"Bigger is better" has been the maxim of life for any number of Texan truck drivers, Nazi battleship engineers, bridal dress designers, and cardinals' clothiers. A recent feature by Dr. Kwasniewski on the cappa magna swiftly devolved into a debate as to whether or not a cardinal's cappa should be more magna than Diana Spencer's wedding dress (in case any of you are too young, a rather pleasant song about Marilyn Monroe was destroyed in her memory).
The modern cappa is a baroque elaboration of the cloak cardinals wore in public processions during the high and late middle ages. Similarly, the galero was once a broad brimmed hat for outdoor use. Cardinals wore the vesture of their office (cope for bishops, chasuble for priests, dalmatic for deacons) with the mitre as choir dress in the presence of the Pope. The cassock may have had a bit of train for dramatic effect, but it paled in comparison with what succeeded it centuries later.
 |
| No train, no lace. Meets all your processional needs! |
Invested with positions of authority, cardinals fused their often dynastic trappings with ecclesiastical vesture. The long trains worn by kings were imitated both by brides and bishops alike, as was the penchant for silk and lace. The pope himself wore an enormous train called the falda at Papal Mass. Pius XII shortened the permitted train only to have John XXIII re-lengthen it. Paul VI's prohibition of the cappa in the city of Rome, possibly concerned that the newly impoverished Vatican liturgy might be overshadowed by one of the titular churches, meant fewer owners of this garish garment.
 |
| True origin of the cappa: statecraft, as practiced by Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal de Richelieu. |
Athwart my instinct to favor historicity in vestments, I am quite happy this particular piece of frippery has declined from general wear. Revivals of its use in solemn ceremonies are remarkably anachronistic. Some older images of the ICRSS employing Cardinals Medina and Stickler show men accustomed to the vestment, since they remembered when it was normal. More modern wearers are less successful. Cardinal Burke is a short, stout man with a stiff gait; trailed by 20 feet of silk he appears in need of liberation from his Tuscan jailers. Shred the lace and cut the capes.
As an aside, this blog's tendency to highlight lingering medieval and pre-medieval liturgical practices is not purely for aesthetic value, although well executed gothic and Roman quash baroque vainglory as Joshua did the Canaanites. The liturgy until the Counter-Reformation era was more organic, more engaging, more instinctive, and more indicative of the religious instinct of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church. We can learn much from those periods. That said, I appreciate something unique when it comes my way. Take, for instance, this distinct wedding and nuptial Mass celebrated by the FSSP at the Ordinariate parish, Our Lady of Atonement, in San Antonio, TX. A colorful neo-gothic sanctuary housed under a rood screen, a conical chasuble, Josquin des Prez's Missa Pange lingua, and no pixelation makes for a very photogenic wedding. I am not sure what the bride and groom are wearing, ethnic clothes or something germane to the author's self-professed medievalism. It is worth a peak if you have a "boutique liturgical fetish." The bride does have something of a train. She is fortunate that a cardinal did not attend, his would have been bigger.
The bridegroom is an acquaintance of mine. He has Indonesian background, so his vestments are Indonesian-inspired.
ReplyDeleteCurious that your ideas sometimes resemble those of Paul VI ... anything that started in year so-and-so has to go. We have to go farther than that when there was no lace, when there was no train, when there was no triregnum, etc. ...
ReplyDeleteThat is a very dangerous road to take!
Especially because, in such cases, taste and preference ALWAYS gets in the way ... another one will come who will agree with you in everything except one thing and then that one will want to go back even farther than your historical eyes can go back to ... and then they will not want some of the things that you so studiously and belligerently advocate!
DeleteAmen, latinmass1983!
DeleteAs the person who mentioned Diana, Princess of Wales, I might add that the point was if you’re going to be insulting towards the cappa magna and to the traditional liturgy writ large, at least have your facts right, lest it be embarrassing later.
ReplyDeleteThe Rad Trad may be wrong in this instance, but he's not insulting the traditional liturgy, whatever you may think of his opinion on the cappa magna. I don't see it at least.
