cope

A cope ( ("rain coat") or ("cape")) is a liturgical long mantle or cloak, open at the front and fastened at the breast with a band or clasp. It may be of any liturgical colour.

A cope may be worn by any rank of the Catholic or Anglican clergy, and by licensed lay ministers on certain occasions. If worn by a bishop, it is generally accompanied by a mitre. The clasp, which is often highly ornamented, is called a ''morse''. In art, angels are often shown wearing copes, especially in Early Netherlandish painting.

History

There has been little change in the character of the cope since it was first worn by the clergy. It was made of a semicircular piece of silk or other material, its shape distinguishing it from the chasuble, which had straight edges sewn together in front. Both garments are similar in form and origin to the Orthodox phelonion.

Modern copes no longer have a hood. Some early examples feature a triangular hood, which was intended to protect the head during processions, but over time the hood it came to represented by a shield-shaped piece of embroidery that sometimes adorned with a fringe or tassel. Early chasubles depicted in 8th- and 9th-century drawings, have a primitive style of hood, suggesting that the cope and the chasuble had a common origin.

The earliest mentions of a is by the Gallo-Roman historian St. Gregory of Tours, and in the of St Fursey, when a hooded cloak is described. A letter written in 787 by the Benedictine abbot of Monte Cassino, Theodemar, in answer to a question by Charlemagne, King of the Franks, about monks' clothing. establishes that what in Gaul was styled ''cuculla'' ( cowl) was known to the Cassinese monks as ''cappa''. Moreover, the word occurs more than once in Alcuin's correspondence, apparently as denoting a garment for everyday wear. When Alcuin twice observes about a ''casula'' which was sent him, that he meant to wear it always at Mass, this suggests that such garments at this date were not distinctively liturgical owing to anything in their material or construction, but that they were set aside for the use of the altar at the choice of the owner, who might equally well have used them as part of his ordinary attire. In the case of the chasuble the process of liturgical specialization was completed at a comparatively early date, and before the end of the ninth century the maker of a ''casula'' probably knew quite well in most cases whether he intended his handiwork for a Mass vestment or for an everyday outer garment. But in the case of a ''cappa'' or cope, this period of specialization seems to have been delayed until much later. The two hundred ''cappae'' or copes which appear in a Saint-Riquier inventory in the year 801, a number increased to 377 by the year 831, were thought to be mere cloaks, for the most part of rude material and destined for common wear. It may be that their use in choir was believed to add to the decorum and solemnity of the Divine Office, especially in the winter season. In 831 one of the Saint-Riquier copes is specially mentioned as being of chestnut colour and embroidered with gold. This, no doubt, implies use by a dignitary, but it does not prove that it was as yet regarded as a sacred vestment. In fact, according to the conclusions of Edmund Bishop, who was the first to sift the evidence thoroughly, it was not until the twelfth century that the cope, made of rich material, was in general use in the ceremonies of the Church, at which time it had come to be regarded as the special vestment of cantors. Still, an ornamental cope was even then considered a vestment that might be used by any member of the clergy from the highest to the lowest, in fact even by one who was only about to be tonsured.

Amongst monks it was the practice to vest the whole community, except the celebrant and the sacred ministers who assisted the celebrant, in copes at High Mass on the greatest festivals, whereas on feasts of somewhat lower grade, the community were usually vested in albs. Surviving inventories show that the Netherlands, France, and Germany had taken the lead in this movement. For example, already in 870, the Abbey of Saint Trond lists "thirty-three precious copes of silk" as against only twelve chasubles, and it was clearly the Cluny practice in the latter part of the tenth century to vest all the monks in copes during high Mass on the great feasts, though in England the regulations of Saint Dunstan and Saint Aethelwold show no signs of any such observance. The custom spread to the secular canons of such cathedrals as Rouen, and cantors nearly everywhere used copes of silk as their own peculiar adornment in the exercise of their functions.

Meanwhile, the old ("black cape"), or , a choir cape of black material, open or partly open in front, and commonly provided with a functioning hood, still continued in use. While the cope was a liturgical vestment, made of rich, colorful fabric and often highly decorated, the was a practical garment, made of heavy plain black wool and designed to provide warmth in cold weather. Whereas the cope's hood had long since become a non-functional decorative item, the hood of the remained functional. The was worn at the ivine Office by the clergy of cathedral and collegiate churches and also by many religious, as, for example, it is retained by the Dominican Order">Dominicans