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MITRE (Lat. mitra, from Gr. j4rpa, a ...
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See also:MITRE (See also:Lat. See also:mitra, from Gr. j4rpa, a See also:band, See also:head-band, head-See also:dress)
, a liturgical See also:head-See also:dress of the See also:Catholic See also: According to the Roman Caeremoniale the bishop wears the mitra pretiosa on high festivals, and always during the singing of the 7'e Deum and the Gloria at mass . He is allowed, however, " on See also:account of its See also:weight," to substitute for the pretiosa the auriphrygiata during See also:part of the services, i.e. at See also:Vespers from the first See also:psalm to the Magnifcat, at mass from the end of the See also:Kyrie to thecanon . The auriphrygiata is worn during See also:Advent, and from Septuaesima to Maundy See also:Thursday, except on the third See also:Sunday in Advent ((Gaudete), the See also:fourth in See also:Lent (Laetare) and on such greater festivals as fall within this See also:time . It is worn, too, on the vigils of fasts, Ember Days and days of intercession, on the Feast of See also:Holy Innocents (if on a See also:week-See also:day), at litanies, See also:penitential processions, and at other than See also:solemn benedictions and consecrations . At mass and vespers the mitra simplex may be substituted for it in the same way as the auriphrygiata for the pretiosa . The simplex is worn on See also:Good See also:Friday, and at masses for the dead; also at the blessing of the candles at See also:Candlemas, the singing of the See also:absolution at the See also:coffin, and the solemn See also:investiture with the See also:pallium . At provincial synods archbishops wear the pretiosa, bishops the auriphrygiata, and mitred abbots the simplex . At See also:general See also:councils bishops wear white linen mitres, cardinals mitres of white silk damask; this is also the case when bishops and cardinals in pontificalibus assist at a solemn pontifical See also:function presided over by the pope . Lastly, the mitre, though a liturgical vestment, differs from the others in that it is never worn when the bishop addresses the Almighty in prayer—e.g. during mass he takes it off when he turns to the See also:altar, placing it on his head again when he turns to address the See also:people (see 1 See also:Cor. xi . 4) . The origin and antiquity of the episcopal mitre have been the subject of much debate . Some have claimed for it See also:apostolical See also:sanction and found its origin in the liturgical head-See also:gear of the Jewish priesthood .
Such proofs Antigauiityy. as have been adduced for this view are, however, based on the See also:fallacy of See also:reading into words (mitra, infula, &c.) used by See also:early writers a See also:special meaning which they only acquired later
.
Mitra, even as See also:late as the 15th See also:century, retained its See also:simple meaning of cap (see Du Cange, Glossarium, s.v.); to Isidore of See also:Seville it is specifically a woman's cap
.
Infula, which in late ecclesiastical usage was to be confined to mitre (and its dependent bands) and See also:chasuble, meant originally a piece of cloth, or the sacred fillets used in See also:pagan See also:worship, and later on came to be used of any ecclesiastical vestment, and there is no See also:evidence for its specific application to the liturgical head-dress earlier than the 12th century
.
With the episcopal mitre the Jewish miznephet, translated " mitre " in the Authorized Version (Exod. See also:xxviii
.
4, 36), has nothing to do, and there is no evidence for the use of the former before the See also:middle of the loth century even in See also:Rome, and elsewhere than in Rome it does not make its See also:appearance until the 11th.1
The first trustworthy See also:notice of the use of the mitre is under Pope See also:Leo IX
.
(1049-1054)
.
This pope invested See also:Archbishop See also:Eberhard of See also:Trier, who had accompanied him to Rome, with the Roman mitra, telling him that he and his successors should wear it in ecclesiastico officio (i.e. as a liturgical See also:ornament) according to Roman See also:custom, in See also:order to remind him that he is a See also:disciple of the Roman see (Jaffe, Regesta See also:pont. rom., ed
.
See also:Leipzig, 1888, No
.
4158)
.
