Fig. 5.—Pope Gregory the Great with Pastoral Staff.
The staff was a rod of wood with a head either crutched or crooked, usually of one of the precious metals. The name suggests that the symbolism of the shepherd had entered largely into the ideas connected with it. It was carried by abbots and abbesses, by bishops, and, till about the tenth century, by the Pope; but with the rapid growth of the temporal sovereignty of the Papacy, the emblem purely associated with the special idea of spiritual pastorate was abandoned. In the old pre-scientific days it used to be stated that the Pope at no time carried a pastoral staff, though he did bear a ferula, or straight sceptre—the symbol of rule;[48] but this is at variance with the evidence of contemporary art.
We must not leave the subject of the earliest form of ecclesiastical vestments without briefly noticing the ornamentation with which they were decorated. In the oldest representations of ecclesiastics which we possess, their vestments were represented pure white, ornamented with the clavi; these were generally black, though St Isidore refers to purple clavi. But other colours appear in very early frescoes and mosaics. These, however, are apparently arbitrary, the result of the notions of the painter on the subject of the artistic combination of colours. Nothing analogous to the 'liturgical colours' of late times is traceable in the early or transitional period of the history of vestments.
Some ornamentation other than the clavi is found in vestments of late date in the present period. Leo III, the date of whose Papal rule lies just on the border-line between the transitional and the mediaeval epoch, presented to the Church of St Susanna a vestment with four gammadia—that is, ornaments shaped like crosses formed by four gammas placed back to back, thus: ╬; we also hear of calliculae, metal or embroidered ornaments, for the alba. A singular method of ornamentation is exemplified by numerous frescoes and mosaics, and has been a fruitful source of perplexity to ecclesiologists. This consists in the use of letters (sometimes of monograms or letter-like arbitrary signs) on the outer hem of the garment. No connection can be traced between these letters and any circumstances known concerning the persons whose vestments they decorate; and wide differences between the times and places of individual examples of the same character preclude their explanation as the faithful copies of weavers' marks. We can only say that their use is inexplicable on such practical or esoteric grounds, and that, therefore, some simple explanation, such as the arbitrary selection of a letter as an elementary ornament, is the only satisfactory means of accounting for their presence. Even now we daily employ rows of O-shaped circles, S-shaped curves, etc., as ornaments, without the slightest reference to the sounds which those symbols denote. The tendency to exalt simple little contrivances into hidden mysteries is ever with us, especially in ecclesiology, and it should on all occasions be repressed.
[15] Throughout this chapter I have retained the Latin words orarium, planeta and alba in preference to the English translations 'stole,' 'chasuble,' and 'alb,' when treating of the vestments of the early church. The two are not identical, and it is convenient to have a short method of distinguishing one from the other.
[16] 'Episcopus presbyter aut diaconus si a gradu suo iniuste deiectus in secunda synodo innocens reperiatur non potest esse quod fuerat nisi gradus amissos recipiat coram altario de manu episcopi; (si episcopus) orarium annulum et baculum; si presbyter orarium et planetam; si diaconus orarium et albam; si subdiaconus patenam et calicem; sic et reliqui gradus ea in reparationem sui recipiant quae cum ordinarentur perceperunt.' [The bracketed words have dropped out from the MS., but their restoration is certain and necessary.]
[17] This MS. is edited in Martene's Thesaurus Anecdotorum, vol. v, p. 86 et seq., and extracts are made from it in Marriott's work, p. 204. The MS. was found in the monastery of St Martin at Autun, and is assigned by Martene to the sixth century, though on doubtful grounds. Marriott is probably correct in referring it to the tenth. As the vestments which it describes rather resemble those of the final period than of the transitional, we reserve its discussion till the following chapter.
[18] Labbe, Sacrosancta Concilia (1671), vol. ii, col. 1203.
[19] 'Nec diaconus aut subdiaconus certe vel lector antequam missa consummetur alba se præsumat exuere.'—Concil. Narb., i, Labbe, vol. v, col. 1030 (misprinted 1020).