As a follow-up to Fr. Chadwick's recent post on the Lenten Array, here are a couple of extracts from Percy Dearmer's The Parson's Handbook.
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From The Parson's Handbook (Sixth Edition), pp. 511-514:
Lent.—The Lenten array should be hung up on Shrove Tuesday evening for Ash Wednesday[1]. English tradition does not allow of the use of crape, &c., for Passiontide, everything having been already veiled for Ash Wednesday.
The veils are hung up before the crosses, pictures (such as are not removed), and such images as are not of an architectural character[2]. Where there is a triptych, or other reredos with leaves, it is closed. If the reredos has no leaves, it should be covered by a white veil. The veils should be of white linen, brown holland, or of silk (not of crape). But nothing whiter than the toned white of homespun linen should be used; the white linen of which surplices are made (especially when the mellowness is spoiled by washerwomen's blue) does not have a good effect. The beauty and significance of the Lenten white will be at once appreciated if this is remembered; for the walls of the church being distempered in a toned white (as they should be) the veiling of pictures, reredos, &c., causes them to be lost in the general background till Easter comes again. For the same reason the leaves of a triptych should be painted the same white on the outside[3].
The frontals and dorsals give excellent opportunities for appliqué or painted work in red on rough white linen[4], but these, of course, must be most carefully designed. Sometimes blue linen (the common true indigo blue, not the hideous 'violet' falsely so called) may be used for covering images[5]; but there is a danger of the blue interfering with the effect of the general white, especially if the white is decorated with a little red[6]. Generally the great Rood was veiled in linen[7], and the Lenten veil which hung in front of the sanctuary (a relic of the primitive custom of hiding the altar within curtains during the Holy Mysteries) was often made in strips of various colours; though this too was often white like all the rest[8]. The vestments should be like the frontal[9]. Apparels should be worn in Lent[10] and Holy Week[11], as during the rest of the year.
A special processional cross was usually reserved for Lent. It was generally of wood, painted red, and it was without the image of our Lord[12].
[1] The Consuetudinary (p. 138) says before Mattins on the Monday following, when Lent was reckoned to begin; but before the end of the fifteenth century Ash Wednesday came to be the usual day ; and this is certainly more in accordance with the Prayer Book, which orders the Lenten memorial to begin on Ash Wednesday, 'the first day of Lent.' See the story about Edward IV, 1471 (qu. C. Atchley, in Essays on Ceremonial, pp. 152,153), 'according to the rules that, in all the churches of England, be observed, all images to be hid from Ash Wednesday to Easter Day in the morning.'
[2] On Lady Day in Lent at Salisbury the image of the Blessed Virgin above the high altar was unveiled (Cust., p. 139).
[3] However rich be the colour and gilding of ornaments, their beauty will be wasted unless the walls at least of the sanctuary are distempered in white. See p. 76.
[4] See the instances collected by Mr. St. John Hope in S.P.E.S. Trans., ii. p. 233. The following examples of frontals and dorsals are typical:—'White linen cloths powdered with great red crosses . . . with covers of the same suit for covering all the images in the church in time of Lent.' 'A front, white damask with red roses for Lent.' 'Cloths of white with crucifix for Lent.' 'An altar cloth of white for Lent, with crosses of red, with two curtains of white linen.' 'Linen with crosses red and blue.' 'Two altar cloths for Lenten time of linen cloth; with crosses of purple in every cloth, and a crown of thorns hanging upon the head of every cross.' 'With the tokens of the Passion for time of Lent.' 'With our Lady of Pity and two angels, and another with the sepulchre and two angels for the high altar in Lent.' 'White satin with pageants of the Passion.' 'While, spotted with red.' 'Linen altar cloths with red roses for Lent.' An instance is given of the fourth year of Edw. VI (1550), when the Lent vestments and hangings were of white bustian and linen with red crosses, and 'a Lent cloth of linen for the high altar painted with drops' occurs in the second year of Elizabeth. See also pp. 539-40 in the Appendix.
[5] There are some instances of blue with crosses of another colour, and sometimes both white and blue were used ('one white and two blue cloths to cover and alter the images in Lenten season'). Blue is assumed in The Beehive of the Romishe Churche (1579), f. 185. 'The whole Lent through, they do cause their images to look through a blue cloth'; but this was a Dutch book, translated a generation after the change in England. Blue was also used at Exeter. Crosses were by no means the only ornament. ' Sometimes these cloths were stained or embroidered with devices bearing reference to the subject they were intended to veil.'—Micklethwaite, Ornaments, p. 52.
