■A Back of Foldout Not Imaged CHURCH VESTMENTS THEIR ©rijjm, WL$t, anli Ornament PRACTICALLY ILLUSTRATED. BY ANASTASIA DOLBY, AUTHORESS OF "CHURCH EMBROIDERY, ANCIENT AND MODERN," AND LATE EMBROIDERESS TO THE QUEEN. 55 ffi ffl >*< >A m Hi £3 H ft >A LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL, 1 9 3, PICCADILLY. 1868. LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. PREFACE. The favourable reception given to my Work on " Church " Embroidery " has induced me to publish this volume. The practical directions conveyed in the former book are as applicable to the ornamentation of the priestly dress as they are to the enrichment of the Sanctuary, and are based upon prin- ciples of experience, which require to be but once laid down to serve for ever. It may therefore, justly, be supposed, that upon the actual manipulation of Ecclesiastical Needlework I have no longer a cause for writing. Still, as a vestment-maker, I observe an undoubted demand for special instruction concerning just forms, correct designs, and fitting materials for the robes appointed to be worn by the Ministers of the Catholic Church in the discharge of their holy functions. The practical knowledge of sacerdotal vesture brought to bear in the following pages may be conscientiously dated from the period when the late A. W. Pugin commenced his laudable raid against the incongruous and undignified array of the Christian priesthood of the past, and first half of the present, century. At a very early age I became a subscriber to his rules for the revival of true beauty in sacred art, and day by day am more convinced that, in the main, those principles are right. iii Preface. From this admission, an advocacy for the strictly Gothic in Church designs may be inferred. Such is not quite the case, although the supposed prejudice might be well justified in the fact, that the Early Mediaeval Period, in which is comprehended the pure Gothic style, was that when symmetrical forms in rich decoration came the nearest in sacred, as in secular, art to human ideas of perfection. In this, as in my former work, nothing in the way of research has been spared for the elucidation of my subject. Where I have needed liturgical and archaeological assistance from living celebrities, I have stood within the boundary of my own province to ask their aid, and in every instance have been kindly and generously enlightened. My husband has again devoted much valuable time and energy to the illustration of my treatise. We have gone through it together, literally hand in hand, that it might be brought forth in some degree worthily, and with credit to the faith we have striven to honour. A. D. Highgate, 1 868. CONTENTS. i. Introduction — Origin, Use, and Ornament of Church Vestments II. The Amice— The Alb— The Girdle III. The Chasuble — Its changes of Form, since its Origin, explained — Various Ways of Ornamenting the Vestment described and Illus- trated ............ 43 IV. Different Materials of which a Chasuble may, and may not, be made — General Directions for making-up Vestments . 4 . .68 V. The Dalmatic of the Deacon — Tunicle of the Sub-Deacon . . . 78 VI. The Sacrificial Stole — The Maniple — The Stolone— The Confessional Stole — The Baptismal Stole — The Preaching Stole ... 86 VII. The Cope— The Hood— The Orphreys— The Morse . . . .101 VIII. • The Offertory Veil— The Chalice Veil— The Burse . . . .113 v PAGE I . 26 Contents, IX. The Surplice— The Cotta . . . . ' . PAGE 12 1 X. The Sacred Linen of the Altar — Corporal-Cloths — Palls — Purificators — Lavabor-towels . . . . . . 127 XI. The Canon's Cope — The Furred Amys ..... IS' XII. The Mitre — The Rochet — The Subcingulum — The Gremiale— Cappa Magna — The Mozetta — The Buskins — The Sandals- Gloves .......... -The -The I 35 XIII. The Pallium — The Fanon . 16" XIV. The Cassock — The Biretta — The Roman Collar .... 171 XV. Proper Colours for the Sacred Vestments ..... 174 XVI. Embroidery Stitches of the Anglo-Saxon and Early Mediaeval Periods — Illustrated by 12 Engraved Examples . 177 XVII. The Vestment-maker's Charge to the Sacristan . 186 XVIII. Frontispiece, of Pontifical High Mass, described . 191 vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Coloured Frontispiece . ..... For Description, see 191 Group of Ecclesiastics from the Psalter of Richard II. . . . . 1 Tlhree Designs for the Amice 26 Priests in Albs, from Procession of St. Alban's Shrine . . . 32 Correct Form of Alb 38 Circular Chasuble of the Early Christians 44 Bishops of Ravenna, from Mosaics of the Sixth Century ... 48 Eadulphus being made first Archbishop of Lichfield . . . -5° Chasuble of St. Thomas of Canterbury 52 Examples of the Chasuble, from Sculptured Figures of the Middle Ages 56 Vested Priests, from MSS. of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries . 58 Ancient Example of the Crucifix upon the Chasuble .... 60 Richly Vested Figure of Thomas de la Mare . . . . .62 Rack of fine old Chasuble found at Abergavenny ..... 64 Front of the same .......... 66 Vestment from the Cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle . . . . .68 Example of an Incorrect Form of the Chasuble . . . . -72 Two Designs for the Anglo-Saxon " Flower " . . . . -74 Design of Agnus Dei for the Y Cross 76 Design for the Latin Cross on the Chasuble 78 Chasuble to be used for Services of our Lady ..... 