Religious vestment

“ The 28th chapter of Exodus tells us the sacred vestments God wished the priests of the Old Law to wear during the public worship. "And these shall be the vestments which they shall make: a rational and an ephod, a tunic and a straight linen garment, a mitre and a girdle. They shall make the holy vestments for thy brother Aaron and his sons, that they may do the office of priesthood unto Me." As God in the Old Law prescribed vestments for the priests, so the Church, guided by God, prescribes sacred vestments to be worn by the priest of the New Law while engaged in the sacred mysteries. ”

“ Vestments.—Much may be said for the use of a distinctive dress in the holy offices of the Church. It is in accordance with ancient usage; it marks the action of the Minister as not personal, but official; it secures dignity and uniformity, and it is also, like the dress of the priests in the old Jewish Church, "for glory and for beauty."
The American Church has no law upon the subject of vestments. Their use is simply a matter of traditional custom. Those here described have come down to us from our mother Church of England. ”

“ For arrangement, &c., see Morning Prayer, but the various parts of the Service are given each under its own heading.
VESTMENTS. Generally, the garments worn by the clergy in the public services of the Church, but more particularly the special robes worn by some clergymen during the celebration of the Holy Communion.
Alb. A linen vestment longer than the surplice, and with tight sleeves. It is confined at the waist by a girdle, and, when employed in the Eucharist, it is often, though not necessarily, ornamented with patches of embroidery called apparels. ”

“ Would it, however, be too much to hope that the ladies of England may see fit to adopt the beautiful custom of wearing a special garment for church services? It would be in itself so seemly; it would add so much to the grace and dignity of our worship ”

“ The vestimenta sacra are not spoken of as “robes”; a priest is not “robed” but “vested” for Mass; yet the rochet and chimere of an English bishop, even in church, are more properly referred to as robes than as vestments, and while the cope he wears in church is a vestment rather than a robe, the scarlet cope which is part of his parliamentary full dress is a robe, not a vestment. For the sake of convenience the official, non-liturgical costume of the clergy is dealt with under the general heading Vestments and the subsidiary articles (e.g. Cope) . ”

“ For the second time within our memory, a "vestment" [91] or "ritual" controversy has arisen among us. The last time it was about "the surplice" in preaching, as against the gown; and the "Prayer for the Church Militant," as against the disuse of it. This time it is about the more distinctive eucharistic vestments, as against the surplice; and about a fuller ritual as against a scantier one. ”

“ The Origin and Idea of Ecclesiastical Vestments.—The liturgical vestments of the Catholic Church, East and West, are not, as was at one time commonly supposed, borrowed from the sacerdotal ornaments of the Jewish ritual, although the obvious analogies of this ritual doubtless to a certain extent determined their sacral character; they were developed independently out of the various articles of everyday dress worn by citizens of the Graeco-Roman world under the Empire. ”

“ In after years, when the black monks reproached the Cistercians with wearing a garment fit only for a time of joy, whilst the monastic state was one of penitence, the white monks would answer, that the religious life was not only one of penitence, but was like that of the angels, and therefore they wore white garments to show the spiritual joy of their hearts. ”

“ If "Black-letter" days are observed, the red-coloured vestments should be used on festivals of Martyrs, and white on festivals of Confessors and Virgins.
Reverence for our Lord demands reverential care of the things used in his service. In any case waste is sinful, so that proper economy is called for in the manner of wearing and of keeping the sacred vestments. The priest should exercise due care in handling the vestments when putting them on and in taking them off; also that he does not, when vested, press or rub them against the vesting table and the edge of the altar-mensa. ”

“ We must not disguise from ourselves that it will be extremely difficult to bring back to simpler forms of worship a minister and a congregation that have not only been accustomed to, but deliberately prefer, much more ornate forms; the putting off of these vestments will, in some cases, involve much more difficulty and trouble than their original introduction. It is human nature to cling tenaciously to what is distinctive, and this deposition of the distinctive will be complicated by the assumed close connection between the vestment and the doctrine. ”

“ The white surplice in the service of the Church is almost the only thing that remains of those ancient and becoming vestments, which God commanded to be made for glory and beauty. Clothing, emblematical of office, is of more consequence than is generally imagined. ”

“ In the controversies as to the interpretation of the Anglican “Ornaments Rubric” (see below) the term “vestments” has been applied particularly to those worn at the celebration of mass, which is what is meant when it is said that “the vestments” are worn at such and such a church. This restriction of the term has some historical justification: in the First Prayer Book of Edward VI. the word "vestment" is used as synonymous with but one liturgical garment—the chasuble, the “mass vestment” par excellence ”

“ We that choose to wear soft clothing and dwell in kings' houses must respect the Baptists, who wear leathern girdles and eat locusts and wild honey. They are the voices crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for a coming good. ”

“ The evidence of contemporary art is overwhelmingly opposed to any other view. This fact being admitted, we need not be surprised by finding that until the eighth or ninth century no attempt was made to trace any connection between the elaborate vestments which we have just described, and the vestments worn by those who ministered in the offices of Christian worship. ”

“ Ecclesiastical vestments, with which the present article is solely concerned, are the special articles of costume worn by the officers of the Christian Church “at all times of their ministration”—to quote the Ornaments Rubric of the English Book of Common Prayer, i.e. as distinct from the “clerical costume” worn in everyday life. Ecclesiastical vestments may again be divided into two categories: (1) liturgical vestments, (2) non-liturgical vestments. Liturgical vestments, as their name implies, are those which are especially associated with the various functions of the liturgy. ”

