Badiou Balibar Rancire Rethinking Emancipation Nick Hewlett

Badiou Balibar Rancire Rethinking Emancipation Nick Hewlett
Badiou Balibar Rancire Rethinking Emancipation Nick Hewlett
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5. In memory of (Enone Hewlett, 1920-2006

6. This page intentionally left blank

7. Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Gary Browning, Christopher Flood and two
anonymous readers for commenting on drafts of individual chapters
of this book. Thanks also to participants at conferences and seminars
at the Universities of Fukuoka, Budapest and Leeds, at King's Col-
lege, London, and at University College, London, who commented
on some of the ideas in this book. In particular, I would like to thank
Gregory Elliott for a detailed, sensitive and highly insightful reading
of the manuscript as a whole. Sarah Douglas at Continuum showed
immediate enthusiasm for the project when I first approached her,
and was very helpful and encouraging thereafter. Nick Fawcett did
an excellent job copy-editing the manuscript. The final shape of the
book, including any errors and infelicities, is of course my responsibil-
ity alone.
My appreciation goes to the Arts and Humanities Research Coun-
cil for funding a period of leave in order to bring the project to fruition
and to the British Academy for two travel grants. An earlier version of
Chapter 2 was published in 2004 in Modern and Contemporary France
12 (3) and an earlier version of Chapter 3 was published in 2006 in
Contemporary Political Theory 5 (4).
I would like to thank Bridget Taylor, who has not only given con-
sistently sound advice during the time I was writing this book, but has
also shown huge patience as I went through authorial highs and lows.
My children Emily and Gus have been moving towards adulthood
over the past few years and remain constant sources of happiness.
Lasting happiness and enduring love are qualities I associate strongly
with my mother, (Enone, to whose memory this book is dedicated.

8. Note on Translations
In the two chapters on Badiou and the chapter on Ranciere, I have
translated quotations from the original, French editions of their
works, except where the original is in English, or where I have
indicated otherwise. In the chapter on Balibar, I have quoted from
English translations of his work, except where I have indicated that
the translations are my own. Where I quote from or refer to an
English translation, the date of the original (French) version of the
work is indicated in square brackets.

9. Abbreviations
Full details of the following works are found in the bibliography.
AM
B
BF
Cl
c
DO
D
E
EB
EE
IT
LM
MP
PH
PM
PP
S
SP
TC
TS
Abbreviations for works by Alain Badiou
Abrege de metapolitique (Seuil, 1 998) .
Beckett: Uincrevable desir (Hachette, 1995).
'Beyond Formalisation' (interview with Peter Hallward in
Angelaki, vol. 8, no. 2, 2003, pp. 1 1 1-36).
Cir Constances , 1. Kosovo, 11 septembre, Chirac /Le Pen
(Leo Scheer, 2003).
Conditions (Seuil, 1992).
D'un Desastre obscur. Sur la fin de la verite d'etat (P Aube,
1 998) .
Gilles Deleuze: ' La clameur de I' etre' (Hachette, 1997).
UEthique: Essai sur la conscience du mal (Hatier, 1 993) .
'Entretien de Bruxelles' (in Les Temps Modernes, no. 526,
mai 1990, pp. 1-26).
L'Etre et 1' evenement (Seuil, 1988).
Infinite Thought: Truth and the Return to Philosophy
(Continuum, 2003).
Logiques des mondes. Uetre et I' evenement^ 2 (Seuil, 2006) .
Manifeste pour la philosophie (Seuil, 1989).
'Politics and Philosophy' (interview with Peter Hallward in
Angelaki, vol. 3, no. 3, 1998, pp. 1 13-33).
Petit manuel d' inesthetique (Seuil, 1 998) .
Peut-onpenserlapolitique? (Seuil, 1985).
LeSiecle (Seuil, 2005).
Saint-Paul. Lafondation de I'universalisme (Paris, PUF, 1997).
Theorie de la Contradiction (Maspero, 1975) .
Theoriedusujet(Seuil, 1982).

10. xii
AB
AL
CD
CT
DW
LA
LH
LP
M
MI
NH
PP
SP
TT
DC
HW
1C
LC
LG
Abbreviations
Abbreviations for works by Jacques Ranciere
Aux bords dupolitique (Osiris, 1 992) .
'Althusser'. In Simon Critchley and William R. Schroeder
(eds) A Companion to Continental Philosophy (Blackwell, 1998,
pp. 530-36).
La Chair des mots. Politiques de I'ecriture (Galilee, 1 998) .
Chronique des temps consensuels (La Fabrique, 2005) .
'Dissenting Words. A Conversation with Jacques Ranciere.'
(diacritics, summer 2000).
La Legond' Althusser (Gallimard, 1974).
La Haine de la democratic (Seuil, 2005) .
Jacques Ranciere: Literature, Politics, Aesthetics:
Approaches to Democratic Disagreement.' Interview
with Jacques Ranciere by Solange Guenoun and
James H. Kavanagh (SubStance, no. 92, 2000, pp. 3-24).
La Mes entente (Galilee, 1995).
Le Maitre ignorant. Cinq Lemons sur I' emancipation intellectuelle
(Fayard, 1987).
Les Noms de I'Histoire. Essai depoetique du savoir (Seuil, 1
992) .
Le Philosophe et ses pauvres (Fayard, 1 983) .
Les scenes dupeuple. Les Revokes logiques, 1975—1985
(Horlieu, 2003).
'Ten Theses on Polities', Theory and Event 5:3 (2001).
Abbreviations for works by Etienne Balibar
Droitdecite(PUF, 2002).
'Gewalt', in Das Historisch-Kritisches Worterbuch des Marxismus,
Das Argument Verlag, Berlin. Available online in French at
http://ciepfc.rhapsodyk. net/article. php3?id_article=36
(accessed January 2006).
'The Infinite Contradiction', in Yale French Studies 88, 1995,
pp. 142-64.
La Crainte des masses: politique et philosophic avant et apres Marx
(Galilee, 1997).
'Lenine et Gandhi: une rencontre manquee?' Communication
au Colloque MARX INTERNATIONAL IV, « Guerre

11. Abbreviations xiii
imperiale, guerre sociale », Universite de Paris X Nanterre,
Seance pleniere, 2 Octobre—1 novembre 2004;
http://ciepfc.rhapsodyk.net/article.php3?id_article=36.
M
CI Masses, Classes, Ideas (Routledge, 1994).
PM
RNC Race, Nation, Class. Ambiguous Identities (Verso, 1991, with
Immanuel Wallerstein).
SP Spinoza and Politics (Verso, 1998).
SS 'Sub species universitatis'. In Topoi no. 1-2, September 2006,
pp. 3-16. Viewable at: http://ciepfc.rhapsodyk.netarticle.
php3?id_article=81.
WP We, the People of Europe? Reflections on Transnational Citizenship
(Princeton University Press, 2004).
The Philosophy of Marx (Verso, 1995).