80 Ancient Figures of Deacons, and Correct Form of Dalmatic . . .82 Deacon and Sub-Deacon, from a Gregorian Sacramentary ... 84 The Orarium, and Stole, from very old examples 88 Three Designs for Baptismal and Preaching Stoles .... 98 vii list of JUusttattons. PAGE Design for Orphrey of Cope . . . . . ' . . . 102 Two Designs for Hoods of Cope ........ 106 Two Designs, suitable either for the Chasuble or the Hood of Cope . 114 Practical Illustrations of the Chalice- Veil, and Burse . . . .118 Figure of Thurifer in Surplice, from Matthew Paris . . . .121 True Form of the Surplice . . . . . . . . .122 Examples of different Vestments, on Figures from Queen Mary's Psalter 124 Acolytes in Surplices, from Queen Mary's Psalter . . . . .128 Figure of Canon in Rochet, from Molinet . . . . . .144 Examples of the Crimped and Crochet Cotta . . . . .146 Designs of Crosses for Stoles, and " Gammadion " Stole . . 152 Borders for Albs . 158 Various Ancient Examples of the Mitre, and Sandals . . . .162 The Fanon, Pallium, and Mozetta . . . . . . .170 Examples of Anglo-Saxon and Mediaeval Embroidery Stitches . 177 — 185 viii CHURCH VESTMENTS. INTRODUCTION. "And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy bro- ther for glory and for beauty. " And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise-hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. " And these are the garments which they shall make ; a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle." Exodus, ch. xxviii., ver. 2, 3, 4. ' I \HIS emphatic and direct command of God for the apparel- ling of His ministers, in a manner which should not only dis- tinguish but consecrate them for His service in the Tabernacle, should be precedent enough for any amount of zeal manifested B 1 Cfturcb Vestments. in promoting the enrichment of the sacred garments of the Priesthood, which by the Divine and undeviating Word was established as " a statute for ever." The ceremonial of the priestly dress so clearly enjoined for the Church of the Law is nowhere abrogated in the Gospel, and if, as true believers, we accept what St. John beheld in his vision of the Church in Heaven, as the type of that which should glorify the worship of the Almighty Father in His Church upon earth, we, who find our vocation in working vestments for the servants of the Lord, should hold ourselves bound to favour no sacerdotal garment, or decoration thereupon, which is not espe- cially produced for, and, as far as piety and human means can qualify it, regally worthy of, the solemn services of the King of Kings. It would be as presumptuous as futile to attempt to say or suggest anything original on correct Sacerdotal Vesture. Were we aught else greater than needleworkers, we could not take upon ourselves to teach the present generation how to make exterior things, appertaining to the worship of the true God, grander, more solemn, and more worthy of the Divine Majesty, than the inspired early followers of the faith made them. We all know that from the first Christian days especial gar- ments were set apart for the sacred rites of the Altar, and that for some time they continued to be worn secular in shape and ornamentation, principally that the observation of heathen perse- cutors might be avoided. The forms which now distinguish the robes of the Roman priesthood must of necessity have had their origin in the ordinary dress of the people among whom the pri- mitive Christians lived and walked ; but we have no difficulty in believing that, after such garments had been once consecrated to the service of the .Holy Eucharist, they were kept exclusive Cfmr Drigin, Ose, ant) HDrnament, for the like sacred usage. Equally sure may we be that the vicissitudes of fashion, whatever they may have done in trans- forming the costume of the laity, were allowed to have no imaterial effect on that of the sacerdotal community. Every good authority which we can bring to bear upon the subject agrees in assuring us that the main features of Ecclesiastical (dress have remained unaltered from the first, and, with few exceptions, as we recognise them in the Roman Catholic Church of the present day. Before proceeding further, we would observe, that after comparing all the gleanings we have made in ancient sacerdotal lore from different popular sources with the writings of Dr. Daniel Rock, we are bound to admit that we can say nothing relevant to our subject, and historically correct, that he has not already said in one. or other of his works, which literally embody, in a terse and truthful form, every interesting chronicle of every reliable authority that has gone before. If therefore, during the progress of our work, we may lay our- selves open to the charge of slavishness by quoting precedents more freely from the learned divine we have cited than from any other archaeological historian, we must claim to shield ourselves by our plea of conscientiousness alone. From the end of the sixth century may be dated the exclusive adoption by the Church, of robes identical in form with those ordinarily worn by people of condition in Rome in the infant days of Christianity. Still, long prior to the above, we gather much from the historian Anastasius respecting the beauty and costliness