Introduction
The traditional choir dress of the Anglican clergyman comprising cassock, surplice, scarf and hood, dates at least from the sixteenth century although in the present day the custom of wearing an academic hood has become less common.Footnote 1 The history and usage of the academic hood in worship services will be traced from the Ornaments Rubric of 1549 to the present day, placing particular emphasis on Anglo-Catholic practice.
The Ornaments Rubric
And here it is to be noted, that such Ornaments of the Church, and of the Ministers thereof, at all times of their Ministration, shall be retained, and be in use, as were in this Church of England, by the Authority of Parliament, the Second Year of the Reign of King Edward the Sixth’.Footnote 2
So, reads the famous (or infamous, depending on one’s ecclesiology) Ornaments Rubric published in the Book of Common Prayer in its several iterations between 1549 (the second year of the reign of Edward VI) and 1662, in which version it continues in use to the present day.
It seems unlikely that an Anglican clergyman (particularly one disposed to Anglo-Catholicism) would not be acquainted with the Ornaments Rubric of the 1549 Book of Common Prayer [the Prayer Book], particularly in respect of ‘The Ornaments of the Ministers’. More attention has been focused on the subject of eucharistic vestments than on choir dress, no doubt because of the former doctrinal significance attached to chasubles, stoles, and maniples. However, the Church of England no longer attaches doctrinal significance to the vesture of its clergy (Vesture of Ministers Measure, 1964), although in some circles, historical prejudice (sometimes lacking in academic rigour) fails to acknowledge this legal principle.Footnote 3
To begin our study, we should return to the formative years of the post-Reformation Church of England and its clerical attire in the sixteenth century, as outlined in the first Prayer Book of 1549.
The Book of Common Prayer
1549Footnote 4
As a foundation to the study of the academic hood in Anglican worship, I reproduce below key texts employing original spellings and grammar from successive iterations of the first edition of the Prayer Book in 1549 to 1662, together with relevant Canons of 1604.
v. The Supper of the Lorde, and the holy Communion, commonly called the Masse.
The Priest that shall execute the holy ministrys shall put upon him the vesture appointed for that ministracion, that is to saye: a white Albe plaine, with a vestment or a cope.
Other priests and deacons shall have upon them the vestures appointed for their ministry, that is to saye, Albes, with tunacles.
In the saying or singing of Mates and Evensong, Baptyzing and Burying, the minister in paryshe churches and chapels annexed to the same, shall use a Surples. And in all Cathedral churches and Colledges the archdeacons …. [other dignitaries] being Graduates may use in the quiere, beside theyre Surplesses [sic], such hoodes as pertaineth to their several degrees. But in all other places, every minister shall be at libertie to use any Surples or no. It is also seemly that Graduates, when they are due to preache, should use such hoodes as pertaineth to their several degrees.
1552
And here is to be noted, that the minister at the tyme of the Communion and all other tymes in his ministracion, shall use neither albe, vestment, nor cope: but being archbishop or bishop, he shall have and wear a rochet; and being a preest [sic]or deacon, he shall have and wear a surplice onely.
The Ornaments Rubric was omitted from the 1552 book, emphasizing the trend towards a more reformed doctrine of the Eucharist. The ‘albe’ and ‘vestment’ were deemed to reflect Roman Catholic doctrine and therefore banned. There are no rubrics relating to vesture for the choir offices and no mention of academic hoods. The 1552 Prayer Book was only in use until 1553, when it was supplanted by the Roman rite on the accession of Mary Tudor: following the succession of Elizabeth I in 1558, the Prayer Book was restored in 1559 and, with it, the Ornaments Rubric.
1559
And here it is to be noted, that the Minister at the time of communion, and at all other tymes in his ministracion, shall use suche ornaments in the church, as were in use by the authoritie of parliament in the second yeare of the reign of king Edward the vi according to the acte of parliament set in the beginning of this booke.
Despite the various warring factions in the Church of England, the reforming tendencies of 1552 were reversed in favour of the 1549 Ornaments Rubric.
1604
The revised canons of 1604 continue the practice of surplices worn with hood or tippet (‘black scarf’) for the choir offices and preaching, making slight distinctions between services in cathedrals and collegiate churches. The matter pertaining to the wearing of hoods in Canons XVII, XXV and LVIII is comprehensively summarized in Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiasticall: it should be noted that, in contrast to 1549, hoods are worn for the Communion.Footnote 5
XVII.
Students in Colleges to wear Surplices in time of Divine Service.
