8350.
Embroidered Girdle; pattern, rectangular, in gold and silver threads and crimson silk; there are long gold tassels at the ends. French, late 16th century. 6 feet 3 inches by ⅞ inch.
Most likely a liturgical girdle, for the use of which see “Hierurgia,” p. 426, 2nd edition, and “Church of our Fathers,” t. i. p. 448. Such ecclesiastical appliances are now become great rarities, and though this one is very modern, it is not less valuable on that account. The only other good example known in England is the very fine and ancient one kept, in Durham Cathedral Library, among the remains of those rich old vestments found upon the body of a bishop mistaken, by Mr. Raine, for that of St. Cuthbert. Flat girdles, whenever used in the Latin rite, were narrow; while those of the Greek and Oriental liturgies are much broader.