of the Holy Vestments, from the Emperor Aurelian, a.d. 2,75, downwards to the period when the great Constantine enrolled himself beneath the Christian banner, and the minis- tering servants of the Holy Altar, emboldened by his zeal and upheld by his power, enriched in every possible way the sacred 3 Cfwrcf) Oestmentg, garments of their office, the greater to honour and glorify the Lord of All. According to Dr. Rock, the glory of the sacred ritual which shone forth after the conversion of the Emperor Constantine must have been sublime as it was dazzling. We quote from " Hierurgia :" — " From the moment that Constantine declared himself a " Christian, the ceremonies of religion were performed with " splendour, and regal magnificence shone throughout the " sacred ritual. Before this period, the garments of the priest- " hood at the altar, though not always, were more frequently " composed of the less expensive materials, and decorated merely " with a scarlet stripe, which was then denominated ' Latus- " clavus.' This was now exchanged for a vesture, the same " indeed in form, but manufactured of the richest stuffs. " The sacred habit presented by Constantine to Macarius, the " bishop of Jerusalem, to be employed by that prelate in admi- " nistering the sacrament of baptism, was made of cloth of gold, " as we gather from the testimony of Theodoretus." — Hist. lib. ii. c. 22. It was now, too, that the strips of cloth called " clavi," which hitherto had been used for ornamenting the priestly dress, in accordance with its secular type, began to be exchanged for bands of costlier material — orphreys — to correspond with the greater splendour of the fabric of the robe. Here we must pause to remark upon a peculiarity with refer- ence to the colour of those bands denominated " clavi," which distinguished, in the way of ornament, the dresses of the Roman people before, and long after, the coming of the Saviour. We speak of the so-called purple — under which denomination came blood-red, crimson, scarlet, and, without doubt, the shade we now 4 CfjPtr HDrigin, O0e, anu Ornament. designate as rose-purple. A very interesting record relating to the ancient imperial purple is embodied thus : — Three hundred and thirty-one years before Christ, Alexander possessing himself of the city of Susa, with all its riches, took from it five thousand quintals of the highly-prized Hermione purple, which, although stored there for one hundred and ninety years, was without a blemish when it fell into the conqueror's hands. The value of this wonderful colour was equivalent to one hundred crowns a pound ; and, as a quintal was 112 lbs., we may estimate the amount of wealth contained in this dye alone, as something scarcely short of the fabulous. Among the ancients, we find Greeks, as well as Romans, holding the Tyrian purple in like esteem. Homer fails not to tell us that Andromache wrought in her lofty chamber on a cloth of resplendent purple hue at the moment when mournful cries apprised her of the death of Hector. And the Roman Tarquin received from the Etruscans a purple tunic enriched with gold, and a mantle of purple and other colours. " It was a custom," says Dr. Rock, " which universally pre- vailed amongst the ancient Romans, to ornament every gar- " ment with stripes of cloth and fringes of a purple colour. The " stripes were called ' Latus-clavus ' if broad, and 'Augustus- " clavus ' if narrow. The breadth of this -ornament was com- " mensurate with the rank and dignity of the wearer." Anastasius enlightens us as to the splendour of the Church in Rome from the most remote times to the ninth century ; but beyond this, for faithful and impartial records of the fitting magnificence of sacred vesture during the early and pure-minded days of Christianity, we may all, whether or not we are interested in the present vexed question of Ritualism, be grateful to Dug- dale. That voluminous chronicler, in his " Monasticon," carries 5 Cfmrcf) (Ilestments. us on through the Church in our own land to that epoch — the middle of the sixteenth century, when the glory of the Lord, and honour to His name, were sacrificed to the ambition and avarice of men ; and priests and people, whether of just or of erring lives, were alike, only to be tolerated, when seen farthest away from the true worship of their fathers. The coldest Puritan might shudder, as he follows the chroni- cler, at the thought of the manner in which we all know- thousands of those precious garments consecrated to the service of the Almighty, and fragrant with the incense offered to His throne, were either destroyed, or, what was worse, dese- crated by the secular and debased uses to which they were put. These are truths which should be palpable to all. The records we have searched are accessible to all ; and they who read them may perhaps find their store of knowledge profitably increased on many things, which may be of greater importance to some minds than the revival of a taste for sacred needlework. As for ourselves, we have already intimated in our former book that our love for Church Embroidery is greater than our ability or desire for disputation. We hold our subject in such respect as to deem it fully worthy of more than the life's study we have hitherto made it, and are too grateful to be