
of their blemishes by this kind of long trial ; or,
being set free from punishment by the prayers,
the alms-deeds, the fasts, the tears of faithful
friends, and by the oblations of the healing sacri-
fice, they get, undoubtedly before that time, to
the rest of the blessed." 55 This exposition (290)
tiermo i., De Fide recta, ii. 58, Op., ed. Giles. Like to St. Boniface's
was the doctrine of that glory of the Anglo-Saxon Church, St.
Beda, who, at his dying moments, repeated in his native tongue
some lines in poetry, the meaning of which we learn from the
Latin translation of his scholar Cuthberht, who was present at the
time, and renders them thus : Ante necessarium exitum prudentior
quam opus fuerit nemo existit, ad cogitandum videlicet, ante-
quam hinc proficiscatur anima, quid boni vel mali egerit, qualiter
post exitum judicanda fuerit. Cuthwino Cuthberht, Introduction to
Beda, Hist. Ecc. [ed. Plummer, i. p. clxi.]. Those Protestants who
take up the new opinion broached by Burnet, in his posthumous
work De &tatu Mortuorum, of course will disagree with the Catholic
teaching of old St. Beda and St. Boniface. It is a curious fact
that St. Boniface anathematised Burnet's heterodoxy a thousand
years before it was put forth.
55 At vero nonnulli propter bona quidem opera ad electorum
sortem prseordinati, sed propter mala aliqua, quibus polluti de
corpore exierunt, post mortem severe castigandi excipiuntur
flammis ignis purgatorii, et vel usque ad diem judicii longa hujus
examinatione a vitiorum sorde mundantur ; vel certe prius ami-
corum fidelium precibus, eleemosyni, jejuniis, fletibus, hostise
salutaris oblationibus absoluti poenis, et ipsi ad beatorum per-
veniunt requiem (S. Beda, Horn. i. 4) [P.L., xciv. 30]. The heavy
stress which St. Beda in this passage lays upon the merit of
good works, should not be overlooked. Alcuin's words, in uphold-
PART I. CHAP. VII. 239
of the belief of his countrymen in the doctrine of
purgatory, put forth by one of the most learned
writers of the age one of the greatest Anglo-
Saxon saints one of the highest worthies of this
land, is well illustrated by what Drythelm saw
during a trance, an account of which this same
Venerable Beda has set down at full length in his
Ecclesiastical History. In telling how, in the
province of the Northumbrians, a man, whose
name was Drythelm, came to life again, and
spoke of the many things to be dreaded, and the
many to be wished for, which he had seen, St.
Beda says, that Drythelm's angel guardian who
had led him to (291) behold the various regions
of the other world, before sending him back to
this, asked thus, "Knowest thou what all those
things are which thou hast seen ? " " No,"
answered Drythelm : then said the angel, " that
valley which thou didst behold so frightful for its
scorching flames and stiffening cold, is that place
wherein are tried and punished the souls of those
who, putting off the confession and amendment
of their evil deeds, at last, on the very point of
death, betake themselves to penance, and so go
forth out of the flesh ; but who nevertheless,
ing the Catholic belief in purgatory, are quite as strong as St.
Beda's ; for this second glory of the Anglo-Saxon Church truly
says : Sunt ergo quidam justi minutis quibusdam peccatis obnoxii,
quia sedificaverunt supra fundamentum, quod est Christus, fcenum,
ligna, stipulas quse illius ignis (purgatorii) ardore purgantur, a
quibus mundati, seternse felicitatis digni efficientur gloria. Alcuin,
De Fide Trinitatis, iii. 21, p. 736 [P.Z>., ci. 53].
2 4 o THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS *
since they had confession and penance even at
their death, are all to reach the kingdom of
heaven at the day of doom. But the prayers,
the alms-deeds, the fasts of the living, and more
especially the celebration of Masses, help many of
them in such a way, that they are set free even
before that day of judgment. That flame-belch-
ing and stinking pit which thou sawest, is the
mouth itself of hell, into which whosoever but
once shall have fallen, will never thence be
liberated for all eternity. That flowery place,
wherein thou didst see that most beautiful band
of young folks so bright and gladsome, is the
one wherein are received the souls of such as
go indeed out of the body in good works, not,
however, of such perfection as to merit to be
immediately let into the kingdom of heaven, but
who, however, at the day of judgment will all
enter into the vision of Christ and the joys of
the heavenly kingdom. But (292) whosoever are
perfect in every word, deed, and thought, as soon
as they leave the body, go immediately into the
kingdom of heaven, in the neighbourhood whereof
is that place where thou didst catch the sound of
mellow song, together with the odour of sweet-
ness and a brilliancy of light." '
The creed of any people will always make its
impress upon their customs ; and in no place is
56 Beda, Hist. Eccl. v. 12 [see P.L., xcv. 247-252].
PART I. CHAP. VII. 241
this truth better shown than in this country.