This proves that the use of the mitre had been for some time established at Rome; that it was specifically a Roman ornament; and that the right to wear it was only granted to ecclesiastics elsewhere as an exceptional See also:honour .2 On the other See also:hand, the Roman ordines of the 8th and 9th centuries make no mention of the mitre; the evidence goes to prove that this liturgical head-dress was first adopted by the popes some time in the loth century; and See also:Father Braun shows convincingly that it was in its origin nothing else than the papal regnum or phrygium which, originally worn only at outdoor processions and the like, was introduced into the church, and thus See also:developed into the liturgical mitre, while outside it preserved its See also:original significance as the papal
1 Father Braun, S
.
J., has dealt exhaustively with the supposed evidence for its earlier use—e.g. he proves conclusively that the mitra mentioned by Theodulph of See also:
2 That it had been already so granted is proved by a miniature containing the earliest extant representations of a mitre, in the Exultete rotula and baptismal rotula at See also:Bari (reproduced in Berteaux, L'See also:Art clans l'Italie meridionale, I., See also:Paris, 1904)
.
See also:tiara (q.v.)
.
From Leo IX.'s time papal grants of the mitre to eminent prelates became increasingly frequent, and by the l2th century it had been assumed by all bishops in the See also:West, with or without papal sanction, as their proper liturgical head-dress
.
From the 12th century, too, See also:dates the custom of investing the bishop with the mitre at his consecration
.
It was not till the 12th century that the mitre came to be regarded
as specifically episcopal, and
Non-
"hops. meanwhile the custom had
blah
grown up of granting it honoris causa to other dignitaries besides bishops
.
The first known instance of a mitred See also:
205, 159)
.
It came, however, to symbolize the exemption
of the abbots from episcopal See also:jurisdiction, their quasi-episcopal See also:character, and their immediate dependence on the Holy See
.
No such significance could attach to the See also: 
According to the 14th Roman ordo, of 1241, the pope places on the emperor's head first the mitra clericalis, then the imperial diadem
.
Father Braun (Liturgische Gewandung, p
.
457) gives a picture of a See also:seal of See also: The custom was, however, already growing up of setting the horns over the front and back of the head instead of the sides (the mitre said to have belonged to St Thomas Becket, now at See also:Westminster Cathedral, is of this type),' and with this the essential character of the mitre, as it persisted through the middle ages, was established . The exaggeration of the height of the mitre, which began at the time of the See also:Renaissance, reached its See also:climax in the 17th century . The decoration of mitres was characterized by increasing elaboration as time went on . From the first the white conical cap seems to have, been decorated round the lower edge by a band or See also:orphrey (circulus) . To this was added later a See also:vertical orphrey (titulus), usually from the centre of the front of the circulus to that of the back, partly in order to hide the seam, partly to emphasize the horns when those were to See also:left and right . When the horns came to be set before and behind, the vertical orphrey retained its position . Of the surviving early mitres the greater number have only the orphrey embroidered, the See also:body of the mitre being left plain . Very early, however, the custom arose of ornamenting the triangular spaces between the orphreys with embroidery, usually a round medallion, or a See also:star, set in the middle, but sometimes figures of See also:saints, &c . (e.g. the early example from the cathedral of Anagni, reproduced by Braun, p . 469) . The richness and variety of decoration increased from the 14th century onwards . Architectural motives even were introduced, as frames to the embroidered figures of saints, while sometimes the upper edges of the mitre were ornamented with crockets, and the horns with architectural finials . Finally, the traditional circulus and titulus seem all but forgotten, the whole front and back surfaces of the mitre being ornamented with embroidered pictures or with See also:arabesque patterns . The latter is characteristic of the mitre in the modern Roman Catholic Church, the tradition of the See also:local Roman Church having always excluded the See also:representation of 'figures on ecclesiastical See also:vestments . 2 . Reformed Churches.--In most of the reformed Churches the use of mitres was abandoned with that of the other vestments . They have continued to be worn, however, by the bishops of the Scandinavian Lutheran Churches . In the Church of See also:England the use of the mitre was discontinued at the See also:Reformation . There is some evidence to show that it was used in consecrating bishops up to 1552, and also that its use was revived by the Laudian bishops in the 17th century (Hierurgia anglicana ii . 