able to handle it without the necessity for moving one step beyond our womanly province. It is impossible to close our eyes to the fact that purity of taste in Ecclesiastical ornament was in its decadence long before Henry the Eighth came to the throne. Evidences of the sacrifice of the pious spirit which breathed through the sacred designs of previous times, to secular sentiment and worldly display, are visible prior to the close of the fifteenth century. Up to the time of Henry the Sixth, religious art may be said to have 6 Cfjetr ©rigtn, Ose, anU Ornament, advanced, with the age, in beauty and pious sentiment, till it had attained a point of grandeur and exclusive excellence in the representation and construction of sacred objects, from which no step but one of retrogression could well be taken. During this golden age of artistic merit, the cathedrals of York, Westminster, Durham, and many others, were added to, and embellished with a dazzling splendour, which no amount of wealth, unaided by the pious motive power that originated these wondrous structures, could ever again restore. The Percy shrine at Beverley, that peerless work of sacred art, was raised under the inspiration of those days ; and, battered and mutilated as it has been, is still worthy of a pilgrimage from far- off lands to see. When we call to mind how Oliver Cromwell did his best to destroy and utterly annihilate every beauteous thing belonging to the ancient Church, which had escaped the covetous eye of Henry the Eighth, the wonder is, that so much has been left to wonder at. Let us give honour where honour is due. In nearly every corner throughout our land there still exists some touching fragment of a tale told in stone long ages ago, which few of us might read unassisted by those keys, both of the pen and pencil, which the toilers who have gone before laboured so assiduously to leave to us ere the ravages of time should com- plete the work of obliteration, so cruelly commenced by man, on those nobly sculptured pages. In like manner do those glorious manuscripts and chronicles enable us to trace with accuracy, and to our edification, the pious origin and history of many a venerable monument in hallowed needlework, which we find faded, transformed, and often misappropriated. 7 Cfmrcf) Vestments. Therefore, honoured alike be the memory of historian and artist, who, in spite of a wicked king's avarice and a misguided Puritan's destroying hand, have secured to us yet records enough of art in the true religion of the past to educate our eyes, and enlarge our minds beyond the presumptuous belief that white- washed walls and robeless priests do well enough for the worship of the Creator, while His creatures raise for themselves luxurious palaces, and adorned in costly garments and priceless jewels, are content to live only in their own glorification. Too often " from " this want of faith in things of God's appointment, are we only " capable of receiving such as please our ears, through some idol " man." And not unfrequently lacking charity, in every Christian phase, even to the bestowal of the cup of cold water in His name. As, after the so-called Reformation, everything which could remind the people of the grand old Ritual of the past was sedulously swept away, it is not remarkable that those of the present day, who advocate the restoration of the Sacerdotal Vesture of the early and incorrupt Church, should desire to take their precedents from a period long anterior to the " second year of King Edward the Sixth." In the Anglo-Saxon manuscripts we find beautifully illumin- ated drawings of sacerdotal costume of a very early date in England ; but little is to be discovered in writing respecting the just forms of the sacred vestments prior to the Norman Conquest; although, long before then, frequent mention is made of costly gifts to different churches, including chasublS§; £0pS§, §tole§, albs, and the like. As, for instance, King Ina, a.d. 708, who rebuilt Glastonbury Abbey, loaded it with sumptuous sacred things. Dugdale tells us : — " The old abbey church, which he had " new built, he caused to be re-consecrated, and dedicated it to 8 C&etr Origin, &#e, anD Drnament. God, in honour of Christ, and the Apostles Peter and Paul. One of the chapels (supposed to be St. Joseph's) he garnished " over with gold and silver, and gave to it ornaments and vessels " of gold and silver. The gold plate of the gift amounted to " 333 l° s - weight, the silver to 2835 lbs. weight, besides the gold and precious gems embroidered in the celebrating vestments, " according to the account that Speed gives us of this bene- * £ faction ; but, according to the relation that Stowe and the English martirologe give of it, it came to a great deal more." Again, it is recorded of Egelric, elected abbat of Croyland in the year 984, that "He gave numerous vestments to the office of the sacrist, viz. : to every altar in the church two chasubles, one for Sundays, and another richer ; to the choir twenty-four copes, six white, six red, six green, and six black ;" besides clothing " the whole convent every year with gowns, every " second year with hoods, and every third year with frocks, at " his own expense." " The doomed and often suffering, but always magnificent " Croyland Abbey," must