Liturgical and Ecclesiastical

Arnold, J. 1994. ‘A prelate’s robe for the Most Noble Order of the Garter worn by the Right Reverend Sir Jonathan Trelawny, 3rd Bart., Lord Bishop of Winchester, in 1707’, Costume, 28, 22-36.

Includes pattern with detailed descriptive notes.

Clayton, H. J. 1919. The Ornaments of the Ministers as shown on English Monumental Brasses. London, Mowbray.
Grimstad, K. ed. 1989. The Conservation of Tapestries and Embroideries: Proceedings of Meetings at the Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique, Brussels, Belgium, September 21-24, 1987. Marina del Ray, Getty Conservation Institute.

The proceedings of a textile conservation seminar held in 1987 at the Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique (IRPA) in Brussels, which cosponsored the seminar with the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI). The 15 papers published in this volume focus on treatment of western European tapestries and ecclesiastical embroideries, mostly from the Renaissance period. Most papers offer recent treatments of important historic textiles as particularized case studies, while some of the papers address broader topics, such as the comprehensive conservation program for textiles at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Hayward, M. 2002. ‘Reflections on gender and status distinctions: an analysis of the liturgical textiles recorded in mid-sixteenth-century London’, Gender & History, 14(3), 403-425.
Hayward, M. 2003. ‘Reflections on status and gender distinctions: an analysis of the liturgical textiles recorded in early sixteenth century London’. In: B. Burman and C. Turbin. eds. Material Strategies: Dress and Gender in Historical Perspective, London, Blackwell, 33-55.
Hayward, M. 2007. ‘Crimson, scarlet, murrey and carnation: red at the court of Henry VIII’, Textile History, 38(2), 135-150.

Red, in all its various shades, was a colour with many associations at the court of Henry VIII. This article presents a thematic analysis of the key circumstances when red clothing was worn at Henry VIII’s court, namely the robes worn at sessions of parliament by the nobility and secular clergy, the livery issued at coronations, as well as livery given to members of the king’s household and his army in 1544. In addition, the king wore red for key days in the liturgical year as his medieval predecessors had, while it also formed part of his everyday wardrobe. Red was also significant for others at the Henrician court, including the secular and ecclesiastical élite. As such, it was a colour that was associated with wealth, status and parliamentary authority.

Hogarth, S. D. 1986. ‘Ecclesiastical vestments and vestment-makers in York 1300-1600’, The York Historian, VII, 2-11.
Hope, W. H. and Atchley, E. G. 1918. English Liturgical Colours. London, S.P.C.K.
Ingamells, J. 1981. The English Episcopal Portrait 1559-1835: A Catalogue. London, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.

Includes indices of artists and collections, and a chronology of English bishops.

Johnston, F. 1999. ‘Jonet Gothskirk and the ‘Gown of Repentance’’, Costume, 33, 89-94.

An investigation into the history and use of a ‘sackcloth’ gown as an instrument of ‘ecclesiastical discipline’ during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Johnstone, P. 2002. High Fashion in the Church: The Place of Church Vestments in the History of Art from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century. Leeds, Maney.
Lack, W., Stuchfield, M., et al. 1994. The Monumental Brasses of Buckinghamshire. London, Monumental Brass Society.

Descriptions of brasses from the fourteenth to the twentieth century are given, together with source materials and workshop styles. Figure brasses before 1700 are illustrated, providing valuable evidence for the history of armour and dress (including ecclesiastical dress).

MacAlister, R. A. S. 1896. Ecclesiastical Vestments: Their Development and History. London, Eliot Stock.
Maclagan, E. R. D., Trendell, P. G., et al. 1930. Catalogue of English Ecclesiastical Embroideries of the XIII to XVI Centuries. London, Victoria and Albert Museum.
Maskell, F. M. L. 2007. ‘The investigation and documentation of a communion table carpet in Corpus Christi College, Oxford’. In: M. Hayward and E. Kramer. eds. Textiles and Text: Re-Establishing the Links between Archival and Object-Based Research. Postprints of Third Annual Conference of AHRC Research Centre for Textile Conservation and Textile Studies, 2005, London, Archetype, 225-236.