DeleteMate, go back and read the original thread on NLM (which inspired this post) and my original comment. I never said anything about what was said here, only about what I had said elsewhere.
DeletePerhaps everyone needs to lighten up and take this for what it is, a bit of jesting at a silk cape?
DeleteI didn't think seriously about it, but now that I do, I see this post as harmless fun, not really meant to insult indeed.
DeleteI have no strong feelings on the cappa magna. I will, however, agree with a former Anglican-priest friend of mine that all too often things like birrettas have nothing to do with the traditional liturgy and serve only as outlets for clerical vanity and prissiness (I believe that Abp. Lefebrve personally didn't like the hat for that exact reason). I say we content ourselves with a good liturgy and well-made Gothic vestments.
ReplyDeleteWe can then afterwards drink plenty of brandy, beer, and wine rather than get angry about long cloaks!
Agreed. You should not make a mountain out of a molehill.
DeleteWell, antiquarianism (Gothic vestments, pre-Trent uses, unbirettad heads, etc.) does go well with plenty of brandy, beer, and wine ... after all ... they all numb and impair the senses and cause one to view things in a very blurry way! ;-)
DeleteI'd say the same thing about Fatimism, love of the 1950's/Pius XII, pink fiddlebacks, lace, armies of mantilla-clad scowling church-ladies running parishes, anachronistic dress codes, clericalism, and Baroque faggery.
DeleteWhere in the world do you find this? In my entire life, I have never seen any of this!
DeleteThen you haven't been to the SSPX back in the 90s or the FSSP when they first started. It's only recently that things have gotten a bit better. The SSPX are very keen on Fatima, and they still have parishes having most, if not, all of the above things EV mentioned.
Delete@EV: please be mindful of your tone.
DeleteThanks for the mention, Rad Trad. My mother is an Indonesian immigrant; the wedding garments are an homage to that, and they have the bonus of allowing far more color and extravagant detail than the contemporary western costume allows, without resorting to period dress. This particular design weds the conventional white of the modern age with the ideal blue of the Middle Ages. A modern medievalism, if you will. The garments are bespoke and hand embroidered from Jakarta. The bride's skirt is also hand dyed batik.
ReplyDeleteAs a point of technicality, Atonement is not part of the Ordinariate, at least not yet. It remains an Anglican Use parish under the Archdiocese of San Antonio. They do use the new Ordinariate Missal for their usual liturgies, though.
ReplyDeleteThat is correct - they're one of only two of the old Anglican Use parishes not to join the Ordinariate. At least, not yet.
DeleteIf and when they do, they'll at least double the entire lay population of the North American Ordinariate - it's a big parish.
@Mr Medievalist,
DeleteThanks for reading. I had forgotten Atonement is not an Ordinariate parish. Someone once related the whole thing to me when I lived in Oxford and the Ordinariate was erected, but the facts evaded me.
In the Bible: "the Bride shall be covered in gold." I am Orthodox and I am quite pleased with the garments of our priests. Super long does not exist, but gold is very present. What I appreciate most is that on Dormition Day the priests wear turquoise and gold and blue or turquoise is present in all the objects in the Church. On Easter one can observe the presence the color red alongside black which is more present than gold.
ReplyDeleteI think the Roman rite is more directed to symbols through shape (also presence of sculpture) while the Orthodox express more abstractly through color (no sculptures allowed).
During the years Virgin Mary spent at the Temple with Rabbis (her early years) she is said to have embellished the clothes of people who work at the Temple. So the decoration of priests' clothes is also expressing her presence within the Church.
There is almost no custom of our Roman heritage that could not be criticized for being "too much" or "unnecessary" or "extra," except bringing bread and wine to a table for Mass. Even if this post was meant in good fun, the implication that a cappa magna is the importation of a Baroque worldliness is just the sort of path down which Louis Bouyer in his more unguarded moments walked -- and was the axe wielded by the liturgical revolutionaries.
ReplyDeleteDr K, I think you're reading too much into this. It is hardly a derision of supposed excesses in our Roman heritage. If a silk cape is sacrosanct and the traditional Holy Week is not, then I think my fellow traditionalists need to reconsider their priorities.
