| Abstract |
This article revisits the vestments controversy in sixteenth-century England with a new emphasis on clothing and visual discourses. Two concerns dominate this research: first, how the function and meanings of vestments were contemplated in Reformation Europe? Second, what was the message expressed when a priest was seen in this particular form of dress, and any anxiety arose from that? The first section of this article briefly introduces the vestments controversies occurred in the Lutheran Church in the mid-1520s, and in the Church of England in the 1550s and 1560s. Then, in the second section, it moves to discuss the concept of adiaphora, or things indifferent, where the issue of vestments was usually situated during the Reformation. Begun with Erasmus, the concept of adiaphora was borrowed from ancient philosophy and appropriated into Christianity to mean things ‘neither commanded nor forbidden by Scripture’, or ‘non-essential things’, which were not necessary for salvation. However, there were acrid debates on the definition and regulation of things indifferent during the Reformation, especially in the Lutherans. English controversy of the vestments was actually an extension of the continental adiaphoristic controversy and there were also several continental reformers participating in the English controversy which, however, focused primarily on the religious apparel. The following three sections therefore investigate the English vestiarian controversy of 1550-51 around the concept of adiaphora, and its involvement in three connected dimensions: religious, political, and visual. For the religious, the third section shows the debate on whether the vestments were a matter of indifference or not among the polemists in the reign of Edward VI. For the political, the fourth section examines the issue concerning to which the authority of governing and regulating vestments belonged, the individual, the church, or the government. For the visual, the sixth section explains the theoretical change of religious visuality from the medieval church to the Reformation, and then concentrates on the visual benefit or anxiety, and the church images, created by the sartorial distinction between clergy and laymen. In conclusion, English vestiarian controversy was not only a debate on religious ideas and political authority, but also a visual battle for the image of the church and clergy. It serves as a lens to see the essential part of the Reformation by its ‘non-essential’ matters. |
