HATS WORN IN CHURCH

Taranaki Daily News, 23 February 1935, Page 14 (Supplement)

HATS WORN IN CHURCH

OLD PROTESTANT CUSTOM In the'sixteenth and seventeenth centuries hats were commonly worn by men in Protestant churches, both on the Continent and' in Ingland. Pepys notes in his diary, as a singular circumstance, that at the French church at the Savoy, he saw, on September 22, 1662, what he had never seen before—a clergyman preaching with his hat on. Another author of the period says that some congregations took off their hats when they sang the psalms, but kept their heads covered if they read them. The custom almost died out after the Restoration, but it was revived again by William lit. When William, however, found the Dutch habit ■’ caused offence to his English subjects he diplomatically remained bareheaded during prayers, and then put on his hat for the sermon. Polewotth says that the custom survived in Truro as late as the year 1800,