Our navigation bar is loading . . .

 


 

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries

Helping San Diego, California and beyond since 1997.  




 

JCSM's Top 1000 Christian Sites - Free Traffic Sharing Service!


Do you need volunteer, community service, work, military or court hours?

Click here and add this page to your favorites!

Return to the JCSM Study Center!

Encyclopedia Britannica



AMICE

This article appears in Volume V01, Page 854 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: ALM-ANC
AMICE (earlier forms: amyl, amyl, O. Fr. amit, Lat. amictus,
from amicire, to throw or wrap round, the
change
  of t to s being
probably due to an early confusion with the aumuce: see
ALMLCE), a liturgical vestment of the Western Church. It is a
rectangular piece of cloth which is wrapped round the neck,
shoulders and breast. Sometimes, more particularly in Germany,
it is called the humerale (from humerus,
shoulder
 ). According to
modern Roman use, laid down by the decree of the Congregation
of Rites in 1819, the amice must be of linen or of a hempen
material, not wool; and, as directed by the new Roman Missal
(1570), a small cross must be sewn or embroidered in the middle
of it. In putting it on it is first laid on the head, then allowed to
fall on the shoulders, and finally folded round the chest and tied
with the strings attached for that purpose (see fig. I). The amice
is now worn under
the alb, except at
Milan
  and Lyons,
where it is put on
over it. The vest-
ment was at first a
perfectly plain white
cloth, but in the 12th
century the custom
arose of decorating
the upper border
with a band of
embroidery
 , the parure (parura) or " apparel."
This was abandoned at Rome about the end of the 15th
century and is not prescribed in the Missal; it survived,
however, in many parts of Europe till much later. This apparel,
when the vestment has been adjusted, forms a sort of stiff collar
which appears above the chasuble or dalmatic (see fig. 2). In
Redrawn from Braun, Liturgiuhe Gewandung.
some exceptional cases, as at
Milan
 , it has become detached from the amice and is fixed like a collar to the chasuble.
The Latin word amictus was applied to any wrap-like garment, and, according to Father Braun, the liturgical amice originated in the
ordinary
  neck-cloth worn by all classes of Romans. It had at the outset no liturgical significance whatever, and was simply adopted by the clergy for the same reason that the clergy of the 18th century wore wigsbecause it was part of the full dress of
ordinary
  life. The first record of its ecclesiastical use is at Rome in the 8th century, when it was worn only with the dalmatic and was known as the anabolagium (anagolaium, anagolagium, from Gr. 1wa(3bXatov), a name it continued to
bear
  at Rome till the 13th century. In the 9th century it spread to the other countries that adopted the Roman use: it is mentioned in an inventory of vestments given by Abbot Angilbert (d. 814) to the
AMICIS
monastery at Centula (St Riguier) and in the de clericorum ins stutione of Hrabanus Maurus (c. 82o). The amice was worn firms. simply as a
shoulder
 -loth, but at the end of the 9th century the custom grew up of putting it on over the head and of wearing It as a hood, either while the other vestments were being put on or. according to the various uses of local churches, during part of the Mass, though never during the canon. This ceased at Rome at the same time as the apparel disappeared; but two relics of it survive(t) in the directions of the Missal for putting on the amice, (2) in the ordination of subdeacons, when the bishop lays the vestment on the ordinand's head with the words, " Take the amice, which symbolizes discipline over the tongue, &c." The priest too in putting it on prays, " Place on my head the
helmet
  of salvation, &c."
The amice, whatever its origin or symbolism, became specific-ally a vestment associated with the sacrifice of the Mass, and as such it was rejected with the other " Mass vestments " in England at the Reformation. Its use has, however, been revived in many Anglican churches, the favourite form being the medieval apparelled amice. (See VESTMENTS.) A vestment akin to the amice is also worn in the Armenian and some other oriental churches, but it is unknown to the Orthodox Eastern Church.
Akin to the amice is a vestment pee'uliar to the popes, the fanone (Med. Lat. lane, " cloth," Goth. fana, " cloth," Mod. Ger. Fahne, " a flag "),
also called the orale (from ora, an edge, border). This is at present a circular broad collar of two thicknesses of silk, ornamented with gold stripes and a gold-embroidered cross (see fig. 3). It is put on after the alb, &c., and under the tunicle, dalmatic and chasuble, but then
drawn
  up so as to fall over the latter like a collar. The fanone was originally a cloth like the amice and was
wrapped round neck and From Braun, LiturgischeGewandung. shoulders; until the 15th FIG. 3.The Papal Fanone. century, moreover, it was
not worn with the amice. Since then, however, both vestments have been worn, one under, the other over, the alb. It is worn by the popes only on certain
special
  days or occasions, and forms part of the vestments in which they are buried.
See Joseph Braun, S. J., Die liturgische Gewandung, pp. 21-56 (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1907), and bibliography to the article VESTMENTS.


End of Article: AMICE


If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/ALM_ANC/AMICE.html">
AMICE
</a>


(Previous)
AMICABLE NUMBERS
(Next)
AMICI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1786-1863)



 
 


JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA  92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email

JCSM is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization. Copyright © 1997-2012.
 

 

Sponsored Advertisements

Online First Aid and CPR Certification  .  DHA Solutions  .  PB Happy Hour Specials  .  Improvising Made Easy For Guitar and Bass  .  The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained  .  Home Equity Loans  .  First Aid and CPR Online  .  San Diego Music Lessons  .  10,000 Wise Quotes and Spiritual Sayings  .  Blow Up Your Site (For Free!)  .  San Diego DUI Lawyers  .  Jason Gastrich  .  Jordan Faith Gastrich  .  Divorce Secrets Revealed  .  Post Your Ad Link Free  .  San Diego Soccer Training  .  JCSM  .  Download Sermons  .  Custom Religious Banners, Build A Sign  .  Christian Singles Dating  .  Christian T-Shirts  .  Healing Christian Prayer  .  Bumper Authority  .  Personalized Blogs and Email  .  San Diego Haircuts  .  The Do the Math Diet  .  Stop Twitter Spam  .  Christian Conservative Work at Home Network  .  The Website of the Lord