Joseph Braun and Walter Alison Phillips

“ In the Oriental rites there is no surplice, nor any analogous vestment. Of the non-Roman Churches in the West the surplice has continued in regular use only in the Lutheran churches of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and in the Church of England (see below) . (J. Bra.)
Church of England.—The surplice was prescribed by the second Prayer-Book of Edward VI., as, with the tippet or the academical hood, the sole vestment of the minister of the church at “all times of their ministration,” the rochet being practically regarded as the episcopal surplice. ”

“ It is a tunic of white linen or cotton material, with wide or moderately wide sleeves, reaching—according to the Roman use—barely to the hips and elsewhere in the churches of the Roman communion to the knee It is usually decorated with lace, but in modern times—in Germany at least—also with embroidered bordures. The surplice originally reached to the feet, but as early as the 13th century it began to be shortened, though as late as the 15th century it still fell to the middle of the shin, and it was not till the 17th and 18th centuries that it was considerably shortened. ”

“ Originally only a choir vestment and peculiar to lower clergy, it gradually—certainly no later than the 13th century—replaced the alb as the vestment proper to the administering of the sacraments and other sacerdotal functions. ”