12. This page intentionally left blank

13. Chapter 1
Contexts and Parameters
Alain Badiou, Etienne Balibar and Jacques Ranciere each work
within the intellectual and political tradition which embraces the
notion of human emancipation. Associated with political struggle,
resistance, and freedom from oppression, the emancipatory paradigm
is inspired by the philosophy of Spinoza, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel and
Marx. It famously found intellectual expression in the Enlightenment
and its landmark political moments include the American Revolution
in the second half of the eighteenth century and the French Revolu-
tion of 1789. In the twentieth century, emancipation was often asso-
ciated with independence from colonial rule, the emancipation of
women from male domination, and the emancipation of the working
classes from capitalist exploitation. By adopting the view that freedom
is closely linked with freedom from oppression, advocates of the eman-
cipatory tradition set themselves apart from liberals, who tend to
con-
ceive of freedom as absence from interference.
Such an approach to ideas and politics became less influential in
France from the mid-1970s onwards, having been highly prevalent
for two hundred years. But Badiou, Balibar and Ranciere have each
vigorously resisted the trend towards the various types of liberal
thought that have become so much more current in France, and
each has made a significant contribution to the emancipatory tradi-
tion. Even superficial acquaintance with the work of these writers
thus suggests that those who have rushed to write the obituaries of
France's tendency to produce radical intellectuals may have been
too categorical, too soon. Although I am by no means in full agree-
ment with Badiou, Balibar or Ranciere, I have chosen to examine
their work in part precisely because they each place the collective
and rebellious action of ordinary people at the very heart of their phi-
losophical systems, whilst at the same time engaging with French and

14. 2 Badiou, Balibar, Ranciere
other thought which has emerged since Sartre was the dominant force
in European philosophy. They should not be seen as forming any kind
of united philosophical school, for disagreements and differences
between them are sometimes considerable, but their common and
steadfast refusal to make concessions to a variety of more mainstream
intellectual and political currents both sets them apart from numerous
other thinkers and suggests treatment within the same book.
Each of these writers has adopted as a major aim to explore notions
of equality, and the relationship between equality and emancipation.
For Badiou, the very idea of politics is intimately related to equality
and his philosophy includes an egalitarian presumption. His philoso-
phical system is organized around the notion of the event, which is
virtually synonymous with a broad concept of revolution, and as far
as politics is concerned the event is often an actual political and social
revolution in a traditional sense. For Balibar, his term 'equaliberty' is
at the heart of his understanding of politics, meaning that there can be
no freedom without equality, and vice versa. The notions of emanci-
pation and transformation are central to his definition of what is poli-
tical. For Ranciere, a discussion of equality is so central to his thought
that in a characteristically provocative way he argues that equality
is a starting point for any definition of politics and not just a distant
goal. Politics is intimately related to uprising and insurgency on the
part of excluded groups and against the unjust status quo; a disruption
of the normal order of things via a bold intervention by those who
have no voice.
In the broadest of terms, the work of these three thinkers is influ-
enced by Marxism, the ground from whence they all sprang in the
early years of their intellectual and political development. However
complex their intellectual discourses might be, and however unex-
pected some of their points of reference, they each still return fre-
quently to a common idea that an intellectual position of any real
significance must relate to an intervention in the material world
in order to change that world in an egalitarian direction. Despite
some highly novel, unorthodox and eclectic philosophical points
of reference, each seeks to interpret the world from a position that
starts with a belief in the need to pursue the logic of defending the
interests of ordinary people. Although none are now likely to describe

15. Contexts and Parameters 3
themselves as Marxist, none are studiously post-Marxist either, in the
sense that they might want to announce their passage from a stage
where they were strongly influenced by Marx to one where they
definitely are not.
The overarching question which I pose in order to evaluate and
engage with the work of Badiou, Balibar and Ranciere perhaps
reflects my training as a historian and political analyst, rather than
as a philosopher. It is: how can the powers of reflection be put to use
for transforming and egalitarian ends at the beginning of the twenty-
first century? The question of how to make thought relevant and
useful to the organization of human societies is of course one which
permeates all forms of political thought. John Locke, who divides
knowledge and science into three categories, fysike, praktike and semi-
otike, defines praktike as 'the skill of rightly applying our own powers
and actions, for the attainment of things good and useful' (Locke
1989 [1690]: 461) But for each of these writers the more precise
notion of praxis is appropriate. Praxis extends further the idea of
praktike and, in addition to applying the powers of the intellect to the
material world, also includes as a major consideration the influence of
the material world on thought. The result is a dialectical relationship
between theory and practice. This approach is arguably central to
each of Badiou, Balibar and Ranciere's own endeavours and I am
thus to an extent assessing them by their own criteria, judging the suc-
cesses and failures of their projects in terms which they themselves
broadly work to: how useful is their work in terms of both understand-
ing the contemporary world and changing it for the better, and how
has the material world influenced their thought?
Certainly, many pages of this book are devoted to evaluating the
internal logic of their thought, to comparing Badiou, Balibar and
Ranciere with each other and with other philosophers, or with think-
ers in different domains. If one or other is similar to or remote from a
particular intellectual tradition or thinker, or represents a radical
break from a tradition or thinker, this is relevant and important.
By the same token, I seek to trace the intellectual origins and develop-
ment of these three writers. But if I examine their thought qua thought
in this way, I also do so as a means, ultimately, to assessing their
relevance to the material, and broadly speaking political, world with

16. 4 Badiou, Balibar, Ranciere
a view to examining the possibility of applying their philosophy to
the world around us.
The importance of Badiou, Balibar and Ranciere's work is gradu-
ally being recognized more widely. In addition to their considerable
originality and intellectual breadth, the sheer volume of output on the
part of these thinkers helps explain why each is being taken increas-
ingly seriously. Since the publication in 1988 of Badiou's major work,
L'Etre et I'eveminent, he has written more than twenty further books,
together with numerous articles and interviews, ranging from
abstract discussions to pamphlets and newspaper articles on contem-
porary politics, via comments on historical events. His most signifi-
cant philosophical work since his first magnum opus is Logique des
mondes (2006), which is intended as a sequel to and refinement of
some of the major propositions contained in L'Etre et Vevenement and is
indeed subtitled L'Etre et I'evenement, 2. Balibar has also published a
great deal, ranging from a close reading of and re-interpretation of
Spinoza, in Spinoza and Politics (1998 [1985]) to extended commentary
on European citizenship and racism, for example in We, the People of
Europe? Reflections on Transnational Citizenship (2004 [2001]), via essays
containing innovative definitions of politics itself and of political vio-
lence, in, inter alia, Masses, Classes, Ideas (1994) and Politics and the Other
Scene (2002). Ranciere has likewise been prolific and has published
over thirty books. He began his career with explorations of political
thought and political economy, then spent many years working in
labour and social history, before returning to political thought as
well as writing widely on aesthetics. His most important work of poli-
tical thought to date is La Mesentente (1995) but almost as important
are his brief but extremely rich Ten Theses on Politics (2001).
In particular, the international renown of these writers is increas-
ing. Each has been widely translated, especially (but not only) into
English, as the References and Bibliography section of this book illus-
trates, and the rate of translation into English accelerated greatly in
the first few years of the new century; all this of course has a dynamic
of its own as non-French-speaking readers become interested in and in
some cases politically committed to the works, following the logic of
their enquiry. Indeed, it is probably true that, as with some of the
major proponents of poststructuralism, the reception for the ideas of

