Vestiariunz Christianum, by the Rev. Wharton B. Marriott, M.A. (Rivingtons);
Church Vestments, by Anastasia Dolby (Chapman and Hall).—Wo feel that wo owe something like an apology to Mr. Marriott for putting these two hooks together. They treat, indeed, of the same subject, but they differ in every other respect. Mr. Marriott's is a work of great learning, the result of independent research. Mrs. Dolby, who describes herself as " Late Embroidress to the Queen," venturing into regions where something more is wanted than skill with the noodle, follows guides who nut unfrequently mislead her. Sho says, for instance, "although the cloak of St. Paul, which ho left at Troas with Carpus, is surmised by some writers to have boon the holy vestment, yet there is no direct authority for regarding this as more than a more probability." The fact is that it is the merest improbability. The cloak was the rmenula (0,4111, Pai?..‘1■71, and written also in many other ways). Mr. Marriott quotes a passage from Tertullian, in which ho argues against curtain Christians who thought it irreligious to wear the yeaula during worship, and who soom to have started a conjecture that St. Paul lost his pamula by putting it off whoa he was praying in the house of Carpus. Mr. Marriott, indeed, through- out deals with his subject in a very masterly way ; his own opinions are in favour of a simple ritual, but ho is studiously just. We would commend to the notice of lovers of gorgeous vestments a passage which ho quotes from Clemens Alexandrinus ; "These colours, bright like flowers, are fit only for the worshippers of Bacchus, for the mummeries of heathen mysticism, for the vanities of the stage." This is spoken, it is true, of the worshippers, but it applies a fortiori to the ministers. Mr.. Marriott's volume is adorned with a number of illustrations most in- teresting and admirably executed.
Previous page