have been greatly enriched by vest- ments. King Canute, on his return from Rome, a.d. 1032, was met at Sandwich by Abbat Brithmer of Croyland, who presented him with two palfreys, upon which the king gave the abbat a vestment of silk, interwoven with eagles of gold. Meet cause must it have been for gratulation when, upon the destruction of the abbey by fire in 1091, the contents of the sacred wardrobe, owing to the double stone roof of the vestry, were found uninjured. Notwithstanding this valuable salvage, the calamity was one to be for ever universally deplored ; for not only did all the old charters of the Mercian kings perish in the conflagration, but hundreds of other important historical documents as well. On this sad occasion we read of relief being Cfmrcf) Oestments. sent to the monks in the shape of "money, wheat, oxen, hogs, etc ;" and that " even Juliana, a poor woman of Weston, gave a large " quantity of wound thread to sew the vestments of the monks." However trifling such a record as the latter may appear to some, we are disposed to regard it as a striking proof of the reverence in which such things were generally held in these early simple-minded times, when a laic, whose poverty was great enough to be remarked, tendered what, from her, must have been so munificent an offering, for the seemly keeping of the dress of the priestly office. To enumerate a tithe of the vestiary splendour which comes before us relating to Croyland would leave us no room for a glance at some of the marvels of sacerdotal grandeur contained in the vestments of different progressive periods belonging to other churches. Yet, ere we leave our much-loved Croyland Abbey, we are impelled to remark on the gift of Lawrence Chateres, the cook, of — " The black vestment wrought scripturis aureis," for officiating in at funerals, " valued at 26/.," which was an enor- mous sum in those days. And again, our attention is called to the gift of Brother Richard Woxbridge, of — " The purple vestment sprinkled with gold flowers, two copes, " and a chasuble with tunics ;" and to that of the good Abbat Upton, who, early in the fifteenth century, among other sacred and costly things, bestowed on his church — "A red cope ornamented with gold and jewels, commonly called " ' Ibi et Ubi,' valued at 100 marks ; a vestment ornamented with " the arms of England and France quarterly, with copes of the " same workmanship, which also cost 100 marks ; and silk em- " broidered with falcons of gold, enough to make seven copes, " which Abbat John Lytlington, his successor, made up." 10 Cftcir flDrigm, ftlse, ant) Drnament Finally, it would be an injustice to this same Abbat Lytlington were we to dismiss Croyland without mention of his emulation of Richard Upton in exemplary benefactions to the monastery. He gave to it no fewer than nine copes of cloth of gold, embroi- dered in curious feat/ier-work, and valued at 240/. ; besides a suit of vestments of red and gold, consisting of three copes, with a chesible and three tunics, which cost 160/. These two sums being equivalent to 6000/. in money of the present day. Every page which we have turned in research for our subject has kept us lingering over it with as much reverence for, as inte- rest in, the people who, whatever might sometimes have been their shortcomings as men to men, through those troubled ages of per- secution, invasion, bloodshed, and every species of fearful worldly warfare, from the apostolic times to far into the sixteenth century, persistently and undeviatingly observed all the solemnities due to God and our blessed Redeemer in the services of the Church ; and contributed to, and maintained in becoming splendour, every appointment of the sacred office of the Holy Eucharist, as a first and last duty and privilege of the Christian profession. Cheering, too, is it to find, that whether of the priesthood or of the world, that man who.was esteemed most excellent in other relations of life, was ever the one to busy himself most about things meet and magnificent for the worship of God in His Church. Of such, may we suppose, was Garinus, Abbat of St. Alban's, who, when all the chalices in England were called for to ransom King Richard the First from the Germans, redeemed those belonging to his monastery by the ready payment of 200 marks.* He also gave to the abbey that wonderful purple cha- suble, so richly ornamented with figures of birds, and embroi- dery in fine pearls, that no just value could be set upon it. * An old English coin — 13J. qd. sterling. I I Cfmrcf) Oestments. It was this good man too, who, dying late in the twelfth century, left 100 marks for the renewal of the front of the church. One of his successors, Thomas de la Mare, in the middle of the fourteenth century, was even more munificent in his gifts to the abbey. It is said that he spent enormously on sacred plate and vestments, and that three mitres alone cost him 100/. Then we read of Godfrey de Croyland, who gave to Gauce- linus, one of the cardinals who rested at Peterborough, on his return from his mission of peace to the Scots on the part of King Edward, " a cope of gold cloth richly embroidered, and " purchased at 100 marks sterling." By the records of Wells Cathedral, the foundation of which was almost coeval with Glastonbury