A clerical collar, clergy collar, or, informally, dog collar,
is an item of
Christian clerical clothing.
The clerical collar is almost always white and was originally made of cotton or linen but is now frequently made of plastic. There are various styles of clerical collar. The traditional full collar (the style informally described as a ''dog collar'') is a ring that closes at the back of the neck, presenting a seamless front. It is often attached with a ''collaret'' or ''collarino'' that covers the white collar almost completely, except for a small white rectangle at the base of the throat, and sometimes with the top edge of the collar exposed to mimic the collar of a
cassock. Alternatively, it may simply be a detachable tab of white in the front of the clerical shirt. The clerical shirt is traditionally black (or another color appropriate to a person's ministry rank, such as purple for
Anglican bishops), but today is available in a variety of colors depending on the wearer's preference. When clergy are delivering sermons, they sometimes attach
preaching bands to their clerical collar.
History
According to the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
's Enquiry Centre (citing the ''
Glasgow Herald
''The Herald'' is a Scottish broadsheet newspaper founded in 1783. ''The Herald'' is the longest running national newspaper in the world and is the eighth oldest daily paper in the world. The title was simplified from ''The Glasgow Herald'' in ...
'' of December 6, 1894), the detachable clerical collar was invented in 1865 by the Rev. Donald Mcleod, a
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland.
The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Reformation of 1560, when it split from the Catholic Church ...
(Presbyterian) minister in
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
.
By 1840,
Anglican clergy developed a sense of separation between themselves and the secular world.
One outward symbol of this was the adoption of distinctive clerical dress.
This had started with the black coat and white necktie which had been worn for some decades.
By the 1880s this had been transmuted into the clerical collar, which was worn almost constantly by the majority of clergy for the rest of the period.
Henry McCloud stated that the collar "was nothing else than the shirt collar turned down over the cleric's everyday common dress in compliance with a fashion that began toward the end of the sixteenth century. For when the laity began to turn down their collars, the clergy also took up the mode." Invented in the
Presbyterian Church, the clerical collar was adopted by other
Christian denominations, including the
Anglican Church
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...
,
Methodist churches,
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops vi ...
,
Baptist
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...
churches,
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
churches and the
Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...
churches.
It was mandatory for U.S. Catholic priests starting in 1884. In the 1960s, many clergy who lived in countries where Catholicism was the dominant religion also began to wear the clerical collar rather than the
soutane
The cassock or soutane is a Christian clerical clothing coat used by the clergy and male religious of the Oriental Orthodox Churches, Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, in addition to some clergy in certain Protestant denominat ...
or
cassock.
In the
Reformed tradition
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Calv ...
, which stresses preaching as a central concern,
pastors
A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and An ...
often don
preaching tabs
Bands are a form of formal neckwear, worn by some clergy and lawyers, and with some forms of academic dress. They take the form of two oblong pieces of cloth, usually though not invariably white, which are tied to the neck. When worn by clergy, th ...
, which project from their clerical collar.
Preaching bands (an alternative name for tabs) are also worn by Anglican clergy, particularly on occasions such as
inductions when choir dress of
cassock,
surplice,
preaching scarf
A tippet is a piece of clothing worn over the shoulders in the shape of a scarf or cape. Tippets evolved in the fourteenth century from long sleeves and typically had one end hanging down to the knees. A tippet (or tappit) could also be the long ...
and the
academic hood
Academic dress is a traditional form of clothing for academic settings, mainly tertiary (and sometimes secondary) education, worn mainly by those who have obtained a university degree (or similar), or hold a status that entitles them to assu ...
pertaining to degree is worn, as well as at
Mattins
The Daily Office in Anglican churches focuses the traditional canonical hours on daily services of Morning Prayer (also called Matins or Mattins, especially when chanted) and Evening Prayer (called Evensong, especially when celebrated chorally ...
and
Evensong
Evensong is a church service traditionally held near sunset focused on singing psalms and other biblical canticles. In origin, it is identical to the canonical hour of vespers. Old English speakers translated the Latin word as , which became ...
. Methodist and Lutheran clergy also sometimes attach preaching bands to their clerical collars.
In the United Kingdom (and other British-influenced countries, such as Canada), full clerical collars have been informally referred to as "
dog collar
A dog collar is a piece of material put around the neck of a dog. A collar may be used for restraint, identification, fashion, or protection. Identification tags and medical information are often placed on dog collars. Collars are often used i ...
s"
since the mid-nineteenth century. The term ''Roman collar'' is equivalent to "clerical collar" and does not necessarily mean that the wearer is Roman Catholic.
