by the newly baptized on Holy Saturday and throughout Easter Week until the following
Sunday, the Dominica in albis depositis.
Other important vestments are the dalmatic, tunicle, pallium, cope, and surplice. The
dalmatic and tunicle are outer garments of varying design worn, respectively, by the
deacon and subdeacon at Mass. They, as well as the maniple, stole, and chasuble were
originally made from white wool but came in the later Middle Ages to be of silk
decorated with bands of ophrey (cloth woven with gold thread). They came also to
assume the colors associated with the different liturgical occasions. White (also gold) was
the color of most important festivals; red was associated with Apostles, martyrs, and the
Holy Ghost; black (later purple) was the color of penitential occasions and green that of
ordinary Sundays. The pallium is a narrow woolen band marked with six purple crosses;
derived from imperial insignia, it was worn by the pope and shared by him with bishops
of special importance. The cope, or pluviale, is an outer garment similar to the chasuble
but open in the front; it was worn by priests and bishops at functions other than the Mass
and by cantors in choir. In the late Middle Ages, it was often richly decorated. The
medieval surplice was a knee-length white linen shirt with wide sleeves worn by clerics
in choir and also on many nonofficial occasions; its Latin name, superpelliceum (“over a
fur garment”), betrays its origins as something worn over fur coats in northern European
countries as a replacement for the tighter-fitting alb.
James McKinnon
[See also: CHURCH, INTERIOR; CLOTHING, COSTUME, AND FASHION;
EUCHARISTIC VENERATION AND VESSELS]
Braun, Joseph. Die liturgische Gewandung. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1907.
Norris, Herbert. Church Vestments: Their Origin and Development. London: Dent, 1949.
Pocknee, Cyril E. Liturgical Vesture: Its Origins and Development. London: Mowbray, 1960.
VEXIN
. The Gallo-Roman pagus Veliocassinus, located strategically on the north bank of the
Seine between the Oise and the Andelle, incorporated the towns of Mantesla-Jolie,
Meulan, and Pontoise along with the fortress of Gisors. The countship, established by the
reign of Hugh Capet (r. 987–96), may have grown out of the advocacy of the lands of the
royal abbey of Saint-Denis, which dominated the region. Its banner, the oriflamme,
supposedly that of Charlemagne, became the standard of the French kings in the 12th
century in their capacity as counts and vassals of the abbey. At some time, however
(traditionally in 911), the pagus was divided at the Epte into eastern and western parts
(French and Norman Vexin, respectively), and it became a vital strategic march for both
the dukes of Normandy and the kings of France.
The original line of counts was drawn into close ties with England as early as the
1030s, when Count Dreux married a sister of Edward the Confessor (r. 1042–66), and
Henry I of France (r. 1031–60) was to cede the French Vexin to Duke Robert of
Normandy in return for aid in securing his throne. Philip I (r. 1060–1108) wrested it back
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