Ecclesiastical Vestments: Their development and history

by Robert Alexander Stewart Macalister

Fig. 13.

We now come to a singular point in the history of the pall, and one which has so far baffled ecclesiologists to explain. Although the pall is generally regarded as the peculiar emblem of archbishops, and seems to have been kept for their especial and peculiar use by the rites which we have described, yet a few favoured bishops have from very early times been entitled to wear this vestment. The bishoprics which possess this privilege are those of Autun, Bamberg, Dol, Lucca, Ostia, Pavia, and Verona.

The pall is represented on several monuments of bishops of these dioceses, e.g., the slab of Bishop Otto (1192) and the brass of Bishop Lambert (1399), both in Bamberg Cathedral. In illuminated manuscripts and elsewhere we often find figures of clerics of episcopal rank wearing the pall, but holding the crook-headed staff, commonly supposed to be the insignia of a bishop as distinguished from an archbishop; but as numerous examples exist to show that the latter notion (like the majority of popular ideas in archaeology) is erroneous, this combination proves nothing.

The peculiar circumstances distinguishing the pall from the rest of the ecclesiastical vestments would lead us to expect some remarkable disquisitions on its symbolism. This expectation is not disappointed. The cross on the back and front reminds the wearer to reflect piously and in a worthy manner on the Passion of the Redeemer, and holds up before the people the sign of their Redemption. Such is the old view, and it has at least the merit of simplicity and religious feeling. But, unfortunately, Amalarius, in his dissecting manner, draws a parallel between the pall and the golden plate of the Levitical High Priest; this clears the way for the extraordinary disquisition of the pseudo-Alcuin on the Tetragrammaton יהוח (as he inaccurately writes it), wherein Jod signifies 'principium,' He 'iste,' Vau 'vita,' and Heth 'passio'—'id est, iste est principium passionis vitae.' Honorius thinks, however, that the four letters typify the four arms of the cross. Innocent III and others tell us that the pall signifies that discipline with which archbishops should rule themselves and those set under them. As Innocent's account of the pall gives as full an account as can be obtained of the vestment and its ornamentation and fastenings, we give an abstract of it here:

'The pall which the principal bishops wear signifies the discipline with which archbishops should rule themselves and those set under them. By this the golden chain[59] is obtained which those receive who strive lawfully, of which Solomon saith, "My son, hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother, for they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head and chains about thy neck." For the pallium is made of white wool, woven, having a circle above constraining the shoulders, and two tails (lineae) hanging down on either side; moreover, there are four purple crosses, front and back, on the right and on the left. On the left side it is double, and single on the right.'[60] After a long moralization on these facts, he goes on: 'The three pins which are fixed in the pallium over the breast, on the shoulder and in the back, denote pity for his neighbour, the administration of his office, and the meting out of justice.... There is no pin fastened in the right shoulder,' because there is no trouble in everlasting rest. 'The needle is golden, sharp below, rounded above, enclosing a precious stone,' which bears a variety of meanings. If we may believe the Elizabethan reformers, the pall was an expensive item in an archbishop's insignia. Although Gregory I ordained that it should be given to the archbishop-elect freely, Jewel speaks of the Archbishop of Canterbury giving 5,000 florins (£1,125 at 4s. 6d. the florin) to the Pope for his pall, in addition to the first-fruits of his province; and Bullinger speaks of the pall being so dear that 'in gathering money for it' the archbishop often 'beggared his whole diocese.'

Fig. 14.—Bishop Waynflete's Episcopal Stocking.

X. The Stockings, or buskins, seem to have been originally appropriated to the Pope alone, bishops being content with the somewhat scanty sandal already described. But by the time of Ivo of Chartres the caligae had taken their place among the articles in an episcopal wardrobe. He is the first writer who mentions them. In the middle ages they, like all the other vestments of which we have been treating, forsook their primitive simplicity and became enriched with elaborate ornamentation. They signify the need of framing the courses of their feet aright; and in that they reach to the knees, they indicate that the wearer should strengthen the feeble knees weakened by heedlessness, and hasten to preach the Gospel.

XI. The Subcingulum.—The discussion of this vestment will be more difficult than that of any other among the equipment of the clergy of the West. It is all but obsolete at the present day; there does not seem to be more than one representation of it extant, and that only shows a small portion of it in an unsatisfactory manner; and the references to it in ecclesiastical writers are few and far between.