A textile belonging to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, thought to be a communion table carpet made in the late 16th or early 17th century, was investigated using the following techniques: metal thread analysis, dye analysis, weave analysis, object examination, and archival research. The textile contains fragments of cloth of gold woven to order in Florence in the early 16th century to make copes for Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester (1501-28) and founder of Corpus Christi College (1517). The aim of the investigation was to provide new information about the attribution and history of the textile. Key findings of the technical and scientific analyses are presented here together with an overview of the evidence found in documentary sources.

Mayer-Thurman, C. 1975. Raiment for the Lord’s Service: A Thousand Years of Western Vestments. Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago.
Mayo, J. 1984. A History of Ecclesiastical Dress. London, Batsford.
Monnas, L. 1987. ‘The vestments of Henry VII at Stonyhurst College: cloth of gold woven to shape’, CIETA Bulletin, 65, 416-424.
Monnas, L. 1989. ‘New documents for the vestments of Henry VII at Stonyhurst College’, Burlington Magazine, 131(1034), 345-349.
Murdoch, G. 2000. ‘Dress to repress? Protestant clerical dress and the regulation of morality in early modern Europe’, Fashion Theory, 4, 179-200.

The Reformation of religion in sixteenth-century Europe included the re-modelling of the Continent’s clergy. This article considers how Protestant ministers were required to dress both during church services and in their daily lives. Traditional vestments were mostly abandoned in favour of loose-fitting, full-sleeved black gowns. This form of dress was intended to reflect the role of clergy as figures of intellectual authority and as agents of moral discipline. It also aimed to represent ministers to their communities as examples of sexual propriety and as ethical consumers of modest goods. This culture of Protestant appearance spread across the Continent from Scotland to Hungary. Ministers and their wives were instructed to dress in sober colours under the threat of dismissal from office for any who failed to conform. Meanwhile in England clergy continued to dress in traditional vestments, despite Puritan demands that surplices and other ‘Popish’ clothing ought not to be worn. This concern in Protestant Europe that clergy and their wives ought to dress with modesty and sobriety was related to a wider campaign to control immoral forms of appearance. In addition, some rituals of moral disciplining included requirements for offenders to appear in church in distinctive dress to symbolise their repentance and acceptance of the moral norms of the church. While it is difficult to assess the impact of these efforts to implement a code of moral clothing within Protestant Europe, this article suggests that dress regulations ought to be seen as much more than instruments of religious and social power imposed by clerical elites on parish ministers and on ordinary people.

Norris, H. 1949. Church Vestments: their Origin and Development. London, Nicholas Groves.
Pocknee, C. E. 1960. Liturgical Vesture: its Origins and Development. London, Mowbray.
Robson, R. A. 1990. ‘Vested in glory’, Costume, 24, 117-125.

Based on a paper given at a seminar on ‘Ecclesiastical Vestments’, held by the Costume Society at the Victoria and Albert Museum, 18th November 1989. Gives an introductory overview of why vestments are worn, their history, and stylistic developments, in the Church of England and Roman Catholic Church.

Rock, D. 1870. Textile Fabrics: a Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Church-Vestments, Dresses, Silk Stuffs, Needlework and Tapestries, Forming that Section of the Museum. London, Victoria and Albert Museum.
Swain, M. H. 1994. ‘Vestments at Traquair’, CIETA Bulletin, 72, 49-59.
Tarrant, N. E. A. 2001. Textile Treasures: an Introduction to European Decorative Textiles for Home and Church in the National Museums of Scotland. Edinburgh, National Museums of Scotland.
Tyack, G. S. 1897. Historic Dress of the Clergy. London, W Andrews & Co.
Wardle, P. 1965. ‘A Laudian embroidery’, Victoria and Albert Museum Bulletin, 1(1), 24-28.
Wardle, P. 1997. ‘‘Divers necessaries for his Majesty’s use and service’: seamstresses to the Stuart Kings’, Costume, 31, 16-27.

Discusses extracts from a range of bills presented to the royal household pertaining to the supply of clothing, domestic textiles (e.g. sheets) and vestments.

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