17. Contexts and Parameters 5
these thinkers has been and will continue to be greater in Britain and
the USA than in France itself. Taking the case of Alain Badiou,
although he teaches at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris and
attracts large audiences to his seminars and lectures, there has been,
to date, only one major conference on his work in France, in 1999, in
whose proceedings many contributors are from outside France
(Ramond 2002). There have by contrast been a number of confer-
ences on Badiou's work in Britain and the USA. Moreover, there are
two general works on Badiou's philosophy in English (Barker 2002
and Hallward 2003) and only one in French (Tarby 2005a), and two
collections of essays on Badiou in English (Hallward 2004 and Riera
2005) where they are absent in French. The same applies to special
issues of journals.
A brief look at the careers of these writers also helps explain why I
have decided to group them together for treatment in this book. Alain
Badiou was born in Rabat, Morocco, in 1937, was a student at the
Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, and began to work within a
broadly Althusserian framework. He taught philosophy at the Uni-
versity of Paris VIII from 1969 to 1999 and then began teaching at
the Ecole Normale. Greatly influenced by the May 1968 uprising, he
became a leading member of the Union des communistes de France
marxistes-leninistes (UCFML). He has been politically active ever
since, in particular as one of the most prominent activists in Organisa-
tion politique, a 'post-party' grouping launched in 1985 which orga-
nizes around a small number of key issues including housing, illegal
immigrants (sanspapiers] and industrial change.
Etienne Balibar was born in Avalon, France, in 1942 and also stu-
died at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris. He worked at the Uni-
versity of Algiers, Algeria in the mid-1960s and then taught at the
Lycee de Savigny-sur-Orge, in France, then at the University of
Paris I (Sorbonne) from 1969 to 1994. He held the Chair in Political
and Moral Philosophy from 1994 to 2002 at the University of Paris X
(Nanterre) and in 2000 took a Chair as Distinguished Professor in Cri-
tical Theory at the University of California, Irvine. He was a contri-
butor, with Louis Althusser, Roger Establet, Pierre Macherey and
Jacques Ranciere, to the original edition of Reading Capital (1965),
writing chapters on the concepts underlying historical materialism.

18. 6 Badiou, Balibar, Ranciere
Balibar was a member of the French Communist Party for twenty
years and was expelled in 1981 after publicly criticizing the party's
attitude towards immigration. Since 1981 he has frequently spoken
out on political issues of the day and has likewise written articles and
books on social and political issues including race, nationalism, social
exclusion and citizenship.
Jacques Ranciere was born in Algiers in 1940 and studied at the
Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris. He taught at the University of
Paris VIII (Vincennes-St Denis) from 1969 to 2000, holding the
Chair of Aesthetics and Politics from 1990 and was a Director of
Programmes at the College Internationale de Philosophic from 1986
to 1992. He was also a contributor to Reading Capital, with a chapter
on the critique of political economy and the differences between
Marx's critique of 1844 and that of 1867, but after May 1968 he
reacted strongly against the Althusserian project. He was a founder
and editor of the labour and social history journal, Revoltes logiques,
from 1975 to 1986, whose approach was developed as a reaction
against Althusser's theory. Ranciere's work spans philosophy, political
theory, historiography, literary theory, film theory and aesthetics. He
has remained politically active, particularly around issues concerning
immigration and social exclusion, but has moved away from his earlier
allegiance to Maoism as well as the Althusserian perspective.
Let us note in passing that even at the most general level the three
writers share a number of characteristics as far as both their profes-
sional careers and their politico-intellectual development are con-
cerned. They are all trained in philosophy, all are graduates of the
Ecole Normale in Paris, and all made careers teaching philosophy in
mainly Parisian higher education. They are all former students of
Althusser and - especially in the case of Badiou and Ranciere - they
were profoundly affected by the events of May 1968. They were all
influenced by Maoism and have remained engaged in left politics to
this day, swimming against the current of so many other former left-
wing activists of their generation, who took one or other of the possible
routes away from activism, as described for example in Hamon and
Rotman's Generation (1987 [1988]). Another characteristic they share
is to have made important contributions beyond the discipline in
which they were all trained, namely philosophy: Badiou to literary

19. Contexts and Parameters 1
criticism and political history, Balibar to politics and human rights,
and Ranciere to aesthetics and historiography, to mention but the
most obvious divergences.
For all three, their most important work has appeared since 1985,
during a period characterized - particularly in France - by intellec-
tual conservatism and the decline of the influence of thought to the
left of social democracy. Governmental politics in France have often
combined a superficially consensual approach with largely market-
driven economic policy, and there has been widespread disillusion-
ment with mainstream politicians. This climate, I shall argue, has
had an influence on the way in which Badiou, Balibar and Ranciere's
thought has evolved.
The rapid growth of interest in the work of these thinkers in recent
years cannot be attributed solely to its intrinsic merit, considerable
though this may be; their increased reception also reflects a more gen-
eral renewal of interest in left-oriented thought over the past decade or
two, a renewal which has taken place on an international scale.
Mentioning but the most prominent advocates, Michael Hardt and
Antonio Negri dissect the current world order in Empire (2000)
and Multitude (2004), in a manner that suggests an updating and by no
means an outright rejection of Marx's Capital, first published over a
century previously. In these books, which have been discussed well
beyond the confines of the left intelligentsia in America and Britain,
Hardt and Negri argue that the new world order, Empire, is not domi-
nated by one country such as the USA, or even one continent. This is a
postmodern and global form of sovereignty which is deterritorialized
in terms of source, scope and logic. The most important characteristic
of these two books is not the detail of their analysis nor supporting
evidence — which it has to be said is sparse — but their attempt to sug-
gest that such an approach to the analysis of modern capitalism can
help the cause of what Hardt and Negri describe (after Spinoza) as
the 'multitude' in inventing new ways of combating Empire.
Meanwhile, David Harvey combines an interest in the (broadly
Marxist) approach of the French Regulation School to political econ-
omy with an exploration of the culture of the late twentieth century in
The Condition of Postmodernity (1989) and examines the changing rela-
tionship between politics, economics and social structure in both The

