noun
definition
A hood, or cape with a hood, made of or lined with grey fur, formerly worn by the clergy.
Examples of amice in a Sentence
Hence they were known in England as "grey amices" (from the ordinary colour of the fur), to distinguish them from the liturgical amice.
The "grey amice" of the canons of St Paul's at London was put down in 1549, the academic hood being substituted.
Over this the priest, robing for mass, puts on the amice, alb, girdle (cingulum), stole, maniple and chasuble.
At the present day the Lutheran Churches of Denmark and Scandinavia retain the use of alb and chasuble in the celebration of the eucharist (stole, amice, girdle and maniple were disused after the Reformation), and for bishops the cope and mitre.
He gives reasons for believing that in the Church of England, under the first Prayer Book, as in the Lutheran Churches, while chasuble and alb were retained, stole, maniple, amice and girdle were discontinued.
According to modern Roman use, laid down by the decree of the Congregation of Rites in 1819, the amice must be of linen or of a hempen material, not wool; and, as directed by the new Roman Missal (1570), a small cross must be sewn or embroidered in the middle of it.
The amice is now worn under the alb, except at Milan and Lyons, where it is put on over it.
The Latin word amictus was applied to any wrap-like garment, and, according to Father Braun, the liturgical amice originated in the ordinary neck-cloth worn by all classes of Romans.
The amice was worn first simply as a shoulder-cloth, but at the end of the 9th century the custom grew up of putting it on over the head and of wearing it as a hood, either while the other vestments were being put on or, according to the various uses of local churches, during part of the Mass, though never during the canon.
This ceased at Rome at the same time as the apparel disappeared; but two relics of it survive - (I) in the directions of the Missal for putting on the amice, (2) in the ordination of subdeacons, when the bishop lays the vestment on the ordinand's head with the words, "Take the amice, which symbolizes discipline over the tongue, &c."
The amice, whatever its origin or symbolism, became specifically a vestment associated with the sacrifice of the Mass, and as such it was rejected with the other "Mass vestments" in England at the Reformation.
Its use has, however, been revived in many Anglican churches, the favourite form being the medieval apparelled amice.
The fanone was originally a cloth like the amice and was wrapped round neck and From Braun, Liturgische Gewandung.
Finally, the pope, when celebrating mass, wears the same vestments as an ordinary bishop, with the addition of the subcinctorium (see ALB), a dalmatic, worn over the tunicle and under the chasuble, and the orale or fanone (see Amice).
In the Roman Catholic Church the amice, alb, girdle, stole, maniple, chasuble must be solemnly blessed by the bishop or his delegate, the prayers and other forms to be observed being set forth in the Pontificale (see Benediction).
Thus the alternative use of cope or chasuble (vestment) is allowed at the celebration of Holy Communion - an obvious compromise; of the amice, girdle (cingulum), maniple and stole there is not a word, 2 and the inference to be drawn is that these were now disused.
Over the chasuble he wears the fanone (see Amice); and after that the pallium.