posts by Marjorie, Damien, and John to the contrary withstanding, force
me to yield the field: o.k. abbots *could* wear mitres, and some still
do.
from the examples cited, however, it appears to me that these were quite
special cases --where either the abbot needed to act (at least in some
capcity) as a bishop, or needed to be free of local episcopal authority-- and
not at all common. n'est pas?
in any event, our curious St. Benny, in or out of water as he might be, was
not so decked out --http://www.bnf.fr/enluminures/images/jpeg/i8_0054.jpg
(which brings up the question of how we got off on this interesting tangent).
damien boquet wrote
>Mitra désigne donc à l'origine une coiffure en forme de bandeau (headband).
Or, à l'origine la mitre épiscopale était souple, elle tenait donc grâce à un
bandeau qui donne son nom à la coiffure: mitra. Ce n'est qu'au début du
XIIIème siècle que la mitre prend sa forme actuelle,
rigide: mitre bicorne (en rappel des 2 testaments, des cornes de Moïse ou de
la tiare d'Aaron), frontale et fendue, prolongée de 2 fanons qui tombent sr
les épaules. A noter que pendant longtemps, la tiare pontificale est appelée
mitra papalis.
the change in the form of the mitre can (must?) be traced through the
sculpture, painting and seals of the times. i believe that there are
two forms to be seen more or less contemporaneously (first third of the 13th
c.) on the transept portals of Chartres cathedral, the one of a more modest
and comfortable type which is "double horned" type as Damien describes it, but
still somewhat "souple," with the horns "lateral"
rather than frontal; and the other of the more pretentious, imposing and
familiar "peaked" type.
the earlier type seems to have been some kind of transitional one --perhaps
from the latter half of the 12th c.-- and appears, to my eye at least, to be
quite pleasing.
in view of the tremendous symbolic importance placed on all episcopal
trappings i assume that the changes in the mitre's form might be
traceable in the texts as well, though obviously i know not of suchlike
matters, being textually challenged.
best to all from here,
christopher
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