“ The antiquarian party, on the other hand, are unanimous in holding that the vestments of the Christian Church were evolved, by a natural process, from the ordinary costume of a Roman citizen of the first or second century of our era. ”

“ We shall first collect the main facts which can be discovered or deduced respecting vestments in the earliest centuries of Christianity, from the beginning till the rupture of the East and the West, and then discuss in detail the vestments as we find them in the succeeding period, which in all ecclesiastical matters was a period of transition, comparing each in turn with its hypothetical prototype among the civil costume of the Romans. ”

“ Before parting with the ancient vestments of the Western Church, let us spend a few moments on another, and to the antiquary a melancholy, subject, namely, the fate which has befallen them.
The number of actual vestments which survive to our own day is comparatively small. ”

“ The sovereigns of Europe and rulers of America are on its side. But what a haggard picture of union does the theatre of modern Christianity present! A garment of as many colours as the various religious creeds of modern christianity, would constitute a phenomenon fit to be carried about as a curiosity. ”

“ The sacristy contains some handsome priestly robes, especially the velvet vestment sent by Pope Julius II. to the last Catholic bishop and martyr (?) , Jón Arason, in the early sixteenth century, and still worn by the chief Protestant dignitary at ordinations. All have been carefully described: they reminded me much of the splendid vestments displayed in the Armenian convent at Jerusalem during Holy Week, and of the specimens of old embroidery, of rich stuffs, rare and interesting, that are worn at certain parts of the Protestant service by the officiating clergyman of Transylvanian Kronstadt. ”

“ The dress at the ordinary offices (mattins, lauds, etc.) is amice, alb, stole, and cope; a brass at Horsham represents a priest so vested, and has the merit of showing the exact manner in which the stole should be crossed. This combination of vestments was also worn at benedictions, at absolution after a mass for the dead, and, as just remarked, by the assistant at mass if a priest, and by the celebrant at the mass of the pre-sanctified. ”

“ And besides the construction of rich and elaborately ornamented vestments for the priests, and hangings for the altars, shrines, &c., besides these being peculiarly the occupation of the professed sisters of religious houses, it was likewise the pride and the delight of ladies of rank to devote both their money to the purchase and their time to the embroidering of sacerdotal garments as offerings to the church. ”

“ The Anglican church of Great Britain and the Protestant Episcopal church of America, as well as various other Protestant organizations have found it to be impressive and inspiring for the clergy and the sisterhood to wear robes designed to mark them as men and women set apart for service to humanity. Perhaps the Greek Catholic Church has the most elaborate system of teaching great religious truths by symbolism of any other religious organization. ”

“ The best bred people of every Christian country but our own avoid all personal display when engaged in worship and prayer. Our churches, on the contrary, are made places for the exhibition of fine apparel and other costly, flaunting compliances with fashion, by those who boast of superior wealth and manners. ”

“ Among many other details, the use of the following vestments was declared absolutely contrary to the Ecclesiastical Law of England: The biretta, chasuble, alb, and tunicle at the Holy Communion; the cope at Holy Communion except on high feast days in cathedrals and collegiate churches. On other occasions a decent and comely surplice is to be used by every minister saying the public prayers or administering the sacrament or other rites of the Church. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We are ordered to cast off our national dress, and to adopt the Castilian. Germans dress after one manner, the French after another, the Greeks after another. The clergy have a peculiar garb—youths one sort of dress—old men another—each nation, and each profession, and each rank, adopts its own style of dress. Yet all are Christians. And we Moors—why do we dress in the Morisco, as if our faith hung in our garb—not in our hearts? ”

“ The stole does not reach below the waist, and is kept in its place under the girdle. It is remarkable that the vestments of the different orders of clergy differ only in the quality of the material, and not in elaboration or form ”

“ All these persons dress in black and never cut or comb their hair from the time they enter the priesthood until they leave it; and all the sons of the principal inhabitants, both nobles and respectable citizens, are placed in the temples and wear the same dress from the age of seven or eight years until they are taken out to be married; which occurs more frequently with the firstborn, who inherits estates, than with the others. The priests are debarred from female society, nor is any woman permitted to enter the religious houses. ”

“ The people were so changed in their manners, laws and customs, and even dress, that they could not be distinguished from Christians. They were not even allowed to wear the red fez with the black tassel any more. ”

“ Not simply the righteousness of our Savior, not simply the beauty of His holiness or the graces of His character, are we to put on as a garment. The Lord Himself is our vesture. Every Christian is not only a Christ-bearer but a Christ-wearer. We are so to enter into Him by communion, to be so endued with His presence, and embued with His Spirit that men shall see Him when they behold us, as they see our garments when they look upon our bodies.—A. J. Gordon.
June 8th.
Thou shalt never wash my feet. ”

“ Prior to the fifth century, the clergy were obliged to wear no distinctive dress in private life. As in the days of the Apostles, the bishops, the priests, the clerks, the deacons, and the choristers wore tunics and sandals, as prescribed by the Saviour in the Gospel of St. ”

“ C. Molyneux as an able and earnest minister on all essential themes of the New Testament, and admire him for his sharply-defined Evangelical type; and as to vestment, declining to change the colour of his pulpit garb from black to white, although advised by the bishops. If men think there is anything of principle at the bottom of the vestment controversy, they ought certainly to be decided and unflinching on the side they conscientiously take. ”

“ The regular clergy, especially those whose dress is becoming, have great advantage in society; their costume is a mark of humility and renunciation of self, while, at the same time it lends to its wearers a decidedly dignified appearance. ”