Catholic Trivia: Cassock

Before the Reformation secular clergy wore cassocks buttoned from the waist up and tied with a belt. From the waist down they were open and unbuttoned, like the garb of the boys of Christ's Hospital to this day. This was the true Sarum cassock and is distinct from the double-breasted form which is usually so-called. Moreover, it is more than likely that these cassocks were blue in colour. Bishop Richard Challoner's cassock at Allen Hall Seminary, although of eighteenth-century vintage, retains the Sarum blue colour, with red cuffs, piping and buttons to show his rank. Challoner continued the Sarum tradition, and so this seems reliable evidence.

Purple as the colour for Bishops has only been in vogue since the sixteenth century. The change took place because Pope Pius V (1566-72), being a Dominican, stuck to white. The Cardinals then changed to a papal scarlet, and the Bishops adopted the "sacred purple." However, the original colours in each case are retained in the stripe on the cord of the pectoral cross. The papal soutane was granted to the English Catholic clergy by Pope Pius IX who, when the English clerics asked what cassock they should wear, declared, "Like mine, but black."

Catholic Trivia