20. 8 Badiou, Balibar, Ranciere
New Imperialism (2003) and A Brief History of JVeoliberalism (2005).
Frederic Jameson draws on the economic theory of the Belgian
Marxist Ernest Mandel in order to examine the nature and sig-
nificance of culture in the late twentieth century in Postmodernism,
Or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991) and in both The Cultural
Turn (1998) and A Singular Modernity (2002). Finally Slavoj Zizek
has become well known in particular for his analysis of culture and
ideology, drawing on Marx and Lacan in a way which is, again, expli-
citly anti-capitalist. Each of these writers of widespread international
repute espouses the notion that we are living in a postmodern age,
or one which is different enough from modernity to merit a debate
about redefinition, but equally if not more important is the fact that
each of these writers draws heavily on a fairly traditional Marxist his-
torical materialism.
The international reception that Noam Chomsky has enjoyed and
continues to enjoy for his ferocious and sophisticated critique of US
policy overseas is another example of a small but important change in
the intellectual political climate over the past few years, no doubt
nourished by the growth and increasingly visible movement against
corporate globalization as the neoliberal agenda fails large sections of
society in advanced capitalist countries and by the exasperation felt
by many hundreds of thousands of people in Britain and the United
States in particular, in response to the US and British invasion and
occupation of Iraq in the early years of the twenty-first century.
Moreover, the break-up of the Soviet Union might have removed
the most elaborate experiment in developing a practical alternative
to capitalism, offering the possible conclusion that communism can
only fail. But its passing might also have removed one of the greatest
obstacles to arguing for a socialist alternative, given the profoundly
unjust nature of many aspects of life in the Eastern Bloc, a fact that
was constantly highlighted by Cold War rhetoric. One might also
suggest, as has Stathis Kouvelakis (2001: 53), that when capitalism is
very successful it is likely that sooner or later there will be an anti-
capitalism that, at least in the theoretical domain, confronts capital-
ism head-on. More popular versions of what could broadly be
described as works which seek to redress the balance for those who
suffer most from the form which capitalism now takes have been

21. Contexts and Parameters 9
published by Susan George (1999, 2004), Naomi Klein (2001), George
Monbiot (2000), John Pilger (2002) and Arundhati Roy (2004).
Although the re-emergence of a more general interest in engaged
left thought is probably slower in France than in Britain or the USA,
in addition to the three thinkers explored in the chapters which follow,
there are other French writers who continue to work broadly within
an emancipatory framework and who have by no means abandoned
the left radical framework which has in a more general sense been so
weakened. Any list of such writers might include Jacques Bidet, Luc
Boltanski, Eve Chiapello, Pierre Macherey and Daniel Bensaid, not
forgetting the economists Gerard Dumenil and Dominique Levy.
Each in their own way is involved in work which takes a highly critical
stance on contemporary society and politics from a left perspective.
Moreover, the late sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, despite coming to poli-
tically engaged intellectual work relatively late and despite remaining
a figure whose work invokes deep controversy within the left as well
as beyond it, argued for many years that any serious approach to
the analysis of modern societies needs to highlight and examine the
existence of a huge section of society that he described as the 'dis-
possessed' (les depossedes] (e.g. Bourdieu 1998). Even the late Jacques
Derrida, often thought to have travelled far from committed intellec-
tual work in his major writings, argues forcefully in Specters of Marx
(1994 [1993]) that the time is ripe for a reappraisal of Marx and his-
torical materialism.
If France is still lagging behind somewhat in terms of more gener-
ally accepted left theoretical exploration, since the widespread strikes
of winter 1995 there has been increased activism within the non-
mainstream left. For example, workplace activists formed the trade
union Solidarite, Unite, Democratic (SUD), which strongly empha-
sizes more traditional labour movement democracy. The results of the
presidential elections of 2002 likewise tend to reinforce the view that
France has not entirely abandoned its legendary propensity for revolt,
given that almost 10 per cent of votes cast went to Trotskyist (LCR)
or quasi-Trotskyist (LO) candidates. The hundreds of thousands of
(often young) people on the streets protesting against the National
Front leader Le Pen and his passage to the second round also sug-
gested that taking to the streets in large numbers is not a thing of the

22. 10 Badiou, Balibar, Ranciere
past. Rank and file response to President Sarkozy's measures is likely
to confirm this. Most importantly, in spring 2006 France saw what
was probably the largest and most sustained popular mobilization
since 1968. Like 1968, the movement began with widespread demon-
strations and occupations by students and it then spread to the work-
ing population. Unlike May 1968, the focus of the protests was crystal
clear: the government's new law — which it had pushed through on a
confidence vote using article 49 paragraph 3 of the constitution - and
which sought to introduce more precarious working contracts for
young people under 26 in order, the government argued, to create
jobs. The labour legislation was disliked by a substantial majority of
the French according to opinion polls, many of whom saw it as the
unwelcome introduction of further neoliberal economic measures
along Anglo-American lines.
I have attempted to indicate various characteristics of the general
climate in which Badiou, Balibar and Ranciere are now working,
some conducive and some less conducive to the positive reception of
their work. But in order to situate these writers in a preliminary fashion
in the modern history of French political thought and to begin to con-
struct the discursive parameters of the book in a more nuanced fashion
I will now look at three aspects of France's modern intellectual history.
Three characteristics of modern French thought
To begin with, I wish to elaborate on the point I made in the opening
lines of this chapter. With a strong tradition of revolutionary caesura
in the realm of political practice, neither liberalism nor social democ-
racy properly took root in France, and both broader political
developments and intellectual life itself were dominated by bodies
of thought which emphasized such notions as emancipation, salva-
tion and total change. The heritage of 1789 was expressed in and
reinforced by the revolutions of 1830, 1848, the Paris Commune of
1871, the strikes and factory occupations of April-May 1936, the
revolutionary impetus borne of resistance to Nazi Occupation 1940—
44, and the uprising of May 1968, to mention but the most obvious
instances of revolt and uprising. This meant that political thought

23. Contexts and Parameters 11
was predominantly revolutionary or republican on the left, and on the
right nationalist and often with elements of anti-Semitism. As a con-
sequence of this radicalism on both left and right there was only a
weak tradition of liberal political thought.
In the three decades following the Second World War, France was
indeed the land par excellence of Marxist-influenced work in philoso-
phy and other areas of intellectual activity, including history, anthro-
pology, semiology, discourse analysis and literary theory. Taking the
iconic example of Jean-Paul Sartre, notwithstanding his philosophi-
cal complexity he wrote in such a way that the conditions of the mate-
rial world and the urgency of changing that world were constantly
present, and Sartre himself was famously politically active. This is
not the place for a fuller exploration of the intellectual engagement of
the postwar years, which has been adequately described elsewhere.
But suffice it to say that from 1945 to the early 1970s Sartre and later
Althusser were but the best-known proponents of a much larger
Marxist and quasi-Marxist constituent which took for granted the
intimate relationship between theory and practice as expressed by his-
torical materialism, and the Communist Party dominated in terms of
left party politics (e.g. d'Appollonia 1991, Drake 2002, Spaas 2000).
During this postwar heyday of thought inspired by Marx, few
would have predicted that by the early 1980s Paris could be convin-
cingly described by Perry Anderson (1983: 32), in his oft-quoted
phrase, as the 'capital of European intellectual reaction'. By this time
a reaction against left, committed thought was indeed well under-
way. With the zeal of the converted, the ex-Maoist New Philosophers
Bernard-Henri Levy, Andre Glucksmann and Christian Jambert had
a brief heyday and argued that the left had no plausible explanation
for the Gulag. Then in a more sustained and serious way the prolific
but until then largely ignored liberal political philosopher Raymond
Aron enjoyed a belated and before long posthumous promotion to the
position of father of modern French political liberalism, with Alexis de
Tocqueville and Benjamin Constant as rediscovered grandfathers.
In the meantime, quite an array of writers made their careers on the
strength of rewriting the modern history of either French thought or
the lives and times of French intellectuals, in terms which sought to
show how mistaken, irresponsible and ultimately futile were attempts

