What is a cassock?

The cassock or soutane (cassock worn by Roman Catholic priests) is a Christian clerical clothing coat used by the clergy of the Oriental Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Catholic Church, in addition to certain Protestant values such as Anglicans and Lutherans {who believe that humans are saved from their sins by God’s grace alone (Sola Gratia), through faith alone (Sola Fide), on the basis of Scripture alone (Sola Scriptura)}. “Ankle-length garment” is the accurate meaning of the consistent Latin term, vestis talaris. It is connected to the habit, which is traditionally worn by nuns, monks, and friars. Cassock at Clergy Wear Shop. 

The cassock develops historically from the tunic of classical, from an earlier time especially one of historical interest, that in early Rome was worn beneath the robe and the chiton (marine mollusc that has an oval flattened body with a shell of overlapping plates) that was worn beneath an outer garment worn by the ancient Greeks over the left shoulder and under the right in ancient Greece. In religious facilities, it has traditionally been worn underneath vestments, such as the alb. Cassock at Clergy Wear Shop. 

In the West, the cassock is slightly used today except for religious services, save for traditional Catholic clergy who continue wearing/clothing the cassock as their standard clerical apparel. However, in many countries wherein the same is used to wear normally in everyday wear of the clergy until the 1960s and when it was fundamentally replaced by clerical suits, distinguished from the lay dress by being usually black and by a black shirt combining a clerical collar. Cassock at Clergy Wear Shop. 

The Cassock.

It appears to be, adjudicating from our searches all over the Bishops in the Catholic Church, that most of the clergy (situated on the edge/outside the Higher or Lower Church margins) do not have the feeblest idea about the Vestment/Garment, they wear on their bodies when they came before the Lord to worship. They uniform what they have seen others embody, and frequently they seem to have slight thought of the history behind any of what hangs within their vestry closets. How else to explain is very common that most worthless improvements. Cassock at Clergy Wear Shop. 

The Cassock-Alb?

With regard to this problem, an understanding of history will usually respond to the questions of use and suitability. While the clergy products which proficient to lead in both the historical and sacred apprehensions of the Church, it behooves them and us a non-ordained male member of a Church to retain some understanding. Cassock at Clergy Wear Shop. 

House Cassock.

Basically positioned, the cassock is the straightforward vestment of the Christian clergy and cannot be excessive. Dearer writes that “The Cassock in its English traditional form is double breast short of buttons down the front, and kept in position by broadband. In this form, it was worn (usually with the gown) as the usual outdoor costume of the English clergy down to the commencement of the present century.” When on social call of the cathedrals of England, or on an official visit to the Vatican, one understands the clergy going about, whether indoors or outdoors, in their cassocks. In the English cathedrals and visited churches, the officer who carries a rod before a bishop (being proficient members of the staff) will not appear within the barriers of the church itself in street clothes. In Oxford and Cambridge (and any other locus of cultured clergy), members of the genius in Holy Orders will costume their hood and gown over their cassocks, while their lay peers make do with outfit and tie. Cassock at Clergy Wear Shop. 

The cassock derives from the Roman tunic (worn as an under or outer garment by men and women of ancient Greece and Rome), which was worn beneath the robe, and it shows a history almost completely with the monastic habit. As ordinary costume produced away from the tunic and robe, clerical dress (as with utmost everything else in the Church) was slower to change, and so the cassock was retained. Cassock at Clergy Wear Shop. 

As prominent above, the Anglican variety is (properly) double breast, made of cord, and gathered at the waist either with a toga of the same material. It will generally have a single button in the centre of the chest from which to append the wearer’s theoretical hood. It will appropriately not have cuffs, which is a Roman custom. The Romans, for their share, favour the less good-looking single breast variety. Although all kinds of similarities in colour may be seen, the only really correct colour for most of the clergy is black. Bishops may wear purple, deans and archdeacons may dress black with mauve piping, and rules black with red piping (at right). Cassock at Clergy Wear Shop. 

But we would not get unfocused by colour schemes. The point of the cassock is that it should not set apart the wearer (a person who is wearing something as clothing, decoration, or protection) as a specific rather the cassock, as the distinctive vestment of the Christian clergy, should classify its wearer as a person in Orders, as a representative thereof and a servant of the Church. Its chief function (other than covering the body) is combining, of verifying the corporate set difference of those who have made their vows to Christ. Whereas some might call this best-selling clericalism, our view is that so long as the clergy happens, a vigorous though not overbearing clericalism is not in the least unwarranted. Cassock at Clergy Wear Shop. 

As the basic costume of those who serve in the Church, all other clothing, the surplice, the scarf, the Alb and the Eucharistic vestments, all are worn out the cassock, and for worship unaccompanied. Once this is assumed, one realizes that it not mere convention that a choir may be seen practising before a church services in their cassocks only (as at right), single to then appear in procession conferred in surplices. The surplice is a worship attire, put on properly only for heavenly service. A choir no more confers in a surplice to wholehearted than a newlywed would don her gown for the wedding preparation. In this difference lies the primary hostility to the hated cassock-Alb, it confounds the blessed with the everyday (since clergy are always seen walking around in it). The Alb is a distinct garment, with an unconnected purpose, and to abandonment its specific use is to neglect the admiration due to what the contemporary Church claims as its most dominant act of worship, the Eucharist. Eucharistic vestments are not for ambulatory around. The cassock Alb is inexpensive, indolent, and improper, at all times and in all spaces. Cassock at Clergy Wear Shop.