INVESTITURE OF THE PALLIUM.

Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 109, 10 May 1887, Page 4

INVESTITURE OF THE PALLIUM.

♦ The following, which appeared in a Sydney paper, in reference to the ceremony of in* vesting the late Archbishop Vaughan with the pallium, will doubtless prove interesting to many of our renders in view of a similar i-.prftmony talcing place here shortly, when Archbishop Redwood is invested: — "The xoletnn ceremony of investing the Archbishop of Sydney with the pallium took plane at St. Mary's pro-Cathedral on Sunday, 13th January. This is the first time in which a prolate of tho Roman Catholic Church has fjpen invested in Australia with the peculiar symbol of supramo ecclesiastical authority. A pallium was thrice given to tho late Archbishop Polding— tho two first being successively destroyed by the fires at St. Mary's old Cathedral. To Archbishop Gould, oi Victoria, the pallium, was also given, but in all these cases the investiture took place at Romo, ani was made in tho presence of, if not by, the Pope himself. On this occasion it was made by special authority, the senior bishop to the arch-diocoso noting as Commissary The pallium is a band of white wool adorned with crosses, and worn over the shoulders so as to hang down a little in front and behind. The extremities consist of thin sheets of lead cased in black Bilk. The wool of whioh it is -made is that offered by the religious of the convent of St. Agnes at Rome on the 21st January, being St. Agnes Day. This wool is woven into pallia, whioh on St. Peter's Day (29th June) receive the special benediction of the Popo himself, and they are then granted on special request, or as a mark of favour to principal prelates of the Roman Catholic Church. In this as in other nnoient ceremonies there is a specially mystical meaning. The lambs typify the care and charge committed to bishops according to the Divine precept "Feed my sheep." The white wool denotes purity of life and conduct ; and tho crosses, formerly red but changed about COO years ago to lilack, signify tho heavy burden of the chief pastorship. Moroovor, the garment itself has a long history. It has succeeded the Ephod of the Jewish priests, and it represonts the mantle which tho prophet Elijah left to hie follower Elisha, on the translation of tho former to Heaven. According to Church history, St. Linus, the immediate suocessor to St. Poter, was the first prelate invested with it, and thenceforward it has been considered a mark of poouliar power, so far indeed that an Archbishop cannot, according to canonical law, exercise several of his fnnctions without • possessing it. It would appear that anciently tho pallium or mantle of a bishop was worn by his successor. Thus, for instance, we ore told by Liboratus, writing in the 9th century, that " it is onstomary at Alexandria that he who succeeds a deceased bishop should keep watch over the corpse, and having applied the right hand of the, deceased prelato to his own head shon\d proceed to bury the body, having ta\fea from it and placed round his own neck the pallium of the blessed Mark. Then he may legitimately occupy the Mnfacopal throno," St. Mark the Evangelia'c was the fonndor of the Church of Alexjvndria, and Liberatus is speaking of the eoaaooration of Theodosius, the successor of Timothy On the other hand it is said, that the pallium was an ornament of imperial dignity, and that the Christian JjSiperora of Rome granted the privilege of wearing it to the princes of tho C^arch, with whom on the downfall of tb& oivil power, this privile^ remained, and they have transmitted it to their anccessors. Again, among the Romans it signified that the wearw devoted himself to the study of philosophy, The expression ex toga ad pallium tramsire meant. this, for the pallium was part of the dress of the learned men of Greec*. Whichever way the question is regarded— and much research has been devoted to the subject— it is indisputable that the waring of tho pallium denoted rjre-eminenoe, and the privilege of wearing it was a mark of personal dignity. Its transmission feora one to another is not now practised. An«archbishop cannot, according to canon law, allow, another pwl late to wear his pallium, and when rlßr lB dies his- pallium must be buried with j™- So striotly is this rule adhered to that if the use of. I^»e pallium is, granted by the Pope, but it has not been actually re-ceived,-the same garment cannot bo g? yen to another; it must be turned. So again its use is confined, to plaoe aawell as person. Thus, an aj*hbifihop ha.vi»«r»palli W a and being translated to another see mu>t apply for a second pallium, because the fi>ut was granted for his metropolitan chwjh-con-tempMioneprtmwecclesiw. When, he dies the second pallium is placed" round his shoulders and the first under his bead, and both are buried with him.