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25. set forth in the appendix. Deacons, members of the minor orders,
and choristers wear the shapich ungirded.
II. The ἐπιμανίκια. These correspond to the Western maniple, but
they differ from it in several notable respects. First, one is provided
for each arm instead of for the left arm only. Secondly, they are not
worn pendant on the arm, but are drawn round, so that they rather
resemble cuffs than napkins suspended on the wrist. In some early
mosaics they are shown not so much as cuffs, as large false sleeves.
Something similar seems to have been worn in the Gallican Church,
if we may accept the testimony of the MS. already referred to on p.
135.

26. Fig. 26.—Priest in στοιχάριον, ἐπιτραχήλιον, φαινόλιον, ζώνη and
ἐπιμανίκια.
This vestment—for the two pieces may be said technically to form
one vestment—was for a long time restricted to bishops only, but
priests and, since 1600, even deacons have had the right to wear it.

27. Bishops only, however, are allowed to have the ἐπιμανίκια
embroidered with the εἴκων of Christ.
The ἐπιμανίκια are alleged to signify the bands with which Christ
was bound.
The Armenian pasban corresponds to the ἐπιμανίκιον; so does the
zando of the Malabar Christians. Both pasban and zando are worn
one on each wrist; but whereas the Armenian vestment is more like
the Western maniple, the zando is a false sleeve, fitting the arm
tightly and extending some way above the elbow.

28. Fig. 27.—Archimandrite in φαινόλιον, ἐπιγονάτιον, ἐγκόλπιον, etc.
III. The ἐπιτραχήλιον is in essence identical with the stole of the
Western Church, but in form it differs widely. Instead of being a long
narrow strip passed behind the neck, it is a short broad band with an
aperture at one end, through which the wearer's head is passed, so

29. that instead of two ends pendant, one at each side, there is but one,
hanging down in the middle. It is probably the richest of all the
Eastern vestments; it is made of silk or brocade, and in large
churches is ornamented with jewels and precious metals. A seam
runs conspicuously down the middle, dividing the band into two; this
gives the vestment a more stole-like appearance than it would
otherwise possess.
The Armenian poor-ourar and the Malabar orro are the equivalents
of this vestment, and resemble it in appearance. Both names are
evidently corruptions of the Greek ὠράριον.
IV. The ὠράριον is the Diaconal substitute for the ἐπιτραχήλιον. It
is identical with the Latin stole, and, like that vestment when worn
by deacons, is carried on the left shoulder. St Germanus informs us
that it typifies the ministry of angels, in that it resembles a pair of
wings; this, like many other similar statements, may be taken for
what it is worth. The sole difference between the ὠράριον and the
stole lies in its ornamentation; the latter is ornamented in a perfectly
unrestricted manner, the former bears embroidered upon it the
τρισάγιον,
ΑΓΙΟϹ ΑΓΙΟϹ ΑΓΙΟϹ,
and the Armenian Church as a general rule dispenses even with this
inscription.

30. Fig. 28.—Bishop in φαινόλιον, ἐπιγονάτιον, ὠμοφόριον, etc.
V. The ζώνη is simply a girdle which keeps the στοιχάριον and
ἐπιτραχήλιον in place. To it answers the Armenian kodi and the
Malabar zunro. The Armenians suspend a large white napkin to the

31. kodi on the left-hand side, which is used to wipe the hands or the
vessels when necessary during the service, and thus takes the place
of the old Western maniple.
VI. The φαινόλιον answers in all respects to the Western chasuble;
and it is evident that we are to see in its appellation the old name
paenula. The Malabar Christians have a vestment called the phaino,
which in appearance corresponds to the cope; but its use assimilates
it to the φαινόλιον, as we should expect from the identity of name.
The phaino is made of more or less costly materials, it is square (not
semicircular) in shape with rounded corners. A button and loop
answer the purpose of the Western morse. It may be here stated
that the embroidery and material of the zando usually corresponds
with that of the phaino with which it is worn. The priests of the
Armenian Church also wear a cope-shaped chasuble. Small bells are
sometimes hung round the lower edge. The φαινόλιον of bishops
was formerly distinguished from that of priests by being covered
with crosses; hence called φαινόλιον πολυσταύριον.
VII. The ἐπιγονάτιον is a lozenge-shaped ornament, made of
brocade, and suspended by one corner on the right side of the
ἐπιτραχήλια of bishops. It is ornamented with embroidery on its
surface, and with tassels attached to the three free corners. It was
originally a handkerchief, and it remained in this form for some
considerable time; in fact, it remains a handkerchief in the Armenian
Church. Although properly peculiar to bishops, certain other
ecclesiastics wear it as a special privilege.
VIII. The ὠμοφόριον is equivalent to the Western pall (though it is
worn by all prelates, not by archbishops only), and similar to it in
shape; it is, however, rather wider, and is worn round the neck in a
knot. It is said to symbolize the lost sheep—presumably from its
being carried on the shoulder.
IX. The μάνδυας is a vestment similar to the cope, worn on certain
occasions by Archimandrites and the higher orders of the Hierarchy.
The difference between it and the Western cope consists in its being
rather fuller, and fastened at the lower ends in front as well as at the

32. top. Small bells are hung round its lower edge. The μάνδυας of an
archimandrite is not ornamented; that of a prelate is decorated with
wavy stripes called πόταμα καὶ πώματα, 'rivers and cups'
[89]—a
fanciful method of expressing the 'rivers of grace which flow from
him.'
[90]
X, XI. The χαμαλαύχη is a cap, the ἐξωχαμαλαύχη a hood worn
over it. The ἐξωχαμαλαύχη of a Metropolitan is white, signed in front
with a black cross, that of other prelates black.
XII. The πατέρεσσα corresponds to the pastoral staff, but it is
shorter and is used as an ordinary walking-stick, which it resembles
in every particular. The handle is usually an ornamental modification
of the crutched or tau cross. The bishops of the Eastern Church
wear no ring.
XIII. The ἐγκόλπιον is a pectoral cross, worn in the East, and
similar in all respects to the cross worn in the West.
XIV. The σάκκος is the equivalent of the Western dalmatic: it is
now worn by all metropolitans.
The Armenian vestments which have not been described in the
above conspectus are (i) the sagavard, or priest's cap; (ii) the
vakass, a vestment which corresponds to the Western amice, and is
nowhere else worn in the East. It differs from it in the collar
standing upright instead of being turned down. Attached to the
vakass of high dignitaries is a breastplate of precious metals and
stones, bearing the names of the twelve apostles. This is as
obviously borrowed from the Jewish 'breastplate of the Ephod,' as
the vakass itself is borrowed from the Western amice; but the
Armenians deny any Western influence in the dress, asserting the
entire vestment to be of Jewish origin; (iii) the shoochar, which
answers in every respect to the cope; and (iv) the sandals, which
are worn during service, are kept in the church, and may not be
used on other occasions.
Vartabeds (i.e., priests especially entrusted with the work of
preaching and instructing the ignorant in the principles of the