Abbey, we are informed of great gifts bequeathed to it in the fifteenth century by Bishop Beckington ; including four very costly vestments, 400/. to buy copes, a bishop's chair with cushions, and other ornaments. The adjacent abbey of Bath was also worthily remembered in his will ; for, besides much valuable plate, he left to it thirty copes and other vestments. The sacred robes contained in Old St. Paul's in the thirteenth century were as rich as they were numerous. In the inventory of the contents of the treasury in this church, made a.d. 1295, Dugdale signalizes, among other treasures — " Nine mitres, some of them set with precious stones. " Nine pairs of rich sandals. " Eight croziers. " Ten rich cushions. " One hundred copes, most or all of them of the most costly " silks, many embroidered, and many of cloth of gold and tissue, " besides most curious needlework and imagery. 12 C&eir flDugtn, Ose. ana flDtnament, " Eighteen amices ; and one hundred vestments or chasubles, " with proportionate stoles, maniples, tunicks, dalmaticks, albes, " corporals, canopies, etc." We contemplate with natural wonder the profusion and cost- liness of the vestments alone, after the manner just described, belonging to our principal cathedrals and churches, when that " most dread, victorious, sovereign lord, King Henry the Eighth ' issued his royal order for the surrender of their sacred effects to his impious will. No true Christian at any period could wish to realize the cruel acts of demolition committed in Christian temples in that thirty- first year of that most dread king's reign. It is enough to know that nothing was held too sacred for his unworthy grasp. The golden chalice was profanely snatched from the hands of the priest officiating before God's holy altar, robbed of its jewels, and then melted down to be converted into coin. Costly mitres by the hundred were broken up for the sake of the pearls and precious stones that garnished them ; and the hallowed robes of the Eucharistic sacrifice were rent by lawless hands, and their beautiful needlework designs defaced and mutilated, that the rare stuffs used in their formation might be turned into money, to satisfy the lust of one unjust man's avarice. After reading the inventories taken in 1539 of the sacerdotal possessions of the monasteries in England, we find ourselves ready to search everywhere, with the hope of meeting with the merest shred by which we may recognise some one or other of the sumptuous, robes enumerated in those richly-filled lists. Such as were comprised in that gift of Cardinal Beaufort, to Winchester, of the " cope of needlework, wrought with gold and " pearls ;" and the " one chysible, two tymasyles, and parel of y e " albes of y e same work ;" or but one of those countless suits of *3 Cfmrcf) fttotments. " chesible, tunicles, copes, albes, and stoles," described so fully in the account of Peterborough. Then again, from those copious lists of Lincoln Abbey, what might it not serve us, could we but see, even in a faded and tattered condition, but one of those " six copes of red velvet — " one suit — broidered with angels, with the Scripture, * Da glo- " riam Deo,' with orphreys of needlework ; of the which four " had four Evangelists in the morses, and the fifth a Lamb in " the morse, and the sixth a white rose and an image in the " morse." Or the " cope of red velvet, broidered with flowers " and angels of gold, and two of them having this Scripture, " ' Sanctus ;' in the morse, a tower ; in the hood, the Salutation " of Our Lady." We have sat picturing to ourselves the great beauty of that gift of its sometime treasurer to Lincoln of the "white cloth " chasuble, broidered with images and angels in gold, which had " the Trinity worked in the back, with the Holy Ghost repre- " sented in pearl, and divers pearls in other images." The Eucha- ristic garment, the chasuble, is here clearly distinguished in richness from the dalmatics, or tunacles,. as they are set down ; for they are described as " of the same suit, without pearls? It is also worthy of note that such gifts almost invariably included, as we find it here, the whole suit of robes for the three officiating priests at the grand mass, viz. : the chasuble, two dalmatics, three albes, and three amices, with corresponding stoles and maniples. Of the many munificent offerings of entire suits of vestments to Lincoln's wealthy wardrobe, we have singled out the following, as instancing the thought and means bestowed on the ministers of the altar by noble ladies of bygone times. A gift of the Countess of Westmoreland is recorded as — " A H Cbeir fiDrigm, &se, anD ©rnament. " red chesable of cloth of gold, with branches of gold, and the " orphreys of green cloth, with two tunacles and three albes," etc. And one from the Duchess of Lancaster, as — "A chesable of " red bawdkin, with orphreys of gold with leopards, powdered " with black trefoils, with two tunacles and three albes of the " same suit, with all their apparels." While still further is the same liberal hand commemorated by — " Twenty fair copes, " every one of which had wheels of silver in the hoods. And a " chesable of red velvet with Catherine wheels of gold, with " two tunacles and three albes, with all the apparels of the " same suit." Some very