A strong belief of theirs in the existence of a
middle state, for the cleansing of such souls as
died under the guilt of the less heinous kinds
of sin, or had not been sufficiently afflicted here
for those greater faults of which the everlasting
punishment hereafter had been mercifully for-
given, led all our forefathers to " holy and
wholesom thoughts " : hence do we behold why
THE ANGLO-SAXONS FOLLOWED MANY RELI-
GIOUS PRACTICES GROUNDED ON THE
DOCTRINE OF PURGATORY.
i. Most anxious were the living, to whatever
rank of society they belonged, to get from their
friends, among the clergy in particular, a promise
that after death their souls should be prayed for :
warlike kings and learned clerks equally sought
to have themselves, when dead, remembered in
the Mass as often as it was offered up by their
sacerdotal (293) survivors; 57 and the sick man's
57 Sed et me defuncto pro redemptione animre mese, quasi
familiaris et vernaculi vestri orare, et missas facere, et nomen
meum inter vestra scribere dignemini. Such are the words of St.
Beda, which he addresses " Patri Eadfrido episcopo, sed et omni
congregation! fratrum, qui in Lindisfarnensi insula Christo
deserviunt," (Beda, Vita Prosaica S. Cutliberti Prefatio [P.L., xciv.
734 and 733]). Many other instances might be brought : Ethelbert,
King of Kent, thus asks for his soul, when he shall be dead, the
prayers of St. Boniface, the Anglo-Saxon apostle of Germany :
Totis visceribus mentis efflagito, ut . . . multis nos ac crebris
orationum tuarum suffragiis adjuvare digneris . . . tarn dum
VOL. II. Q
242 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
last words often were that he might not be
forgotten over that holy sacrifice. 58
2. What they so earnestly wished to have done
for themselves after death, they never, while they
lived, missed doing in behalf of others ; and
whenever kinsman, or friend, or even their low-
liest hind (294) was taken out of this world, they
immediately besought Almighty God, and called
upon all their neighbours far and wide to beseech
Him, for mercy and forgiveness on the poor soul
so lately flown from earth and carried to his
awful doom ; 59 they hied them to the church, and
bade the name of him or her just dead to be
whispered in the ear of the priest as he stood
sacrificing at the altar, that for the departed an
especial mention might be made over the holy
victim. 60
adhuc esse me in hac mortal! carne audias, quam etiam post
obitum meum, &c. Epist. Ixxxiii. Archiep. Bonifacio Ethilbertus
rex Cantise, S. Bonifacii Op., Giles, i. 177.
58 While reading the death-scene of St. Beda, sketched for, and
sent to an absent schoolfellow by Cuthberht (cf. p. 238), a faithful
and loving disciple of that great master, every one will be touched
with its holiness, as well as with the beautiful and feeling strokes
of its writer, who tells us, among other things, of the dying saint :
allocutus est unumquemque, monens et obsecrans pro eo Missas
et orationes diligenter facere, quod illi libenter se facturos spo-
ponderunt. Beda, Hist. Eccl. (Prolegomena) [P.L., xcv. 16].
59 Similiter deposco, ut sanctarum missarum oblationes offerre
digneris pro anima mei propinqui, qui mihi prse cseteris charus
era t. Bugga Bonifacio, & Bonifacii Opera, ed. Giles (Londini,
1844), i. 28.
60 " Precor," inquit, " domine mi episcope, memineris ad Missas
Hadwaldi mei (hoc enim viro erat nomen), qui heri cadendo de
arbore defunctus est." Such was the petition of the Abbess
^Elflaede to St. Cuthberht (Vita S. Cuthberti, cap. xxxiv. [P.L, y
PART I. CHAP. VII. 243
If nothing more remained in illustration of the
custom among the Anglo-Saxons of praying for
the dead but the beautiful story told by St.
