THE CANONS.
A great monastic family was known under the name of Augustinians, from St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, who, it is said, established monastic communities in Africa, and gave them a “rule,” or method of life.
In the middle of the ninth century all the clergy—priests, canons, clerks, etc.—who had not entered the monastic ranks were incorporated into one great Order to observe the rule of St. Augustine. The Canons Regular, as they were called, were the clergy of Cathedral and Collegiate Churches, living in a community on the monastic model. They wore during divine service a surplice, and a fur tippet or almuce over a long black cassock, and a four-square cap called a baret or biretta.
They had much more liberty than the monks. A writer in the thirteenth century says: “Among them one is well shod, well clothed, and well fed. They go out when they like, mix with the world, and talk at table.”
There were several classes of them in England known as—
1. Augustinian Canons.
2. Premonstratensian Canons.
3. Gilbertine Canons.
The Augustinian, Austin or Black Canons (Pl. [57], Fig. 3), so called from the habit of the order, were found in Europe after the twelfth century, and were very popular in England. At the time of the Dissolution they had about 170 houses in England, two of the Abbeys—Waltham Cross and Cirencester—being governed by mitred abbots.
The Premonstratensian Canons were named after Prémontré, in France, where they originated in the twelfth century. They wore a white habit, and were known as White Canons. Welbeck Abbey was the chief house in England, and at the Dissolution there were 34 houses of the Order in this country.
The Gilbertine Canons were founded by St. Gilbert, Rector of Sempringham. in the twelfth century. The Order was one for both men and women, and in the double monasteries the canons and nuns lived in separate houses, having no communion. The men wore a black habit with a white cloak, and a hood lined with lamb’s wool.
The women were in black, with a white cap. The Order had 26 establishments in England at the Dissolution.
PLATE 57.
(Fig. 1): A Franciscan Friar. (Fig. 2): A Carmelite Friar. (Fig. 3): An Augustinian Canon.
[MILITARY MONASTIC ORDERS.]
The military Orders, consisting of men who combined the religious duties of monks and the military exercises of knights, were the Knights Hospitallers and the Knights Templars.
The Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem (Pl. [58], Fig. 1) were originally not a military Order.
This Order took its name and was founded at an hospital in Jerusalem by the merchants of Amalfi, in Italy, for the purpose of affording hospitality to the Pilgrims coming to the Holy Land. It was dedicated to St. John the Baptist, and the first business of its members was to provide for such pilgrims at that hospital, and to protect them from insults and injuries on the road. The open country was perpetually exposed to the incursions of irregular bands of Saracen and Turkish horsemen, and any of the hapless pilgrims who were captured were put to death or sold into slavery.
PLATE 58.
(Fig. 1): A Knight Hospitaller. (Fig. 2): A Knight Templar. (Fig. 3): A Dominican Friar.
The Order was instituted about 1092 A.D., and was very much favoured by Godfrey of Bouillon and his successor, Baldwin, King of Jerusalem.
The kindness of the Hospitallers to the sick and wounded soldiers of the First Crusade made them popular, and several of the Crusading princes endowed them with estates; while many of the Crusaders, instead of returning home, laid down their arms and joined the brotherhood.
After a time, when their endowments became very great, they reconstituted the Order on the model of the Templars. From this time the two military Orders formed a powerful standing army for the defence of the kingdom of Jerusalem.
As monks, they followed a rule of life founded upon that of St. Augustine, and wore a black mantle with a white cross on the left shoulder.
They soon came to England, and had a house built for them in London about 1140 A.D., and from poor and mean beginnings obtained so great wealth, honours, and exemptions, that their Superior here in England was the first lay baron and had a seat among the Lords in Parliament; some of their privileges being extended even to their tenants. When on military duty, the knights wore the ordinary armour of the period, a red surcoat with a white cross on the breast, and a red mantle with a white cross on the shoulder.
The smaller establishments upon their manors and estates were called commanderies, and the head of the house was known as the Commander.
Sometimes their houses were called preceptories, but this term was more generally applied to the establishments of the Knights Templars.
They had their headquarters at the Hospital of St. John, near Clerkenwell, where the gate (rebuilt in 1540) may still be seen. There were about 53 cells or commanderies attached to this hospital in different parts of the country, where the novices might be trained in piety and in military exercises.
When the Christians were driven out of Jerusalem, the Knights of St. John passed to the Isle of Cyprus, afterwards to the Isle of Rhodes, and finally to Malta, where they maintained a constant warfare against the Mahommedans, acting as the police of the Mediterranean and doing their best to oppose the piracies of the Corsairs.
The Order was divided at Malta according to nationality—the English knights, the French knights, etc., each nation having a separate house situated at a different point of the island for its defence.
