The mitre is the bishop's headdress, as in the first picture at right. Originally it was cone-shaped. Then, as the Catholic Encyclopedia explains (s.v. "mitre"), "Towards 1100 the mitre began to have a curved shape above and to grow into a round cap. In many cases there soon appeared a depression in the upper part similar to the one which is made when a soft felt hat is pressed down on the head from the forehead to the back of the head."
![]() ![]() ![]() In many late-medieval images two decorated bands are embroidered on the mitre, one vertical in front and one horizontal at the base, as in the picture of St. Louis of Toulouse at left. The crozier is a staff shaped like a shepherd's crook that symbolizes the authority of a bishop or abbot. When a new bishop is ordained, the crozier is presented to him with the words "Take this staff of pastoral office, and be forceful in correcting vice, judge without anger, be gentle in promoting virtue in the souls of those who hear you, and in tranquility do not neglect to censure severely" (Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. "Crosier.") Images of croziers have been found in catacombs dating from the 4th century, and their use in liturgy goes back at least as far as the 5th (ibid.). In form and symbolic value the crozier closely resembles the heqa pictured on images of the pharoahs of Egypt and the Roman governors who succeeded them (Dunn). In the cult of Isis that was widespread in the first few centuries A.D., that goddess was portrayed holding a heqa as a symbol of her authority. ![]() Source: John Bartram, "Cleopatra VII and Rome."
Prepared in 2018 by Richard Stracke, Emeritus Professor of English, Augusta University.
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![]() St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, with his mitre and crozier. (See the description page.) ![]()
The symbols of Tutankhamen's authority: a flail and a heqa.
NOTES
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