The cope was not a sacerdotal, liturgical garment, but a processional vestment. The word derives from medieval Latin cappa. It is is a garment that is allegedly a development of the pluviale, the cape with capuchon that protected the Roman-period wearer against the rain. The term pluviale, as in Germany, is in fact still used for the cope. From the medieval period onwards copes were often made of highly decorative woven material and/or embroidered with elaborate designs based on Biblical symbolism. In addition, there is usually a decorative band called an orphrey down the front opening of a cope. The orphrey is normally embroidered. At the back there used to be a capuchon or hood, which by the fifteenth century developed into a highly decorated shield-shaped panel (often still referred to as the hood) at the back of the neck, attached with buttons.
The colour of the cope worn by clergy changes depending upon the liturgical calendar. Copes are worn by all levels of the clergy of the Western Christian churches, such as the Anglican, Catholic and Lutheran denominations, but never when celebrating Mass.
The morse, the clasp that holds the cope in position, is also often highly decorated, with embroidery and/or gold and silver thread or precious stones.
See also: Austrian or Bohemian cope; Bishops carrying regalia; cope chest; Cope of Saint Louis d'Anjou; Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee copes; Silver Jubilee cope and mitre; Syon cope; the Vatican cope.
Sources:
- BAILEY, Sarah (2013), Clerical Vestments, Shire Library, Oxford, pp. 17-19.
- OWEN-CROCKER, Gale, Elizabeth COATSWORTH and Maria HAYWARD (eds., 2012). Encyclopedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles of the British Isles, c. 450-1450, Brill: Leiden, pp. 148-149.
See also the entry on a hood of a cope, now housed in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Digital source (retrieved 8 March 2017).
Digital source of illustration (retrieved 8 March 2017).
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