Tags
Charlemagne, clerical dress, Historic costume, Historical Fiction, medieval, Middle Ages, miter, The Cross and the Dragon
As I was reading over my proofs for The Cross and the Dragon, questions would pop into my mind, such as “Did they have that then?” In this case, that is miters, and then is eighth-century Francia, ruled by the king today known as Charlemagne.
From Wikimedia Commons, public domain image
I had thought bishops always wore miters–large, pointed headdresses. After all, I had seen them in medieval imagery such as this 1493 miniature to the right from the Chronicles of France. Printed by Antoine Verard, it depicts Pope Hadrian I meeting Charlemagne. Problem is, that the image accurately shows armor and clothing from the 15th century, not the eighth.
Perhaps the realization that I had made an assumption made me turn to Wikipedia and Google Books, just to be sure.
I use Wikipedia as a starting point. I rarely read it for research, but it often links to authoritative sources. And it had public domain art that I can post. In this case, Wikipedia linked to an otherwise hard to find page in New Advent. From there, I got the obscure term camelaucum, a head-covering for eighth and ninth century popes on special occasions, and used it in my search through Google Books.
So, I learned popes of this era occasionally wore a helmet or cone-shaped headdress, but what about my characters, two bishops in the March of Brittany?
Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons
The conclusion, one website and parts of three books later: eighth-century bishops didn’t wear miters. Miters came about much later, and for bishops outside Rome, that might be the 11th century. Instead, a bishop would wear a frigium, but only outdoors and only for special occasions. In other words, I should have paid more attention to images like this one from the ninth century Sacramentary of Charles the Bald (also known as the Sacramentary of Metz) depicting a coronation. Note that the two clerics are bare-headed.
The two bishops in my novel are outdoors on special occasions–the return of the warriors from battle in Lombardy, and they might wear a frigium for that. One problem with the word frigium. Most 21st century readers don’t know what it means. Heck, I’d never heard of it until I was researching the headgear. Fortunately, my main characters likely wouldn’t have known the word, either, and allowed me to get away with a description, a pointed, white linen helmet.
Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons, from The Catholic Encyclopedia published in 1911 and retrieved from New Advent.
Another surprise: The miter has changed over time as seen in the image on the right. The last is most familiar to today’s audience.
Fellow writers, have you ever thought something was part of your era, only to find it wasn’t? Please share.
Sources
New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10404a.htm
Church Vestments: Their Origin and Development by Herbert Norris
Vestments for All Seasons by Barbara Dee Baumgarten
The Ornaments of the Ministers by Percy Dearmer
Thanks for sharing! I have the same problem. I am writing a book now, a sequel to my first, a historical thriller set in imperial China. It touches on the rise of the palace eunuchs as a political force. much of what i had in mind were based on common misconceptions written by bias historical sources. Until i started to read more recent historical writings and research, i realised there are many misconceptions to clear.
For example, the common impression of eunuchs were of scheming, effeminate men. usually those highlighted by history were those infamous ones who controlled weak emperors and enriched themselves. that was what i had initially in mind – a very simplistic portrayal of a very complex personality. But research showed that there were several eunuchs in chinese history, which were unrecognised until recent scholarship uncovered their roles as diligent and upright government officials. This contradicts earlier scholarship, which focused on the records of the imperial civil service; they saw the eunuchs as their rivals for access to the emperor, and hence in their official histories, painted the eunuchs as schemers and thieves. These official histories were traditionally the only source of information on the eunuchs, hence their terrible reputation in chinese history.
I’ve not done any research on this, but I can imagine that there were varied personalities among the eunuchs, just as one would find in any population. I love primary sources, but they are all written by people with an agenda such as making yourself (or your boss) look good and your rival look bad. Not that far from today’s politics.
For the most part, today’s scholars are pretty good about trying to give as complete a picture as possible, but I have often wondered if earlier scholarship, such as the Victorians, shows more about the historian than the history.
Best of luck with your research and your writing.