dumenta nimiâ brevitate vel longitudine non notanda. — Mansi, XXII, 1006). Ornamental appendages, cloth of red or green colour, brooches (fibulæ) to fasten their cloaks, and the wearing of sleeved copes (cappæ manicntæ), either at Office or at other times, are all forbidden by the same enactment. In England, the synod held under Cardinal Langton, in 1222, required that dignitaries and ordinary priests should be seen abroad becomingly attired in the "ecclesiastical habit", and should use "closed copes" (Mansi, XXII, 1161). These cappæ clausæ seem to be prescribed as an addition to the habitus clericalis, and were perhaps now imposed upon the ordinary secular clergy for the first time. In 1237 the national council, held under the presidency of the Legate Otho, declared that lay folk were scandalized at the dress of the clergy, which was not clerical at all, but more suited to knights (non clericalis sed potius militaris). Offenders in future were to be punished, and the bishops were to see that all in sacred orders used garments of fitting length and wore closed copes. Somewhat later the legatine coun- cil under Ottoboni insisted that all ecclesiastics, whether in Sacred orders or not, were to wear clothes of fitting length, coming at any rate below the middle of the shin {saltern ultra tibiarum medium attingentes). Further, all priests and beneficed clergy were to wear closed copes, except when on a journey, or for some other just reason (Wilkins, "Concilia", II, 4). Severe penalties were enacted against transgressors, but they do not seem to have produced any lasting effect, for numerous other decrees on the same subject were passed in England at a later date, notably in 1281 and in 1342. The proper dress of the medieval clergj' was therefore the vestis talaris, and over this priests and dignitaries were bidden to wear the cappa clausa. The former of these must have been a sort of cassock, but made like a tunic, i. e. not opening, and buttoning down the front. The wearing of the closed cope was no doubt often evaded by the secular clergy. Such writers as Chaucer and Langland seem to lay so much emphasis upon the copes of the friars that it is difficult to believe that this mantle, resembling a liturgical cope, but partly at least sewn up in front, was as com- monly worn by secular priests. That the cope was often of considerable length may be gathered from a passage in "Piers Plowman's Crede": —
His cope that biclypped him, wel clene was it folden. Of double-worstede y-dyght, doun to the hele.
It would seem that the closed cope has a modern representative in the cappa magna of cardinals and bishops, and also in the chimere (etymologically descended from the Italian zimaira), the loose mantle now worn by the Anglican episcopate to which the well known lawn sleeves are attached. The wearing of a separate head-dress, or "coif", seems to have been prohibited to the inferior orders of the clergy except when on a journey ; but of course doctors of theology and some other graduates had their caps of honour. Besides these we hear of the "liripipe", a sort of broad tippet or scarf sometimes drawn over the head, sometimes worn hanging loose on the shoulders. The dress of the clergy in other countries did not probably differ very greatly from that of medieval England. As already said, innumerable decrees were everywhere passed in provincial synods restraining extravagances, for every eccentric fashion — the peaked shoes, the parti-coloured dress, the headgear of flowers. the inordinately tight hose, etc. — washable to find imitators among the clergy. One article of costiuue which occurs repeatedly on brasses and other funeral monuments, both in England and abroad, is the "almuce", a fur-lined tippet and hood, still retained at Rome and elsewhere by the canons of cathedral and collegiate churches, and now practically confined to them. For- merly the almuce was worn by university graduates, and many other orders of the clergy. It is probably in only a warmer variant of the hood, which almost everywhere survives as part of a university academi- cal costume, and which is the familiar adjunct of the surplice for Anglican clergymen when officiating in the sanctuary. It will be readily understood that the indescribably cold and draughty condition of our old cathedrals rendered some such furred protection for the head and neck almost a necessity during the long hours of the night Offices. Naturally, the richness and amplitude of the fur lining varied in some measure with the dignity of the wearer. In funeral monuments the almuce is foimd constantly associated with the cope, also primarily a choir vestment.
Modern Usage. — The modern and more centralized
legislation regarding clerical costume may be consid-
ered to begin with a constitution of Sixtus V, in 1589,
insisting under the severest penalties that all clerics
even those in minor orders, should uniformly wear the
Testis talaris and go tonsured. Offenders were to lose
all title to their benefices or any other emolument
which they held. Another edict issued under Urban
VIII, in 1024, goes into greater detail. It directs that
the ca,ssock should be confined with a cincture, and
that the cloak worn over it should normally, like the
cassock, fall as low as the ankles. The under-dress,
the hose included, should be modest, and dark in col-
our. All embroidery and lace upon collar or cuffs is
forbidden. The hat shall be of approved shape, and a
simple cord or ribbon shall form its only ornament.
Infringements of these regulations are to be punished,
with a pecuniary fine. Another important Roman
decree, issued in 1708, forbade clerics to wear a per
ruque covering any part of the forehead or ears and
while admitting the use of shorter garments when on a
journey, required such garments in all cases to extend
below the knees and to exhibit no eccentricities, such
as large buttons and huge pockets. In 1725 Pope
Benedict XIII made the wearing of lay costume by an
ecclesiastic an offence of the most serious kind, which
not only, according to the Bull of Sixtus V, entailed
the forfeiture of all emoluments, but denied absolu-
tion to those delinquents who did not spontaneously
surrender their benefices if they had been guilty of this
offence. It would seem that this extreme rigour had
never been upheld in practice by the Roman Congre-
gations with whom the execution of such decrees ulti-
mately lies. Mgr. Barbier de Montault, for example
remarks that, although infractions of the law of eccle-
siastical costume are by no means allowed to pass with
impunity, and though "the Sacred Congregation of
the Council is wont to support the decrees of bishop
which insist upon the wearing of the cassock, still so
far as concerns the question of punishment it answered
'Let the bishop proceed with moderation"' (B. (illegible text) Montault, "Le Costume" etc., I, 45). In English speaking countries where the wearing of the tonsure (illegible text)
not obligatory, the rules affecting the costume of ec-
clesiastics are less rigid. The decrees on the subject
of the First Synod of Westminster and the Third
Plenary Council of Baltimore are in practical agree-
ment. The latter says ( § 77), " We wish therefore and
enjoin that all keep the law of the Church, and that
when at home or when engaged in the sanctuary thry
should always wear the cassock [vestis talaris] which (illegible text)
proper to the clergy. When they go abroad for duty
or relaxation, or when upon a journey, they may use
shorter dress, but still one that is black in colour, (illegible text)
which reaches to the knees, so as to distinguish it from
lay costume. We enjoin upon our priests as a matter
of strict precept, that both at home and abroad, (illegible text)
whether they are residing in their own diocese or (illegible text)
side of it, they should wear the Roman collar." (illegible text)
general introduition of the use of bicycles among the
clergy has brought about a somewhat laxer practice
regarding the length of the upper gannents worn out
of doors and the Second Synod of Mavnooth (19(illegible text)