chaste examples of ancient English vestments exist in the possession of different members of our Catholic nobility and gentry ; but, with few exceptions, these old. sacred robes are now jealously kept from exhibition, with reverence, and a sort of atoning care for the neglect and ill-usage of three long centuries of scorn and condemnation. In the Great Exhibition of 1862 some of these were shown; one of them a cope of fourteenth-century work, belonging to Mount St. Mary's, Chesterfield, which Dr. Rock thus described : — "No. 3,002. A very rich crimson velvet cope, of great beauty " as a specimen of English needlework embroidered in gold, with " subjects much after the fashion of the Syon vestment, and " most admirably executed, but without any heraldry about it. " One striking peculiarity is, that the angels carry stars in their " hands or lying on their laps. This incident refers to the "subject figured in the centre part on the back — the coming to " Bethlehem of the three wise men, wearing crowns of kings, the "foremost of whom is pointing with his outstretched right " hand up to the leading star a little way off, above them. From " some remnants it would seem that once certain parts of this *5 Cfmrcfc Oestments, " cope were thickly studded with seed pearls, and from its profu- " sion of gold, so unstintedly embroidered all over it, and its " rich velvet of so deep a pile and ruby tone of colour, it must " have been a gorgeous vestment in its day. " As we behold it now, it furnishes us with one out of so many " sad instances of the vandalism by which thousands of such " admirable art-works of the English needle have been snatched " away. The creature who once owned this precious cope cut " it up piecemeal, and gave parts away. Some of it was ruth- " lessly employed as the covering for a cushion, and heedlessly " knocked about. Not long ago a man, the Rev. W. Clifford, " of wider heart and warmer feelings for his country's mediaeval " productions, sought out with untiring labour, and got together " as many shreds as possible of this fine old English embroidery ; "and after great toil joined them as well as might be, filling up " the gaps with coloured sketches of the wanting fragments, " done in excellent taste upon the new linen lining of the restored ■ cope. One other of the ancient vestments in the Exhibition at this time so impressed us by its beauty and historical associations, that we must quote it as described by the above accomplished pen. It was sent from Stonyhurst College : — "No. 3,005. A magnificent cope of cloth of gold, figured " with bold, widely-spreading foliage dotted with small gold " spots, and ornamented all about with portcullises crowned and " red roses. The lower hem is bordered with collars of SS " and portcullises ; and no doubt this is one of ' the whole suit " of vestments and coopies of cloth of gold tissue, wrought " with our badges of red roses and portcullises, the which we of "late caused to be made at Florence, in Italy,' which our " King Henry the Seventh, in his will, bequeathed ' to God and 16 Cfceir HDrigm, ®se, anD ©rnamcnt. "St. Peter, and to the abbot and prior and convent of our "monastery of Westminster,' etc. — Testamenta Vetusta, ed. "Nicolas, t. i., p. 33. Perhaps the design of this cope was " furnished by Torrigiano, and, through his procurement, the " whole and large set of vestments was woven at Florence. The "orphrey and hood are of poor English embroidery, and " unworthy of the cope, and in all likelihood not the originals. " Florentine tissue of the end of the fifteenth or beginning of " the sixteenth century." The cope belonging to Sir Robert Throckmorton, also exhibited in 1862, was very fine : it was of purple velvet, pow- dered with double-headed eagles, beautifully embroidered in English work of the fifteenth century, with much gold about the orphrey, the hood, and the morse. Very good photographs of this cope, and of some other vestments of like beauty, are to be had at South Kensington. We have enjoyed the privilege of restoring, or, more properly, preserving in our time many sacred garments, interesting and old as some of those just described. Among them, a chasuble of the fourteenth century, belonging to Hengrave Hall, where it had been for ages a cherished heir- loom of one of the oldest and most honourable baronetcies in Suffolk. Lord Petre also possesses a vestment of great antiquity and beauty, which some fifteen years ago received much of our care and attention ; Silvertop, Esq., of Minster Acres, another. We could name many others which have an equal claim upon our veneration ; but without descriptions, for which we have not space, a mere enumeration of all the ancient vestments we have had the happiness to pass our working fingers over, would be lauding ourselves, and bringing no profit to our readers. Cfnitcf) Ocstments. One of these fine old records in needlework must not, however, be passed over. It consisted of some vestments which were submitted to us a few years since by J. Baker Gabb, Esq., of Abergavenny. They were brought from the old religious house of Perthir, where, in the most retired part of Monmouth- shire, the English Franciscans preserved in penal times many most curious relics of better days. They are said, with some degree of