Beda of the two brothers, Imma the soldier
and Tunna the (295) priest, it would have been
quite enough in itself to show us what was the
teaching of the Anglo-Saxon Church, and the
devotional practice of her people concerning pur-
gatory. Imma tells the nobleman who kept him
prisoner: "I have a brother a priest in my own
province, and I know that, thinking me to be
killed, he often says Mass for me ; and were I
in the other life, my soul would be loosened from
punishment through his intercession." Tunna,
it must not be forgotten, was, as a priest, ordained
" to make oblations for the living and the dead." 61
xciv. 774]. The same circumstance is mentioned by a somewhat
older but unknown writer, more minutely thus : Ilia (abbatissa
Elfleda) vero statim ad episcopum sanctum (Cuthbertum) cucurrit,
dedicantique eo die ibi ecclesiam, et missam cantantibus tune in
eo loco, ubi dicitur, " Memento, Domine, famulorum :J anhelans
in basilicam pervenit, nomenque fratris, quod dicebatur Hadpuald,
indicavit. Vita S. Cuthberti, auct. anon., ed. Stevenson (1841),
p. 281.
61 Habebat enirn (juvenis Imma) germanum fratrem, cui nomen
erat Tunna, presbyterum et abbatem monasterii qui cum eum
in pugna peremtum audiret, venit quaere re si forte corpus ejus
invenire posset, inventumque alium illi per omnia simillimum,
putavit ipsum esse, quern ad monasterium suum deferens honori-
fice sepelivit et pro absolutione animse ejus ssepius missas facere
curavit. Quarum celebratione factum est quod dixi, ut nullus eum
posset vincire, quin continue solveretur. Interea comes, qui eum
tenebat, mirari et interrogare coepit quare ligari non posset, an
forte literas solutorias, de qualibus fabulse ferunt, apud se haberet,
propter quas ligari non posset. At ille respondit, nihil se talium
artium nosse ; " sed habeo fratrem," inquit, " presbyterum in mea
244 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(296) 3. In all monasteries, whenever any one
belonging to it died, the death-knell was rung ;
and (297) though it were the depth of night, no
sooner heard they that well-known bell swinging
forth slowly and sadly its mournful sounds, than
all the inmates of that house arose and knelt
down by their bedsides, or hurried to the church
provincia, et scio quia ille me interfectum putans pro me missas
crebras facit ; et si nunc in alia vita essem, ibi anima mea per
intercessiones ejus solveretur a poenis."
A tertia autem hora, quando missae fieri solebant, saepissime
vincula solvebantur.
Qui post hsec patriam reversus atque ad suum fratrem per-
veniens, replica vit ex ordine cuncta, quae sibi ad versa, quaeve in
adversis solatia provenissent ; cognovitque, referente illo, illis
maxime temporibus sua fuisse vincula soluta, quibus pro se mis-
sarum fuerant celebrata sollemnia. Sed et alia, quse periclitanti
ei commoda contigissent et prospera, per intercessionem fraternam
et oblationem hostiae salutaris ccelitus sibi fuisse donata intellexit.
Multique hsec a prasfato viro audientes accensi sunt in fide ac
devotione pietatis ad orandum, vel ad eleemosynas faciendas, vel
ad offerendas Domino victimas sacrae oblationis, pro ereptione
suorum, qui de seculo migraverant ; intellexerunt enim quia sacri-
ficium salutare ad redemtionem valeret et animae et corporis sempi-
ternam (Beda, Hist. Eccl., iv. 22). The writer of the Anglo-Saxon
homilies, JElfric, brings forth the whole of this passage in one
of his discourses, headed " a hortatory sermon on the efficacy of
the holy Mass," which he thus begins : We read in many places
in holy writings that the holy Mass greatly benefits both the
living and the dead, as Beda the wise doctor has written in the
Historia Anglorum of a certain thane. Homilies of the Anglo-
Saxon Church, ed. Thorpe, ii. 357.
Alcuin mentions the same miracle, in the following verses :
Est mihi sed frater devoti pectoris, inquit,
Quern scio, quod Christo pro me solemnia cantat
Missarum, quoniam me putat esse peremptum.
Et si forte animam nunc altera vita teneret,
Illius ilia preces propter missasque frequentes
Libera, credo, foret, pcenasque evaderet omnes.
Poema de Pont, et Saudis Ecc. Eboracensis [P.L., ci. 829].