DeleteWell said! The old Holy Week must be done, and the deformity that is the Pius XII Holy Week and both old and new '62 Good Friday prayers should be laid to rest once and for all!
DeleteIn fairness, Rad Trad, there's really not all that many traditionalists that - at least this is my sense of the lay of the land, and I had the impression, of Dr. K - wouldn't prefer to have the pre-Pian Holy Week back, if they could have it (if they know about it at all, at least). In short, it's a bit of a false dichotomy at this point.
DeleteThe loss of the old Holy Week is worth getting a little worked up about. But the reemergence of lace and silk in a microscopically few liturgies really is not, I think. Perhaps we can hack out a compromise that keeps any Baroque vestments outside a 3km radius when we are finally able to re-stage a Sarum Use Mass.
I am, of course, also in favor of pre-1955 Holy Week, but can we keep the restored times (mid-afternoon Good Friday, Easter Vigil at night, etc.)? Or at least leave it to the pastor's discretion as to what times best serve his flock?
ReplyDeleteAs to the cappa magna, as I told Dr. Kwasniewski in a recent correspondence, I like to think of it as a reflection of the "servant Church" spoken of by Vatican II: the prelate wearing it relies upon his attendants to keep him aright. He is not his own man, but must serve the faithful as the faithful serve him.
If I were a prelate, I'd personally use a cappa of more modest length as in the medieval Church, but I don't mind the longer form, either.... especially since I've never actually had an opportunity to see one being used, anyway, despite being a TLM-goer for ten years.
It also bears mentioning that my and I actually received two his-and-hers rosaries from Cardinal Burke as a wedding gift. (In the mail, not in person.)
("My wife and I", that should say above)
Delete"also in favor of pre-1955 Holy Week, but can we keep the restored times (mid-afternoon Good Friday, Easter Vigil at night, etc.)? Or at least leave it to the pastor's discretion as to what times best serve his flock?"
DeleteWe'll be doing exactly as you wish at my parish 10 weeks hence, except we'll be following a literally Vesperal time for the Paschal Vigil which will begin at 5pm on Holy Saturday. Check out Fr. Hunwicke's words today about 1,500-year old rites and their auctoritas vis-à-vis legislative texts. Time to just do the perennial Holy Week.
@Mr Medievalist,
DeleteI think the times are to be counted among the defective features of the Pacellian novelties. While writers can object that it is absurd to hold the Saturday vesperal liturgy at 8AM and that it only came to that point so people could end their fast, there was also a pastoral sensibility to it. Indeed, aside from Saturday, the new times make no historic sense. The Ordo Romanus II from the 8/9th century denotes the Mandy Thursday Mass was celebrated after Terce, at 9M, after the manner of a festive Mass. Why celebrated the Presanctified Mass at 3PM on Friday, when the Passion is already over?
Practically the old times allowed the full liturgy to be celebrated in parishes: Mass/Vespers in the morning, Compline and Mandatum in the afternoon, and Tenebrae at night for Thursday; Mass/Vespers at noon, stations of the Cross in the afternoon, and Tenebrae at night for Friday; Mass/vespers in the morning, compline in the afternoon, and Mattins & Lauds in the evening for Saturday. The compression of everything into the evening resulted in the elimination of Vespers throughout the week and of Paschal Mattins & Lauds, the most important Office of the year.
While I'd like to experience the old Holy Week at the purist's time in the evening myself, such might only be possible in monasteries. At the parish and cathedral level the pre-1955 times were sensible ways of practicing the whole liturgy and avoiding burnout.
Rad Trad, if a parish observes the Triduum in the morning hours precisely so that they can fit public celebrations of all the hours of the Divine Office (*cricket chirps*), then by all means. But considering the Masses alone, I've always found the later times far more convenient. I suppose it helps that I'm not a morning person, but to give a concrete example, there's no way my wife and I would have been able to attend the Vigil of Easter last year if it had been in the morning because our infant daughter would have fought it tooth and nail. We put her to bed at home at night, then left for the church.
Delete