vestment. In the Roman Catholic Church the rochet is a tunic of white, and usually fine linen or muslin (battiste, mull) reaching about to the knee, and distinguished from the surplice by the fact that its arms are narrow and tight-fitting. The lower edge and the sleeves are usually garnished with lace, lined with violet or red silk in the case of prelates, or—more rarely—with embroidered borders.
The rochet is proper to, and distinctive of, prelates and bishops: but the right to wear it is sometimes granted by the pope to others, especially the canons of cathedral churches. It is not a vestis sacra, and cannot therefore be used as a substitute for the surplice, e.g. in the administering of the Sacraments (Decree of the Congregation of Rites of jan. 10, 1852). None the less, since it is used at choir services and is ordered to be worn over the everyday dress at Mass (Missa rom. Rit. celebr. i. 2), it may be included among liturgical vestments in the widest sense.
The earliest notice of the use of the rochet is found in an inventory of the vestments of the Roman clergy, dating from the 9th century. In this it is called camisia, a name which it retained at Rome until the 14th century, and it seems to have been already at that time proper to particular members of the clergy. Other Roman names for the vestment were succa, sucta; it was not till the 14th century that the name rochettum appeared at Rome, but it was not long before it had superseded all the native designations. Outside Rome, too, the vestment is early met with, e.g. in the Frankish empire (9th century) as alba clerical is, in contradistinction to the liturgical alb, and in England (10th century) under the name of oferslip in the 46th canon of the ecclesiastical laws of Edgar. At the beginning of the 12th century the rochet is mentioned, under the name of camisia, by Gilbert of Limerick and by Honorius, and, somewhat later, by Gerloh of Reichersperg as tunica talaris. From the 13th century onward it is frequently mentioned. The name rochettum is first traceable in England; in Germany and northern France the rochet was also called saroht (sarrotus) or sarcos (sarcotium).
Outside Rome the rochet was, until well into the 14th century, a vestment common to all the clergy, and especially to those of the lower orders; and so it remained, in general, until the 16th century, and even, here and there, so late as the 19th. Moreover, in further contradistinction to the, Roman use, it had—especially in the German dioceses—a liturgical character, being used instead of the surplice.
The rochet was originally a robe-like tunic, and was therefore girdled, like the liturgical alb. So late as 1260 the provincial synod of Cologne decreed that the vestis camisialis must be long enough entirely to cover the everyday dress. A good example of the camisia of the 12th century is the rochet of Thomas Becket, preserved at Dammartin in the Pas de Calais, the only surviving medieval example remarkable for the pleating which, as was the case with albs also, gave greater breadth and more elaborate folds. In the 15th century the rochet only reached half-way down the shin; in the 16th and 17th to the knee; in the 18th and 19th often only to the middle of the thigh. In the middle ages it was always plain. The rochet is unknown in the Eastern Churches. (J. Bra.)
Church of England.—In the English Church the rochet is a vestment peculiar to bishops, and is worn by them, with the chimere (q.v.) both “at all times of their ministration” in church and also on ceremonial occasions outside, e.g. in the House of Lords or at a royal levee. In general it has retained the medieval form more closely than the Roman rochet, in so far as it is of plain, very fine linen (lawn), and reaches almost to the feet. The main modifications have been in the sleeves. At the time of the Reformation these were still narrow, though already showing a tendency to expand. The portrait of Archbishop Warham at Lambeth, for instance, shows a rochet with fairly wide sleeves narrowing towards the wrists, where they are confined by fur cuffs. This fashion continued until, in the 17th century, the sleeves became much fuller; but it was not till the 18th century that they developed into the familiar exaggerated balloon shape, confined at the wrists by a ribbon, beyond which a ruffle projected. About the same period, too, arose the custom of making the rochet sleeveless and attaching the “lawn sleeves” to the chimere. This fashion survived throughout most of the 19th century, but there has since been tendency to revert to the earlier less exaggerated form, and the sleeves have been reattached to the rochet. The ribbon by which the wrist is confined is black, except when convocation robes are worn, when it is scarlet. The rochet is worn without the chimere under the cope by those bishops who use this vestment. At his consecration the bishop-elect is, according to the rubric, presented to the consecrating bishops vested in a rochet only; after the “laying on of hands” he retires and puts on “the rest of the episcopal habit,” i.e. the chimere. (W. A. P.)
ROCHFORD, EARL OF, an English title borne by the family
of Nassau de Zulestein from 1695 to 1830. William Henry
Nassau de Zulestein (1645–1709) was born at Zuylestein, near
Utrecht, his father being Frederick Nassau de Zulestein (1608–1672),
a natural son of Henry Frederick, prince of Orange, land
his mother an English lady, Mary Killegrew; One of the most
trusted companions of his kinsman, William of Orange, Zulestein
wash sent to England in 1687 and again in 1688 to report
on the condition of affairs, and later in 1688 he sailed with
the prince on his famous expedition. After the Revolution he
was naturalized and served the king in the field, being created
Viscount Tunbridge and earl of Rochford in 1695. He was
succeeded by his son William (1681–1710), who was killed at
the battle of Almenara, and then by another son Frederick
(1682–1738). Frederick’s son, William Henry, the 4th earl
(1717–1781), was a diplomatist and a statesman. Having
gained experience as envoy at Turin from 1749 to 1753, he was
ambassador at Madrid from 1763 to 1766 and at Paris from
1766 to 1768. From 1768 to 1775 he was one of the secretaries
of state. This earl left no children when he died on the 28th
of September 1781, and his nephew, William Henry, the 5th
earl (1754–1830), dying in September 1830 the earldom became
extinct. The estates of the earls of Rochford were in Suffolk
and Essex, their principal residence being St Osyth Priory in
the latter county.
ROCHFORD, a town in the south-eastern parliamentary
division of Essex, England, 39 m. E. by N. from London by
the Southend branch of the Great Eastern railway. Pop. (1901)
1829. It lies on the small river Roach, near the head of a long
estuary. The town has a Perpendicular church (St Andrew),
a corn exchange and some agricultural trade. Rochford Hall,
a picturesque gabled mansion of various dates, belonged once
to the Boleyns, and it has been stated that Anne Boleyn, the
unfortunate queen of Henry VIII., was born here, but this is
in no way proved. Near Rochford the Lawless or Whispering
Court, a remarkable survival of unknown origin, is held by a
manorial tenure on the Wednesday following Michaelmas Day,
beginning at midnight. No light is permitted, nor may voices
be raised above a whisper. Nearly 3 m. N.W. from Rochford
is Ashingdon. This is generally accepted as the scene of the
fight of Assandun in 1016 between Canute and Edmund Ironside,
in which the English were defeated through treachery in
their ranks. Earthworks, of this or an earlier date, remain.
ROCK, DANIEL (1799–1871), English Roman Catholic priest and ecclesiologist, was born at Liverpool on the 31st of August 1799, and educated at St Edmund’s. College, Ware, Herts, and at the English College, Rome. He was ordained priest in 1824 and successively appointed chaplain to the 16th earl of Shrewsbury at Alton Towers, Staffordshire, and priest in charge of the Roman Catholic congregation at Buckland, near Faringdon in Berkshire. After the re-establishment of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England, in which he had taken an active part, Rock was elected a canon of St George’s Cathedral, Southwark. He was greatly interested in medieval art, and, having gone to live at South Kensington in 1864, in order to be near the museum, was of great assistance to the authorities there. He died on the 28th of November 1871.