All Masters and Fellows of Colleges or Halls, and all the Scholars and Students in either of the Universities, shall in their Churches and Chapels upon all Sundays, Holy-days and their Eves, at the time of Divine Service, wear Surplices according to the Order of the Church of England: and such as are Graduates, shall agreeably wear with their Surplices such Hoods as do severally appertain unto their Degrees.
XXV
Surplices and Hoods to be worn in Cathedral Churches when there is no Communion.
In the Time of Divine Service and Prayers in all Cathedral and Collegiate Churches, when there is no Communion, it shall be sufficient to wear Surplices: saving that all Deans, Masters and Heads of Collegiate Churches, Canons and Prebendaries being Graduates, shall daily at the Times both of Prayer and Preaching, wear with their Surplices such Hoods as are agreeable to their Degrees.
LVIII
Ministers reading Divine Service, and administering the Sacraments, to wear Surplices, and Graduates therewithal Hoods.
Every Minister saying the Publick Prayers, or Ministering the Sacraments, or other Rites of the Church, shall wear a decent and comely Surplice with Sleeves, to be provided at the charge of the Parish… Furthermore, such Ministers as are Graduates, shall wear upon their Surplices at such times, such Hoods as by the Orders of the Universities are agreeable to their Degrees, which no Minister shall wear (being no Graduate) under pain of Suspension. Notwithstanding it shall be lawful for such Ministers as are not Graduates, to wear upon their Surplices instead of Hoods, some decent Tippet of Black, so it be not Silk.
1662
The Book of Common Prayer of 1662 (together with the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion) remains a fundamental source of Anglican doctrine and, to a lesser extent, liturgical praxis.Footnote 6 The Ornaments Rubric remains in the 1662 Prayer Book but, as we shall see, it becomes of diminished importance following the liturgical reforms of the late twentieth century.
Vesture
Eucharistic vestments, surplices, scarf, and hood
Much of the religious debate in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England was occasioned by the Puritan belief that the Church of England retained too many Roman Catholic practices, was not properly reformed in the continental Calvinistic sense and that many matters not only of doctrine but also of vesture were redolent of Catholicism.Footnote 7 The traditional mass vestments of chasuble, stole, and maniple were permitted for the Communion together with tunicles for deacons and subdeacons in the 1549 Prayer Book, (a white Albe plaine, with a vestment or a cope) but excluded in the reformed-leaning 1552 version. It should be noted that the cope was not considered a vestment in the eucharistic sense (it is a processional garment or a garment of dignity), and it is apparent that its use was permitted in 1549, particularly in cathedrals and collegiate churches, but not at all in 1552. Similarly, the alb was permitted in 1549 but not in 1552. The surplice (or rochet for bishops) became the outer garment of the cleric during his ministrations, its use somewhat emphasized in the rubrics both as a contrast to, and retaliation against, the black gown of the Genevan reformers.Footnote 8
The Choir Offices and Choir Habit
In the 1549 Prayer Book, the academic hood was directed to be worn over the surplice by graduates when officiating at Matins or Evensong, present in choir, or preaching, but not for the Communion or the occasional offices.Footnote 9 However, this usage was abolished in 1552, no doubt because coloured and flamboyant vesture as an adornment of the minister was held to be incompatible with reformed practice. It was subsequently restored.
The Surplice
Worn over either street dress or a cassock, the white surplice could be described as the basic garment of Anglican vesture from (at least) the sixteenth century to the present day, worn by clerics and lay alike.Footnote 10 It was derived from the fundamental liturgical garment of Western Christianity, the alb: a much-abbreviated surplice appeared in the Roman Catholic liturgy as the cotta and, similarly, the dignitary’s rochet was also derived from the alb. The Ornaments Rubric of 1549 firmly emphasized the use of the surplice in contrast (or opposition!) to the black ‘Geneva’ gown of the reformers, except when the minister was wearing eucharistic vestments, and the Savoy Conference of 1661 represented the final attempt of the reformers to abolish the surplice (a garment the reformers considered ‘Popish’), which remained the principal attire of Anglican clergy. It should be noted that, in the nineteenth century, it was customary for many clergymen to replace their surplice with a black gown when they ascended the pulpit, although clergymen of a Low-Church mentality still viewed the surplice as High-Church and suspicious of Romanizing tendencies, whereas the Anglo-Catholic party viewed the gown as a Protestant garment.
