Chap. II. Edward VI. for the habits in which ministers are to officiate; where there are two rubrics relating to them, one prescribing what habits shall be worn in all public ministrations whatsoever, the other relating only to the habits that are to be used at the Communion. The first is in the last leaf of the book, and runs thus:

The Sur

so called.

In the saying or singing of Mattens, or Even-song, Baptizing and Burying, the Minister in Parish-churches and Chapels annexed to the same shall use a Surplice. And in all Cathedral Churches and Colleges, Archdeacons, Deans, Provosts, Masters, Prebendaries, and Fellows, being Graduates, may use in the Choir, besides their Surplices, such Hoods as pertain to their several degrees which they have holden in any University within this realm, but in all other places every Minister shall be at liberty to use any Surplice or no. It is also seemly that Graduates, when they do preach, should use such Hoods as pertaineth to their several Degrees.

And whenever the Bishop shall celebrate the holy Communion in the Church, or execute any other public ministration; he shall have upon him, beside his Rochette, a Surplice, or All, and a Cope, or Vestment, and also his Pastoral Staff in his hand, or else borne or holden by his Chaplain.

The other rubric that relates to the habits that are to be worn by the minister at the Communion, is at the beginning of that office, and runs thus:

Upon the day, and at the time appointed for the ministration of the holy Communion, the Priest that shall execute the holy ministry, shall put upon him the Vesture appointed for that ministration, that is to say, a white Alb plain, with a Vestment or Cope. And where there be many Priests or Deacons, there so many shall be ready to help the Priest in the ministration, as shall be requisite. And shall have upon them likewise the Vestures appointed for the ministry, that is to say, Albes with Tunicles.

These are the ministerial ornaments enjoined by our present rubric. But because the Surplice is of the most general use, and what is most frequently objected against; I shall therefore speak more largely of that, and only give a short account of the rest.

I. As to the name of Surplice, which comes from the plice, why Latin Superpelliceum, I can give no better account of it, than what I can put together from Durand, who tells us it was so called, because anciently this garment was put super tunicas pellicas de pellibus mortuorum animalium factas, upon leathern coats made of the hides of dead beasts; symbolically to represent that the offence of our first pa

rents, which brought us under a necessity of wearing gar- Sect. IV. ments of skin, was now hid and covered by the grace of Christ, and that therefore we are clothed with the emblem of innocence". But whencesoever came the name, the thing certainly is good.

fulness, and

For if it be thought necessary for Princes and Magi- The antistrates to wear distinct habits, in the execution of their quity, lawpublic offices, to preserve an awful respect to their royalty decency of and justice; there is the same reason for a different habit it. when God's ambassadors publicly officiate. And accordingly we find that, under the Law, the Jewish Priests were, by God's own appointment, to wear decent sacred vestments at all times 12; but at the time of public service, they were to have, besides those ordinary garments, a white linen Ephod13. From the Jews it is probable the Egyptians learned this custom to wear no other garments but only of white linen, looking on that to be the fittest, as being the purest covering for those that attended on divine service 14. And Philostratus tells us, that the Brachmans or Indian Priests wore the same sort of garments for the same reasons 5. From so divine an original and spreading a practice, the ancient Christians brought them into use for the greater decency and solemnity of divine service. St. Jerom at one and the same time proves its ancient use, and reproves the needless scruples of such as oppose it. "What offence," saith he, "can it be to God, for a Bishop or Priest, &c. to proceed "to the Communion in a white garment 16?" The antiquity of it in the Eastern Church appears from Gregory Nazianzen, who adviseth the Priests to purity, because "a little spot is soon seen in a white garment 17." And it is very probable that it was used in the Western Church in the time of St Cyprian: for Pontius, in his account of that father's martyrdom, says, that "there was a bench. "by chance covered with a white linen cloth, so that at "his passion he seemed to have some of the ensigns of the "episcopal honour 18." From whence we may gather, that a white garment was used by the clergy in those times.

11 Durand Rational. 1. 3. c. 1. numb. 10, 11, 12.

12 Exod. xxviii. and xxix. 13 Exod. xxviii. 4. 1 Sam. ii. 18. 14 Apul. in Apol. Part I. p. 64. Paris. 1635. Vid. Hieron. in Ezek. xliv. 17. tom. iv. p. 476. D.

15 Philostr. Vit. Apol. Tyan. 1. 3. c. 15. p. 106. Lipsiæ 1709.

16 Adv. Pelag. 1. 1. c. 9. tom. ii.
P. 565. F. G.

17 Orat. 31. tom. i. p. 504. A.
18 Pont. Diac. in Vita S. Cyprian.
p. 9. præfix, Operibus Cyprian.

white.

Chap. II. §. 2. The colour of it is very suitable; for it aptly reThe colour presents the innocence and righteousness wherewith God's of it, why ministers ought to be clothed 19. And it is observable, that the Ancient of days 20 is represented as having garments white as snow; and that when our Saviour was transfigured, his raiment was white as the light"; and that whenever angels have appeared to men, they have always been clothed in white apparel22.

Why made of linen.

The shape of it.

Objections

§. 3. The substance of it is Linen, for Woollen would be thought ridiculous, and Silk would scarce be afforded and we may observe, that under the Jewish dispensation God himself ordered that the priests should not gird themselves with any thing that caused sweat 23; to signify the purity of heart that ought to be in those that were set apart to the performance of divine service; for which reason the Jewish Ephods were linen 24, as were also most of the other garments which the priests wore during their ministrations 25. The Levites also that were singers were arrayed in white linen 26, and the armies that followed the Lamb were clothed in fine linen27; and to the Lamb's wife was granted, that she should be arrayed in fine linen white and clean; for the fine linen is, i. e. represents, the righteousness of Saints 28.

