Word Finder - mitres

definition

A covering for the head, worn on solemn occasions by church dignitaries, which has been made in many forms, mostly recently a tall cap with two points or peaks.

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The surface forming the bevelled end or edge of a piece where a miter joint is made; also, a joint formed or a junction effected by two beveled ends or edges; a miter joint.

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A 13th-century coin minted in Europe which circulated in Ireland as a debased counterfeit sterling penny, outlawed under Edward I.

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A cap or cowl for a chimney or ventilation pipe.

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A gusset in sewing, etc.

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A square with one triangular quarter missing from the outside.

From this time onward papal bulls bestowing mitres, together with other episcopal insignia, on abbots become increasingly frequent.

Mitres were also sometimes bestowed by the popes on secular sovereigns, e.g.

Mitres with horns on either side seem to have been worn till about the end of the 12th century, and Father Braun gives examples of their appearances on episcopal seals in France until far into the 13th.

The decoration of mitres was characterized by increasing elaboration as time went on.

Of the surviving early mitres the greater number have only the orphrey embroidered, the body of the mitre being left plain.

In the course of the rejoicings which followed this sentence among the populace of Pisa, occurred the somewhat scandalous event of the burning of two images crowned with parchment mitres, representing Gregory XII.

Thus the mitre over an English bishop's coat-of-arms is a survival which indicates him as the successor of bishops who actually wore mitres, while armorial bearings themselves, and the whole craft of heraldry, are survivals bearing record of a state of warfare and social order whence our present state was by vast modification evolved.

If so, parliament was told that temporal possessions ruin the church and drive out the Christian graces of faith, hope and charity; that the priesthood of the church in communion with Rome was not the priesthood Christ gave to his apostles; that the monk's vow of celibacy had for its consequence unnatural lust, and should not be imposed; that transubstantiation was a feigned miracle, and led people to idolatry; that prayers made over wine, bread, water, oil, salt, wax, incense, altars of stone, church walls, vestments, mitres, crosses, staves, were magical and should not be allowed; that kings should possess the jus episcopale, and bring good government into the church; that no special prayers should be made for the dead; that auricular confession made to the clergy, and declared to be necessary for salvation, was the root of clerical arrogance and the cause of indulgences and other abuses in pardoning sin; that all wars were against the principles of the New Testament, and were but murdering and plundering the poor to win glory for kings; that the vows of chastity laid upon nuns led to child murder; that many of the trades practised in the commonwealth, such as those of goldsmiths and armourers, were unnecessary and led to luxury and waste.

Mitres are the distinctive headdress of bishops; but the right to wear them, as in the case of the other episcopal insignia, is granted by the popes to other dignitaries - such as abbots or the heads and sometimes all the members of the chapters of cathedral or collegiate churches.

At general 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 function presided over by the pope.

The papal bulls granting the use of mitres before the nth century are all forgeries (Liturgische Gewandung, 431-448).