In Advent, and between Septuagesima and Easter, the deacons and subdeacons were directed to substitute chasubles for their dalmatics or tunicles; and these chasubles were ordered to be worn, not in the usual manner, but folded, and passed across the breast like the diaconal stole. That is to say, the chasuble, which must have been of a flexible[96] material, was folded into a strip as narrow as possible, and secured over the shoulder and under the girdle of the alb. These were not to be worn during the whole service, however; the subdeacon had to remove his folded chasuble at the Epistle; at the Gospel the deacon had to cross his over the left arm, and so keep it till after the post-communion.
There is but one representation of a deacon so vested known to exist in England. It is one of a series of sculptured effigies of ecclesiastics on the north-west tower of Wells Cathedral. These have been described by Mr St John Hope in 'Archæologia,' vol. liv. We give here the figure to which special reference is at present being made. Besides the chasuble, the effigy is vested in cassock, amice, alb, and girdle; and a book, probably meant for the Gospels, is represented as carried in the hand.
It should be observed that at the mass of a feast falling within the limits of time prescribed, the ordinary dalmatic and tunicle were worn in the ordinary way.
Fig. 30.—Deacon in Folded Chasuble, Wells Cathedral.
This peculiar custom was unknown to the Franciscans. The deacons of this order put off the dalmatic entirely upon fast-days, and did not substitute any other vestment for it; a similar practice, with respect to the tunicle, was observed by the subdeacons, so that the deacons wore alb and stole only, the subdeacons alb and maniple. This practice was not observed at the Vigils of Saints, or of the Nativity, and on a few other occasions.
When a cleric of sacerdotal rank ministered (as opposed to celebrated) at the mass, his dress was the amice, the alb, the stole, and the cope. The same vestments are worn by the priest at the mass of the pre-sanctified[97] on Good Friday.
Before the vestments are put on for the mass the priest must wash his hands, and prepare the chalice, placing over it the purificator or napkin used for wiping the sacred vessels. Above the purificator he places the paten, with an unbroken host, and covers it with a small linen cloth, over which he puts the burse. This done, he takes the vestments one by one; he first receives the amice, takes it by its ends and strings, and kisses the middle of it where there is a cross. A prelate, it should be noticed, always puts on a surplice before vesting. The amice being put in its place, the alb and girdle are then assumed, then the maniple and chasuble. Each vestment is kissed before being put on, and a prayer said with the assumption of each; these prayers differ little in style from those said in the similar ceremony in the Eastern Church, and it has therefore been thought unnecessary to give them here.
In an inventory of the Vestry of Westminster Abbey,[98] the following directions are given in a late fifteenth-century hand:
The Revestyng of the abbot of Westmʳ att evensong.—Fyrst the westerer shall lay the abbots cope lowest opon the awter wᵗ in the sayd westre, nex opon hys gray Ames, then hys surples, after that hys Rochett and uppermost his Kerchure.