So we find at Braceby an alb made a covering for the font. At Castlebytham we find 'one cope one vestment and one albe' were 'sold to Thomas Inma for the some of Vs. Vpon sondaie was a sevenighte wc̃h he haith defaced and cutt in peces.' Elsewhere, a vestment was made into a 'dublett,' others into 'clowtes for children,' or 'hangings for a bedd.' Some churches had lost their vestments in the Edwardian Reformation, and consequently, when they were required again in Queen Mary's reign, substitutes had to be borrowed from private owners. These were 'restored' to their possessors; in a few cases the churchwardens thoughtfully cut them in pieces before doing so.
Fig. 21.
There is one other series of vestments which deserves a passing notice—the vestments in which the newly-baptized were clothed. In the sixth or seventh century these consisted of the alba, the sabanum, the chrismale, and the garland. The alba was probably similar to the clerical alba; the form of the sabanum (σάβανον) is uncertain, but it was possibly not more than its name implies—simply a towel. The chrismale was a piece of white linen tied on the head, intended to keep the chrism in its place during the week in which these vestments were worn. The garland was a chaplet of flowers with which the baptized were crowned after baptism.
There is a rite in the Armenian Church in which the priest twists two threads, one white and one red, lifts them up under the cross, and then lays them on the person to be baptized. The white and red is obviously symbolical of the mingled blood and water which flowed from our Lord's side, but there are obscure traces in early writers which seem to indicate that this observance was of more general acceptance, and that the present rite is a corruption of something quite different. Durandus, in the 'Rationale Div. Off.,' vi, c. 82, speaks of the alba of baptism having upon it a red band like a 'corona,' and elsewhere we find a combination of red and white mentioned in connection with the robes of the neophytes.
These vestments were worn throughout the week after baptism, and put off on the Sunday following, hence called Dominica in albis depositis. They were either retained after baptism as a memorial of the sacrament—and often used as shrouds after death—or else presented to the church by the baptized.
In the mediaeval church this comparatively elaborate suit was reduced to one cloth, the chrysome, or chrism cloth, in which the body of a newly-baptized infant was swathed. This cloth was kept upon the child for a month, and if it died within the month the child was buried in it as a shroud. Several monumental brasses are extant in which children are represented in their baptismal robes; we reproduce an example in Chesham Bois Church, Buckinghamshire. In the modern Roman Church the white cloth is merely placed on the head; it is now too small to cover the body.
The chrism cloth was taken off if the child survived till the end of the month, and returned to the church, in whose custody it was kept. These cloths were used for the reparation of vestments and altar hangings, and other sacred textile fabrics connected with the church. Thus in the Treasurer's Rolls for Ripon we read (1470-71) the following entries:
'Est de ccᵐᵃlxvj vestibus crismalibus de reman. ultimi compoti praedicti. Et de cᵐᵃiij vestibus crismalibus rec. de tot pueris baptizatis hoc anno. Summa ccciiijˣˣix.[86] De quibus.