33. religion) and bishops substitute a mitre for the sagavard, and wear a
pectoral cross hanging by a gold chain round the neck. The copes of
bishops are ornamented by two strips of brocade, usually
embroidered with figures of saints; these are survivals of the infulae
of the mitre, but are attached to the shoulder of the cope. Vartabeds
are distinguished by a staff of which the head consists of a cross
with two serpents turned round it.
The Armenian Church permits clergy to remain married if the
marriage hath taken place before ordination. The ordinary dress of
unmarried priests consists of a black or dark purple cassock with a
broad belt, over which is worn a gown, and (at the recital of the
offices) a cope. In Persia and Armenia they wear a cap with fur
border called the kulpas. Married priests wear a blue cassock, a
black gown, and a blue turban.
The vestments of the Nestorian Church are perhaps the simplest
of the forms of dress in vogue in the various non-reformed
Churches. They are six in number, and are respectively called the
prazôna, peena, zunnâra, hurrâra, estla or shorshippa, and msâne.
These correspond respectively to breeches, surplice, or alb, girdle,
stole, chasuble, and shoes, but they differ in some degree from the
analogous vestments in use elsewhere. They are all made of white
linen or calico, the only colour employed being in the girdle and
stole, which (to use the convenient heraldic terms) are checky in
squares white and blue, bearing crosses of the same colours
counter-changed. The chasuble, too, has a Latin cross worked on
the back. The latter is a clumsy vestment, being simply a square
cloth, thrown over the shoulders and held in position with the finger
and thumb. The stole does not reach below the waist, and is kept in
its place under the girdle. It is remarkable that the vestments of the
different orders of clergy differ only in the quality of the material,
and not in elaboration or form; and that they are, as a general rule,
only worn during the celebration of the Holy Eucharist or the
administration of Baptism. At other services the priests usually wear
their ordinary costume, which differs only slightly from that of
laymen.

34. The following list will show the parallelism existing between the
vestments of the East and of the West; it is useful as showing that
the differences between them consist entirely in matters of detail,
and not in essentials:
[vakass] = amice.
στοιχάριον = alb.
ἐπιμανίκια = maniple.
ἐπιτραχήλιον ⎱= stole.
ὠράριον ⎰
ζώνη = girdle.
φαινόλιον = chasuble.
ἐπιγονάτιον may be compared with appendages of
subcingulum.
ὠμοφόριον = pall.
μάνδυας = cope, approximately.
χαμαλαύχη ⎱= mitre, approximately.
ἐξωχαμαλαύχη⎰
πατέρεσσα = pastoral staff.
ἐγκόλπιον = pectoral cross.
σάκκος = dalmatic
Thus, the ἐπιγονάτιον, μάνδυας, χαμαλαύχη, and ἐξωχαμαλαύχη
have no exact equivalent in the West; while, on the other hand, the
amice is only represented in one provincial church, and the tunicle,
dalmatic, gloves, ring, stockings and sandals, have no Eastern
vestments to correspond with them. This is just what we might
expect, for these vestments are all, comparatively speaking, of
mediaeval invention or application, and the Eastern Church, as we
said in other words at the commencement of this chapter, preserves
many of the primitive rites and usages in a condition much less
altered by time than does its Western sister.
[88]   'Patrol. Graec.,' xxv, 358.
[89]   The assonance cannot be satisfactorily preserved in translation. Perhaps 'rivers
and lavers' is the nearest approximation our language affords.
[90]   Neale.

36. O
CHAPTER VI.
THE VESTMENTS OF THE REFORMED CHURCHES.
NE of the main differences between a church unreformed and a
church reformed lies in this: that in the former the externals of
public worship are magnified in importance even to the minutest
detail, while in the latter the weight attached to such matters is
diminished in a greater or less degree.
Considerable variety is apparent in the importance attached by
different reformed churches to these matters, and, in consequence,
considerable variety is apparent in the extent to which they are
elaborated. Those churches which at the Reformation retained the
episcopate, retained with it, in a more or less modified form, many
of the old usages; while those churches which abolished the
hierarchical and restored the democratic system of church
government, for the most part abolished the customs of their pre-
reformation predecessors. Perhaps among no bodies of Christians
are the externals of worship so little heeded as among the English
dissenting sects; these, being composed of seceders from a
reformed church, may be said to have undergone a double
reformation, which has had the effect of expunging the last traces of
ritual from their services. In the consequent neglect of order, the
wearing of robes of office has become entirely optional, not only
with the different sects, but even with the individual ministers; and
where a gown is worn, as no definite shape of gown is prescribed,
the choice of robe remains optional. Hence, these bodies need not
concern us further, as the discussion of their vestments would be
merely an uninteresting and monotonous account of the practice of
isolated modern congregations.
The four churches whose usage must occupy our attention in the
present chapter are the Lutheran churches of Germany and

37. Scandinavia, the Episcopal churches of England and of Spain, and
the Presbyterian churches, with especial reference to the church of
Scotland.
§ I. The Lutheran Churches.
Of all reformations, the least thorough, as far as outward
observance was concerned, was the reformation in which Martin
Luther played the leading part. In Lübeck is the brass of the
Lutheran Bishop Tydeman, who died in 1561, representing him in full
Eucharistic vestments, in no wise differing from the vestments of his
non-reformed predecessors. At the present day the predominance of
the Evangelical church in Germany (as distinguished from the
Lutheran) has abolished vestments, with the exception of the
Geneva gown and its attendants, among the Protestants; but in
Sweden and Denmark, where the Protestant Episcopal is still the
national church, the old vestments, with some modifications and
omissions, are retained.
The Lutheran minister of the present day in Sweden and Denmark
is described as wearing an ample cassock, or black gown, and a
white frilled ruff, or collar, both in his outdoor life and at morning
and evening prayer. At the Communion Service he assumes an alb,
or, rather, surplice—a white, ungirded garment, open down the front
—over which is placed a chasuble with a large cross on the back.
The Swedish Kyrko-Handbog recognises these vestments: the
chorkappa, messhake and messe-sjorta—answering to the cope,
chasuble, and surplice, respectively.
§ II. The Anglican Church.
The history of vestments and their usage in England subsequent
to the reformation is not lacking in complexity, and is rendered
harder to unravel by the heated discussions carried on, and the
contradictory assertions brought forward, at the present day by the

