Chapter III. Clerical Dress

Ever since about the sixth century clerics have had a special dress of their own to distinguish them from laymen. It is their uniform, like that of soldiers or sailors, and is a perpetual reminder to them that they should always conduct themselves as becomes their profession. At first the clerical dress was introduced by custom, and then sanctioned by positive law. On this point the Council of Trent (sess. 14, c. 6, de Ref.), after saying that although the habit does not make the monk, yet clerics must always wear the dress suited to their order, so that by the decency of their dress they may make manifest the goodness of their moral character, goes on to prescribe under pain of suspension that all in sacred orders and beneficed clerics should wear the clerical dress suited to their order and dignity, according to the ordinance and command of their bishop. “ Let all clerics wear a decent ecclesiastical dress according to the lawful customs of the place and the precepts of the local Ordinary ” (Can. 136).

The common law of the Church therefore imposes on all the clergy the obligation of wearing the clerical dress, and it leaves to bishops the task of making further regulations on the point suitable to the circumstances of the country. In England, the Fourth Synod of Westminster (d. 11, nn. 12-14) decreed that the Roman collar was always to be worn, that the dress must be of black or dark material, and that in the house or church the cassock should be worn. The Third Plenary Council of Baltimore (n. 77) made the same regulations for the United States, except that the wearing of the cassock in the house or in the church is prescribed, not merely declared to be especially becoming.

The clerical tonsure is also prescribed by the common law of the Church, but it has not been reintroduced into England since the Reformation, nor is it in use in the United States. However, the obligation of not wearing hair on the face is laid down in the Fourth Synod of Westminster (doc. cit.). On this point Canon 136 prescribes: “Let them wear the tonsure or clerical crown, unless this be against the received manners of the people, and let them use a simple and ordinary care of the hair.”

All religious are bound by these and similar obligations of clerics according to Canon 592.

These laws of themselves bind under pain of mortal sin which, however, would not be committed if there were good cause for doing what they forbid, nor if they were neglected without contempt or grave scandal for a short time. Theologians consider that the clerical dress would have to be neglected for more than three or four days in order to sin grievously, and a much longer time would be required for a grave violation of the law concerning tonsure. Venial sin, of course, is committed by breaking the law without legitimate excuse even for a short time.