Clerical Clothing and Priestly Authority in Medieval Rome, 800-1200

FAIN: FA-55234-10

Maureen C. Miller
University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, CA 94704-5940)

My project traces the emergence of a strict code of clerical dress in 11th-century Rome and links this development to new models of authority in Western Europe based on the personal renunciation of violence. The new ideas and practices about clerical attire clearly demarcated clergy from laity, and constructed a sharp contrast between the plain black gown that clerics wore outside the sanctuary and the increasingly ornate style of liturgical vestments they donned in church. The book project utilizes surviving textiles, images of the clergy (in frescoes, mosaics, manuscript illuminations), ecclesiastical architecture, legislation, theological tracts, and liturgical sources to chart the emergence of new visual models of priestly authority and to assess the broader influence of this clerical "look" on the representation of power in western society.

Media Coverage

John Gilmary Shea Prize 2015 (Media Coverage)
Publication: American Catholic Historical Association
Date: 7/15/2016
Abstract: Announcement of award of the John Gilmary Shea Prize for the best book on Catholic history to Clothing the Clergy
URL: https://www.achahistory.org/awards/

Otto Gründler Book Prize 2015 (Media Coverage)
Date: 7/15/2016
Abstract: Announcement of award of the 2015 Otto Gründler Book Prize to Clothing the Clergy
URL: https://wmich.edu/medieval/research/book-prize

Associated Products

Clothing the Clergy: Virtue and Power in Medieval Europe, c. 800-1200 (Book)
Title: Clothing the Clergy: Virtue and Power in Medieval Europe, c. 800-1200
Author: Maureen C. Miller
Editor: John G. Ackerman
Abstract: After initial ambivalence about distinctive garb for its ministers, early Christianity developed both liturgical garments and visible markers of clerical status outside church. From the ninth century, moreover, new converts to the faith beyond the Alps developed a highly ornate style of liturgical attire; church vestments were made of precious silks and decorated with embroidered and woven ornament, often incorporating gold and jewels. Making use of surviving medieval textiles and garments; mosaics, frescoes, and manuscript illuminations; canon law; liturgical sources; literary works; hagiography; theological tracts; chronicles, letters, inventories of ecclesiastical treasuries, and wills, Maureen C. Miller in Clothing the Clergy traces the ways in which clerical garb changed over the Middle Ages. Miller’s in-depth study of the material culture of church vestments not only goes into detail about craft, artistry, and textiles but also contributes in groundbreaking ways to our understanding of the religious, social, and political meanings of clothing, past and present. As a language of power, clerical clothing was used extensively by eleventh-century reformers to mark hierarchies, to cultivate female patrons, and to make radical new claims for the status of the clergy. The medieval clerical culture of clothing had enduring significance: its cultivation continued within Catholicism and even some Protestant denominations and it influenced the visual communication of respectability and power in the modern Western world. Clothing the Clergy features seventy-nine illustrations, including forty color photographs that put the rich variety of church vestments on display.
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100599700
Primary URL Description: Cornell University Press website
Access Model: purchase
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 978-0-8014-498
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

Sources of Textiles and Vestments in Early Medieval Rome (Article)
Title: Sources of Textiles and Vestments in Early Medieval Rome
Author: Maureen C. Miller
Abstract: The essay surveys the evidence in the Liber Pontificalis and the Letters of St. Gregory the Great on how the clergy acquired clothing and compares it to the surviving textile evidence.
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781472421135
Primary URL Description: Ashgate Press
Access Model: purchase
Format: Other
Periodical Title: Rome and Religion in the Medieval World: Studies in Honor of Thomas F. X. Noble, edited by Valerie Garver, Owen M. Phelan, pp. 83-99
Publisher: Ashgate

The Liturgical Vestments of Castel Sant'Elia: Their Historical Significance and Current Condition (Article)
Title: The Liturgical Vestments of Castel Sant'Elia: Their Historical Significance and Current Condition
Author: Maureen C. Miller
Abstract: This essay argues for an early 12th to early 13th-century dating for the majority of garments in this precious collection. Further, it places the pontifical garb in the context of the Fourth Lateran Council and explains the significance of one of the chasubles as a "reliquary vestment." Finally, the article offers a handlist of the collection which attempts to coordinate the varied numberings assigned to the garments.
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://www.boydellandbrewer.com/store/listCategoriesandproducts.asp?idCategory=137
Primary URL Description: Boydell & Brewer Publishers
Access Model: subscription
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Medieval Clothing and Textiles
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer

The Significance of St Cuthbert's Vestments (Article)
Title: The Significance of St Cuthbert's Vestments
Author: Maureen C. Miller
Abstract: The essay places the two gold-embroidered vestments discovered in the tomb of St Cuthbert in the context of changing conventions and customs among the secular clergy in regard to liturgical attire.
Year: 2011
Primary URL: http://www.boydellandbrewer.com/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=13669
Primary URL Description: Boydell & Brewer Publishers
Access Model: subscription
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Studies in Church History
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer

The Material Conditions of Local and Regional Churches: Clerical Clothing in Rome and the Empire (Article)
Title: The Material Conditions of Local and Regional Churches: Clerical Clothing in Rome and the Empire
Author: Maureen C. Miller
Abstract: The essay documents the influence of the newer converts to Christianity in northern Europe on the ancient traditions of liturgical garb in Christianity's western capital, Rome.
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://shop.cisam.org/index.php?route=product/product&path=29_37&product_id=864
Primary URL Description: Fondazione Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo
Access Model: subscription
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Atti delle Settimane di Studio
Publisher: Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo

Containing the Holy: A Holy Vestment (Book Section)
Title: Containing the Holy: A Holy Vestment
Author: Maureen C. Miller
Editor: Barbara H. Rosenwein
Abstract: The contribution presents two color photographs and an extensive caption of an eleventh-century chasuble made of golden silk. It raises a series of questions for students to think about regarding the "look" of holiness in medieval Christianity. The volume in which it appears is a major source collection assigned in undergraduate western civilization and medieval history classes.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://www.utppublishing.com/Reading-the-Middle-Ages-Sources-from-Europe-Byzantium-and-the-Islamic-World-Second-Edition.html
Primary URL Description: publisher: University of Toronto Press
Access Model: purchase
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Book Title: Reading the Middle Ages: Sources from Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic World, 2nd rev. ed., pp. 236-7
ISBN: 9781442606029

Vestire la Chiesa: Gli abiti del clero nella Roma medievale (Book)
Title: Vestire la Chiesa: Gli abiti del clero nella Roma medievale
Author: Maureen C. Miller, translated by Riccardo Cristiani
Editor: [of the series] Agostino Paravicini Bagliani
Abstract: Anche in quello che il clero indossava, la Riforma Gregoriana è stata una svolta nella storia della Chiesa Romana. I mosaici, affreschi e tessuti della città segnano la diffusione di uno stile di abito liturgico squisitamente ornato che visualizza le nuove gerarchie sostenuto dai riformatori. In questo volume vengono esaminate le varie fonti materiali e documentarie che attestano le forte tradizioni romani del paramento liturgico consolidate e difesi nell'alto medioevo, e le modifiche radicali suscitate dalla riforma imperiale del papato dalla metà dell'XI secolo. L'autore - un leader innovativo nelle ricerche della cultura medievale -- colloca la storia della Chiesa romana nel contesto dinamico a livello europeo delle trasformazioni nella vita materiale. Il lettore scopre il valore di tessili conservati per la nostra comprensione della società medievale e una nuova prospettiva sulla "arte gregoriana" di Roma medievale.
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://www.viella.it/libro/901
Primary URL Description: Publisher website
Publisher: Viella Editrice
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9788867282906
Translator: Riccardo Cristiani
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

"Clothing and Claims to Power: Fashioning Papal Authority, c. 1050-1300," (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: "Clothing and Claims to Power: Fashioning Papal Authority, c. 1050-1300,"
Author: Maureen C. Miller
Abstract: Keynote lecture giving an overview of the development of papal attire from 1050-1300 and analyzing the descriptions of papal vestments in two inventories
Date: 04/25/2015
Primary URL: http://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/changes-in-fashion/
Primary URL Description: conference sit
Conference Name: Changing Medieval Fashions, University of California, Santa Barbara Medieval Studies Program conference

"Visual Rhetoric and Reform in Medieval Rome," (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: "Visual Rhetoric and Reform in Medieval Rome,"
Author: Maureen C. Miller
Abstract: Chapter of "Vestire la Chiesa" discussing the relationship between changes in clerical attire in the city of Rome and the reform movements of the 11th c.
Date Range: 10/26/2013
Location: Huntington Library, Pasadena, CA

---