Ecclesiastical Vestments: Their development and history

by Robert Alexander Stewart Macalister

The groundwork of the vestment was either plain (invariably so in the older examples) or else embroidered or woven with a pattern, according to taste and means; the ornamentation proper consisted of strips of embroidered or 'orphrey' work, as it is technically called, sewn on to the vestment. These strips were sewn either on the edge or crosswise on the front and back of the chasuble.

The edge orphrey is the more frequently met with in the brasses of parish priests, and it is rarely so elaborately decorated as are the central orphreys. It usually consisted of some simple pattern of flowers or geometrical figures recurring at regular intervals round the edge.

Greater variety is seen in the shape of the central orphrey, which, being the more elaborate and expensive, is almost invariably found represented in the monuments of bishops, abbots, and other dignitaries, and in the effigies of priests of the richer churches. It sometimes, though rarely, consisted of a simple 'pillar' on the front and on the back of the vestment; usually this ornamentation was extended by the addition of branches of orphrey work given off on either side, which passed over the shoulder and joined the corresponding branches of the other pillar, the result being that the orphrey on front and back had the appearance of the Greek Ψ, or of a Latin cross with oblique arms. When the bands were so disposed, the pillar on the front was called the pectoral, the pillar on the back the dorsal, and the auxiliary bands, which passed over the shoulders, the humeral orphreys. Very frequently this design was varied by omitting the part of the pectoral and dorsal bands above their intersection with the humeral; this resulted in the 'Y cross,' which we find in so many effigies in our cathedrals and churches. In a few examples the Y or Ψ is inverted, and in some it gives off auxiliary branches, so as to resemble (e.g.) the figure

. It would, however, be waste of time and space to enter further into a discussion of what was not regulated by any definite rule, but depended on caprice, or, at most, on pecuniary considerations. More often than not the central orphrey, of whatever form, is combined with the edge orphrey, and is usually of a different pattern from it.

In many early chasubles the front and back are charged with an embroidered Latin cross. This is also the case with the back of the modern Roman or slit vestment.

When the Y orphrey was placed on the chasuble, the space between it and the neck on the back was usually filled with an elaborate floral design embroidered in gold or crimson. Sometimes (not always) this extended round the neck, and was repeated in front. To this ornament the special name of 'flower' has been attached.

The chasuble surmounts and safeguards all the other vestments; hence the chasuble signifies love, which surmounts all the other virtues, and safeguards and illumines their beauty with its protection; so says Rabanus Maurus, prettily enough. Amalarius disagrees; he holds that as the chasuble is common to all clerics, so it ought to set forth the works which are common to all: fasting, thirsting, watching, poverty, reading, singing, praying, and the rest. The pseudo-Alcuin and Ivo of Chartres agree with Rabanus, though for different reasons. Innocent III, however, holds it to signify the virtue of apostolical succession: 'For this is the vestment of Aaron, to the skirt of which the oil ran down; but it ran down from his head to his beard and from his beard to the skirt. Forasmuch as we all receive of His spirit, first the Apostles, afterwards the rest.' Further, he goes on to say that because the stretching out of the hands divides the chasuble into two complete and similar parts, so that vestment typifies the old and new church before and after the time of Christ.

VIII. The Sandals.—The sandals of the Roman citizens are well known—mere soles, secured across the instep by one or more thongs of leather, and clearly designed to protect the wearer from stony roads without unnecessarily cramping or confining his feet—an important consideration in a hot climate.

Such a sandal must have been worn by the early clergy as Roman citizens, and probably long continued in use among the lower orders of clerics. It was, and still is, the only foot-covering of certain monastic orders, and in some cases was retained even by monks who had attained to episcopal rank. In St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, which contains a unique collection of mediaeval effigies and incised slabs, superior in merit to many better-known specimens of mediaeval art, there exists a most interesting effigy of a former bishop, de Ledrede, who died circa 1350. He is represented fully vested in Eucharistic dress; but in place of the episcopal sandals, which an ordinary bishop would have worn, he wears the simpler monastic sandal, which covers only the sole and instep; and shows the cord of St Francis hanging below his alb.