# History of vestments



## arapahoepark (Aug 26, 2013)

What is the history on priestly attire in the church? The eastern orthodox and rcc head dresses collars and the robes? There were two previous threads asking this with zero replies.


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## NaphtaliPress (Aug 26, 2013)

I don't know the history of development but at the Reformation and later in the Puritan attempts to turn back the turning away from the Reformation by the Anglo Catholics, it was the superstition and idolatry attached to such attire hat caused them reject and advocate against such attire. John A'Lasco has something on vestments I think in that Banner of Truth compilation. "Nothing ought to be added to public worship concerning which God has given no command_" The Reformation of the Church_, ed. Iain H. Murray (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1965), 62. See Gillespie's English Popish Ceremonies or similar against the surplice as far as the arguments from superstition and idolatry.


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## johnbugay (Aug 27, 2013)

arap said:


> What is the history on priestly attire in the church? The eastern orthodox and rcc head dresses collars and the robes? There were two previous threads asking this with zero replies.



I can't say for sure, but Allen Brent talks about Ignatius and his "martyr procession" -- that is, it was his intent to choreograph (or at least to characterize) a procession of himself and his entourage "in which he was the scapegoat victim on his way to sacrifice on a pagan altar at Rome". 

A couple hundred years later Eusebius (who was wrong about many things, including his being Arian) characterized the Apostle John as wearing "a bishop's mitre". 

I would have to say such things as processions and robes and vestments (of the kind we see in Roman Catholicism) derived from the pagan religious culture of the first several centuries. I've not seen anything about "attire", but the "priestly" portion seems to have been adopted from the religious milieu of the empire.


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## GloriousBoaz (Aug 27, 2013)

Well I was reading Exodus today when God has the Israelites make the ephod and tabernacle etc and was surprised at the details and the brilliance of the robes and such that God desired to be "worthy" of Himself. But I've always thought there was something fishy about vestments when you read of Christ walking about in normal clothes and being in contrast to the pompously dressed Pharisees, I couldn't imagine Jesus Christ wearing the Pope's outfit in his earthly ministry or to preach in my church though Revelation gives us quite a pictuer of Him in glory.

Rev. 1:12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; 13 and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like [j]a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. 14 His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. 15 His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. 16 In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun [k]shining in its strength.

It says He has a golden sash, but no Pope hat lol.


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