The Scarf or Tippet
The ‘black scarf’ of the Anglican clergy (bishop, priest, or deacon) is worn in choir dress over the academic hood; the garment is worn not only by clergy but also as a mark of dignity by doctors of divinity, high court judges and civic officials. Its regular use by lower Anglican clergy dates from nineteenth-century custom, but the history of the garment and its confusing nomenclature – are scarf and tippet one and the same? – may be traced back to pre-Reformation years, and it is thought to have evolved from the medieval almuce.Footnote 11 Dictionary descriptions are seldom helpful and, for example, ‘tippet = a long black scarf worn over the robe by Anglican clergy’: ‘black scarf = the ceremonial scarf worn by Anglican ministers is formally called a tippet’). John Purchas’ Directorium Anglicanum of 1865, however, sheds some light on the nature of the tippet: ‘The TIPPET is a cape of black stuff, which clergy who are not graduates are permitted to wear over their surplices when officiating, in lieu of the academical hood’.Footnote 12 Revealing its medieval origins, Purchas’ tippet is a cape rather than a long scarf-like length of black material.
Regulations for wearing of scarf/tippet are prescribed in the Canons of 1604 and subsequent documents (see above, ‘1604: Canon LVIII’), and here, it appears that the tippet is worn by non-graduates in lieu of a hood, but it is noted that the tippet shall be of a plain material, silk being reserved for dignitaries.Footnote 13 , Footnote 14
From its introduction in the seventeenth century to the present day, the scarf/tippet has remained an item of Anglican choir dress, described in the Vesture of Ministers Measure of 1964 and ordered by Canon Law in 2022. The scarf is sometimes worn in place of the stole at ordination or during the Holy Communion by clergy of evangelical persuasion, although neither it nor the stole now carries doctrinal significance. The scarf may be decorated with appropriate emblems or military medals and may be worn under a cope, and its use is closely associated with the academic hood although, as we shall see, is not necessarily worn with it.Footnote 15
The Academic Hood
The hood – the central topic of the present article – is fundamentally a garment of academia rather than of the church and denotes both the academic status (bachelor, master or doctor) and the university of its wearer: its use has been sanctioned with the surplice in ecclesiastical dress of Anglican clergy since the sixteenth century.
1549–1662
The practice relating to the use of academic hoods outlined in the successive Books of Common Prayer and in Canon Law (with the notable exception of the short-lived Reformed-leaning Prayer Book of 1552) is essentially that hoods are worn by graduates over the surplice at Matins and Evensong, whether presiding or present in choir, when preaching, and during the celebration of Holy Communion (Canon LVIII, 1604).Footnote 16 As Nicholas Groves indicated, the question of the wearing of hoods by singers in the musical choir is of no significance before the nineteenth century.Footnote 17 Similarly, the tippet or scarf worn in Anglican choir dress never carried doctrinal significance.
Although academic hoods evolved over the years, their usage as clerical attire continued substantially unhindered until the nineteenth century, when the Tractarian and Ritualist movements contributed intellectual challenges to Anglican doctrine and liturgical praxis and to a varied interpretation of ‘The Ornaments of the Church and the Ministers thereof’.
Tractarians and Ritualists: Controversy
Introduction
It seems reasonable to postulate that both increased interest in, and subsequent controversies relating to, ecclesiastical vesture in the nineteenth century were related to the Tractarian (or Oxford) movement and to the accompanying – if slightly later – Ritualist movement. It is not within the scope of the present article to present a detailed history of these movements, both of which had profound effects not only on Anglican theology but also on the more visible topic of liturgical practice. It is generally accepted that the Oxford Movement dates from John Keble’s Assize Sermon on National Apostasy, delivered at the University Church of St. Mary, Oxford, on 14 July 1833: primarily, a theological exercise, the Oxford Movement and its founders were little concerned with vesture and matters of ritual and in its early days continued to use the Prayer Book and to celebrate Holy Communion not wearing eucharistic vestments but surplice, scarf and hood.Footnote 18 The foundation of the Cambridge Camden Society in 1839 (known from 1845 as the Ecclesiological Society) provided a catalyst for an increasing interest in matters of ritual, architecture, and vestments, beginning what may be called ‘the second generation’ of Anglo-Catholicism, emphasizing ritualism and ceremonial (usually applied to Prayer Book services) in contrast to the Tractarian doctrinal basis of the first generation of Anglo-Catholics scholars.Footnote 19 The practice of ritual embellishment by means of architecture, church furnishings and vestments underwent a rapid crescendo from the middle of the century. John Mason Neale, one of the