PART I. CHAP. VII. 245
and prayed for the soul of the brother or sister
that moment gone. In telling how Begu, within
the minchery at Hackness, was miraculously given
to know of St. Hilda's death, miles away, at
Whitby, Venerable Beda says: " Asleep in the
sisters' dormitory, that nun heard on a sudden
upon the air the well-known sound of that bell
by which they were accustomed to be wakened
and called to prayers when any of them was
summoned out of this world. Getting up im-
mediately, she ran, much frightened, to Frigyth,
the virgin who was then set over the monastery
instead of an abbess, and wailing and weeping,
and with many a long-drawn sigh, told her that
the mother of them all Hilda the abbess had
departed this life. When Frigyth heard this,
she aroused all the sisterhood, and calling them
to church, bade them to say prayers and psalms
for their mother's soul ; and after they had spent
the remainder of the night in doing so, there
came, at the earliest dawn, some of the brother-
hood from the place whereat she died, and told
them of her decease." 62 Such a pious exercise
62 Haec (Begu) tune in dormitorio sororum pausans audivit subito
in aere notum campanee sonum, quo ad orationes excitari vel con-
vocari solebant, cum quis eorum de seculo fuisset evocatus. . . .
Statimque exsurgens nimio timore perterrita cucurrit ad virginem,
quse tune monasterio abbatissse vice prsefuit, cui nomen erat
Frigyd, fletuque ac lacrimis multum perfusa ac suspiria longa
trahens nunciavit matrem illarum omnium Hild abbatissam jam
migrasse de seculo. . . . Quod cum ilia audisset suscitavit cunctas
sorores, et in ecclesiam convocatas orationibus ac psalmis pro
anima matris operam dare monuit. Quod cum residue noctis
246 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
was not confined (298) to religious houses, for the
Council of Calchuth, or Chalk-hythe, ordained that
at a bishop's death, throughout every diocese each
church should toll its bell and call together all
God's servants to sing thirty psalms for the soul
of the departed. 63
Of all those religious rites which the Anglo-
Saxon Church bade her ministers to do for the
dying and the dead, we still have the whole course
laid down in that precious liturgical codex which
once belonged to Bishop Leofric. From this manu-
script we learn, that no sooner did those about the
sick man find he was reaching his end in this
world, than the holy Eucharist was brought and
(299) given to him, though he were not fasting,
but had already eaten food that day. After his
communion, either priests or deacons read to him
all those passages in the Gospels which tell of our
Lord's bitter throes and yielding up the ghost
upon the hard bed of the cross. Just before,
however, the dying man breathed his last, he was
laid upon sackcloth, spread for that purpose upon
the floor, and strewed with ashes : 64 then were
tempore diligenter agerent, venerunt primo diluculo fratres, qui
ejus obitum nunciarent, a loco ubi defuncta est. Beda, Hist. EccL,
iv. 23.
63 Jubetur . . . ut quandocunque aliquis ex numero episcoporum
migraverit de seculo . . . statim per singulas parochias in singulis
quibusque ecclesiis, pulsato signo, omnis famulorum Dei coetus ad
basilicam conveniat, ibique pariter xxx psalmos pro defuncti anima
decantent. Synodus Calchuthensis, cap. x., in Wilkins, Cone., i. 171.
64 Thus died stretched upon the floor of his cell the holy St.
Beda : Et sic in pavimento suee casulsB, decantans " Gloria Patri,
PART I. CHAP. VII. 247
sung the seven (300) penitential psalms and the
litany, wherein which, after all the saints' names
et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto," cum Spiritum Sanctum nominasset,
spiritum e corpore exhalavit ultimum, ac sic regna migravit ad
coelestia (Epist. Cuthberhti Guthwino [P.L., xcv. 17, 18]). After the
coming of the Normans, the same custom was still kept up in this
country, for Archbishop Lanfranc thus speaks of it : segro in agonia
posito, et jam si ita visum fuerit morituro, famulus qui ad hoc
deputatus est cilicium expandat, et supra illud ad mensuram
longitudinis et latitudinis quam ipsum cilicium habet, signum
crucis de cineribus faciat, morientemque fratrem desuper ponat
(Decreta Lanfranci pro Ord. Bened., cap. xxiv., in Reyner, Apost.
Bened., App., p. 249). The miraculous cure, during Archbishop
Lanfranc's primacy, of Edward (who, being archdeacon of London,
took the Benedictine habit at Canterbury), gives an apt illustration
of the Anglo-Saxon ritual for the dying : Ille juxta quod putabatur,
in suprema hora constitutus, ad terram super cilicium positus est.
