E SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

THE VESTMENTS. ig
that in use now. It completely covered the body the
only aperture was at the top for the head. In the
eleventh century the shape was altered and the sides
were opened. It then took the form of a Gothic chasuble.
This shape was preserved until the sixteenth century.
After that time the chasuble was further cut away
until it reached its present shape. On the face of the
Roman chasuble we have the cross, on the back the
column, though sometimes in the Roman vestment
there is a cross also on the back.
Originally there can be no doubt the chasuble was the
garment worn over other clothes, and corresponding to
what we call an overcoat. The Romans wore a large
outer garment on military service, called the paenula or
mantle. In the first half of the sixth century we find
the first traces of the paenula as an ecclesiastical
garment. Did it at once become distinctive of the
priesthood ? The question
admits of no certain answer.
(Cath. Diet. p. 162.)
The priest, while putting on the chasuble, says :
D online qui dixisti jugum meum suave est et onus meum leve,
fac ut istud port are sic valeani quod consequav tuani gvatiam
" O
Lord, who hast said, My yoke is sweet and My
burden is light, grant me so to bear Thy yoke that
I may obtain 1
Thy grace."
The veil covers the chalice. The burse holds the
corporal, and is in shape like a square envelope. The
because on it
corporal, so-called from corpus (a body),
rests the Body of the Lord after the consecration, is
a square piece of linen with a cross in the centre.
The pall is a linen covering on the top of the chalice
1 As there is no necessary connection between the various
prayers just quoted and the vestments, no attempt has designedly
been made to explain the meaning of these prayers.