Albs and fiddlebacks
A Roman fiddleback chasuble
From the 13th century, the list of liturgical vestments was more or less complete, and what followed was a more detailed regulation of their use, a tendency to resort to ever greater degrees of decoration, and a growing preference for shorter vestments, so that instead of the fairly voluminous ‘Gothic’ chasuble we arrive at the Roman style – or ‘fiddleback’ after its distinctive cut-away shape, reminiscent of the shape of a violin.
The backs of some Roman vestments – which would be seen by the congregation, as the priest stood facing East – became ornamental works of art in themselves, objects for meditation like stained glass windows in embroidery. An exception to this shortening was the bishop’s mitre, which tended to become taller and taller.
There has been a tendency which began in the 1920’s to reverse all these processes, favouring fuller Gothic vestments in which much of the ‘decoration’ is provided by the folds alone (as in the most ancient vestments). This has been accompanied latterly by the development of the fitted white alb, which has tended to make redundant the use of the amice round the neck, and the cincture round the waist. The use of this alb has also smudged the former distinction between Mass and non-Mass garments, for the alb used to be reserved for Mass, leaving the cassock and surplice/cotta – so called “choir dress” – for other services.
The late medieval period saw a growing understanding of the symbolic significance of vestments, taking as its cue the list of “spiritual armour” given by St. Paul in Ephesians 6:14-17: “belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, sword of the Spirit” etc. This symbolism is preserved in the prayers at putting on the vestments, prayers which still – at least theoretically – remain in use: the amice “the helmet of salvation”, the alb “wash me white, O Lord”, the cincture “the girdle of purity”, the stole “of immortality”, the chasuble “my yoke is easy and my burden light”. In the Eastern Church, the priest, as we shall see, still wears a “sword” – sort of.
We can understand much of this more clearly if we look at what the Reformers gave up. Firstly, the development of vestments was generally – and wrongly – seen by the Reformers to derive from the doctrine of Transubstantiation, which they rejected. So Calvinists, who totally rejected the Mass, abandoned all vestments in favour of a civil gown. Lutherans rejected the cincture (symbol of chastity) because they rejected clerical celibacy, likewise the stole and maniple, signs of the ‘higher orders’, but at least initially they were happy to retain the remainder.
In England the 1549 Anglican Prayer Book left vestments largely untouched; it was only the growing Calvinist influence (1552 Book) which saw their abolition, and their attempted reintroduction was a cause of major controversy before the Civil War (1642) and in the 19th. century