Some Church Customs Explained
By S.G. Thicknesse
Exceptional Hats?
A early as the fourth century A.D., bishops in the West tended to appear in hats on ceremonial occasions, but the best authorities deny that they ever went into church in them until centuries later.
When Pope Constantine [not to be confused with the Emperor Constantine] made a State entry into Constantinople at the beginning of the eighth century he wore a tiara-perhaps an elaboration of the classic wreath or crown. But usually bishops were likely to wear a form of the `phrygian cap'. It would be quite natural for this helmet-like cap to be made of white stuff, sometimes stiffened to make it stand up. Its name in Greek was mitra.
But the evidence is that for many centuries people would have been exceedingly shocked if a bishop had gone into church with his head in any such covering.
There almost sounds still a breath of scandal in the seventh century exclamation of the historian Simeon, Archbishop of Thessalonica: `Every bishop and priest of the East, with the exception of the Patriarch of Alexandria, says Mass with his head bare '
Indeed when as late as the tenth and eleventh century in the West (but not till the sixteenth century in the East) it began to be not unheard - of for a bishop to appear even inside the church in his mitre, it seems as - though this procedure had started through frailty or absentmindedness.
By S.G. Thicknesse
Exceptional Hats?
A early as the fourth century A.D., bishops in the West tended to appear in hats on ceremonial occasions, but the best authorities deny that they ever went into church in them until centuries later.
When Pope Constantine [not to be confused with the Emperor Constantine] made a State entry into Constantinople at the beginning of the eighth century he wore a tiara-perhaps an elaboration of the classic wreath or crown. But usually bishops were likely to wear a form of the `phrygian cap'. It would be quite natural for this helmet-like cap to be made of white stuff, sometimes stiffened to make it stand up. Its name in Greek was mitra.
But the evidence is that for many centuries people would have been exceedingly shocked if a bishop had gone into church with his head in any such covering.
There almost sounds still a breath of scandal in the seventh century exclamation of the historian Simeon, Archbishop of Thessalonica: `Every bishop and priest of the East, with the exception of the Patriarch of Alexandria, says Mass with his head bare '
Indeed when as late as the tenth and eleventh century in the West (but not till the sixteenth century in the East) it began to be not unheard - of for a bishop to appear even inside the church in his mitre, it seems as - though this procedure had started through frailty or absentmindedness.
It may well have been a rather old Bishop of Rome who in the tenth century first went on into St. Peter's in the mitre which he had always worn in procession to the great door. But the innovation, once made, became customary in Rome.
Like the fabled garter of the Countess of Salisbury which Edward III raised to be the emblem of the most coveted order of knighthood, the wearing of a mitre in church, because it had become a peculiarity of the Bishop of Rome, became a dignity to be sought and granted elsewhere as a special favour.
Three years before William of Normandy invaded England, Pope Alexander II even honoured Abbot Egelsinus of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, by making him the first abbot ever to be granted a mitre.
Soon the novelty wore off and mitres turned conventional. They therefore had to vie with one another in magnificence. Since all the other bishops in Western Christendom had adopted liturgical mitres, the Pope differentiated his, first by the single encircling crown, then in the thirteenth century by a second, and finally in the fourteenth by a third.
Like the fabled garter of the Countess of Salisbury which Edward III raised to be the emblem of the most coveted order of knighthood, the wearing of a mitre in church, because it had become a peculiarity of the Bishop of Rome, became a dignity to be sought and granted elsewhere as a special favour.
Three years before William of Normandy invaded England, Pope Alexander II even honoured Abbot Egelsinus of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, by making him the first abbot ever to be granted a mitre.
Soon the novelty wore off and mitres turned conventional. They therefore had to vie with one another in magnificence. Since all the other bishops in Western Christendom had adopted liturgical mitres, the Pope differentiated his, first by the single encircling crown, then in the thirteenth century by a second, and finally in the fourteenth by a third.
The Bishop of Durham encircled his mitre with a ducal coronet when it surmounted the armorial bearings of his see.
John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, although he was a Franciscan, paid £174 4s. 1d. for his mitre in the thirteenth century (at a time when an ox could be bought for thirteen shillings, 104 eggs for eightpence, and a blacksmith might make eight shillings per month), although, in the fourteenth, Bishop John Drokensford of Bath and Wells gave only £23 6s. 8d. for two. Abbot Thomas Delamare in the brass in St. Albans Abbey wears a fine example of a great mitre of his time.
John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, although he was a Franciscan, paid £174 4s. 1d. for his mitre in the thirteenth century (at a time when an ox could be bought for thirteen shillings, 104 eggs for eightpence, and a blacksmith might make eight shillings per month), although, in the fourteenth, Bishop John Drokensford of Bath and Wells gave only £23 6s. 8d. for two. Abbot Thomas Delamare in the brass in St. Albans Abbey wears a fine example of a great mitre of his time.
With bishops so lordly, and mitres a symbol of their mightiness spiritual and temporal, it is not at all surprising that clerics of every grade should also expect to appear in church in a version of the distinctive caps which they customarily wore out of doors. These had been a form of skull cap (specially welcome to the shaven crowns of mediaeval clerks) which had taken the place of the old hood of the rough cloak known as the `birrus'. Perhaps their Italian name biretta or beretta was thence derived.
These soft caps in time had become slightly higher, being easily pinched into dents by the hand that removed or replaced them. Then these dents, either three or four, became formalized, as they are to-day. Despite prohibitions, in England made as late as the thirteenth century, clergy of all ranks in time managed to keep on their birettas in church.
Indeed, a little later, noblemen and others generally were also keeping on their peculiar hats, and did so intermittently, in England, till the early nineteenth century.
But a memory remains even to-day, wherever mitres or birettas are still worn, of the compromise with primitive custom which their introduction signified. A bishop or priest by formal rubric discards the head covering at prayer. He wears it only when he is processing, when he is seated, or, like the judge who puts on the black cap to pronounce sentence, when he exercises spiritual jurisdiction.
These soft caps in time had become slightly higher, being easily pinched into dents by the hand that removed or replaced them. Then these dents, either three or four, became formalized, as they are to-day. Despite prohibitions, in England made as late as the thirteenth century, clergy of all ranks in time managed to keep on their birettas in church.
Indeed, a little later, noblemen and others generally were also keeping on their peculiar hats, and did so intermittently, in England, till the early nineteenth century.
But a memory remains even to-day, wherever mitres or birettas are still worn, of the compromise with primitive custom which their introduction signified. A bishop or priest by formal rubric discards the head covering at prayer. He wears it only when he is processing, when he is seated, or, like the judge who puts on the black cap to pronounce sentence, when he exercises spiritual jurisdiction.
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