Stole, Maniple, Amice, Pallium, Ecclesiastical Girdle, Humeral Veil
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CHAPTER 8 Minor Vestments: Stole, Maniple, Amice, Pallium, Ecclesiastical Girdle, Humeral Veil Introduction vestment of a pope, and of such bishops as were granted it by the pope as a sign of their metropolitan status.4 The term ‘minor vestments’ is used here to signify a Mostly, but not exclusively, the pallium was granted by number of smaller items which are not primary dress, the pope to archbishops – but they had to request it for- in the sense that albs, chasubles, copes and dalmatics mally, the request accompanied by a profession of faith are dress, but are nevertheless insignia of diaconal and (now an oath of allegiance). It seems to have been con- priestly (sometimes specifically episcopal) office, given sidered from early times as a liturgical vestment which at the appropriate service of ordination or investiture. could be used only in church and during mass, and, in- Other insignia are considered in other sections: the mitre creasingly, only on certain festivals. In the sixth century (Chapter 1); ecclesiastical shoes, buskins and stockings it took the form of a wide white band with a red or black (Chapters 7 and 9), and liturgical gloves (Chapter 10). cross at its end, draped around the neck and shoulders The girdle, pallium, stole and maniple all have the in such a way that it formed a V in the front, with the form of long narrow bands. The girdle was recognised ends hanging over the left shoulder, one at the front and as part of ecclesiastical dress from the ninth century at one at the back. The ends were finished with tassels. By least. It was (and is) used to gather up the fullness of the the eighth century the ends were pinned down at cen- alb.1 Prayers attached to putting it on referred to spiri- tre front and back, creating a Y-shape, again at front and tual watchfulness. It appears to be mentioned as a mass back; and later still it became fixed in this form as a sewn vestment from as early as the late eighth or early ninth garment. The band also became narrower over time, and century – in the Stowe Missal (Royal Irish Academy, the ends shorter.5 Both of the pieces discussed here be- Dublin, MS D II 3).2 It now usually takes the form of a long to the early development of the form: one (8.3) has simple cord, whereas surviving examples of ecclesiasti- the single cross on one end found on early pieces (from cal girdles from the Middle Ages are often elaborate silk the ninth century the number of crosses increased); and bands. Girdles survived in church treasuries because of the other (8.4) though a long narrow band, has no cross their association with important donors or recipients, contemporary with its original manufacture definitive- but also, as in the case of the two discussed here, be- ly to mark its purpose, but possibly became a pallium cause important relics became attached to them. A fea- through the addition of the later crosses. It might origi- ture of both the Ailbecunda and the Witgar belts (8.1, nally have been some other vestment, perhaps a stole. 8.2) which may also have been important for their pres- The two afford a glimpse of a period when the criteria ervation, is the use of inscriptions as the major element for particular vestments were not as fixed as they later of their decoration. became. The pallium is mentioned in the first half of the fourth The stole is a liturgical scarf, which may have origi- century, when Pope Marcus (died 336) is recorded in the nated as a liturgical napkin carried by deacons, or as a Liber Pontificalis giving the right to wear the pallium to neck cloth originally peculiar to priests, or else as a litur- the bishop of Ostia, because this bishop had the right to gical badge introduced first in the Eastern Church, in the consecrate the bishop of Rome – that is, the pope.3 Thus already (by the time this material was collected together in the sixth century) the pallium was seen as a distinctive 4 The same word was used in these early centuries to describe some- thing more like a maniple, and even some altar furnishings: Davis, The Book of Pontiffs, 121. It could also mean a luxurious cloth, and 1 Herbert Thurston, ‘Cincture’ in The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. a cloak. See Dictionary of Medieval Latin in British Sources: http:// III (New York: The Encyclopedia Press, 1908), 776: https://archive logeion.uchicago.edu/index.html#pallium accessed 17 April 2016; .org/details/catholicencyclop03herbuoft accessed 14 April 2016. also the Manchester Lexis of Cloth and Clothing Project database: 2 Thurston, ‘Cincture’, believed it was seventh-century. http://lexissearch.arts.manchester.ac.uk/entry.aspx?id=3575 3 Raymond Davis, trans. and ed., The Book of Pontiffs (Liber accessed 14 March 2017. Pontificalis). The Ancient Biographies of the First Ninety Roman 5 Joseph Braun, ‘Pallium’ in The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. XI (New Bishops to AD 715 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1989), York: The Encyclopedia Press, 1911), 427–9: https://archive.org/ 35:2 (p. 26). details/catholicencyclop11herbuoft accessed 18 April 2016. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���8 | doi ��.��63/978900435��6�_0�0 310 CHAPTER 8 fourth century.6 In the Western Church, under the name The stole was one of the vestments essential for the orarium, it first appeared in Spain in the sixth and sev- celebrant to wear at mass. In its simplest form it was enth centuries, and was first mentioned in Rome only made of wool or linen. The Durham stole and match- from the late eighth century. The earliest references in ing maniple (8.5), securely dated to the early tenth cen- the Eastern Church are as early as the fourth and fifth cen- tury by their embroidered inscriptions, almost certainly turies, but mention only its use by deacons; it was appar- made under royal patronage and donated as a royal gift ently not used by priests until the eighth. Subsequently to the shrine of Durham’s famous saint, are the earliest and throughout the medieval Christian period the stole gold and silk vestments to survive in Western Europe, took the form of a long narrow band worn by deacons, leading Maureen Miller to suggest that Anglo-Saxon priests and bishops. An earlier use by sub-deacons and England led the fashion for what she calls the ‘ornate acolytes disappeared. Over the course of the Middle style’ of liturgical dress for higher clergy in ninth- to Ages, different ways of wearing the stole were intro- twelfth-century Europe,10 although the Ulrich maniple duced for the different orders of clergy. Deacons wore it (8.6) which survives in Germany and is not much later over the left shoulder, from the thirteenth century plac- than the Durham stole and maniple suggests that this ing it diagonally across the body like a sash, tying it at is not necessarily so. Nevertheless, the stole from the the right hip. Priests and bishops wore the stole round tomb of St Cuthbert, with its companion maniple, has the neck, a priest crossing it in front and securing it with a very important place in the development of European the cingulum or girdle which was tied round his waist embroidery as a whole; and in the development of these over his alb, a bishop leaving it to hang down at both mass vestments (which were much plainer before and sides. The chasuble was worn over it, and the ends of the became much plainer again in later times). Together stole, often fringed or ornamented in some other way, with the maniple, it is also an important landmark in the were visible below the chasuble.7 Investment with the use of inscriptions both for brief descriptive purposes, stole was a feature of the ordination ceremony for dea- and for recording donors and their dedicatees. cons and priests, with the presiding bishop placing the The Heraldic Stole (8.7) shows a very different era of vestment in the correct position on the body of the ordi- design and spirit. The embroideries from St Cuthbert’s nand, in the case of a new priest moving it from the dia- tomb are exceptionally rich for their period and are conal position. In some ordination ceremonies the stole clearly the product of royal patronage. The thirteenth- was first placed round the shoulders of the new priest to to fourteenth-century Heraldic Stole (8.7) shows armo- symbolise his commitment to his specific church, before rial bearings, which in other instances might have been being placed round his neck.8 Surviving prayers for cler- a proclamation of family connections and prestige (as in ics to recite as they vested with each garment associate the case of the burial garments of Fernando de la Cerda, the stole with justice and the purification of its wearer 1.7, 2.6, 5.4), but here possibly as an expression of fash- from sins. Its position, round the shoulders, was equated ionable taste, and less certainly indicative of royal or with a yoke, a burden of service to God and the priest’s even aristocratic patronage. congregation.9 Unlike the stole, with which it came to be associat- ed, the maniple (also called fanon, mantile, mappula or sudarium) originally had a practical function.11 It derived 6 For a full discussion of the possible origins and history of the from a towel used to clean the eyes, nose and mouth and stole, see Joseph Braun, ‘Stole’ in The Catholic Encyclopedia, was carried over the left arm.