founders of the Ritualist movement, is reported to have worn a chasuble in 1850, and by the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the practice became increasingly common. In 1882, 336 parishes used chasubles, a figure rising to 797 by 1890 and to 2,158 in 1901.Footnote 20 However, substantial objections to the use of vestments continued from both the clergy and the laity: evangelicals expressed their disquiet at the wearing of vestments in a variety of ways. For example, Dr Charles Baring, the evangelical Bishop of Durham, suspended the Revd Francis Grey, Rector of Morpeth, from the office of Rural Dean because he had worn a black stole with three crosses embroidered on it and in 1867 Lord Shaftesbury introduced a bill to forbid the use of any vestments other than the surplice and hood (or tippet) for use when saying public prayers and ministering sacraments and encouraged the custom of wearing a black gown when preaching to continue. The bill was lost after its second reading.Footnote 21
It is incorrect to assume that so-called High-Church practices in the Church of England began with the Oxford Tractarians, for Archbishop William Laud (1573-1645) led what was then considered a High-Church movement in the early seventeenth century.Footnote 22 By the latter years of the nineteenth century, the High-Church movement we now call Anglo-Catholicism proved not only increasingly popular but also controversial, many clergy being accused of mimicking Roman Catholic practice in connection with church furnishings, ceremonial and vestments – not to mention certain matters of doctrine which were perceived to be incompatible with the Reformation and the Prayer Book. Indeed, clergy could not only be sanctioned or inhibited by their bishop but also, following Regulation of Public Worship Act of 1874, were imprisoned on grounds of failure to comply with the Prayer Book stipulations on matters of ritual and on vesture.Footnote 23 With regard to apparel, it is pertinent to emphasize that controversy centered on the use of the eucharistic vestments rather than on the choir attire of surplice, scarf, hood and on more solemn occasions, the cope.
Nigel Yates, writing in his Anglican Ritualism in Victorian Britain 1830-1910 of 1999, provides an impressively detailed review of the topic but concentrates almost entirely on eucharistic, architectural and church furnishing matters and does not discuss the vesture for choir offices or academic hoods.Footnote 24 It is tempting to assume – in absence of evidence to the contrary – that clergy would have continued the practice of wearing their hoods as designated in the 1604 Canons. Unfortunately, iconography has been of little value in pursuing this matter: most priests are portrayed wearing street dress, with bishops portrayed in rochet and chimere. However, a portrait of The Revd. R. Allwood (artist unknown) from the middle years of the nineteenth century shows him in surplice, scarf and hood.Footnote 25 One does have to question, however, the lack of elegance in publicly removing the surplice and hood and replacing them with a gown before delivering the sermon…
Nineteenth-Century Directives on Anglican Ritual
Directorium Anglicanum Footnote 26
John Purchas’ Directorium Anglicanum was published in 1858 and described as ‘a manual of directions for the right celebration of the Holy Communion, for the saying of Matins and Evensong, and for the performance of other rites and ceremonies of the church, according to the ancient use of the Church of England…’.
Purchas makes it clear that ‘vestment’ implies the chasuble and essentially reiterates the Canons of 1604, namely, that the hood is worn by graduates together with the surplice when reciting the Daily Office, and that the tippet is a substitute for the hood in the case of non-graduate clergy. The Directorium Anglicanum represents an early document of the ritualistic phase of the Anglo-Catholic revival and emphasizes the earlier canons, interpreting that the Ornaments Rubric permits the wearing of eucharistic vestments. The usage of the hood is unaltered.
The Ritual Reason Why Footnote 27
A further product of the Ritualist phase of the 1860s, The Ritual Reason Why noted that the common attire for ministers (section iii, ‘The Ornaments of the Ministers’) was the surplice worn over the cassock. The writer comments that ‘when the cope is not used, the choral tippet, or the hood, and sometimes the stole are worn’ and ‘It [the hood] differs from the tippet in colour, which varies according to the university and degree of the wearer’.
Ritual Notes Footnote 28
First published in 1894 by an unidentified author and headed Ritual Notes. A Comprehensive Guide to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Book of Common Prayer, Ritual Notes remained in print until 2020. Ritual Notes advises that ‘the academic hood, when it is used, is worn over the surplice, not the cotta; and with the black scarf (tippet) not a stole’. A Lay Reader officiating at the choir offices should wear a surplice and the hood of his degree.
Ritual Notes is largely concerned with adapting the Prayer Book to Roman Catholic worship styles, and considerable Roman (‘Western Rite’) influence is detectable within its ethos.
