Cilice, the modern French term for a hair-shirt, is immediately derived from Cilicium, the origin of which has been explained[1].
This kind of cloth, which was black or dark brown, the goats of Syria and Palestine being chiefly of that color even to the present day, is alluded to in the sixth chapter of Revelations[2], and in Is. l. 3. "I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sack-cloth their covering." It was worn to express mourning and mortification. In Jonah we have a very remarkable case, for on this occasion blankets of goats'-hair were put on the bodies both of men and beasts, and one was worn even by the king of Nineveh himself[3]. When Herod Agrippa was seized at Cæsarea with the mortal distemper mentioned in Acts xii. (See chap. vi. p. 93.), the common people sat down on hair-*cloth according to the custom of their country, beseeching God on his behalf.—Josephus, Ant. Jud. l. xix. cap. 8. p. 872. Hudson. So according to Josephus (Ant. Jud. l. vii. cap. 7. p. 299.), David fell down upon sack-cloth of the same description and lay on the ground praying for the restoration of his son.
Hence the use of the hair-shirt by devotees in more recent times. St. Basil, Bishop of Cæsarea in the fourth century, in answer to the question, Whether a monk ought to have besides his night-shirt (post nocturnam tunicam) a Cilicium or any other, says, "Cilicii quidem usus habet proprium tempus. Non enim propter usus corporis, sed propter afflictionem carnis inventum est hujuscemodi indumentum, et propter humilitatem animae[4]." He then adds, that as the word of God forbids us to
- ↑ Menage, Dict. Etym. v. Cilice.
- ↑ "And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became as black as sack-cloth of hair, and the moon became as blood."—Rev. vi. 12.
- ↑ "So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sack-cloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. The word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sack-cloth, and sat in ashes."—Jonah iii. 5, 6. In v. 5. we should translate "put on hair-cloths;" for the word is plural in the Hebrew.
- ↑ From the ancient version of Rufinus, p. 175. ed. 1513.