§. 4. As for the Shape of it, it is a thing so perfectly indifferent, that it admits of no dispute. The present mode is certainly grave and convenient, and, in the opinion of Durand, significant; who observes, that as the garments used by the Jewish priesthood were girt tight about them, to signify the bondage of the Law; so the looseness of the Surplices, used by the Christian priests, signifies the freedom of the Gospel 29.

§. 5. But neither its significancy nor decency will proanswered. tect it from objections: for first, some tell us, "It is a rag "of Popery:" an objection that proves nothing but the ignorance of those that make it: for white garments (let them be called what they will) were of use among the most primitive Christians. Nor need our adversaries do the Church of Rome a greater kindness, or wound the Protestant religion more deeply, than by granting that white garments and Popery are of the same antiquity.

They tell us, secondly, That" it has been abused by Sect. IV. "the Papists to superstitious and idolatrous uses." But to this we answer, That it is not the Priest's using a Surplice, that either makes their worship idolatrous or superstitious, or increases the idolatry or superstition of it. For the worship of the Roman Church is idolatrous and superstitious, whether the Priest be clothed in white, or black, or any other colour. All therefore that our adversaries can mean is this, viz. that the Surplice has been worn by the Papists, when they have practised idolatry and superstition and this we grant: but then it does not follow, that a Surplice of itself is either unlawful or inexpedient. For white garments had, in this sense, been abused to superstitious and idolatrous uses, before Daniel represented God himself as wearing such garments; and before our Saviour wore them; and before the Angels and Saints were represented as clothed with them; and before they became the ministerial ornaments of the primitive times. But surely, if such an abuse made them unlawful or inexpedient, it cannot be conceived, that the primitive church, and the inspired writers, nay, God himself, would so plainly countenance them.

II. Next to the Surplice, that which is of most frequent of the use in the celebration of divine service is the Hood, or Hood. the habit denoting the degree which the person officiating has taken in the University. This in Latin is called Caputium or Cucullus; though of the two names the latter seems to be the more proper and ancient. For the Cucul- By whom lus was a habit among the ancient Romans, being a coarse first used. covering for the head, broad at one end for the head to go in, and then lessening gradually till it ended in a point 3°.

§. 2. From the Romans the use of it was taken up by Why used the old Monks and Ascetics; who, as soon as they began Monks, &c. by the in the church, made choice of this habit as suitable to that strict reservedness which they professed. For when this was drawn over their faces, it at once prevented them from gazing at others, or being stared at themselves. And as the several orders of Monks grew up, there was hardly any one of them but had the Hood or Cowl, only a little varied in the cut or fashion of it. But generally it was contrived so, that in cold or wet weather it might be a covering to the head; or at other times, when they pleased, they might let it fall back behind them, hanging upon

30 Martial. lib. 5. Epigr. 14. lin. 6. Juvenal. Sat. 8. v. 145.

Chap. II. their neck by the lower end, after the same manner as it now is generally used with us.

Why used

drals and Universi

ties.

§. 3. After this it came to be used by the several memin Cathe- bers of Cathedral Churches and Colleges, though they were not allowed to have the same sort of Hoods as the Monks. And from these the Universities took the use of it, to denote the difference of degrees among their members; varying the materials, colour, and fashion of it, according to the degree of the person that wears it. And that these academical honours (which always entitle those they are conferred upon to the greater respect and esteem of the people) might be known abroad as well as in the Universities; the church enjoins (both by this rubric and her 31 canons) that every minister, who is a graduate, shall wear his proper Hood during the time of divine service, but forbidding all that are not graduates to wear it, under pain of suspension; allowing them, in the room of it, to wear upon their surplices some decent tippet of black, so it be not silk 32.

Of the Rochette.

III. The next ministerial ornament the rubric above cited enjoins is the Rochette, a linen habit peculiar to the Bishop, and worn under what we call the Chimere. The author of the acts of St. Cyprian's martyrdom says, that that father went to his execution in this pontifical habit 33 ; but whether this seems probable, I shall leave the reader to judge: however it is certain the use of it is ancient, it being described by Bede in the seventh century 34. In the following ages the Bishops were obliged, by the canon law, to wear their Rochettes whenever they appeared in public35 which practice was constantly kept up in England till the Reformation: but since that time the Bishops have not used to wear them at any place out of the Church, except in the Parliament-House, and there always with the Chimere, or upper robe, to which the lawnChimere. sleeves are generally sewed; which before and after the Reformation, till Queen Elizabeth's time, was always of scarlet silk; but Bishop Hooper scrupling first at the robe itself, and then at the colour of it, as too light and gay for the episcopal gravity, it was changed for a Chimere of black satin 36.

Of the

Of the Alb.

IV. The other things prescribed and enjoined by the

31 Can. 17, 25, 58.

32 Can. 58.

33 Vid. Baronius's Annals, Ann.

261. §. 40, 41.

34 Bede de Tabernac. citat. ab.

Almario, in Biblioth. Patr. 1. 10. p. 389.

35 Decretal. 1. 3. Tit. 1. cap. 15. 36 See Hody's History of Convocat. p. 141.