Accurrentes fratres septem psalmos pcenitentiales et letanias pro
obitu ejus ex more decantabant. Igitur in letaniis cum dicerent,
S. Dunstane intercede pro anima ejus, et id ipsum pro spe subven-
tionis quam in ipso dulcius habent, iterarent ; coepit seger pene
defunctus respirare, et in circumstantes pio intuitu oculos dirigere,
&c. (Mirac. S. Dunstani, in Mabillon, AA. SS. B. vii. 693). The
sackcloth and ashes upon which the dying used to be laid are
thus noticed, just after the form for blessing the latter, in a
Roman " Ordo," very likely written out in the eleventh century :
Benedictio cineris. Deus pietatis, &c. Tune extendatur in terra
cilicium, et de cinere benedicto super illud a sacerdote fiat crux,
et aquai benedictae aspersio ; et super illud ponatur infirmus :
et similiter fiat crux et aspersio super pectus illius, et dicat ei sic :
" Recordare quia cinis es et in cinerem reverteris." Ait rursus ei
sacerdos : " Placent tibi cinis et cilicium ad testimonium pceni-
tentise tuse ante Dominum in die judicii ? " Resp. " Placent "
(Ordo Romanus X., in Mabillon, Mus. ItaL, ii. 115). Gervin, who
died abbot of St. Riquier's in Ponthieu, A.D. 1074, when about to
expire, was carried into the church, and breathed his last stretched
upon sackcloth before an altar : manu propria innuit eis ut fer-
retur in ecclesiam. At fratres eum accipientes sustulerunt, et
strato cilicio ante sancti Joannis Baptistae, quod vicinum erat,
altare posuerunt, &c. (Ghron. Centulen., iv. 35, ed. DAchery,
Spicil.^ ii. 353 [P.L., clxxiv. 1359]) ; thus, too, St. Louis, King
of France, yielded up his soul to God : " brought unto saynt
Denys, where he lyinge a season sycke, and knewe that the owre
248 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
had been gone through, (301) immediately was
said that beautiful anthem, Subvenite " Come to
his help ye saints of God, meet him all ye angels
of the Lord, taking his soul and bearing it unto
the presence of the Most High." 65 (302) When
the lifeless body had been washed and the prayers
of deth was nere, comaunded suche as were about hym y fc they
shulde spredde a tapette upon the grounde, and than laye hym
upon the sayde tapet, and upon hym to be made a crosse of asshes,
which all was doon accordynge to his cumandement, and there he
so lay tyll he dyed. Fabyan's New Chronicles of England, &c., p. 263,
ed. Ellis, London, 1811.
65 Incipit ordo in agenda mortuorum.
Mox autem ut euni uiderint ad exitum propinquare communi-
candus est de sacrificio sancto, etiam si comedisset ipsa die, quia
communio erit ei defensor et adiutor in resurrectione iustorum,
et ipsa eum resuscitabit. Post communionem perceptam, legende
sunt passiones dominicse ante corpus infirmi, seu a presbyteris, seu
a diaconibus, quousque egrediatur anima de corpore. Primitus
enim ut anima de corpore egressa fuerit, ponatur super cilicium et
canantur vn psalmi poenitentiales, et agenda est Isetania prout
tempus fuerit. Finitis autem sanctorum nominibus, mox in-
cipiatur R. Subvenite. See Leofric Missal [Warren, 198]. For this
and other ritual and devotional purposes, those parts of the Gos-
pels descriptive of the passion and death of our Redeemer were
written out so as to form a little book by themselves. Of such
codices belonging to the Anglo-Saxon epoch a few are still to be
found in our libraries : among the literary treasures of the British
Museum there is " Passio Christi, litteris Saxonicis, cent, viii.,"
marked, Harley, 2966. This custom was kept up, both here and
abroad, until a very late period, and most books of Hours, in
manuscript or printed, have the " Passio Domini nostri Jehu
Christi : " in a small manuscript book of Hours, written and
illuminated in France quite at the end of the fifteenth century,
and in my possession, and in the Salisbury Hare Beatissime Vir-
ginis Marie, printed A.D. 1526, of which a fine copy now lies before
me, the " Passion " is according to St. John : there are, however,
examples in the sixteenth of the old collection of all the evan-
gelists' history of it, and such is the manuscript " Passio Christi,
cent, xvi.," in the Museum, Harley, 2978.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 249
for that part of the ceremony been said, 66 it was
clad in seemly garments, bespeaking the rank
and condition in this world of the individual, 67
06 Orationes quando inciperint corpus lavare. Leofric Missal,
200.
