partly this was for travel, as the more mundane full cloaks were cumbersome, AND they concealed the fact that this was a person in holy orders….which meant a possibility of scandal, or a increased possibility of being robbed….
Lay persons throughout the middle ages wore hoods. a hood is a short capelet over the shoulders, with attached hood. with or without a liripipe (long tail off the back of the hood) in depictions it can look like an attached hood to a tunic, if you dont see color differences.
the only lay people i am aware of who wore attached hooded tunics or clerical like robes, were members of tertiary orders, who WERE in fact wearing a type of vestment.
please note: there were some hooded tunics worn by civilians in some periods as rainwear/etc, but usually they were leather or short. and didnt look like the clerical robes
If you were to look at photos taken at baseball and football games from yesteryear, you would see men wearing coats, ties, and hats ( not baseball hats ) to the games. People would dress up to travel by air, and train. Society today in general is extremely casual, and, so are our societal attitudes. The rise of the non-denominational protestant churches with their “come as you are, if you don’t like ‘churchy’ churches, we are your church, and God doesn’t look at you on the outside but on the inside” mentality, has probably infiltrated all denominations, including the Catholic church. The question is, has the modern day casual mentality also led to a modern day casual attitude towards God? I imagine it has.
Yes, I agree. It is amazing to me too to see people at baseball games wearing ties over view 50 years ago. It is amazing how much we’ve changed.
I doubt that many of us Catholics could be similarly assessed based on our behavior in Church
I’ve often thought that if pilgrims can’t get into St. Peter’s Basilica with certain revealing clothing items, then those same items should be frowned upon in our churches here in the US. Continue reading “Many of the traveling orders of preachers, and most of the brothers, had cowled or hooded outer robes”