E SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

CHAPTER the FOURTH.
THE VESTMENTS.
DURING the lifetime of the Apostles and their imme
diate successors the form of the sacred vestments
hardly differed from those used in every-day life. We
are safe in saying that the dress selected for the altar
was of a superior quality, and so far as circumstances
permitted, the most suited among the garments then
in use.
Vestments are always blessed by the Bishop or
priest before being worn at the altar. The vestments
worn at the altar are the amice, alb, girdle, maniple,
stole, and chasuble.
The amice was originally a covering for the head
and shoulders. It now consists of one oblong piece
of linen with two strings and with a cross in the centre.
Members of many Religious Orders wear the amice as
a cowl while they advance to the altar for Mass, and in
beginning the Mass let down the amice on the shoulders.
The amice is their berretta or priest s cap, which is
taken off at the beginning of Mass. A berretta
square cap with three or sometimes four corners.
is a
The
four-cornered berretta belongs to Doctors of Divinity.
in most churches,
" " At Rome," says Benedict XIV., and