The cassock is a somewhat ugly garment of black silk, which resembles an ordinary short coat; it rarely reaches as far as the knees. There can be no doubt that it is a modification, for convenience' sake, of the long cassock worn by clergy of the Episcopal Churches, which was the inner garment, university and clerical, of the middle ages. The scarf is a long strip of black cloth, wound sash-wise round the waist and knotted in front. The bands are two short pendant tails of white lawn, hanging in front, now fastened round the neck by an elastic cord. These survive in the universities as well as in the Presbyterian Church. The name was originally applied to the Elizabethan ruff, in which must be sought the prototype of the ecclesiastical bands; and the use of a cylindrical box to keep the ruff in has caused the survival of the old meaning of the word in 'bandbox.' The stiff starched or propped band passed at the commencement of the seventeenth century into the falling band (not unlike a modern child's lace collar), of which the ecclesiastical 'bands' is the diminution.
The gown is of the pattern known as the Geneva gown—a black silk gown with ample sleeves and faced with velvet.
It should be here remarked that there is considerable laxity in individual usage. The cassock and scarf are almost universally discarded, and, in fact, they were probably never very generally worn. For the Geneva gown is often substituted the gown proper to the university degree of the wearer.
Very few regulations affecting robes have been passed by any of the assemblies of the churches in the Presbyterian Alliance. The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1575 passed an important injunction, which, however, refers rather to personal than to official attire. As it is a curious document, we give it here in full:
'For as muche as a comelie and decent apparrell is requisite in all, namelie, ministers, and suche as beare functioun in the kirk, first, we thinke all kinde of browdering [broidering] unseemlie; all begaires [coloured stripes] of velvet, in gowne, hose, or coat, and all superfluous and vaine cutting out, steeking [stitching] with silkes, all kinde of costlie sewing on pasments [laces], or sumptuous and large steeking with silkes; all kinde of costlie sewing or variant hewes in sarkes; all kinde of light and variant hewes in clothing, as reid, blew, yellow, and suche like, which declare the lightnesse of the minde; all wearing of rings, bracelets, buttons of silver, gold, or other mettall; all kinds of superfluiteis of cloath in making of hose; all using of plaids in the kirk by readers or ministers, namelie, in the time of their ministrie and using their office; all kinde of gownning, cutting, doubletting, or breekes of velvet, satine, taffatie or suche like; and costlie giltings of whingers and knives, and suche like; all silk hatts, and hatts of diverse and light colours; but that their whole habite be of grave colour, as blacke, russett, sad gray, sad browne; or searges, worsett, chamlett, grogram, lylis, worset, or suche like; that the good Word of God, by them and their immoderatenesse, be not slandered.'[93]
There is one rule, or rather unwritten convention, affecting the wearing of vestments in the Presbyterian Church, at least, in the British Islands. The bands are regarded as an indication that their wearer is the minister of a recognised congregation; hence, when an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church who does not hold such an office happens to be conducting a service, he does not wear bands.
The Geneva gown has not always been worn in the Presbyterian Churches abroad. Thus in the Church of Holland, till recently, the official costume of a minister was a picturesque uniform, consisting of the old three-cornered hat, and a coat resembling the ordinary evening-dress coat, having a long pleated strip called the 'mantle' hooked on the neck, obviously a survival from an earlier and more ample gown of some kind, knee-breeches, buckled at the knees, and buckled shoes. This costume was worn only when the minister was officiating at service. It has now, however, been universally abandoned for the Geneva gown.
The gown and bands, with or without the cassock and scarf, are now worn only at Divine Service; but in the early part of the seventeenth century (in Britain as on the Continent) they were worn by ministers sitting in assembly as well, in accordance with the decree of the Synod of Fife, which in 1611 ordained that ministers should attend meetings in the exercise of Synodal assembly in black gowns and other abulʒiements[94] prescribed in the Act of Parliament.
The elders never wear any insignia of office, and never have done so.