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CHIMERE (Lat. chimera, chimaera; O. F...

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 165 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHIMERE (See also:Lat. chimera, See also:chimaera; O. Fr. chamarre, Mod. Fr. simarre; Ital. zimarra; cf. Span. zimarra, a sheepskin coat; possibly derived ultimately from Gr. xei,u pros, " wintry," i.e. a See also:winter overcoat)  , in See also:modern See also:English use the name of a garment worn as See also:part of the ceremonial See also:dress of See also:Anglican bishops . It is a See also:long sleeveless See also:gown of See also:silk or satin, open down the front, gathered in at the back between the shoulders, and with slits for the arms . It is worn over the See also:rochet (q.v.), and its See also:colour is either See also:black or See also:scarlet (See also:convocation See also:robes) . By a See also:late abuse the sleeves of the rochet were, from motives of convenience, some-times attached to the See also:chimere . The origin of the chimere has been the subject of much debate; but the view that it is a modification of the See also:cope (q.v.) is now discarded, and it is practically proved to be derived from the See also:medieval See also:tabard (tabardum, taberda or collobium), an upper garment worn in See also:civil See also:life by all classes of See also:people both in See also:England and abroad . It has there-fore a See also:common origin with certain See also:academic robes (see ROBES, § Academic dress) . The word " chimere," which first appears in England in the 14th See also:century, was sometimes applied not only to the tabard worn over the rochet, but to the sleeved See also:cassock worn under it . Thus See also:Archbishop See also:Scrope is described as wearing when on his way to See also:execution (1405) a See also:blue chimere with sleeves . But the word properly applies to the sleeveless tabard which tended to supersede, from the 15th century onwards, the inconvenient cap pa clausa (a long closed cloak with a slit in front for the arms) as the out-of-doors upper garment of bishops . These chimeres, the See also:colours of which (murrey, scarlet, See also:green, &c.) may possibly have denoted academical See also:rank, were part of the civil See also:costume of prelates . Thus in the See also:inventory of See also:Walter Skirlawe, See also:bishop of See also:Durham (1405-1406), eight chimeres of various colours are mentioned, including two for See also:riding (See also:pro equitatura) . The chimere was, moreover, a See also:cold See also:weather garment .

In summer its See also:

place was taken by the tippet . In the Anglican See also:form for the See also:consecration of bishops the newly consecrated See also:prelate, hitherto vested in rochet, is directed to put on " the See also:rest of the episcopal See also:habit," i.e. the chimere . The robe has thus become in the See also:Church of England symbolical of the episcopal See also:office, and is in effect a liturgical vestment . The See also:rubric containing this direction was added to the See also:Book of Common See also:Prayer in 1662; and there is See also:proof that the del, elopment of the chimere into at least a See also:choir vestment was subsequent to the See also:Reformation . See also:Foxe, indeed, mentions that See also:Hooper at his consecration wore " a long scarlet chymere down to the See also:foot " (Acts and Mon.; ed . 1563, p . 1051), a source of trouble to himself and of See also:scandal to other extreme reformers; but that this was no more than the full civil dress of a bishop is proved by the fact that Archbishop See also:Parker at his consecration wore See also:surplice and tippet, and only put on the chimere, when the service was over, to go away in . This civil quality of the garment See also:stilt survives alongside the other; the full dress of an Anglican prelate at civil functions of importance (e.g. in See also:parliament, or at See also:court) is still rochet and chimere . The See also:continental See also:equivalent of the chimere is the zimarra or simarre, which is defined by See also:foreign ecclesiologists (See also:Moroni, See also:Barbier de Montault) as a See also:kind of See also:soutane (cassock), from which it is distinguished by having a small cape and See also:short, open arms (manches-fausses) reaching to the See also:middle of the upper See also:arm and decorated with buttons . In See also:France and See also:Germany it is fitted more or less to the figure; in See also:Italy it is wider and falls down straight in front . Like the soutane, the zimarra is not proper to any particular rank of See also:clergy, but in the See also:case of bishops and prelates it is ornamented with red buttons and bindings . It never has a See also:train (cauda) .

It is not universally worn, e.g. in Germany apparently only by prelates . G . Moroni identifies the zimarra with the epitogium which Domenico Magri, in his Hierolexicon (ed . 1677), calls the uppermost garment of the clergy, worn over the soutane (toga) instead of the mantellum (vestis suprema clericorum loco pallii), with a See also:

cross-reference to Tabardum, the " usual " upper garment (See also:pallium usuale) ; and this See also:definition is repeated in the 8th edition of the See also:work (1732) . From this it appears that so late as the middle of the 18th century the zimarra was still in common use as an out-of-doors overcoat . But, according to Moroni, by the latter See also:half of the 19th century the zimarra, though still worn by certain civilians (e.g. notaries and students), had become in Italy chiefly the domestic garment of the clergy, notably of superiors, See also:parish priests, rectors, certain regulars, priests of congregations, bishops, prelates and cardinals . It was worn also by the See also:Roman senators, and is still worn by university professors . A black zimarra lined with See also:white, and sometimes ornamented with a white binding and See also:gold tassels, is worn by the See also:pope . More analogous to the Anglican chimere in shape, though not in significance, is the See also:purple mantelletum worn over the rochet by bishops, and by others authorized to See also:wear the episcopal insignia, in presence of the pope or his legates . This symbolizes the temporary suspension of the episcopal See also:jurisdiction (symbolized by the rochet) so long as the pope or his representative is See also:present . Thus at the See also:Curia cardinals and prelates wear the mantelletum, while the pope wears the zimarra, and the first See also:act of the See also:cardinal camerlengo after the pope's See also:death is to expose his rochet by laying aside the mantelletum, the other cardinals following his example, as a See also:symbol that during the vacancy of the papacy the pope's jurisdiction is vested in the Sacred See also:College . On the See also:analogy of the mantelletum certain Anglican prelates, See also:American and colonial, have from See also:time to time appeared in purple chimeres; which, as the Rev .

N . F . See also:

Robinson justly points out, is a most unhappy innovation, since it has no See also:historical See also:justification, and its symbolism is rather unfortunate .

End of Article: CHIMERE (Lat. chimera, chimaera; O. Fr. chamarre, Mod. Fr. simarre; Ital. zimarra; cf. Span. zimarra, a sheepskin coat; possibly derived ultimately from Gr. xei,u pros, " wintry," i.e. a winter overcoat)
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