67 A bishop, by the Anglo-Saxon ritual, was arrayed for burial
in all his episcopal sacrificial ornaments : upon his breast was
placed a small particle of the blessed Eucharist, folded up in a
corporal, or enclosed in a chalice : the particle most likely had
been first steeped for a short time in the sacred blood at Mass.
After being wrapped well up within a winding-sheet, or in a cere-
cloth, the body was laid in a stone coffin, with a hollow in the
upper end scooped out, so that the head might fit into it. An
unknown, but an older writer than St. Beda, thus describes the
burial of the great St. Cuthberht : Toto corpore lavato, capite
sudario circumdato, oblatis super sanctum pectus positis, vesti-
menta sacerdatalia indutus, in obviam Christi calceamentis suis
prseparatis, in sindone cerata curatus, animam habens cum Christo
gaudentem, corpus incorruptibile, requiescens et quasi dormiens in
sepulchre lapideo, honorabiliter in basilica deposuerunt ( Vita S.
Cuthberti, auctore anonymo, ed. Stevenson, Ven. Bedse Opera Hist,
minora, p. 281). Eleven years afterwards, the grave was opened,
and from off the feet of the saint were taken the " ficones novi
quibus calceatus est " (ibid., p. 282). St Cuthberht himself thus
expresses his own wishes regarding his burial : Cum autem Deu's
susceperit animam meam, sepelite me in hac mansione juxta
oratorium meum ad meridiem, contra orientalem plagam sanctse
crucis quam ibidem erexi. Est autem ad aquilonalem ejusdem
oratorii partem sarcophagum terrse cespite abditum, quod olim
mihi Cudda venerabilis abbas donavit. In hoc meum corpus re-
ponite, involventes in sindone quam invenietis istic. St. Beda,
Vita S. Cuthbercti [P.L., xciv. 777]. To this day the villagers in
most parishes throughout England feel a strong dislike to have
any of their kindred buried on the north side of the church ; they
still wish to have their grave on the south side : as he tells us, in
his Hist, of Hawsted, p. 38, Sir John Cullum tried, but all in vain
(c. A.D. 1762), to get the people of that parish to bury their friends
on the north side.
Of the vestments found upon St. Cuthberht's body when his
grave was again explored (A.D. 1 104), a description from Reginald
may be seen i. 322, of this work. Besides this, an unknown
writer who has left an account of St. Cuthberht's body being
removed into a new shrine (A.D. 1054), gives us a good description
2 5 o THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
and then carried with religious solemnity to (303)
church : 68 on the road thither, such as went with
of the beautiful Anglo-Saxon chalice which they found on opening
the saint's coffin : Sed et alia sicut fuerant, inventa cum illo re-
condiderunt . . . et quse sacerdotem decebant altare videlicet
argenteum, corporalia cum patina, etiam calicem parvum quidem,
sed materia et opere pretiosum cuius inferior pars figuram leonis
ex auro purissimo habens, gestat dorso lapidem onichinum arte
pulcherrima cavatum, quique ex studio artificis ita inhaeret leoni,
ut manu facile possit in gyrum verti, nee tamen inde auferri (Hist.
Translationis S. Cutliberti, in A A. SS. Martii, iii. 140). Such being
the high state of the silversmith's craft among the Anglo-Saxons,
no wonder their workmen in the precious metals should have been
sought for by Italy to make her shrines and decorate her altars,
as we have shown elsewhere in these pages, i. 232.
Besides this instance of St. Cuthberht's, we have that of another
Anglo-Saxon bishop's body clad in sacred vestments, found in
Dorchester Church, and supposed to be St. Birinus : Corpus epis-
copi integrum cum duplici stola, et infula rubra e panno serico,
atque cum cruce e metallo confecta pectori eius imposita : denique
cum calice ad umbilicum eius posito.