38. various parties within the English church. It is no part of our duty
here to give an account of the different recensions of the liturgy
published and approved in the years after the reformation; we are
here only concerned with the rubrical directions which they contain
to regulate the use of vestments permitted in the English church.
The first English Prayer-Book, published in 1549, contained the
following injunction:
'Upon the day and at the time appointed for the ministration of the Holy
Communion, the Priest that shall execute the holy ministry shall put upon him
the vesture appointed for that ministration, that is to say, a white alb plain with
a vestment or cope. And where there be many Priests or Deacons there so
many shall be ready to help the Priest in the ministrations as shall be requisite;
and shall have upon them likewise the vestures appointed for their ministry, that
is to say, albes with tunicles.'
It is quite clear, even without the documentary evidence which is
forthcoming, that this was merely intended as temporary, as, indeed,
was the whole 1549 Prayer-Book. In a letter which Fagius and Bucer
addressed to their Strassburg friends, describing their reception by
Archbishop Cranmer, there is given a short account of the
ceremonies then in use. In the course of this letter, they say, 'We
hear that some concessions have been made both to a respect for
antiquity and to the infirmity of the present age, such, for instance,
as the vestments commonly used in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.'
An inspection of the rubric will show that it was ingeniously
designed to please all parties. The word 'vestment,' of course,
means the chasuble, the vestment par excellence, and therefore
often spoken of in that apparently general way. The 'alb and
vestment' being specified did not necessarily exclude all the other
vestments which were worn between these two. Hence those clergy
who preferred the old rites and ceremonies might read the rubric
into permitting, or even enjoining, the maintenance of the old
vestments,
[91] while those who subscribed to the principles of the
reforming party might set at defiance all old usages by wearing the
cope while celebrating the Communion.

39. Another rubric relating to vestments appears in the first Prayer-
Book. This is the first rubric printed after the order for the
Communion, and runs thus:
'Upon Wednesdays and Fridays the English Litany shall be said or sung in all
places ... and though there be none to communicate with the Priest, yet these
days (after the Litany ended) the Priest shall put upon him a plain albe or
surplice, with a cope, and say all things at the altar (appointed to be said at the
celebration of the Lord's Supper) until after the offertory....'
Finally, in this Prayer-Book also occurs the following:
'In the saying or singing of Mattins and Evensong, baptizing and burying, the
minister in parish churches and chapels annexed to the same shall use a
surplice. And in all cathedral churches and colleges the archdeacons, deans,
provosts, masters, prebendaries, and fellows, being graduates, may use in the
quire, besides their surplices, such hood as appertaineth to their several
degrees. And whensoever the bishop shall celebrate the Holy Communion in the
church, or execute any other public ministration, he shall have upon him, beside
his rochet, a surplice or albe, and a cope or vestment, and also his pastoral staff
in his hand, or else borne or holden by his chaplain.'
The revised Prayer-Book of 1552 is much more stringent in its
reformation of vestment-use. It condescends to mention vestments
but once, in a prohibitory rubric, which reduces vestment-use in the
English Church to an almost Presbyterian simplicity. This rubric is as
follows:
'And here it is to be noted that the minister at the time of the communion,
and at all other times in his ministration, shall use neither albe, vestment, nor
cope: but being archbishop or bishop, he shall have and wear a rochet: and
being a priest or deacon, he shall have and wear a surplice only.'
In the Prayer-Book of 1559 a rubric is to be found requiring the
restoration of the vestments and ornaments of the first Prayer-Book,
thereby setting aside the order of the second Prayer-Book. At the
consecration of Archbishop Parker in 1559, we are told that at
morning prayer the archbishop-elect wore his academical robes.
After the sermon, the archbishop-elect and the four attendant
bishops proceeded to the vestry, and returned prepared for the

40. communion service, the archbishop in a linen surplice, the Bishop of
Chichester in a silk cope, the Bishops of Hereford and Bedford in
linen surplices, but the Bishop of Exeter (Miles Coverdale) in a
woollen cassock only. Two chaplains of the archbishop, who assisted
the Bishop of Chichester at the communion service, also wore silk
copes.
After the communion service they again proceeded to the vestry
and returned, the archbishop in 'episcopal alb,' surplice, chimere of
black silk, and a collar of precious sable-fur round his neck; the
Bishops of Chichester and Hereford in episcopalia, namely, surplice
and chimere. Coverdale and the Bishop of Bedford wore cassocks
only.
This passage shows us that the right of private judgment was
exercised, even at such an important ceremony as the consecration
of an archbishop, in 1559 as now. The Puritan principles of
Coverdale were given full sway even when acting in cooperation with
his less austere brethren.
It also introduces us to a new vestment, the chimere, which is one
of the greatest puzzles to be found in the subject of vestments.
Since the Reformation, it has continued ever since as a dress
peculiar to bishops, but its origin and the exact date of its
introduction are uncertain.
The chimere is a short coat, properly without sleeves; but in
England the tailors of the Stuart period transferred the sleeves of the
rochet to the chimere. Hence the modern English bishops wear
sleeveless rochets and sleeved chimeres—both solecisms. The
English chimere is black, though from the reign of Edward VI to that
of Elizabeth it was scarlet; but the form current on the Continent, a
large cape called the mantelletum, is scarlet, and the chimere worn
by the Roman prelates in England is purple.
It is not unlikely, from the appearance of the vestment, that it is a
modification of the cope or almuce—possibly a combination of the
two vestments.

41. In 1560 Thos Sampson writes complaining to Peter Martyr that
'three of our lately-appointed bishops are to officiate at the table of
the Lord, one as priest, another as deacon, and a third as
subdeacon, before the image of the crucifix, or at least not far from
it, with candles, and habited in the golden vestments of the papacy.'
This seems to indicate that at Court (where this was to take place)
the old vestments were kept up. From a letter of Miles Coverdale's
written in 1566, we learn that the square cap, bands, and tippet
were enjoined to be worn out of doors ('Zurich Letters,' vol. i, p. 63,
vol. ii, p. 121; Parker Society).
In all the subsequent Prayer-Books, the 'Ornaments Rubric,' as it
is called, is the source of our information with respect to the
vestments required to be worn in the English Church. This famous
rubric runs thus (as given in the Prayer-Book of 1662):
'And here it is to be noted, that such ornaments of the church and of the
ministers thereof, at all times of their ministration, shall be retained and be in
use, as were in this Church of England, by the authority of Parliament, in the
second year of the reign of King Edward the Sixth.'
The indefiniteness observed in the Edwardian rubrics, to which
this injunction refers, invests the 'Ornaments Rubric' with a certain
vagueness; and this is responsible for the long and violent strife that
has waged around it, and for the chaotic condition of modern
Anglican order, both in vestments and other observances.
Recent attempts have been made on the part of individual
clergymen to introduce certain details of the ritual of the Western
Church into the services of the Church of England. All such
innovations are, however, regarded as illegal, and clergymen
attempting to introduce them lay themselves open to prosecution.
The rulings in the case known as the Folkestone ritual case
(Elphinstone v. Purchas) is the standard of reference in such
matters. Among many other details, the use of the following
vestments was declared absolutely contrary to the Ecclesiastical Law
of England: The biretta, chasuble, alb, and tunicle at the Holy
Communion; the cope at Holy Communion except on high feast days

