Mediaeval University Costume.

The details here given respecting mediaeval university costume are abridged from a long and exhaustive paper by Prof. E. C. Clark in vol. 50 of the Archaeological Journal.

There is no doubt that the university dress of the middle ages is an adaptation of monastic costume. The original schools from which the universities were developed were of a clerical character, and their members wore clerical dress. The dress of the mediaeval universities was international, unlike the costume worn to-day; hence the following account, while primarily concerned with the English universities, will serve as a description of Continental university dress as well.

The system of degrees was developed in France by the end of the thirteenth century. There were four grades: first, the ordinary scholar or undergraduate; then the determinant; thirdly the licentiate; and fourthly the master, professor or doctor. The undergraduate resided, attended lectures, and argued on questions in the schools; the determinant 'determined' or decided on questions upon which he had previously merely argued; the licentiate received the chancellor's 'licence' to incept (i.e., take the steps necessary for obtaining the master's degrees), to lecture, and to dispute in school exercises. The mastership was the highest grade, and it included the regent, who was engaged in teaching, and the non-regent, who had ceased to teach. From the second grade probably sprung the baccalaureat; the bachelor was at first a kind of supernumerary teacher, whose lectures were probably recognised only within his own university.

The robes are thus described:

1. Toga or roba talaris, the simplest and most general form of university dress, probably originally derived from the Benedictine habit. It was full and flowing, open in front, with wide sleeves through which the arms passed their whole length. Subsequent modifications curtailed the sleeves for undergraduates (retaining the fuller form for mourning), and (in England) introduced distinctive marks for the various colleges. The modern Bachelor and Master of Arts gown is derived from this dress combined with other garments. In certain colleges in Oxford it was directed to be sewn up from the wearer's middle to the ground. In Clare Hall, Cambridge, fellows were permitted to line it with fur. Gona and Epitogium, which we meet with in certain mediaeval statutes, are probably synonyms of this.

2. Hood. The hood (caputium) was originally the head-covering in bad weather; it was afterwards dropped on the shoulders, and then assumed the form of a small cape. A large tippet is sometimes seen beneath this cape in representations of academical costume. The Undergraduate's or Scholar's hood was black, not lined, and to it a long liripipe or streamer was sewn at the back; the Graduate's was furred or lined, with a short liripipe. The various degrees were indicated by differences of lining; bachelors wore badger's fur or lamb's wool; licentiates and regents wore minever or some more expensive fur; non-regents wore silk. When the undergraduates abandoned hoods (before sixteenth century; exact date uncertain) they became a distinctive mark of the attainment of a degree.

The liripipe was also called tipetum or cornetum. The latter may be the origin of the French cornette, a silk band formerly worn by French doctors of law, and a possible origin for the modern English scarf. The word liripipe is also used to denote pendant false sleeves, and also the tails of long-pointed shoes. This, however, lies rather in the region of everyday costume. In 1507, at Oxford, we find typet or cornetum used to denote an alternative for the toga talaris allowed to Bachelors of Civil Law. This is clearly not the tail of a hood, but its exact significance is uncertain.

3. Mantellum. The origin and meaning of this word are alike uncertain. The use of 'mantelli or liripipia, commonly called typets,' was prohibited to fellows and scholars of Magdalen College, Oxford, by a statute dated 1479, except infirmitatis causa. From this we may infer that the mantellus (also called mantella or mantellum) was something akin to the liripipe. In another notice (1239) they are coupled with cappae: certain riotous clerks had to march in a penitential procession 'sine cappis et mantellis.' Prof. Clark infers from these passages and from other sources that the academical mantellum 'is not a hood, but is worn either instead of, or in addition to, the hood, with the cope, or else instead of the cope or long tabard.'

4. Cassock. This was at one time worn by all members of universities under their gowns. Doctors of divinity, doctors of laws, cardinals, and canons wore scarlet. Certain days at present are called 'Scarlet Days' in the English universities, on which doctors in all faculties wear scarlet. This may be a survival of the ancient scarlet cassock.

5. Surplice. 'A dress of ministration, used in college chapels by non-ministrants, more as a matter of college discipline than as academical costume.'

6. Almuce. Distinctive of masters and doctors, distinct from the hood. Another possible origin of the English hood.

7. Cope. There were two kinds of cope in use at the English universities—the cappa manicata or sleeved cope; and an uncomfortable contrivance called the cappa clausa, which was sewn all the way up, passed over the head when put on, and was not provided with sleeves or other openings for the arms save a short longitudinal slit in front. The Archbishop of Canterbury prescribed this as a decent garb for Archdeacons, Deans and Prebendaries in 1222. Regents in arts, laws, and theology were permitted to lecture in a cappa clausa or pallium only. The cappa manicata was probably worn generally, as being a sober and dignified dress; it very rarely occurs in contemporary representations.

8. The tabard or colobium was a sleeveless gown closed in front; but ultimately it was slit up, the sleeves of the gown proper were transferred to it, and the use of the latter discontinued. All not yet bachelors were required by the statutes of Trinity Hall, Cambridge (1352), to wear long tabards, while Clare Hall, the adjoining foundation, required its Master (Head), masters, and Bachelor Fellows to wear this and other robes, in 1359. Kings' Hall (1380) required every scholar to wear a roba talaris, and every bachelor a robe with tabard suited to his degree.

9. University Head-dress. A skull-cap was early allowed to ecclesiastics to protect the tonsured head in cold weather, and, except the ordinary hood, this is the only head-dress recognised by the early university statutes. This pileus, however, soon assumed a pointed shape, thus

, and in this form was recognised as part of the insignia of the doctorate; doctors only are represented wearing it upon monuments. The central point developed afterwards into the modern tassel. Bachelors wore no official head-dress.