[6] The reason for this is apparent when Passiontide comes, and the frontals are changed to red.
[7] Many instances of coloured 'cross-cloths' are really banners used on the processional cross. Most of the genuine Rood-cloths mentioned in the inventories are stated to be of 'linen', or of 'white with a red cross'. Sometimes a covering for the beam is also mentioned.
[8] Most commonly white and blue 'paned', when not of white or blue only. Sometimes red and white, green and red, &c.
[9] Including copes and tunicles: e. g. 'One whole suit of vestments of white bustian for Sundays in time of Lent, with red roses embroidered.' 'A white chasuble with a red cross.' 'White bustian, with orphreys of red velvet.' 'Deacon and subdeacon (i.e. dalmatic and tunicle) of white bustian for Lent.' 'A cope of white with roses for Lent season.'—Hope, as above.
[10] e.g. 'For Lenten, three albes, three amices with the parours,' 'albe and paramits for Lent,' 'a vestment with the albe and apparel of white bustian for Lent.'—Hope, ibid. The apparels are best made of the same red as the orphreys of the chasuble. On Passion Sunday they might be changed, and generally black serge is a very good material for the apparels worn with red Passiontide vestments.
[11] Cf. p. 525, n. 7.
[12] 'Omnibus dominicis quadragesime, excepta prima dominica, deferatur una crux ante processionem lignea sine ymagine crucifixi.' —Cust., p. 219.
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From pp. 125-126:
A few words must now be said about the Lenten colours. The use of plain white linen marked with red or black crosses, &c., has already been alluded to. This use was akin to that of the Lent veils for pictures, images, crosses, which in England were generally white. Those rules which prescribed black, violet, &c., were at the utmost fulfilled only by the use of coloured vestments and altar frontal on the Sundays, and even on Sundays the white was used by some churches.
This use of white linen for Lent was practically universal in the sixteenth century and earlier: it was in fact the one colour use to which there was hardly any exception. Plain white stuff, fustian, linen, or canvas, with crosses, roses, or other devices of red or purple, was used to cover pictures and ornaments, as well as for vestments, for frontals, riddels, and other hangings. The parson who tries it will find that it is as popular and as readily understood now as it was then.
In churches which are well arranged and decorated this Lenten white looks extremely well, if care is exercised in the choice of a good toned white (such as brown holland is), and of the devices painted on or applied to the hangings. Churches where linen chasubles are used can keep their vestments for Lent when silk and coloured ones are introduced. In other churches it will be better to get vestments and hangings of brown holland or similar material throughout. The use of the Lenten white has the great advantage of distinguishing Lent from Advent (a season to which it has little resemblance), and from the season between Septuagesima and Ash Wednesday.
Related posts:
A few terms, since we are 100 years after the time of Dearmer.
Crape - an Anglicized version of the French crêpe – a silk, wool or polyester fabric of a gauzy texture, with a peculiar crisp or crimpy appearance. It is presently in fashion for women’s cloths like skirts, dresses, blouses, etc.
Linen - is expensive and not always easy to find. Rough cotton of the right colour is a fairly good imitation and looks very similar to real linen.
Brown holland – is a kind of linen first manufactured in Holland; a linen fabric used for window shades, children's garments, etc. I assume it to be Dutch unbleached linen. Linen thrives in Northern Europe, and Normandy (Doudeville) is a famous linen-growing area.
Silk – comes in a smooth pleasant-to-touch version and a rough “wild silk” version often used in traditional Chinese garments. Silk used to be obligatory for vestments, as it is a precious fabric.
Washerwomen’s blue – indigo in the form of small balls or lumps, used by washerwomen to blue linen, and the like. I imagine there are modern substances for dyeing cloth.
Bustian – A cotton fabric of foreign manufacture, used for waistcoats and for certain church vestments; sometimes described as a species of fustian, but sometimes mentioned as distinct from it. Rare after 1725. I have never seen any.
Serge – woven wool for making suits. Still used by tailors for suits and cassocks.
Stuff – generally cotton, more or less rough.
Generally speaking, viscose or satin can be a good cheap substitute for silk. Rough cotton for linen. Polyester had a bad reputation with us traditionalists, but can be acceptable when mixed with cotton and “looks natural”.