probability, to have been used originally in the very ancient parish church of St. John, at Abergavenny, now no longer a church, but the grammar-school of the town. The most curious of these ancient embroidered robes is a chasuble of mixed work of the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- turies ; probably effected, when the embroidery was transferred from its primitive ground, by the indiscriminate use of the needlework of two vestments of different periods, with a view to making one chasuble superlatively rich in ornament ; or possibly commenced in one generation, and carried through some others to its completion, as was most common in mediaeval times, when a piece of church-work was always in hand by some member, or members, of nearly every family. If the task was left undone when its originators were called away, it was piously proceeded with by the next branch, who again might not be spared to its accomplishment. Still, a suc- ceeding member would take it up, and so on to its consummation. In this manner we can as well account for a mixture of styles in sacred needlework, as we can for the like in fine architectural structures, which are so rarely found to have been begun and finished in one man's generation. On the vestment in question, the fourteenth century is illus- i rated by a powdering of cherubs on wheels, lily-pots, and fleur- 18 C&eir ©riffin, ana ©tnament. de-lis. The fifteenth century is evidenced by the wide Latin cross, displaying the Crucifixion, with angels receiving the blood, from the arms and side of our Lord, in chalices. Beneath the Calvary are canopied figures, as upon the pillar in front, which is also powdered by Ely flowers, gracefully en- riched by scrolls of gold. Its ground is crimson velvet, now somewhat faded, to which it has evidently been transferred a century or more ago, and the lovely work most cruelly mal- treated in the process. The original design had, doubtless, been spread over a full and majestic chasuble, but it is cut up on all sides to accommo- date it to the miserably narrow shape of the eighteenth century, upon which it comes before us. The mischievous scissors have gone hissing, as though very Pagans had guided them, through every symbol dear to Christian eyes, and have even cut the lower canopied figure of the dorsal cross in half, to make the work fit nicely round the stunted garment of this epoch of ugliness. # The embroidery had been tolerably well preserved, and simply required mending here and there ; in other respects it remains as when we first saw it, and as shown on Plates 12 and 13. The work upon another of these chasubles is altogether of the fifteenth century, and a fine example of its time. The ground, upon which we found it, had been a superb crimson and gold brocade velvet, the pile of which crumbled under the touch, * ' ' When the ancient cathedral church of Waterford was demolished for the purpose of "erecting the present wretched pile of building, a complete set of cloth-of-gold vestments ' ' were discovered, of the most exquisite design and enrichments. These were given to the "Catholic bishop and clergy of the time, and being in a sufficient state of preservation for " use, they actually cut the chasubles to the modern French form, and sliced out whole "images from the needlework orphreys. One set of these vestments in their present dis- " figured state were presented by the Earl of Shrewsbury to St. Mary's College, Oscott, and " present, among the other ecclesiastical antiquities, a striking evidence of ancient excellence "and modern degeneracy." — Pugin, 1844. 19 Cfmrc& (Hestments. although, the gold woven through it, rested bright and perfect on the threadbare surface. As to the needlework, whether of gold or silk, it tenaciously held together, requiring little more from us than a new foundation, to restore to it its true value for its exalted purpose. The figures are nearly perfect, and a rebus of " R. W." and the tun, at the top of the pillar in front of the vestment, is remarkable as a peculiarity frequently observable in Church Embroidery of this period.* Beneath is the figure of a bishop fully vested for the Mass, but not he whose name is given by rebus, as there is a nimbus round the head ; on his finger is the episcopal ring, and in his hand he holds the pastoral staff. The two other figures on the pillar are St. John the Evangelist and St. Andrew. Upon the cross above the Crucifix of our blessed Lord is the descending Dove ; and below the Calvary, the blessed Virgin and Child, exquisitely wrought. The arms at the bottom of the cross enable us, assisted by one well versed in heraldry, to trace somewhat of the history of this beautiful vestment. The arms are described as : — "Proper (divided down the centre). " Baron and femme. " Baron quartering. " i. RadclifTe. " 2. Fitzwalter, gold, a fesse between two chevrons, red. " 3. Burnell, silver, a lion rampant, argent crowned. " 4. Derwentwater. * In Dugdale's Inventory of Lincoln we come upon ' ' a cope of green velvet, broidered " with lilies, with an orphrey of needlework, with a morse with a ton, and a branch of hay- " thorn, having this scripture in the morse : ' Orate pro anima Roberti Thornton ;' and in the " hood : ' Pater de coelis,' etc., with the Trinity." 20 Cbeit HDrigtn,