A white, full-length, linen robe. It is worn by bishops, especially of the Anglican Communion, on ceremonial occasions.
A rochet is a vestment generally worn by a Roman Catholic or Anglican Bishop in choir dress.
The word stems from the Latin rochettum (from the late Latin roccus, connected with the Old High German roch, roc and the A.S.
Roman Usage
In the Roman Catholic Church, Cardinals, Bishops and certain other dignitaries use a rochet, a garment that is worn over the choir cassock for non-eucharistic functions. The Catholic rochet is a tunic of white, usually fine linen or muslin (battiste, mull) reaching about to the knee, and distinguished from the surplice mainly by the narrower sleeves which make its arms tight-fitting, and is frequently trimmed with lace.
The rochet is proper to, and distinctive of, prelates and bishops, but the right to wear it is sometimes granted by the Pope to others, especially the canons of cathedral churches.
The earliest notice of the use of the rochet is found in an inventory of the vestments of the Roman clergy, dating from the 9th century. In this it is called camisia, a name which it retained at Rome until the 14th century, and it seems to have been already at that time proper to particular members of the clergy.
Outside Rome, too, the vestment is early met with, e.g. in the Frankish empire (9th century) as alba clericalis, in contrast to the liturgical alb, and in England (10th century) under the name of oferslip in the 46th canon of the ecclesiastical laws of Edgar. At the beginning of the 12th century the rochet is mentioned, under the name of camisia, by Gilbert of Limerick and by Honorius, and, somewhat later, by Gerloh of Reichersperg as tunica talaris. in Germany and northern France the rochet was also called sarohi (Latinized sarrotus) or sarcos (Latinized sarcotium).
Outside Rome the rochet was, until well into the 14th century, a vestment common to all the clergy, and especially to those of the lower orders;
The rochet was originally a robe-like tunic, and was therefore girdled, like the liturgical alb. A good example of the camisia of the 12th century is the rochet of Thomas Becket, preserved at Dammartin in the Pas de Calais, the only surviving medieval example remarkable for the pleating which, as was the case with albs also, gave greater breadth and more elaborate folds. In the 15th century the rochet only reached half-way down the shin;
Anglican Use
In the Anglican Church the rochet is a vestment peculiar to bishops, and is worn by them in choir dress, with the chimere, both at all times of their ministration in church and also on ceremonial occasions outside, e.g.
In general it has retained the medieval form more closely than the Roman rochet and more resembles the alb, in so far as it is of plain, very fine linen (lawn), and reaches almost to the feet. The portrait of Archbishop Warham at Lambeth, for instance, shows a rochet with fairly wide sleeves narrowing towards the wrists, where they are confined by fur cuffs. About the same period, too, arose the custom of making the rochet sleeveless and attaching the lawn sleeves to the chimere. This remained the fashion most of the 19th century, but there has since been a tendency to revert to the earlier less exaggerated form, and the sleeves have been reattached to the rochet.
The rochet is worn without the chimere under the cope by those bishops who use this vestment. At his consecration the bishop-elect is, according to the rubric, presented to the consecrating bishops vested in a rochet only;
Exceptions to the normal Anglican-style are the rochets worn by the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and the former presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Frank Griswold, having open-ended narrow sleeves in the manner of the Roman rochet.
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