In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, non-Christian clergy, such as some Jewish rabbis in England (such as
Rabbi Abraham Cohen, the editor of the
Soncino Books of the Bible
Soncino Press is a Jewish publishing company based in the United Kingdom that has published a variety of books of Jewish interest, most notably English translations and commentaries to the Talmud and Hebrew Bible. The Soncino Hebrew Bible and Tal ...
) would also wear clerical collars.
During the 1950s the Reverend
Alec Vidler
Alexander Roper Vidler (1899–1991), known as Alec Vidler, was an English Anglican priest, theologian, and ecclesiastical historian, who served as Dean of King's College, Cambridge, for ten years from 1956 and then, following his retirement i ...
began to advocate the abolition of the clerical collar in favour of a black shirt and white tie, but whilst some clergy adopted this mode of dress it did not become widespread.
Non-ordained clerics are usually not entitled to use the traditional clerical collar with a different color clerical collar to the clerical shirt, but in some denominations are beginning to using the same design shirt and collar as ordained priests, but with matching clerical shirt and collar (i.e. black shirt with black collar, white shirt with white collar, purple shirt with purple collar).
Members of religious orders will often wear a "Brother's Collar" or "Brothers Collarette" which is very similar to a typical clerical collar, but revealing a noticeably smaller amount of the white band.
Use by denomination
Catholicism
In the Catholic Church, the clerical collar is worn by almost all ranks of clergy, thus: bishops, priests, and deacons, and often by
seminarian
A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...
s as well as with their cassock during liturgical celebrations.
Among the
Eastern Catholic Churches
The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also called the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous ('' sui iuris'') particular churches of t ...
and Eastern Orthodox Church a band collarette with no "notch" in front may be worn by seminarians, although the norm is still a standard clerical collar. However, as the cassock is more commonly, if not mandatorily, worn to classes, often a plain white shirt will suffice, or a band collar with no collarette. Slavic cassocks button to the side, and thus a collar is often pointless, whereas a Greek cassock buttons to the front and has a higher collar, so the collar prevents chafing—as was its original function under a cassock. Eastern deacons and sometimes
subdeacons, but rarely
readers or other minor clerics, also wear a clerical collar, with subdeacons and readers often having a style with no notch, or a tab shirt with no tab. Most Orthodox clerics do not wear a clerical collar; those who do are usually to be found in Western Europe or North America.
Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran
Collars are typically worn by clergy of other groups such as those of the Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and Lutheran traditions, although many Danish and some Norwegian Lutheran clergy wear the
ruff
Ruff may refer to:
Places
*Ruff, Virginia, United States, an unincorporated community
*Ruff, Washington, United States, an unincorporated community
Other uses
*Ruff (bird) (''Calidris pugnax'' or ''Philomachus pugnax''), a bird in the wader fami ...
instead.
Gallery
File:Eva Brunne-2.jpg, Bishop of Stockholm Eva Brunne wearing a cassock and a Lutheran clerical collar with preaching bands
File:Christina Lövestam.jpg, Christina Lövestam, a Lutheran priest in the Church of Sweden
File:Clericalcollar1.jpg, A Roman Catholic seminarian wearing a cassock with a clerical collar
File:Col et collet.jpg, Illustration of a detached clerical collar
File:Per Hansson portrait.jpg, Per Henrik Hansson, a Lutheran priest in the Church of Sweden
File:Biskupské_svěcení_Z._Wasserbauer_2018-05-19_Jan_Baxant.jpg, The Roman Catholic Bishop of Litoměřice Jan Baxant
Jan Baxant (born 8 October 1948) is a Czech Roman Catholic bishop, being the leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Litoměřice since 2008.
Biography Early life
Baxant was born in a large Catholic family and has five siblings, two sisters and ...
wearing a cassock, a zucchetto
The zucchetto (, also ,["zucchetto"](_blank)
(US) and , and a clerical collar
File:Jacques_Habert_par_Claude_Truong-Ngoc_août_2014.jpg, Jacques Habert, Roman Catholic bishop of Bayeux
File:Rabbi_Dr._Abraham_Cohen.png, Rabbi Dr. Abraham Cohen, editor of the Soncino Books of the Bible
Footnotes
External links
*
{{Clothing
Anglican vestments
Lutheran vestments
Catholic clerical clothing
Necklines
Neckwear
Protestant vestments
Christian clothing