I. The Alba.—This word is the abbreviated form of the full name, tunica alba, by which a flowing tunic of white linen was denoted. It appears that the first use of this word as a technical term for a special robe is in a passage of Trebellius Pollio (in Claud., xiv, xvii), who speaks of an alba subserica, mentioned in a letter sent from Valerian to Zosimio, Procurator of Syria, about 260-270 A.D. In the 41st canon of the fourth council of Carthage (circa 400 A.D.)[18] we meet with the first use of this word in an ecclesiastical connection, in one of the earliest (if not the earliest) regulations ever passed to govern the ritual usage of vestments. This ordains that the deacon shall wear an alba only 'tempore oblationis tantum vel lectionis.'
The constant evidence of contemporary pictures indicates that the alba was a long, full, and flowing vesture. In this respect it differed from the Mosaic tunic, on the one hand, and the mediaeval alb on the other. Both these vestments fitted closely to the body for reasons of convenience, for a flowing tunic would obviously hamper the Levitical priest in the discharge of his sacrificial duties, and would not sit comfortably under the vestments with which it was overlaid in mediaeval times.
Nearly two centuries after the fourth council of Carthage we find the first council of Narbonne (A.D. 589) enacting that 'neither deacon nor subdeacon, nor yet the lector, shall presume to put off his alba till after mass is over.'[19] To this canon, which was clearly framed to check some tendency to irregularity that had become noticeable in the celebration of mass, we are indebted for two facts: first, that ritual usage in vestments was now firmly established; and second, that the alba was the dress of the minor orders of clergy. This latter point is not clearly brought out in the Toletan canon already quoted.
Of the garments worn in everyday life by the Roman citizen, the innermost was the tunica talaris, or long tunic. This article of dress was white, usually of wool; it was passed over the head and reached to the feet, the epithet talaris ('reaching to the ankles') being employed to distinguish it, as the tunic of ceremony, from the short tunics worn when freedom was required for active exertion.[20] It fitted tolerably closely to the body, though it was sufficiently loose to require a girdle to confine it. The tunics of senators and equites were distinguished by two bands of purple, in the former case broad (lati clavi), in the latter narrow (angusti clavi), which passed from the sides of the aperture for the head down to the lower hem of the garment.
A comparison of the ecclesiastical tunica alba with the civil tunica talaris will bring out some remarkable points of resemblance. Both were worn in the same manner, and both reached to the feet; it is true that the ecclesiastical dress was slightly fuller than the civil, but this was necessary, as room was required underneath the alba for the wearer's everyday dress. Further, we find ecclesiastics represented in ancient frescoes wearing albae which actually show ornaments disposed like the clavi of the tunica talaris. These clavi were early employed by the Christians to distinguish, by their relative width, the representations of Our Lord from those of the Apostles, or to discriminate between the figures of ecclesiastics of different orders.
It is also important to notice that the alba is invariably furnished with tight sleeves reaching to the wrist. The tunic was originally a sleeveless garment; but with the growth of luxury, a new kind provided with sleeves gradually came into favour. These two forms of tunic were distinguished by different names: the older or sleeveless tunic was called colobium, a Latinization of the Greek name κολόβιον;[21] and the latter or sleeved tunic was named tunica manicata or tunica dalmatica, from the name of the province to which its invention was ascribed.
In the early days of Rome the use of a tunica dalmatica stamped the wearer with the stigma of effeminacy and utter want of self-respect. The parents of Cornelius Scipio and of Fabius are said to have openly disgraced them in their boyhood, as a punishment ad corrigendos mores, by compelling them to appear in public in this attire. The despicable emperors Commodus and Elagabalus offended all persons of good taste by coming out before all the people in the same costume: the latter impudently calling himself another Scipio or Fabius, in reference to the incident just related.[22] This, however, cannot mean that the scandal lay in the adoption of the luxurious tunica dalmatica in preference to the colobium (for Rome in the time of Elagabalus was too deeply steeped in luxury and vice to feel shocked at an Emperor merely preferring an under-garment with sleeves to one without those appendages); it rather consisted in his neglecting to put on his pallium, or outer dress, over it. In fact, the tunica dalmatica must have quite ousted its severer rival in popular favour by the time of Elagabalus: for we find that in 258, only thirty-six years after the death of that emperor, St Cyprian of Carthage wore a tunica dalmatica, over which was a byrrhus, or cloak, when led out to martyrdom.[23] It is absurd to suppose that Cyprian, on such a solemn occasion, would have assumed a merely luxurious garment, and equally absurd to imagine that he would have worn ecclesiastical vestments at the time, as some commentators on the passage have held. There remains only one other alternative—that the tunica dalmatica was the form of tunic which was in regular use at the time, and this seems quite the most satisfactory hypothesis.
The most important mention of the tunica dalmatica in connection with ecclesiastical matters is in the decree of Sylvester, Bishop of Rome, 253-257. That prelate ordained 'that deacons should use the dalmatica in the church, and that their left hands should be covered with a cloth of mingled wool and linen.'[24] Various authors supplement this passage; thus, the anonymous author of the tract 'De Divinis Officiis,' formerly attributed to Alcuin, tells us that 'the use of dalmaticae was instituted by Pope Sylvester, for previously colobia had been worn.'[25]
Much importance has been attached to this decree. It is regarded as an additional and incontrovertible proof that ecclesiastical vestments were in use in the primitive church. But on examination, however, it will be found no more to bear such a construction than St Paul's request for his φαιλόνη. The ordinance merely shows that Sylvester had a laudable desire to improve the aesthetics of public worship, and, with this end in view, decreed that thenceforward ecclesiastics should all wear the tunica dalmatica—which had quite outgrown its early evil reputation, and must be admitted to have been a better-looking garment than the scanty and somewhat undignified colobium. It is not at all improbable that many of the clergy wore dalmaticae even before Sylvester's edict: in this case the edict would have the additional advantage of securing uniformity.
All attempts to set up the dalmatica as a separate vestment in early times fail hopelessly. It is unknown to the drafters of the Toletan canons, and no early representation of an ecclesiastic is extant having two vestments visible under the planeta.[26] This would certainly be the case if the two were independent vestments. It is true that St Isidore of Seville wrote, 'Dalmatica vestis primum in Dalmatia provincia Graecia texta est sacerdotalis, candida cum clavis ex purpura;'[27] (the dalmatica is a priestly vestment first made in Dalmatia, a province of Greece, white with purple clavi); but the concluding words show that he was merely thinking of the alba under its more specific name, dalmatica.