The period between the 9th and the 13th centuries is that of the final development of the liturgical vestments in the West. In the 9th century appeared the pontifical gloves; in the 10th, the mitre; in the 11th, the use of liturgical shoes and stockings was reserved for cardinals and bishops. By the 12th century, mitre and gloves were worn by all bishops, and in many cases they had assumed a new ornament, the rationale, a merely honorific decoration (supposed to symbolize doctrine and wisdom), sometimes of the nature of a highly ornamental broad shoulder collar with dependent lappets; sometimes closely resembling the pallium; rarely a “breast-plate” on the model of that of the Jewish high priest.[1] This elaboration of the pontifical vestments was contemporaneous with, and doubtless partly determined by, the assimilation of the bishops during those centuries to the type of the great feudal nobles whose ambitions and love of pomp they shared.
In an age when, with the evolution of the feudal organization of society, even everyday costume was becoming a uniform, symbolizing in material and colour the exact status of
the wearer, it was natural that in the parallel organization of the Church the official vestments should undergo a similar
process of differentiation and definition. With this process,
which in all its essential features was completed in the 11th
century, doctrinal developments had little or nothing to do,
though from the 9th century onwards liturgiologists were busy
expounding the mystic symbolism of garments which, until
From Braun’s Liturgische Gewandung, by permission of B. Herder.
Fig. 3.—Monumental Figure of Bishop Johannes of Lübeck (d. 1350) in Lübeck Cathedral
their imagination set to work, had for the most part no symbolism whatever (see below). Yet in view of later controversies, the changes made during this period, notably in the vestments connected with the mass, are not without significance. Hitherto the chasuble had been worn indifferently by all ministers at the eucharist, even by the acolytes; it had been worn also at processions and other
non-liturgical functions; it was now exalted into the mass vestment par excellence, worn by the celebrant only, or by his immediate assistants (deacon and subdeacon) only on very special occasions. New vestments were devised to take the place, on less solemn occasions, of those hallowed by association with the holy sacrifice; thus
the processional cope (q.v.) appeared in
the 11th century and the surplice (q.v.)
in the 12th. A change, too, came over
the general character of vestments. Up
to the 9th century these had been very
plain, without ornament save such traditional decorations as the clavi of the
dalmatic; what splendour they had was
due to their material and the ample
folds of their draperies. But from this
time onwards they tend to become
more and more elaborately decorated
with embroidery and jeweller’s work
(see, e.g. the articles Chasuble and
Cope).
Very significant, too, is the parting of the ways in the development of liturgical vestments in the East and West. During the first centuries both branches of the Church had used vestments substantially the same, developed from common originals; the alb, chasuble, stole and pallium were the equivalents of the στιχάριον, φενόλιον, ὠράριον and ὠμοφόριον. While, however, between the 9th and 13th centuries, the Western Church was adding largely to her store of vestments, that of the East increased her list by but three, the ἐνχείριον and ἐπιμανίκια (see Maniple) and the σάκκος (see Dalmatic). The living force of development in the Latin Church was symbolized in her garments; the stereotyped orthodoxy of the Greek Church in hers. With the exception of the mitre, introduced in the 15th or 16th century, the liturgical costume of the Eastern clergy remains now practically what it was in the 9th century.
In the Western Church, though from the 9th century onwards the Roman use had been the norm, considerable alterations continued to be made in the shape and decoration of the liturgical vestments, and in this respect various Churches developed different traditions (see, e.g. Chasuble). The definition
of their use by the various orders of the clergy in the several liturgical functions, however, was established by the close of the 13th century and still continues in force. Before discussing the changes made in the various Reformed Churches, due to the doctrinal developments of the 16th century, we may therefore give here a list of the vestments now worn by the various orders of clergy in the Roman Catholic Church and the Oriental Churches.
Roman Catholic Church.—As the sacrifice of the mass is the central mystery of the Catholic faith, so the seven orders of the hierarchy culminate in that of priest, who alone is empowered to work the daily miracle of the altar (see Order, Holy). The vestments worn by the priest when celebrating mass are then the most important. The cassock (q.v.), which must always be worn under the vestments, is not itself a liturgical garment. Over this the priest, robing for mass, puts on the amice, alb, girdle (cingulum), stole, maniple and chasuble. Taking the other orders downwards: deacons wear amice, alb, girdle, stole, maniple[2] and dalmatic; subdeacons, amice, alb, girdle, maniple and tunicle; the vestment proper to the minor orders, formerly the alb, is now the surplice or cotta. Bishops, as belonging to the order of priesthood with completed powers, wear the same vestments as the priests, with the addition of
- ↑ The rationale is worn only over the chasuble. It is now used only by the bishops of Eichstätt, Cracow, Paderborn and Toul, by the special concession of various popes. See Braun, Liturg. Gewandung, pp. 676-700.
- ↑ The stole and maniple alone are symbolical of order, i.e. of the relation to the sacrifice of the mass.