242, 243, 240) . In general, however, there is no evidence to prove that this use was liturgical, though the silver-gilt mitre of Bishop See also:Wren of See also:Ely (d . 1667), which is preserved, is judged from the See also:state of the lining to have been worn . The instances of the use of the mitre quoted in Hier. anglic. ii . 310, as carried by the bishop of See also:Rochester at an investiture of the Knights of the See also:Bath (1725), and by the archbishops and bishops at the coronation of See also:George II . (1727), have no liturgical significance . The tradition of the mitre as an episcopal ornament has, nevertheless, been continuous in the Church of England, " and that on three lines: (t) heraldic usage; (2) its presence on the head of See also:effigies of bishops, of which a number are extant, of the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries; (3) its presence in funeral processions, where In Father Braun's See also:opinion, expressed to the writer, this mitre, which was formerly at See also:Sens, belongs probably to the 13th century . Church of England . an actual mitre or the figure of one was sometimes carried, and sometimes suspended over the See also:tomb " (See also:Report on the Ornaments of the Church, p . 1o6) . The liturgical use of the mitre was revived in the Church of England in the latter part of the 19th century, and is now fairly widespread . 3 . See also:Oriental See also:Rites.—Some form of liturgical head-dress is com- mon to all the Oriental rites . In the Orthodox Eastern Church the mitre (Gr . µtrpa; Slay. mitra) is, as in the Western Church, proper only to bishops . Its form differs entirely from that of the Latin Church . In general it rather resembles a closed See also:crown, consisting of a circlet from which rise two See also:arches intersecting each other at right angles . Circlet and arches are richly chased and jewelled; they are filled out by a cap of stiff material, often red See also:velvet, ornamented with pictures in embroidery or applique See also:metal . Surmount- See also:ing all, at the intersection of the arches is a See also:cross . In See also:Russia this usually lies flat, only certain metro- politans, and by prescrip- tion the bishops of the eparchy of See also:Kiev, having the right to have the cross upright (see fig . 2) . In the Armenian Church priests and archdeacons, as well as the bishops, wear a mitre . That of the bishops is of the Latin form, a custom dating from a grant of Pope Innocent III.; that of the priests, the sagvahart, is not unlike the See also:Greek mitre (see fig . 3) . In the Syrian Church only the See also:patriarch wears a mitre, which resembles that of the Greeks . The biruna of the Chaldaean See also:Nestorians, on the other hand, worn by all bishops, is a sort of See also:hood ornamented with a cross . Coptic priests and bishops wear the ballin, a See also:long See also:strip of stuff ornamented From Braun's Litnr. with crosses &c., and See also:wound See also:turban-See also:wise gische Gewandung. round the head; the patriarch of See also:Alexandria By Herder . perreiavon of B. has a helmet-like mitre, the origin of which FIG . 3.–Mitre of is unknown, though it perhaps antedates the Armenian See also:Priest. appearance of the phrygium at Rome . The See also:Maronites, and the uniate See also:Jacobites, Chaldaeans and See also:Copts have adopted the Roman mitre . The mitre was only introduced into the Greek rite in com- paratively modern times . It was unknown in the earlier part of the 15th century, but had -certainly been introduced by the beginning of the 16th . Father Braun suggests that its See also:assumption by the Greek patriarch was connected with the changes due to the See also:capture of See also:Constantinople by the See also:Turks . Possibly, as its forni suggests, it is based on the imperial crown and symbolized at the outset the quasi - See also:sovereignty over the See also:rayah See also:population which Mahommed II. was content to leave to the patriarch . In 1589 it was introduced into Russia, when the See also:tsar See also:Theodore erected the See also:Russian patriarch- See also:ate and bestowed on the new patriarch the right to wear the mitre, sakkos and mandyas, all borrowed from the Greek rite . A See also:hundred years later the mitre, originally confined to the patriarch, was worn by all bishops . See J . Braun, S.J., See also:Die liturgische Gewandung (See also:Freiburg-See also:im-See also:Breisgau, 1907), pp . 424-498 . The question of the use of the mitre in the See also:Anglican Church is dealt with in the Report of the Sub-See also:Committee of the See also:Convocation of See also:Canterbury on the Ornaments of the Church and its Ministers (1908) . |
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