and about twenty inches long, made like a stole, of the same material as the chasuble. The maniple, that it may not fall off (when in use), should have the two pendant parts fastened together near the arm of the wearer. Like the stole it may be fringed at the ends, and have a small equal-armed cross embroidered in the middle and near each end.
The Stole is a band of silk, about three inches wide and eight feet and six inches long. It may be fringed at the ends and have a small equal-armed cross embroidered at the middle and near each end. The material should be of the same kind as that of the chasuble.
The Chasuble is a vestment made of silken or woolen material. In its original form the chasuble was a great circular cloak, which had no opening round about but only at the top, through which the wearer let it down over his head, and upon his shoulders. In order to use his hands the wearer was obliged to gather up the vestment at his sides in folds over his arms. In later ages the form was some what changed by cutting away the material at the sides, for the purpose of leaving the arms of the wearer free. A convenient and graceful form of this vestment, if made of soft fine silk, is an elongated oval, about eight feet and eight inches long and four feet wide, with a circular opening, through which the head may be passed, the centre of which is fifty-four inches from the bottom of the back part of the vestment and fifty inches from the bottom of front part.
It should be noted that a garment made of linen and shaped like a chasuble, no matter how it may be ornamented, is nothing more than a chasuble-shaped surplice. Surplices shaped like the old-time chasubles have been worn in various places in Europe since the beginning of the twelfth century, but never as a mass-vestment. Putting orphreys on a chasuble-shaped surplice does not make the garment a chasuble any more than the lack of orphreys on a chasuble makes the said vestment anything less or other than a chasuble.
The material out of which the chasuble is made, whether it be silken or woolen, should be soft in texture, of as fine a quality as possible, and ample in quantity. This is of more importance than the ornamentation or even the colour.
