Word Finder - cassock

definition

A military cloak or long coat worn by soldiers or horsemen in the 16th and 17th centuries.

definition

A coarse, loose cloak or gown, worn by women, sailors, shepherds, countryfolk etc.

definition

An item of clerical clothing: a long, sheath-like, close-fitting, ankle-length robe worn by clergy members of some Christian denominations.

He wears all these vestments only at the celebration of the eucharist and on other very solemn occasions; at other ministrations he wears only the epitrachelion and phainolion over his cassock.

As an ecclesiastical term the word "cassock" came into use somewhat late (as a translation of the old names of subtanea, vestis talaris, toga talaris, or tunica talaris), being mentioned in canon 74 of 1604; and it is in this sense alone that it now survives.

The cassock, though part of the canonical costume of the clergy, is not a liturgical vestment.

In winter the cassock was often lined with furs varying in costliness with the rank of the wearer, and its colour also varied in the middle ages with his ecclesiastical or academic status.

In the Church of England the cassock, which with the gown is prescribed by the above-mentioned canon of 1604 as the canonical dress of the clergy, has been continuously, though not universally, worn by the clergy since the Reformation.

The custom of wearing the cassock under the vestments is traceable in England to about the year 1400.

The name is derived from the Italian mozzare, to cut off, and points to its being an abbrevi ated cappa, as the episcopal "apron" is a shortened cassock.

But the parlement soon became disgusted with its alliesthe princes and nobles, who bad only drawn their swords in order to beg more effectively with arms in their hands; and the Parisian mob, whose fanaticism had been aroused by Paul de Gondi, a warlike ecclesiastic, a Catiline in a cassock, who preached the gospel at the daggers point.

In the breast pocket of his cassock was a large silver snuff box, and he always wore a biretta.

He rose, and throwing off the black cassock and hat which had formed his disguise, he packed them away in a hand-bag.

Suddenly we are asked to stand and in walks Benedict XVI at a brisk pace in smart white cassock and stunning bright red shoes.

In her snug room, with lamps burning before the icon stand, a young lad with a long nose and long hair, wearing a monk's cassock, sat on the sofa beside her, behind a samovar.

When he came to himself, a man of clerical appearance with a tuft of gray hair at the back of his head and wearing a shabby blue cassock--probably a church clerk and chanter--was holding him under the arm with one hand while warding off the pressure of the crowd with the other.

The cassock, which must always be worn under the vestments, is not itself a liturgical garment.

An Orthodox bishop, vested for the holy liturgy, wears over his cassock - (i) the rnxcipcov, or alb (q.v.); the E7nrpay,Acov, or stole (q.v.); (3) the a narrow stuff girdle clasped behind, which holds together the two vestments above named; (4) the E7 n, uaviexa, liturgical cuffs, corresponding, possibly, to the pontifical gloves of the West;' (5) the i 7rtyovarcov, a stiff lozengeshaped piece of stuff hanging at the right side by a piece of riband from the girdle or attached to the o-AKKos, the equivalent of the Western maniple (q.v.); (6) the like the Western dalmatic (q.v.), worn instead of the 4acv6Acov, or chasuble; (7) the c?µocp6pcov, the equivalent of the Western pallium (q.v.).

The old form of English cassock was a double-breasted robe fastened at the shoulder and probably girdled.

The continental, single-breasted cassock, with a long row of small buttons from neck to hem, is said to have been first introduced into England by Bishop Harris of Llandaff (1729-1738).

The shortened form of cassock which survives in the bishop's "apron" was formerly widely used also by the continental clergy.