COPE
351
COPE
2d of February and 6th of August, Church festivals
"urnish the pretext for Indian dances that the clergy
lave not yet been able entirely to reform. The mix-
- ure of the old Pagan with the Christian is interesting,
ilthough a source of mortification to the Bolivian
- lerg}', who are as yet unable to modify it. Copaca-
t'ana is surrounded by pre-Columbian ruins of con- iiderable interest.
Mention is made of Copacavana in the earlier documents ouching what i.s now Bolivia, as, for instance, Documerttos nedilos para la Historia de Chile (1568); Ramos. Hist, del Santuario de Copacavana (Lima. 1621); Oliva, Hisloria del Peri), Etc. (Lima. s. d., written c. 1636); Jaque de los Rigs >E Mancaned, Voyage axij; hides orientates et occidentales [ATchives des Voyages, tr. French. 1606); Calancha, Con'miea noralizada, II: Andres de S. Nicolas, y'mdgen de A'. S. de ?opacavana (Madrid, 1663); Maracci, De diva virgine, Copaca- •xtna, in peruana novi mundi Regno celeberrima (Rome, 1656).
Ad. F. Bandelier.
Oope (known in Latin as pluviale or cappa), a vest- ment which may most conveniently be described as a iong liturgical mantle, open in front and fastened at the breast with a band or clasp. .\s existing monuments show, whether we look at pictorial representations or at the copes of early date which still survive, there has been remarkably little change in the character of the vestment from the earliest ages. Then as now it w as made of a piece of silk or cloth of semicircular shape, ind, as it is important to note, it diff(>rod from the jarlier form of chasuble only in this, that in the chasu- ble the straight edges were sewn together in front while ji the cope they were left open. The most conspicu- jus external modification which the cojie has imder- ^ne, during the past thousand years and more, lies in 1 certain divergence in the shape of the hood, a feature irhich, after all, is not in any way an e.ssential part of She vestment. In some early examples we find only a little triangular hood, which was no doubt intended to be of practical utility in covering the head in proces- dons, etc. But with the lapse of time the hood has leveloped into a mere ornamental ap])endage, and it is now quite commonly rciiresented by a sort of shield of rich embroidery, artificially stiffened and sometimes adorned with a fringe, the whole being fastened by buttons or by some other device to the back of the Bope below the broad orphrey which usually forms an upper border to the whole. The fact that in many early chasubles, as depicted in the drawings of the eighth and ninth centuries, w'e see clear traces of a primitive hood, thus bearing out the explicit state- ment upon the point of Isidore of Seville, strongly con- Gnns the view that in their origin cope and chasuble were identical, the chasuble being only a cope with its front edges sewn together.
History. — The earliest mention of a cappa seems to meetusinGregoryof Tours,andinthe"Mira('ula"of St. Furseus, where it seems to mean a cloak with a hood. So from a letter written in 787 by Theodemar, Abbot of Monte Ca.ssino, in answer to a question of Charle- magne about the dress of the monks (see Mon. Germ. Hist.: Epist. Carol., II, 512) we learn that what in Gaul was styled cuculla (cowl) was known to the Ca.s- !8e monks as cappa. Moreover the word occurs more than once in Alcuin's corresiioiidence, appar- ently as denoting a garment for everyday wear. When Alcuin twice observes about a cn.stila which was sent him, that he meant to wear it always at Ma.ss. we may probably infer that such garments at this date were not distinctively liturgical owing to anj'thing in their Imaterial or construction, but that they were set aside 'for the use of the altar at the choice of the owner, who ■ might equally well have u.sed them as part of his ordi- narj- attire. In the case of the chasuble the process of liturgical specialization, if we may so call it, w.as com- 'ploted at a comparatively early date, and before the ind of the ninth century the maker of a rnxxda [irob- 'ilily knew quite well in most ca.^es whether he intended liis handiwork for a Ma.ss vestment or for an everyday
outer garment. But in the case of a cappa, or cope,
this period of specialization seems to have been de-
layed vmtil much later. The two hundred cappa: of
which we read in a Saint-Riquier inventory in the year
801, a number increased to 377 by the year 831,
were, we believe, mere cloaks, for the most part of
rude material and destined for conunon wear. It may
be that their use in choir was believed to add to the de-
corum and solemnity of the Divine Office, especially in
the winterseason. InS31 one of the Saint-Riquier copes
is specially mentioned as being of chestnut colour and
embroidered with gold. This, no doubt, implies use
by a dignitary, but it does not prove that it Wiis as yet
regarded as a sacred vestment. In fact, if we follow
the conclusions of Mr. Ednnmd Bishop (Dublin Re-
view, Jan., 1897), who was the first to sift the evidence
thoroughly, it was not until the twelfth centurj' that
the cope, made of rich material, was in general use in
the ceremonies of the Church, at which time it had
come to be regarded as the special vestment of can-
tors. Still, an ornamental cope was even then con-
sidered a vestment that might be used by any member
of the clergy from the highest to the lowest, in fact
even by one who was only about to be tonsured.
Amongst monks it was the practice to vest the whole
community, except, of course, the celebrant and the
sacred ministers, in copes at high Mass on the greatest
festivals, whereas on feasts of somewhat lower grade,
the community were usually vested in albs. In this
moveinent the Netherlands, France, and Germany had
taken the lead, as we learn from extant inventories.
For example, already in 870, in the Abbey of Saint-
Trond we find '■thirty-three jirecious copes of silk"
as against only twelve chasuliles, and it was clearly the
Cluny practice in the latter j>art of the tenth century
to vest all the monks in copes during high Mass on the
great feasts, though in England the regulations of St.
Dunstan and St. vEthelwold show no signs of any such
observance. The custom spread to the secular canons
of such cathedrals as Rouen, and cantors nearly every-
where used copes of silk as their own pecidiar adorn-
ment in the exercise of their functions.
Meanwhile the old cappa 7r>gra, or cappa choralis, a choir cope of black stuff, open or partly open in front, and commonly provided w-ith a hood, still contiiuied in use. It was worn at Divine Office by the clergy of cathedral and collegiate churches and also bv many religious, as, for example, it is retained by the Domin- icans during the winter months down to the present day. (vSee Costume, Clerical.) No doubt the "copes" of the friars, to which we find so many refer- ences in the Wycliffite literature and in the writings of Chaucer and Langland, designate their open mantles, w'hich were, wo may say, part of their full dress, though not always black in colour. On the other han<l we may note that the cappa clausa, or close cope, was simply a cope or cape sewn up in front for conunon outdoor use. " The wearing of this ", says Mr. Bishop, (loc. cit., p. 24), " instead of the 'cappa scissa', the same cope not sewn up, is again and again enjoined on the clergy by synods and statutes during the late Middle Ages." The cappa magna, now worn accortling to Ro- man usage by cardinals, bishops, and certain specially privileged prelates on occasions of ceremony, is not strictly a liturgical vestment, but is only a glorified cappa choralis, or choir cope. Its colour for cardinals is ordinarily red, anil for l)ishops violet. It is ample in volume and iirt)vided with a long train and a dis- proportionately large hood, the lining of which last, ermine in winter and silk in summer, is made to show like a tippet acro.ss the breast. Further we must note the papal manlum. which differs little from an ordinary cope except that it is red in colour and somewhat longer. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the immnnlatio, or bestowal of the mantum on the newly elected pope, was regarded as specially symbolical of investiture with pai)al authority. "Investio te de
