CHAPTER IV.
THE HISTORY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PROCESSIONAL VESTMENTS; THE ORNAMENTATION OF VESTMENTS.
In addition to the garments already described, which are more properly appropriated to the Eucharistic service, there are a few which are assumed on other occasions by the clergy of the Western Church. The occasions upon which these particular vestments are worn belong properly to the province of Chapter VII. We accordingly postpone the discussion of them until that chapter is reached, concerning ourselves here with the development, shape, and ornamentation of the vestments themselves.
The vestments which we have to describe in this chapter are the cassock, surplice (with its modifications, the rochet and cotta), almuce, and cope. These constitute the so-called processional vestments; a misnomer, because they are not exclusively appropriated to processions. There are, besides, certain others of a more general character, not strictly falling under the head of either Eucharistic or Processional vesture, and they will be more conveniently described in this chapter also. These are the canon's cope, the mozetta, the Roman collar, and the various types of sacerdotal head-dress.
I. The Cassock.—The cassock was the long outer gown which was worn by everyone, clerical and lay, male and female, during the eleventh, twelfth, and succeeding centuries. When it was abandoned for the very much more convenient short coat, that conservatism in ecclesiastical matters, to which the very existence of ecclesiastical vestments is due, prevented the clergy from following the example of the laity, and left the cassock as the distinctive outer garment of the clergy on ordinary occasions, as it still remains. The dignity attaching to a long garment was also probably a factor in causing its ecclesiastical retention.
The Eucharistic vestments were placed over the cassock, as the cassock was placed over the under-garments of the wearer. But it was so entirely concealed by the long alb that it could scarcely be regarded as an essential part of the vestments for the Eucharistic office. The case was different, however, when the priest was vested in processional attire, for the lower end of the cassock appeared very prominently under the surplice, and its presence was consequently essential to complete the processional outfit. We therefore discuss this vestment under the head 'Processional' rather than under the head 'Eucharistic.'
Cassocks were originally invented for purposes of warmth, and hence were lined with furs. This custom was retained when the cassock became exclusively a clerical dress, and we often find in monuments of ecclesiastics indications at the wrist that the cassock was so lined. The colour of the vestment was invariably black for ordinary ecclesiastics, scarlet for doctors of divinity and cardinals, purple for bishops and prelates, and on high occasions for acolytes; for the Pope, white. The fur with which the cassock was lined was ermine or some other precious kind for dignitaries; but ordinary priests were strictly forbidden to wear anything more costly than sheepskin. The cassock as we find it represented on mediaeval monuments was probably open to the breast; I do not recollect having observed any counterpart to the modern cassock, with a row of buttons from neck to hem (humorously compared by Lord Grimthorpe to a boiler with a close row of rivets!). In some parts of France and in Rome the cassock is kept in place by a sash; this also is a modern innovation probably suggested by the custom of members of the monastic orders.
II. The Surplice.—From its fur lining, the cassock was called in mediaeval Latin the pellicea; the name superpellicea was accordingly given to the vestment which was worn immediately over it—a name which has passed by natural phonetic modifications into 'surplice.'
It will be remembered that the alba of the second or transitional epoch was a very much more ample vestment than its successor in mediaeval times. The chasuble, tunicle, or dalmatic (sometimes all three) had to be put on over it—an impossibility if it had maintained its original size. It accordingly was contracted in size in order to adapt itself to the new requirements; but in so doing the needleworkers went to the other extreme, and produced a vestment which threatened to become intractable every time the attempt was made to put it on over the cassock when the latter article of dress was thick and lined with fur. These difficulties resulted in the invention of a new garment, which retained the amplitude of the old alba, and was worn only when no vestment of importance (except the cope, which was adaptable) was put on over it. This was the surplice. The alb was retained for the Eucharistic service, as the upper vestments would lie over it more conveniently.
The surplice was a sleeved vestment of white linen, plain, except at the neck, where there was occasionally a little embroidery in coloured threads. The sleeves were very full, and hung down to a considerable length when the hands were conjoined, as they generally are in monuments. The surplice was put on by being passed over the head, exactly like the alb; the modern surplice, open in front, and secured at the neck with a button, was invented within the last two hundred years, and was designed to make the assumption of the vestment possible without disarranging the enormous wigs which were worn during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
III. The Rochet is a still further modification of the alb. The sleeves are reduced to a minimum or totally absent. It appears to have been worn, though not always, by choristers, and there is also evidence that it was the form of surplice favoured by bishops. Thus we read: