[XX]
COSTUME CONNECTED WITH THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION
THE SURPLICE AND “THE CLOTH”—THE CIVIL ORIGIN OF VESTMENTS—SPECIAL VESTMENTS—PROCESSIONAL VESTMENTS, SO CALLED—NUNS’ DRESS—THE CHOKER
The dress worn by clergy when conducting religious ceremonies offers many opportunities for studying the development of garments, and illustrates at the same time how the dress used by a special class may evolve more slowly and on different lines from the same clothes that may be worn by the people at large. The case is similar to that of animals or plants which are isolated from the other members of their species, and in course of time come to differ very markedly from their far-away relatives who flourish in the old home.
We shall see that many of the ecclesiastical vestments can be traced to civil dress; but for the moment we may discuss those which are in use at the present time, and which afford additional evidence in support of our statement that the more important the ceremonial, the more ancient the costume. At the present day we find that the clergy of the Church of England preach either in a white surplice or in a black gown. We can trace the black gown to an order made by James I, but at the present day the vestments worn by the clergy of the Presbyterian Churches are rather professional, or academical like a barrister’s gown, than properly ecclesiastical. We have already mentioned the bands (see p. [44]) which are worn with the black gown, and here we might mention that when the preacher ministers to a recognized congregation he wears them, though if he is ordained but is conducting an occasional service he does not.
Charles I gave instructions that the surplice should be worn, and had an Act passed giving him power to regulate clerical costume. But the clergy sent in a petition that matters should be left as they were, and this request seems to have been granted, as some of the ministers at the time expressed the fear that His Majesty would order them to wear hoods and bells. Mr. Macalister[25] says that the surplice was originally invented to take the place of the albe, which was made so small that it was difficult to put it over the cassock when the latter garment was thick and lined with fur.
Originally the surplice was put on over the head, in the same way as the albe, the place of which it took, but some two hundred years ago the surplice was made open in front and fastened at the neck with a button. The reason for this is that in this way the surplice could be put on without disarranging the enormous wigs which were worn during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The cassock, to which we have already alluded, was a long, loose coat or gown, which was worn by both sexes from the eleventh century onwards. The name was applied to the coat adopted by foot soldiers in the time of Elizabeth. In the case of the laity, it was abandoned in favour of the shorter and more convenient coat.
The black coat of the modern clergy, whom we term “the cloth,” no doubt represents it, while it is of course worn ordinarily by many Roman Catholic clergy, and some High Churchmen, as an everyday garment, for which it was originally intended. The row of buttons which now fasten the long cassocks from neck to the foot have been humorously compared by Lord Grimthorpe to the close row of rivets on a boiler.
With regard to the development of the more ornamental dress of the clergy there is a great deal to be said. In the past, two separate origins for it have been suggested, and to pursue either of these would be to take us far back into history. It has been claimed, in the first place, that modern church vestments have been derived from those of the Levitical priesthood. The other idea is that the ceremonial dress of the clergy was derived from the civil costume of the Romans. It appears, however, that careful researches have shown that the decorations which have given ecclesiastical vestments their highly ornamented character—in which they resemble certainly those used by the Jews in Temple worship—have been gradually acquired.
The dress of the ancient Christians was simple, and it seems likely that owing to the poverty of the early Church rich clothing could hardly have been adopted. Besides, for many centuries there is no mention of such vestments as we are considering, and no records as to their having been derived from Jewish models. On the other hand, everything points to a more natural origin of the raiment concerned. Flowing garments, as we have already seen, give dignity, and we find that among the Romans such were used in dignified leisure or on occasions of state, in contradistinction to the dress of active existence, which consisted of a short tunic or chiton. It is with the first kind of dress that we have to deal.