| Fig. 1. |
| a, Pileus of Archbishop Warham (d. 1532). b, Square cap of Archbishop Cranmer (d. 1556). c, Square cap of Archbishop Parker (d. 1575). d, Square cap of Archbishop Whitgift (d. 1583). e, Square cap of Archbishop Laud (d. 1645). All these are from portraits at Lambeth. f, Square cap of George Morley, bishop of Winchester (d. 1684). g, Modern college cap. |
Meanwhile the ecclesiastical developments of the biretum are not without interest and significance. Originally this had been a round cap, low or moderately high, slightly bulging out at the top, and ornamented with a round knob. By the 16th century, both in England and on the continent, a tendency had begun to emphasize the ridges of the sutures and thus produce a square shape. Henceforth the evolution followed different lines. In England, in the 17th century, the square flat top began to be enlarged, forming a rim of thick stuff projecting beyond the close-fitting cap. This was the “square cap” so virulently denounced by the Puritans as a symbol of High Church Erastianism. With the triumph of High Church principles at the Restoration it was natural that a loyal clergy should desire to emphasize this squareness, and the consequent exaggeration of the square top of the cap necessitated a further stiffening. In the 18th century, accordingly, the top began to be made of a board of wood or card covered with cloth, the close-fitting cap proper retired farther from the edges, the knob developed into a long tassel, and the evolution of the modern “college cap” was complete (see fig. 1).
On the continent, meanwhile, in the Roman Catholic Church, the biretum had also developed into its present characteristic form, and by a very similar process. By the end of the 16th century the square shape was everywhere prevalent; at the beginning of the 17th century cardboard was introduced to stiffen the sides and emphasize the squareness, and the actual form of the biretta, as described above, had become fixed (see fig. 2). Only in Spain has the biretta continued to be worn without the raised ridges.
| (Redrawn from Braun’s Liturgische Gewandung.) |
| Fig. 2.—Illustrations of the biretum from monuments in the cathedrals of— |
| a, Brandenburg (1281). b, Augsburg (1342). c, Bamberg (1483). d, Regensburg (1550). e, Würzburg (1521). f, Regensburg (1564). g, ib. (1605?). h, Bamberg (1626). |
The use of the Roman biretta has been introduced by a certain number of the clergy into the Anglican Church. It is clear that there is no historical justification for this; for though both college cap and biretta are developed from the same “square cap,” the biretta in its actual shape is strictly associated with the post-Reformation Roman Church, and its actual ceremonial use is of late growth. Braun (Liturgische Gewandung, p. 513) thinks that the symbolism of the cross may have had some influence in fixing and propagating the square shape, and he quotes a decree of the synod of Aix (1585) ordering the clergy to wear a biretta sewn in the form of a cross (biretum in modum crucis consutum, ut ecclesiasticos homines decet). So far as the legality of the use of the biretta in the Church of England is concerned, this was pronounced by Sir R. Phillimore in the Court of Arches (Elphinstone v. Purchas, 1870) to be legal “as a protection to the head when needed,” but this decision was reversed on appeal by the judicial committee of the privy council (Hebbert v. Purchas, 1871). Of late years the old square cap of soft padded cloth or velvet has been revived in the Anglican Church by some dignitaries.
See J. Braun, S.J., Die liturgische Gewandung (Freiburg-i-B., 1907); Hierurgica Anglicana, part ii. (London, 1903); H. Druitt, Costume on Brasses (London, 1906).
(W. A. P.)
BIRGER (?-1266), Swedish statesman, nephew of Birger Brosa, and the most famous member of the ancient noble family of the Folkungeätten, which had so much to say for itself in early Swedish history, was created jarl of Bjälbo by King Erik Eriksson in 1248 and married the king’s sister. On Erik’s death (1250) Birger’s son Valdemar was elected king while his father acted as regent. During the sixteen years of his sway Sweden advanced greatly in fame and prosperity. In 1249 he led an expedition to Finland, built the fortress of Tavastehus, and thus laid the foundations of Sweden’s oversea empire. He also built Stockholm, and enriched it by making it the chief mart for the trade of Lübeck, with which city he concluded a commercial treaty. As a lawgiver also Birger laboured strenuously in the interests of civilization. In his old age he married the daughter of King Abel. There is a fine statue of the great jarl in the Riddarholm church at Stockholm, erected by Fogelberg at the expense of the Stockholm magistracy in 1884. He is also the central figure of Fr. Hedberg’s drama Brollopet på Ulfåsa (1865).
See Sveriges Historia, vol. i. (Stockholm, 1879-1883).