[104] So Bonanni's text; it reaches to the feet in his plate.

[105] Cit. ap. Bonanni, vol. iv, No. xvii: Quidam enim subtile integrum cum manicis integris habent, quidam autem deferunt hanc lineam vestem in formam longi et lati scapularis sine manicis in lateribus apertam quidam circa tibia ad latitudinem palmae Carthusiensium more consutam, alii scapulare latum cum rugis habent aliis est forma parvi scapularis et brevis cum rugis et plicis e collo pendentis quod Scorligium dicunt quibusdam ex latere linea hasta aliis arca collum pecia linea.

APPENDIX II.
AN INDEX OF SYNONYMOUS TERMS.

APPENDIX III.
A LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES REFERRED
TO IN THE COMPILATION OF THIS WORK.

⁂ As this list is intended as a guide to the student rather than as a criterion of the labour involved in writing this volume, it has been reduced by the omission of classical and other texts from which casual quotations have been made, and of many books which the author consulted without obtaining any information of value.

Badger (G. P.), The Nestorians and their Ritual. 2 vols. London, 1852.

Bloxam (M. H.), Companion to the Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture. London, 1882.

Bock (F.), Geschichte der liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters. 3 vols. Bonn, 1859.

Bona (J.), Rerum liturgicarum libri duo. 3 vols. Turin, 1747.

Bonanni, Catalogo degli ordini religiosi della chiesa militante. 5 vols. Rome, 1722.

Calderwood (D.), Historie of the Kirk of Scotland. 8 vols. Wodrow Society, Edinburgh, 1842-49.

Carter (J.), Specimens of English Ecclesiastical Costume. London, 1817.

Cripps (H. W.), A Practical Treatise on the Law relating to the Church and Clergy. 6th edition. London, 1886.

Dolby (Anastasia), Church Vestments: their Origin, Use, and Ornament. London, 1868.

Fabric Rolls of York Minster. Surtees Society, Durham, 1859. (Also several other volumes of the publications of this Society.)

Fortescue (E. F. K.), The Armenian Church, founded by St Gregory the Illuminator. London, 1872.

Haines (H.), A Manual of Monumental Brasses. Oxford, 1861.

Harrison (B.), An historical Enquiry into the true Interpretation of the Rubrics in the Book of Common Prayer. London, 1845.

Hart (R.), Ecclesiastical Records of England, Ireland, and Scotland from the Fifth Century till the Reformation. Cambridge, 1846.

Hartshorne (C. H.), English Mediaeval Embroidery. Archaeological Journal, vol. i, pp. 318-335, vol. ii, pp. 285-301. 1845-47.

Hefele (C. J.), Beiträge zur Kirchengeschichte, Archäologie und Liturgik. 2 vols. Tübingen, 1864.

Howard (G. B.), The Christians of St Thomas and their Liturgies. Oxford, 1864.

Issaverdens (J.), Armenia and the Armenians. 2 vols. Venice, 1874.

Josephus, Works of, ed. Richter. Leipsig, 1826.

King (J. G.), The Rites and Ceremonies of the Greek Church in Russia. London, 1772.

Labbe (P.), and G. Cossart, Sacrosancta concilia ad regiam editionem exacta. 18 vols. Paris, 1671-72.

Lanigan (J.), An Ecclesiastical History of Ireland. 4 vols. Dublin, 1822.

Marriott (W. B.), Vestiarium Christianum. London, 1868.

Martene (E.) and U. Durand, Thesaurus novus anecdotorum. 5 vols. Paris, 1717.

Maskell, Monumenta ritualia ecclesiae anglicanae. Oxford, 1882.

Migne, Patrologia (almost all quotations from the early church writers are taken from this edition). Paris, 1849-64.

Moleon (le Sieur de), Voyages liturgiques de France. Paris, 1718.

Neale (J. M.), A History of the Holy Eastern Church. 4 vols. London, 1850.

Papal Letters (Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland, ed. W. H. Bliss). London, 1893.

Paris (M.), Chronica majora. Ed. Luard. 7 vols. Rolls Series. London, 1872-1883.

Pugin (A. W.), Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament and Costume. London, 1868.

Quick (J.), Synodicon in Gallia Reformata; or the Acts, Decisions, Decrees, and Canons of those Famous National Councils of the Reformed Churches in France. 2 vols. London, 1692.

Reichel (O. J.), English Liturgical Vestments in the Thirteenth Century. London, 1895.

Renaudot (E.), Liturgiarum orientalium collectio. Paris, 1716.

Rock (D.), Church of our Fathers. 3 vols. London, 1849-52.

Rock (D.), Textile Fabrics: a Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Church Vestments, [etc. in South Kensington Museum]. London, 1870.

Row (J.), The History of the Kirk of Scotland from the Year 1538 to August, 1637. Wodrow Society, Edinburgh, 1892.

Rubenius (A.), De re vestiaria veterum, praecipue de lato clavo. In the Thesaurus Antiquitatum Romanorum of J. G. Graevius, vol. vi, col. 913. Leyden, 1697.

Saussay (A. de), Panoplia clericalis libri xv. Paris, 1649.

Shaw (H.), Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages. 2 vols. London, 1853.

Smith (W.) and S. Cheetham, A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities. London, 1875.

Stothard (C. A.), Monumental Effigies of Great Britain. 2 vols. London, 1817.

Webb, Sketches of Continental Ecclesiology. London, 1848.

Wey (F.), Rome. London, 1872.

Willemin (N. X.), Monumens français inédits. 2 vols. Paris, 1839.

Reference has also been made to the Church Times, the Builder, and the principal archaeological periodicals and publications of archaeological societies.