The Parson’s Handbook Footnote 29
Percy Dearmer’s The Parson’s Handbook of 1899 could be described as one of the foundational and most elaborate manuals of Anglican ceremonial, running to thirteen editions, the last being published in 1965. Dearmer was a man of both imagination and strong – if not to say dogmatic – opinion. He appears to have been anxious to revive traditional Anglican rites (such as Sarum) and adapt these to the Prayer Book, rather than adopting the pro-Roman Tridentine practices of some of his contemporaries.
Dearmer is emphatic about the wearing of surplice, scarf and hood for choir offices, with the possible addition of a cope in cathedrals. For Solemn Matins or Evensong, the officiant wears a cope over his surplice and may also wear a scarf and hood beneath his cope, but never a stole.Footnote 30 A staunch advocate for eucharistic vestments, the author notes that if these garments are not available, the priest should wear surplice and stole only, but never a hood.
Two of Dearmer’s comments are worthy of particular note, the first being his observations on the hood by clergy of different Anglican traditions. ‘Some high-church clergy seem to have inherited the Puritan dislike of the hood, discarding it, in defiance of both authority and tradition. A century and a half ago, this dislike of the hood was, more appropriately, the mark of a section of low-church clergy’. His further observation, clearly aimed at those who sought to introduce more Romish practices, described the cotta ‘as that most indecent garment’.Footnote 31 Dearmer was responsible for the introduction of the Warham Guild hood, which bore a striking similarity to the mozzetta, albeit in the colours of the hoods of English universities.Footnote 32
Percy Dearmer favoured – or perhaps re-invented – medieval English ceremonial in contrast to the importation of Roman Catholic practices. Essentially, he interprets the Ornaments Rubric and the Canons of 1549, 1559, 1604 and 1662 according to his perception of long-historic Anglican liturgies and the Prayer Book.
The Hood as an Ornament of the Minister at the Time of his Ministrations Footnote 33
Cuthbert Atchley’s paper, written at the very end of the nineteenth century, further outlines much of the material related above. The author describes a long perception from 1604 to the 1890s for the use of the hood as a quire [sic] vestment by all clergy who are graduates merely as an ornament of the minister. Of note, he writes, ‘We can use the hood in quire, therefore, not so much on the grounds of the Ornaments Rubric as of long custom, arising out of deliberation and not of ignorance, and contrary to neither canon nor civil law’. Atchley also suggests that it would be proper for the priest to wear his hood when shriving or carrying the Eucharist to the sick, both of which practices (he states) were customary among medieval parish priests. In the visitation of the Sick, the Prayer Book permits confession and absolution. If a hood is to be worn, presumably it would be accompanied by a black scarf.
This paper confirms the usage of the hood as used from 1549, but it is interesting to note his observation that the hood may be worn while shriving (hearing confession), a practice far from common in the Church of England of the 1890s.
The Fledgling Anglo-Catholic Movement
The fledgling Anglo-Catholic movement of the late nineteenth century laid great store on adherence to the legally authorized Book of Common Prayer of 1662, albeit with occasional amendments such as the insertion of the Agnus Dei. An increasing number of parish clergy began to adopt Roman Catholic liturgical practices, whereas other writers were more concerned to rediscover ‘the English usage’. Theological and legal battles were fought regarding the use of eucharistic vestments, but the wearing of academic hoods continued – as far as can be ascertained – to follow the Ornaments Rubrics enshrined in the Prayer Book, namely, that graduates should wear hoods for the choir offices and, on occasion, for some eucharistic functions.
A century on, Nigel Yates, looking back to the late nineteenth century in his The Oxford Movement and Anglican Ritualism in the light of the ritual freedom permitted in the late twentieth century commented ‘The debate over minute questions of ritual strikes the modern mind as unbelievably trivial, and in sense it was’.Footnote 34 It may be observed, however, that the ritual add-ons were essentially intended to strengthened the catholic interpretation of the Prayer Book although there was undoubtedly scope in the ritual handbooks for unnecessary flamboyance. One would hope that the doctrinal approach prevailed, being a logical, practical and pastoral exercise.
The Twentieth Century and Beyond
Introduction
It is reasonable to assert that, by the beginning of the twentieth century, the catholic movement in the Church of England was firmly established, although certainly not without substantial opposition encountered ranging from the faithful in the pews to the bench of bishops. Anglo-Catholicism is essentially indefinable, within its arms embracing Anglo-Papalists, Prayer Book Catholics, those who favoured a resurgence of mediaeval rites such as Sarum, and a large contingent who – in customary Anglican fashion – extracted parts of Roman Catholic doctrine and worship practices for use in their parish churches whilst adhering to parts of the 1662 Prayer Book.Footnote 35 Indeed, the years between 1900 and the Second World War represent the heyday of Anglo-Catholicism, witnessing such events as the massive Anglo-Catholic Conferences of 1920s and 1930s and the revival of the Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham in the 1920s and 1930s.
