Ecclesiastical Vestments: Their development and history

by Robert Alexander Stewart Macalister

Three additional vestments are found enumerated in the letters of St Gregory the Great and elsewhere which were not worn universally throughout the church, but were either carefully confined to the clergy of the city of Rome itself or were in the gift, so to speak, of the Pope. These are the pallium, the mappula, and the dalmatica.

I. The Pallium.—In classical Latin this word is used either as the equivalent of toga or in the general sense of the English 'robe.' It is also used in the earlier ecclesiastical writers of the casula, or coarse outer garment of monks, as in the passage from Celestine quoted on p. 26. Yet another use of the word pallium is found in the expression pallium linostimum, which denoted a cloth, the use of which was ordained to deacons by Pope Sylvester, as we shall presently see when discussing the [mappula].

Fig. 3.—Ecclesiastics from the Mosaics in S Vitale, Ravenna (Sixth Century).

The pallium, when used by ecclesiastical writers in its proper and restricted sense, denotes an ornament specially appropriated to archbishops. Its earliest form is shown in the Ravenna mosaics—that of a narrow strip of cloth, passed over the left shoulder, looped loosely round the neck, and then passed over the left shoulder again, so that the two ends hang free, one in front, the other behind. This method of disposition seems to indicate an identity of origin with the orarium; indeed, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between these vestments in early representations. A desire for symmetry, probably, decided the next step in its evolution; this consisted in bringing the free end to the middle and knotting it into the lowest point of the loop: this we find exemplified in monuments of the eighth, ninth, or tenth century. From this the transition to the form which became universal in later times was easy, and the two are found contemporaneously. The final form—which will be more fully described in the third chapter—is that of an oval loop with a long tail pendent from its ends, so that when the ornament is in position it presents the appearance of a capital Y on the front and on the back.

The early history of this vestment is involved in deep obscurity. As already hinted, it is not improbably a modification of the orarium; but there is no evidence, further than general outward resemblance, that this is actually the case; nor is there any apparent reason for its appropriation to archbishops. The question must remain open till further research either reveals the missing links in the chain of connection, or elicits some more satisfactory solution of the question.

The idea of Dr Rock, according to which the pallium is viewed as 'the true and only representation of the Roman toga,' is most unsatisfactory. He thinks that the toga, which was folded over the left shoulder, under the right arm, over the right shoulder, and again over the left shoulder, 'dwindled down to a mere broad band,' folded much the same way; and that this broad band was the early pallium. The evolution here supposed is, however, most unnatural; there is not time for it to have taken place between the institution of Christianity and the date of the Ravenna mosaics—much less between the time when ecclesiastical vestments and their development began to receive special attention and the latter date; the toga, as we have already seen, was itself practically obsolete when Christianity began to make itself felt, and still further removed from the current fashion of the time at which archbishops began to require distinguishing insignia; and, lastly, the connecting links between the blanket at one end and the narrow strip of cloth at the other, which Dr Rock adduces and figures, are too few in number to be convincing, and quite explicable on other grounds, such as the unskilfulness of the ancient artist—a fruitful source of error in archæological research.

Fig. 4.—Effigy of a Roman Citizen in Caerleon Museum.

It is not inconceivable that the origin of the honourable pallium is to be sought in the honourable orarium, distributed as 'favours' to the Roman people; in which case we must seek elsewhere for a prototype to the ecclesiastical orarium. We should then fall back on the old idea, which has by no means been disproved, that in the clavi of the tunica alba is to be found the true original. We reproduce here a figure of an effigy of a Roman citizen at Caerleon, near Newport, which certainly seems to warrant this view; here is to be seen a tunica, a clavus, and a paenula, all very suggestive of the alb, stole, and chasuble of later times. Duchesne, in his 'Origines du culte chrétien,'[36] regards all the orarium-like vestments which appear in contemporary documents as in reality pallia; the orarium proper he does not consider to have been introduced till the tenth century. The orarium which appears before this date he regards as simply a napkin, or sudarium, designed to protect the alba. He further states that in the fourth century the civil law required all officials to wear some distinctive badge of office; that the Eastern Church complied with this law throughout, assigning the ὠμοφοριον, ἐπιτραχήλιον and ὠράριον respectively to bishop, priest, and deacon, while the Western Church only complied with it to the extent of assigning a pallium to the bishops. We confess that this elaborate argument does not appeal to us any more than the theory which regards the stole as the orphrey of a degenerated vestment; but while professing our own belief in Marriott's view, stated above (pp. 38-9), we have given these several theories, leaving it to the reader to make his own choice.