On opening the grave again shortly afterwards, the same writer
tells us : Inventus quoque est annulus, itemque crux plumbea
super pectus ejus, calix parvus, particulae vestimentorum eius,
duse stolae, sed non integrse. Inventa est etiam crumena qusedam
serica super pectus eius, itemque ex una parte auro contexta :
in qua omnes asserebant pallam supra memoratam cum Christi
corpore. Vita S. Birini ab auctore anonymo post A.D. 1227 scripta,
in Surius, Vit., 3 Decembris, p. 687.
Not only bishops, but others who had given themselves to God
in this world by following a religious life, were clothed in new
garments for their burial. When the abbess of Ely, ^Edilthryda's
body, after lying in the earth sixteen years, was taken up, all that
virgin-queen's array in which she had been buried looked quite
fresh ; still, however, the corpse was dressed by the nuns in new
clothing : Sed et linteamina omnia, quibus involutum erat corpus,
integra apparuerunt . . . Laverunt igitur virgines corpus, et
novis indutum vestibus intulerunt in ecclesiam, &c. Beda, Hist.
Eccl., iv. 19.
The same custom was practised towards the laity : hence
various precious ornaments, showing by their workmanship their
wearers must have held the Christian belief, besides brooches
and armlets of gold, have been brought to light whenever the
PART I. CHAP. VII. 251
it sang anthems, but in particular the psalm
Miserere ; m (304) and there was it left until Mass
grave of an Anglo-Saxon thane has been found and happens to be
examined.
These Anglo-Saxon rites for the dying and the dead were kept
up among the monks, as we may see by the following extract
from the rule which St. Dunstan had himself revised for the
monasteries of this country : Frater autem ille infirmus si senserit
suam crevisse imbecillitatem. indicetur hoc conventui a fratre
illius custode. Ex eo ergo quotidie post matutinalem missam,
sacerdos casula exutus cum reliquis illius ministris missse,
Eucharistiam ferentes pnecedentibus cereis et turibulo, cum
omni congregatione, eant ad visitandum infirmum canentes
psalmos poenitentiales consequente litania, et orationibus ac
unctione olei prima tantum die ; demum communicetur. Quod
si innrmitas leuigata fuerit, intermittatur et hoc, sin alias,
prosequatur visitatio usque ad exitum.
Eo igitur in extremis agente, pulsetur tabula conveniantque
omnes ad tuendum exitum eius et initient commendationem
animse, Subvenite sancti Domini, et reliqua iuxta ordinem commenda-
tionis. Exempto autem homine, lavetur corpus a quibus iussum
fuerit : lotum induatur mundis vestimentis, id est interrula,
cuculla, caligis, calceis, cuiuscumque sit ordinis, nisi vero sacerdos
fuerit circumdetur ei stola super cucullam si ita ratio dictaverit ;
inde defertur in ecclesiam, psallentibus cunctis, motisque omnibus
signis ; quod si ante lucem, nocte, aut finitis tenebris in matutino
obierit si sepulturse impendenda prseparari possunt ante refec-
tionem f rat rum, sepeliatur peractis missarum celebrationibus ; sin
minus, ordinentur fratres qui sine intermissione psalmodise vacent,
residentes circa corpus die noctuque sequenti, donee mane facto,
corpus terrse commendetur. Consummatis omnibus quse sepul-
turse officio debentur ibidem incipienfces septem pcenitentiae psal-
mos, revertantur ad ecclesiam, et prostrati coram sancto altari
finiant eosdem psalmos pro fratre defuncto : dehinc, per septem
continuos dies plenarie agatur vigilia, offerentibus cunctis ad
matutinalem missam, et omnibus horis regularibus finitis, unum
ex prsescriptis prostrati canant psalmum, sequente oratione.
Exinde usque ad trigesimum diem, more solito, cum tribus lec-
tionibus agatur vigilia offerente uno choro ad missam. Trigesimo
vero die iterum plenarie, his tarn xxx diebus, quotidie sacerdotum
unusquisque secretis oratorii locis specialiter pro eo missas cele-
bret : diaconi vero psalterium ex integro ; subdiaconi quoque
quinquagenarium devotissime psallant, si autem occupati una die
252 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
could be offered up, and those among the dead
man's friends (305) and kinsfolks who wished
had come and brought the soul-shot, as their
gift at the offertory of that (306) holy sacrifice. 70
After Mass was done, the priest walked down
and stood by the bier whereon lay (307) stretched
the corpse, over which he pronounced the usual
prayers and absolutions. 71 Bishops, kings, and
distinguished personages were almost always in-
terred in a stone coffin, 7 ' 2 and within the church
nequiverint, alia persolvant. Mittatur etiam epistola ad vicina
quseque monasteria eiusdem depositionis denunciatura diem.
llegularis Concordia, in Reyner, Apost. Bened., Append., p. 93.