The Ornaments Rubric and the Canons of 1604 were not abrogated: surplice, scarf and hood remained the prescribed vesture for most functions, and the use of stoles and even chasubles began to be accepted in many parish churches that would formerly have abhorred such seemingly Roman practices. Yates reports that in 1882, vestments were worn in 336 parishes, whereas by 1901 the figure had risen to 2,158.Footnote 36 In Anglo-Catholic circles the cassock, surplice, scarf and hood were, however, frequently replaced by the Roman Catholic cassock and cotta, the priest’s head crowned with his biretta: images of the Anglo-Catholic Congress of 1920 show 150 priests in procession, vested in cassock, cotta or surplice and biretta.Footnote 37 Clergy of the Dearmer/Alcuin Club persuasion which rigorously supported the Prayer Book and ‘traditional Anglicanism’, however, would more likely to be vested in a long full-sleeved surplice with scarf and hood.Footnote 38 The Romanizing influence within Anglo-Catholicism was substantial and not only confined to matters of doctrine.
Academic hoods were perceived by some clergy (of both High- and Low-Church preferences) as flamboyant personal adornments of the minister, ignoring their significance as indicating academic status and so were regarded with disapproval, particularly when worn for eucharistic services.Footnote 39
The Vestures of Ministers Measure 1964 Footnote 40
We shall return to these controversies later, but first it is appropriate to examine the views expressed in the Vestures of Ministers Measure of 1964, which were subsequently encapsulated in Canon B8, and which effectively displaced the Canons of 1604.Footnote 41
The Measure noted that ‘The Church of England does not attach any particular doctrinal significance to the diversities of vesture which may lawfully be worn’ and that the Ornaments Rubric should be retained. For Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer, a surplice and scarf should be worn, and for the Occasional Offices, a surplice with scarf or stole. A surplice with scarf or stole or eucharistic vestments may be worn for Holy Communion, and ‘a cope may be worn on any appropriate occasion’. Note (d) observes that ‘When a scarf is worn the Minister, if so entitled, may also wear a hood’. Effectively, the Measure renders the hood an optional extra. However, the new Canons promulgated by the Convocation of Canterbury (1964) and of York (1969) replaced the Canons of 1604, although they did not displace the Ornaments Rubric enshrined in the Prayer Book, but which effectively became vestigial. No doubt to the approval of many, the vesture controversies of the nineteenth century were doctrinally laid to rest and, on a less doctrinal note, academic hoods become optional – to the relief of low churchmen who considered hoods to be personal adornments of the minister and of high churchmen who considered them low church. It is interesting to note that although hoods are perhaps less frequently worn in the present day, many of the part-time non-residential clergy training courses offer a hood on completion of the course.
Canon B8 of 2022
The current Canon Law affecting Anglican vesture based on the 1964 Measure is given in Canon B8 ‘Of the vesture of ordained and authorised ministers during the time of divine service’.Footnote 42 The paragraphs relevant to the present topic are:
1. The Church of England does not attach any particular doctrinal significance to the diversities of vesture permitted by this Canon, and the vesture worn by the minister in accordance with the provisions of this Canon is not to be understood as implying any doctrines other than those now contained in the formularies of the Church of England.
2. At the Holy Communion, the presiding minister shall wear either surplice or alb with scarf or stole… when a stole is worn other customary vestments may be added.
3. At Morning and Evening Prayer on Sundays the minister shall normally wear a surplice or alb with scarf or stole; but the minister may adopt some other form of dress to wear on a general basis if the minister has ascertained by consultation with consent of parochial church council that doing so will be acceptable…
4. For the occasional offices of Baptism, Matrimony, and Burial of the Dead, ‘a surplice or alb with scarf or stole is prescribed’ (author’s summary).
Canon B10 Of Morning and Evening Prayer in cathedral churches adds
…the officiating ministers and others of the clergy present in the choir being duly habited.
The present position is one of considerable flexibility in comparison with the situation pertaining in 1549, or for that matter, in 1662. Paragraph 4 above allows the minister to dispense with clerical robes (a practice not uncommon in evangelical churches) and the matter of wearing an academic hood is now extracted from any legal rubrical obligation in favour of local custom and/or personal preference.