The Order was suppressed in England in 1541, resuscitated in Mary’s reign, and finally abolished on the accession of Queen Elizabeth.
Knights Templars. (Pl. [58], Fig 2.)
The Knights Templars, or simply the “Templars,” were instituted 1118 A.D., and were so called from having their first residence adjoining the Temple at Jerusalem. Nine knights bound themselves into a fraternity, which adopted the fundamental monastic vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity, and, in addition, their business was to guard the roads for the security of pilgrims in the Holy Land. Many members of the noblest houses in Europe joined the Order, and endowments flowed in abundantly. Gradually dependent houses were established on its estates in nearly every country of Europe. Their rule, like that of the Hospitallers, was according to that of St. Augustine, and their habit consisted of a large white mantle with a red cross on the left shoulder, over the ordinary armour of the period. They came to England early in the reign of Stephen, settling first at Holborn in London. Afterwards their headquarters were removed to Fleet Street, and were known as “The Temple.” On this ground they built a monastery, barracks, cloister, council chamber, refectory, a river terrace as exercise ground as well as for religious meditation, a tilting ground where the Law Courts now stand, and a very beautiful church. This establishment now for many years has been given over to the Law, Chaucer having been one of the first law students there. The original church, with its round nave, after the form of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, still remains—a monument to the wealth and influence of the ancient Templars. The banner of the Order was of black and white cloth, called beauseant (Pl. [29], Fig. 24), and they adopted this word as a war cry.
The rule allowed three horses and a servant to each knight, and married knights were also admitted to the Order.
In England their numbers increased very rapidly, and they obtained large possessions, but in less than two hundred years their wealth and power were thought to be too great. They were accused of horrid crimes, and were everywhere put into prison. Their Order was suppressed by Pope Clement V. in 1309 A.D., and totally abolished by the Council of Vienna 1312 A.D. The Superior of the Order in England was styled Master of the Temple, and was often summoned to Parliament.
Like the Hospitallers, the Templars built churches and houses on their estates called Preceptories. When the order was suppressed, these lands and houses, eighteen in number, were handed over to the Hospitallers.
In the Temple Church there are nine effigies of knights, which are certainly the finest and most interesting collection of monumental figures of this early period possessed by any one church in the kingdom. They exhibit the military costume as it is said to have been worn at the Crusades.
According to the sculptor who restored the effigies, the Templars wore long beards, and their general dress consisted of a hauberk or tunic of ringed mail reaching to the knees, with sleeves, gloves, and chausses covering the legs and feet of the same kind of mail, a light sleeveless surcoat of white with a red cross over the hauberk, girded about the waist by a belt; another belt passing transversely round the body over the right shoulder and under the left arm, by which a long or kite-shaped shield was supported; a sword belt obliquely across the loins, with a long, heavy sword attached, and single-pointed or “prick” spurs.
Over all was worn a long white mantle fastened under the chin and reaching to the feet, with a red cross on the left shoulder.
On the head was worn a linen coif, and above that a bowl-shaped skull-cap of red cloth turned up all round. When completely armed, the coif and cap were exchanged for a hood of mail covering the neck and head, and over that one of the large heaumes or helmets was worn.
[ECCLESIASTICAL COSTUMES AND VESTMENTS.]
There were two great divisions of Mediæval Ecclesiastics, the Major Orders and the Minor Orders.
The Major Orders included the Archbishop, the Bishop, the Priest, the Deacon or Gospeller, and the Sub-deacon, or Patterner, as Chaucer calls him.
The Minor Orders comprised the Acolyte (symbol, a candle), the Exorcist (a holy water vessel), the Doorkeeper (a key), the Lector (a key), and in some cases the Sexton.
In the monastic times all these had the shaven crown or tonsure.
For many centuries ecclesiastical vestments remained unchanged, those used in the Church at the Conquest being practically identical with those used at the time of the Reformation.
The everyday garment was the cassock, a long garment with long sleeves, made of heavy woollen material. It was generally black or brown in the case of the inferior clergy, and scarlet for Doctors of Divinity.
PLATE 59.
(Fig. 1): Brass of Lawrence Seymour, 1337, Higham Ferrers Church, Northamptonshire, showing the Eucharist Vestments, Amice, Chasuble, Maniple, Alb, Stole, and Apparels. (Fig. 2): Brass of Robert Langton, D.C.L., 1518, at Queen’s College, Oxford, in rich ornamented Cope, wearing also a doctor’s cap. These are often spoken of as the Processional garments. (Fig. 3): Brass of Abbot de la Mare, at St. Alban’s Abbey, died 1396; brass made in his lifetime, between 1360 and 1375. The whole brass, of Flemish manufacture, is one of the finest in England. The Abbot is “vested in Eucharist vestments, with jewelled mitre and pastoral staff,” the latter with the Agnus Dei in the head.