68 In the Bayeux tapestry, there is figured the burial of King
Edward the Confessor. The royal corpse is within a covered bier,
which two men carry on their shoulders ; persons in ordinary
clothing, but known by the tonsure on the head to be clerks, walk
behind it ; and two little boys, holding hand-bells, which they are
ringing, are by the side. The " vn handbellan " which Bishop
^Ethelwold bequeathed, along with many other ecclesiastical
appliances, to Medeshamstede (MS. Societ. Ant.,6o,i. 39, b), as well
as those " xn handbella " left to Exeter Cathedral by its bishop
Leofric (Thorpe, Cod. Dip. Anglo-Sax., iv. 275), and the "mi hand-
bellan," enumerated in the list of Anglo-Saxon church-ornaments
in a fine Evangelisterium belonging to York Cathedral, may have
been, among other liturgical uses, so employed at funerals, very
likely to awaken the neighbourhood's attention as the procession
went by, and ask the people's prayers for the soul of him or her
whose body they saw then going to be buried.
69 Et post lauationem corporis deferatur in ecclesiam cum anti-
phonis et responsoriis, et cum adpropinquauerint ecclesise, cantent
psalmum Miserere et Kyrrie eleison, &c. Leofric Missal, 200.
70 In ecclesia autem requiescat corpus defuncti quousque pro
eius anima missa celebretur, et offeratur ab omnibus quibus visum
fuerit. Ibid.
71 Post missam autem, stat sacerdos iuxta feretrum ubi corpus
est, et dicat orationem hanc. . . . Et sic leuatur corpus de ecclesia,
et deportetur usque ad locum sepulturse cum antiphona Aperite
mihi portas . . . et ponitur in sepulchre. Ibid.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 253
(308) itself; 73 but the great bulk of the people
had coffins of wood 74 and a grave in the church-
yard, or some (309) lonely spot especially hallowed
72 St. Cuthberht was buried in a stone coffin : "Cum autem,"
said the dying saint, " Deus susceperit animam meam, sepelite me
in hac mansione juxta oratorium meum ad meridiem, contra
orientalem plagam sanctae crucis quam ibidem erexi. Est autem
. . . sarcophagum terrse cespite abditum, quod olim mihi Cudda
venerabilis abbas donavit. In hoc meum corpus reponite, invol-
ventes in sindone quam invenietis istic" (Beda, Vita S. Cutli-
berti [P.L., xciv. 777]). Sebbi, who had laid aside the crown of
the East Saxons for the monk's cowl, was enclosed in a stone
coffin, as we learn from St. Beda : Cujus corpori tumulando prae-
paraverunt sarcophagum lapideum (Hist. ttccl.,iv. ii). The new
coffin provided for the holy virgin ^Edilthryda's corpse, when it
was translated into Ely Minster, was of stone : Placuit abbatissse
levari ossa ejus, et in locello novo posita in ecclesiam transferri ;
jussitque quosdam fratribus quaerere lapidem, de quo locellum
in hoc facere possent (ibid., 19). The shape of the Anglo-Saxon
coffin was different from ours, being broad at the head, narrow
at the foot, and straight-sided, as we learn from the venerable
historian of those times : Ita aptum corpori virginis sarcophagum
inventum est, ac si ei specialiter prseparatum fuisset ; et locus
quoque capitis seorsum fabrefactus ad mensuram capitis illius
aptissime figuratus apparuit (ibid.). From the well-written ac-
count of that highly interesting discovery made, not long ago,
at Pytchley, Northamptonshire, of a burial-ground with graves
of not merely the Anglo-Saxon, but of the Christian-British
period, we find that some such a hollow for the head, particularly
used to be cut out of the live stone by the British Christians
for their dead. Archaeological Journal, iii. 1 1 1.
73 St. Austin, and the archbishops who followed him in the see
of Canterbury, were, for many years afterwards, buried in the
church of SS. Peter and Paul, hard by that metropolitan city
(Beda, Hist. Eccl., ii. 3). Indeed, it was expressly built that the
bishops of Canterbury, and the kings of Kent, might be buried in
it (ibid., i. 33). The bishops were interred apart, by themselves,
in the norther 