Canon F5 continues to emphasize the importance of the surplice, ordering that such a garment shall be provided for the use of the minister: such a direction is not given in respect to any other item of vesture.
The Vesture worn by Anglo-Catholic Clergy during Choir Offices in the Present Day
Whereas the wearing of eucharistic vestments is a sine qua non in Anglo-Catholic churches, the surplice (worn over the cassock) in its various forms remains the essential attire of both the presiding minister in the Choir and Occasional offices and also for attendant ‘clergy in choir’.Footnote 43 The surplice – as we have seen – represents a shortened version of the alb, falling below the knees of the wearer and has large (or even flowing) sleeves. Many Anglo-Catholic clergy wear the cotta (an Italian term for surplice), a shorter garment with straight sleeves and a square neck, an item of attire which has provoked some curious statements.Footnote 44 Percy Dearmer described it as ‘that most indecent garment’ and Nicholas Groves considered it an illegal garment – which is not.Footnote 45 As an aside, the wearing of hoods by laymen or women singing in the musical choir in Oxford colleges is discussed by Samuel Teague in a recent article in Transactions of the Burgon Society, which gives insight into the debates concerning this practice which is, of course, not confined to the collegiate choirs of Oxford.Footnote 46 There are no rubrics regarding clerical vesture in either the Alternative Service Book (1980) or Common Worship (2000): the stipulations of Canon B8 (2022) following the Vesture of Ministers Measure (1964) has rendered such rubrics unnecessary in a worship book.
Evangelical and Broad Church Traditions regarding Vesture
The Church of England supports a vast range of doctrinal, ritual and sartorial opinions ranging from extreme Anglo-Catholics through to extreme evangelicals: a study published in 2015 suggested that Anglo-Catholics accounted for 20% of the population whereas evangelicals numbered 40%.Footnote 47 The remaining 40% could be colloquially be described as ‘middle of the road’ Anglicans not aligning themselves with either Anglo-Catholic or evangelical parties but taking a broad (‘latitudinarian’) approach to doctrinal and liturgical matters and to liturgical vesture.
It is appropriate in the context of this article to look briefly at the influential evangelical movement within the Church of England and its approach to liturgical attire. Evangelical Christianity emphasizes a faith based on conversionism, activism, biblicism and which is strongly crucicentric while placing less emphasis on sacramental worship and ritual in contrast to the importance of sacramental worship, the apostolic succession, historical and anti-Erastian approach of Anglo-Catholics.Footnote 48 Evangelical worship places a great emphasis on scripture and preaching: the worship tends to be less formal, with little importance being given to matters of ritual and hence to clerical attire. Eucharistic vestments (with the possible exception of the stole) are not worn. Officiating clergy may wear a cassock, surplice and scarf (with or without a hood), business dress with a clerical collar, or casual clothing.
Inevitably, the broad church clergy will adopt a via media in respect or vestments or not, with surplice, scarf and hood predominating during the formal public recitation of Morning and Evening prayer.
Controversies, Myths and Legends surrounding Hoods
The sixteenth and seventeenth canons emphasize that a graduate should wear ‘the hood of his degree’, but where does this place the hoods granted to holders of diplomas or, indeed, of hoods worn by those from theological colleges or organizations on the fringes of academia? Diploma hoods were introduced in the nineteenth century and have proliferated in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It would seem churlish to ask diplomate but non-graduate clergy to discard their hoods on the grounds of the now-obliterated canons of 1604, and it is appropriate to recall that many diplomas are of substantial academic standing: the Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists comes to mind. It has also been suggested that only ‘theological’ hoods should be worn, but again, there is no evidence for this curious anomaly.
A more commonly encountered view is that hoods should not be worn during eucharistic services, either by officiating clergy, clergy in choir or lay singers, although, as we have seen, Canon LVIII of 1604 authorizes the hood.
Every Minister saying the Publick Prayers, or Ministering the Sacraments, or other Rites of the Church, shall wear a decent and comely Surplice with Sleeves… Furthermore, such Ministers as are Graduates, shall wear upon their Surplices at such times, such Hoods as by the Orders of the Universities are agreeable to their Degrees.
The objection raised is that the hood is an adornment of the minister and thus detracts from the solemn dignity of the Eucharist. As an aside, it should be recalled that the founding fathers of the Oxford Movement, Newman, Pusey and Keble wore surplice and hood when celebrating the Eucharist.
