Scrutator.
Replies.
THE EPISCOPAL MITRE AND PAPAL TIARA.
(Vol. iii., p. 62.)
In answer to the question of an "Inquirer" respecting the origin of the peculiar form and first use of the episcopal mitre, I take the liberty of suggesting that it will be found to be of Oriental extraction, and to have descended from that country, either directly, or through the medium of other nations, to the ecclesiastics of Christian Rome. The writers of the Romish, as well as Reformed Churches, now admit, that most, if not all, of the external symbols, whether of dress or ceremonial pageantry, exhibited by the Roman Catholic priesthood, were adopted from the Pagans, under the plea of being "indifferent in themselves, and applicable as symbolical in their own rites and usages" (Marangoni, Delle cose gentili e profane trasportate nel uso ed ornamento delle chiesi); in the same manner as many Romish customs were retained at the Reformation for the purpose of inducing the Papists to "come in," and conform to the other changes then made (Southey, History of the Church). Thus, while the disciples of Dr. Pusey extract their forms and symbols from the practices of Papal Rome, the disciples of the Pope deduce theirs from the practices of Pagan Rome.
With this preface I proceed to show that the episcopal mitre and the papal tiara are respectively the copies each of a distinct head-dress originally worn by the kings of Persia and the conterminous countries, and by the chiefs of their priesthood, the Magi. The nomenclature alone indicates a foreign extraction. It comes to us through the Romans from the Greeks; both of which nations employed the terms μίτρα, Lat. mitra, and τιάρα, Lat. tiara, to designate two different kinds of covering for the head in use amongst the Oriental races, each one of a distinct and peculiar form, though as being foreigners, and consequently not possessing the technical accuracy of a native, they not unfrequently confound the two words, and apply them indiscriminately to both objects. Strictly speaking, the Greek μίτρα, in its primitive notion, means a long scarf, whence it came to signify, in a secondary sense, various articles of attire composed with a scarf, and amongst others the Oriental turban (Herod. vii. 62.). But as we descend in time, and remove in distance from the country where this object was worn, we find that the Romans affixed another notion to the word, which they used very commonly to designate the Asiatic or Phrygian cap (Virg. Æn. iv. 216.; Servius, l.c.); and this sense has likewise been adopted in our own language:
"That Paris now with his unmanly sort,
With mitred hat."—Surrey, Virgil, Æn. iv.