In cold weather the cassock was frequently lined with sheepskin or fur, was provided with a hood, and was girded with a thick knotted cord or cingulum. The vestments or ceremonial garments, worn when officiating at the services of the Church, were much more elaborate. A long, close-fitting white garment, like a coat with narrow sleeves, reaching to the feet, was worn by all, even to the doorkeeper. It was called the alb, and was confined at the waist by a girdle.
Priests and dignitaries of the Church had six pieces of embroidered needlework or cloth of gold called apparels fastened to the alb, at the bottom of the skirt before and behind (2), on the wrist of each sleeve (2), and on the breast (1) and back (1).
Around the neck was worn the amice: It was a kind of large linen handkerchief, with embroidered work along one of its sides. It was turned down like a collar, showing the embroidery (which appears in brasses like a collar), and leaving the throat of the wearer exposed.
A stole or narrow embroidered band was hung around the neck, reaching nearly to the feet, the ends being fringed.
In brasses only the ends appear, the upper portions being covered by the other vestments.
A short piece of embroidered work called the maniple, with ends fringed like the stole, was worn over the left arm, being fastened to the sleeve. At the time of the Conquest the maniple was a napkin with which the priest wiped his face and brow during Mass.
Over the other vestments was worn a circular or oval garment called a chasuble. It had an opening in the centre through which the head was thrust, and its ample folds rested at either side upon the arms. It was worn plain or with an embroidered border.
In later times the chausuble and alb were sometimes made of coloured materials.
The chasuble, maniple, and stole were all of the same material and colour.
The priest wore these vestments during the services, and when he died he was buried in them.
They were put on in the following order: Amice, alb, maniple, stole, and chasuble, and they are often spoken of as the “eucharistic vestments.”
Bishops and Mitred Abbots wore the same vestments as priests, but with the addition of the tunicle and dalmatic below the chasuble, sandals, gloves, a ring set with precious stones on the third finger of the right hand, mitre, and pastoral staff.
The dalmatic was a garment shorter than the alb, slit up for a distance on either side. (Pl. [59], Fig. 3.) Like the chasuble, it was made of rich material.
The tunicle, worn underneath the dalmatic, was similar to it in shape, but made of linen.
The only ecclesiastical ornaments which underwent any change were the mitre and crozier.
At first the mitre was of white linen, and low in height. As time went on it was made of silk and ornamented with embroidery and jewels, and it became higher in form. (From the time of the Reformation the mitre was not recognised as part of episcopal attire in the Established Church, but in 1885, after a lapse of 50 years, it was resumed by the Bishop of Lincoln, who wrote it then for the first time amid considerable protests.)
The Pastoral Staff, or so-called crozier, was borne alike by Archbishops, Bishops, and Abbots, and was usually held in the left hand or against the left arm, leaving the right free to be uplifted in blessing. It terminated in a large shepherd’s crook or scroll, the curved volute being often richly ornamented with foliage. The staff was made of rarer wood, such as cedar or ebony, and was shod with a pointed ferrule. The top was detachable, and was usually made of metal or of ivory.
Before Archbishops was also carried a Cross, a staff bearing a cross at the top. They also wore the pall, or palium, a narrow loop or circle of white lambswool placed over the shoulders, with a weighted band hanging down before and behind. Looked at from the front, it appears like the letter Y. It was made only in Rome, and was especially bestowed on all Archbishops by the Pope.
In processions the clergy wore cassock and surplice as they do now, with the almuce, a large cap turned down over the shoulders, and lined with fur, which varied in colour according to the degree of the wearer; the hood and the cope. The cope was a kind of cloak, and became the most gorgeous of mediæval ecclesiastical garments. It was made in every conceivable colour, and heavily adorned with the richest gold work encrusted with jewels.
When spread out flat, it was in shape a perfect semi-circle, and was decorated at the front edges with bands of embroidery from collar to hem.
A famous cope is the Syon Cope now preserved in the South Kensington collection.
In the Middle Ages the clergy, when not engaged in their official duties, often dressed similarly to the laity, and though they were ordered to wear the tonsure and a sober dress, these instructions were very often neglected and ignored.
Many of them dressed in bright colours, often in the extreme of fashion, wearing knives at their girdles, brightly coloured shoes with long toes, and jewellery.
At the time of the Reformation, when the English clergy abandoned the mediæval robes, they also desisted from wearing the tonsure, which had for many centuries been the distinguishing mark of the clergy, and they seem generally to have adopted the academical dress for their official and ordinary attire.