A curious tradition pertaining to Anglo-Catholic circles (first encountered in Ritual Notes of 1894) is that hoods should not be worn over cottas, but if, however, the cotta is merely a term adopted into English from Italian to describe a surplice, why should an academic hood not be worn over it? Roman Catholic clergy do not wear academic hoods whether wearing surplices or cottas and many Anglo-Catholics accordingly assume that the cotta and hood are incompatible. Admittedly, from an aesthetic point of view, the academic hood looks better worn over a long Anglican surplice than a short Roman cotta.
Current Worship Practice
Patterns of Sunday worship in many denominations have changed substantially over the past half-century. In the Church of England, the Eucharist has significantly displaced Matins as the principal Sunday morning service, substantially following the influence and scholarship of the Liturgical Movement. This supra-denominational movement began in the Roman Catholic Church in the late nineteenth century but only began to have an impact on Anglican worship with the beginning of the Parish Communion Movement in 1927, leading to a significant effect on the pattern of parish worship from the middle of the twentieth century. The Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965 exerted liturgical changes felt not only in the Roman Catholic Church but also in the Anglican communion, most noticeably in Anglo-Catholic circles. Essentially, the Liturgical Movement emphasized the importance of the Eucharist as the principal Sunday morning service, displacing the traditional mid-morning service of choral Matins. The movement often involved the use of the westward position at the altar, an increased lay involvement, and (at least to Anglo-Catholic eyes) an often-simplified ritual.Footnote 49 With the demise of choral Matins and its replacement by the Parish Eucharist, fewer academic hoods would be seen on Sunday mornings.
Fewer parishes now offer regular Sunday evening worship and added into the equation is a societal trend in Britain to attend church just once on a Sunday.Footnote 50 The reasons are multifactorial, but are basically linked to changes in lifestyle during the past thirty years.Footnote 51 Many people experience demands to carry out some work at home during the weekends, caring for children and elderly parents (often both, for middle-aged families) takes time and energy, and weekend sports and activities may take priority over a second church attendance and it is also necessary to include the massive expansion in Sunday shopping following the passing of the Sunday Trading Act in 1994. Additionally, the availability of streamed services renders evening worship (as well as the principal morning service) available in the comfort of the home. From a more ecclesiastical perspective, the predominance of the concept of the parish community meeting for a Sunday morning act of worship may diminish the need for further attendance in the evening. Not all Sunday evening services in the Church of England are Evensong: there is a demand for less formal worship in the evenings, particularly in churches of an evangelical persuasion. The Church of England (unlike the Roman Catholic Church) imposes no obligation to attend church on a Sunday, again, perhaps, a factor in the decline of Sunday evening services. The displacement of choral Sunday Matins by the Eucharist – theologically a step in the right direction to those of a catholic mindset – has rendered choir offices in parish churches rather rarer than would have been the case only a few decades ago. It should be inserted here that more parishes now offer a simple said Morning or Evening Prayer on many weekdays, even if only the clergy attend with a sprinkling of the faithful: hoods are not worn, and the officiant may wear street dress rather than clerical robes following the general societal trend for less formality in both ceremonial and everyday dress.Footnote 52
It may seem (and indeed it is) a minor issue, but the liturgical and societal changes outlined above have an implication on clerical vesture, particularly regarding the wearing of hoods by clergy: we should recall that, in essence, hoods are worn for choir offices. A recent perusal of the websites of 20 professedly Anglo-Catholic churches revealed that only 11 offered Sunday evening worship; of these, only four had a regular Sunday Evensong (with Benediction) and a further four had occasional Sunday Evensong services (one with Benediction). The remaining three churches offered a weekly choral Evensong, one with Benediction (a House of the University of Oxford). Three of the four offering regular Sunday Evensong celebrated the office with solemn ceremonial, as did one of the parishes with occasional Sunday Evensongs. In an attempt to obtain further details of the services – and particularly of the vesture – an enquiry was sent by email to the relevant incumbents, but the response to the exercise was such that no meaningful conclusions could be drawn.
Conclusion
The history and controversies surrounding the wearing of academic hoods by Church of England clergy in the years between the Ornaments Rubric of 1549 and the present day have been discussed in relation to the use of the hood both in eucharistic services and choir offices. Prominence has been given to the use of the hood in Anglo-Catholic worship and examples provided from the formative days of Anglo-Catholicism. Present-day practice has been noted, and it has been observed that hoods are worn less frequently than in former years, although the essential choir habit of the Church of England priest remains the surplice, scarf and hood.