42. in cathedrals and collegiate churches. On other occasions a decent
and comely surplice is to be used by every minister saying the public
prayers or administering the sacrament or other rites of the Church.
[92]
This tendency to elaboration and to revival of mediaeval practices
is not, however, altogether of modern growth. In Wells Cathedral is
the effigy of Bishop Creighton, who died in 1672, clad in cassock,
amice, alb, and cope, the latter with a jewelled border. On his head
is a cap with side-flaps, over which is a mitra pretiosa. More singular
still, considering that the person commemorated was an ardent
reformer, is the brass of Bishop Goodrick at Ely Cathedral, who died
in 1554. He is represented in full Eucharistic vestments of the pre-
Reformation period. Both these apparent anomalies are probably to
be accounted for by the Romanizing tendency of the reigning
monarchs under whom both these persons lived.
The vestments of the clergy did not escape the lash of the satirists
of Queen Elizabeth's reign. About 1565, for instance, a tract was
published entitled 'A pleasant Dialogue between a Soldier of Berwick
and an English chaplain: wherein are largely handled and laid open
such reasons as are brought for maintenance of Popish Traditions in
our English Church.' The soldier speaks thus to Bernard, the priest:
'But, Bernard, I pray thee, tell me of thine honesty what was the
cause that thou hast been in so many changes of apparel this
forenoon, now black, now white, now in silk and gold, and now at
length in this swouping black gown, and this sarcenet flaunting
tippet.' This describes Bernard as first in his ordinary cassock or
clerical dress; then in his surplice for morning prayer; then in the
cope for communion; and, lastly, in the preaching gown and tippet.
The passage is interesting, as it brings the practice of wearing a
black gown at the sermon, once universal in the English Church, but
now fast dying out, back almost to the reformation.
One more English church vestment remains to be noticed—the
scarf. This is a broad black band of silk, which is worn like a stole,
passed round the back of the neck and allowed to depend on either

43. side. It is worn by doctors of divinity and by the clerical authorities
of collegiate and cathedral bodies. Its origin is possibly to be found
in the stole, but it is more probably a modification of an article of
University costume.
During the imposition of Episcopacy upon Scotland in the Stuart
period the dress of the clergy was of a form designed by no less a
person than his Sacred Majesty King James I himself. At that
monarch's own request the Parliament of 1609 passed an Act
authorizing him to do so, assigning in its preface the reasons for this
step to be 'that it had been found by daily experience that the
greatness of his Majesty's empire, the magnificence of his Court, the
fame of his wisdom, the civility of his subjects, were alluring princes
and strangers from every part of the world, and that it was fitting
that bishops and ministers, judges and magistrates, should appear
before those in becoming apparel; it was therefore referred to his
Majesty's serene wisdom to devise appropriate garments and robes
of office for these different functionaries.'
The result of this was an order 'that ministers should wear black
clothes and in the pulpit black gowns; that bishops and doctors of
divinity should wear "black cassikins syde to their knee" [equivalent
to the "bishop's apron" of the modern English prelate and the short
Presbyterian cassock], black gowns above, and a black craip [scarf]
about their necks. The bishops were ordained to have their gowns
with lumbard sleeves, according to the form of England, with tippets
and craips about their craigs [necks].'
In 1631 Charles I directed the surplice to be worn. In 1633, when
he visited Scotland, the bishops and chaplains officiated before him
in surplices. He induced Parliament to pass an Act like that of 1609,
giving him the power to regulate clerical costume; but this was so
much objected to by the clergy themselves (some of whom
expressed a fear that his Majesty would order them to wear 'hoods
and bells'), that in 1634 they petitioned the King not to interfere
with the arrangements of his predecessor; and their request seems
to have been granted.

44. § III. The Reformed Churches of Spain and Portugal.
The practices of both these churches are commendably simple: a
white tunic, or surplice, and a white stole, are the only vestments or
ornaments at any time to be worn, except in sermons or at funerals,
when a black gown may be assumed. Deacons wear their stoles in
the ancient diaconal fashion, i.e., over the left shoulder and under
the right arm; presbyters wear theirs round the neck and hanging
straight down.
§ IV. The Presbyterian Church.
We have already shown that in Apostolic times, and the first few
years of the post-Apostolic period, robes of office were not worn by
the officiating minister. Vestments do not meet us until the
moderatorship of the Ecclesiastical Assemblies had crystallized into
the Episcopate.

45. Fig. 29.—A Synod Meeting of the Reformed Church of France.
The oldest Christian organization now existing in which the
diordinal system of government has been restored is undoubtedly
the Waldensian church. Although this church has not been proved to
be older than the thirteenth century, it cannot be asserted that its
foundation is not anterior to that date; an impenetrable mist—
rendered more obscure, it must be admitted, by the doubtful
authenticity of many of the church documents—shrouds its early
years. Unfortunately it cannot be discovered whether its clergy wore
any distinctive robes when conducting its services. The chroniclers
have not thought it worth their while to tell us, but it is improbable
that anything very elaborate was worn, as a church which made a
change so drastic as the abolition of the Episcopate would be
unlikely to maintain the elaborate accessories of the non-reformed

46. church. At present the simple black gown is worn, as in all other
branches of the Presbyterian church throughout the world.
The task of compiling details regarding the vestments of the
Presbyterian church is rendered easy by the small account which
that church, in all its sections, takes of ritual matters; but the same
cause also increases its difficulty in another direction. Paradoxical as
this statement may appear, it becomes intelligible when we reflect
that but few Presbyterian assemblies would consider it consistent
with their dignity to take any notice of matters of dress, personal or
official; while on the other hand few Presbyterian writers have
thought such matters worthy of their notice. The writer has referred
to liturgies in the English, French, German, Roumanian, and other
languages, representing the chief reformed Churches of Europe
holding the Presbyterian system, but has failed to find any rubrical
direction or reference containing any information. The collecting of
material is thus simplified by the small amount of material actually
available, but rendered difficult by the baldness of the records in
which the materials have to be sought.
The vestments worn by clergy of the Presbyterian Churches are
not so much ecclesiastical as professional or academical, like the
barrister's gown. They are at most four in number: the cassock,
scarf, bands, and gown, to which the hood of the wearer's degree is
added.
The cassock is a somewhat ugly garment of black silk, which
resembles an ordinary short coat; it rarely reaches as far as the
knees. There can be no doubt that it is a modification, for
convenience' sake, of the long cassock worn by clergy of the
Episcopal Churches, which was the inner garment, university and
clerical, of the middle ages. The scarf is a long strip of black cloth,
wound sash-wise round the waist and knotted in front. The bands
are two short pendant tails of white lawn, hanging in front, now
fastened round the neck by an elastic cord. These survive in the
universities as well as in the Presbyterian Church. The name was
originally applied to the Elizabethan ruff, in which must be sought

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