[edit] Ecclesiastical hatThe hat called a galero (or gallero) is a distinctive part of the achievement of a Roman Catholic cleric. The galero was originally a pilgrim's-style hat like a sombrero, granted in red to cardinals by Pope Innocent IV at the First Council of Lyon in the 13th century, and was adopted by heraldry almost immediately. The galero in various colors and forms was used in heraldic achievements starting with its adoption in the arms of bishops in the 16th century. By the 19th century it was viewed as specifically "Catholic".[23] The galero is ornamented with tassels (also termed houppes or fiocchi) indicating the cleric's place in the hierarchy; the number became significant beginning in the 16th century, and the meaning was fixed in 1832.[24] A bishop's heraldic galero is green with six tassels on each side; the color originated in Spain where formerly the green hat was actually worn by bishops.[25] A territorial abbot is equivalent to a bishop and uses a green galero. An archbishop's galero is green but has ten tassels. Bishops in Switzerland formerly used ten tassels like an archbishop because they were under the immediate jurisdiction of the Holy See and not part of an archepiscopal province.[26] Both patriarchs and cardinals have a galero with fifteen tassels, but a patriarch's galero is green while a cardinal's is red or scarlet. The patriarch's tassels are interwoven with gold.[27] Primates may use the same external ornaments as patriarchs.[28][29]
The depiction of the galero in arms can vary greatly depending on the artist's style. Typically the top of the hat is flat and the brim is wide. However, the brim can be rendered much narrower, and the top can be domed. Such variants look like a cappello romano with tassels, but in heraldry it is still considered a galero. The tassels may be represented simply as knotted cords.
Cardinal Joseph Zen with a violet galero in his arms, and the simple Latin cross, as bishop of Hong Kong (before becoming a cardinal)Chinese bishops often avoid using green galero in their arms since "wearing a green hat" is the Chinese idiom for cuckold.[30] Rather than green, these bishops use a variety of colors from violet and black to blue, or scarlet if a cardinal.
Lesser prelates use other colors. The superior general of an order displays a black galero with six tassels on each side, while provincial superiors and abbots use a black galero with six or three tassels on each side, although Norbertines (White Canons) use a white galero. Violet hats were once actually worn by certain monsignors,[31] and so in heraldry they have used a violet hat with red or violet tassels in varying numbers, currently fixed at six on each side. The lowest grade of monsignor, a Chaplain of His Holiness, uses a black hat with violet tassels.[32] Although a priest would rarely assume arms unless he had an ancestral right to arms independent of his clerical state, a priest would use a simple black galero with a single tassel on each side. Priests who hold an office such as rector would have two tassels on each side.[33]
Clergy of the Anglican Communion who are not bishops historically bore arms identical to a layman, with a shield, helm and crest, and no ecclesiastical hat. In 1976 a system for deans and canons was authorized, allowing a black hat similar to a galero, black or violet cords, and three violet or red tassels on each side.[34] A priest may use a black and white cord with a single tassel on each side, and a deacon a hat without tassels. A Doctor of Divinity may have cords interwoven with red and a hat appropriate to the degree, and members of the Ecclesiastical Household add a Tudor rose on the front of the hat. According to Boutell's Heraldry, this system represents the practice of the Church in England in the 16th century.[35]
Within Presbyterian Church heraldry, a minister's hat is represented as black with a single blue tassel on each side, though a doctoral bonnet or Geneva cap may replace the galero.[36] The office of moderator does not have a corporate arms,[37] but for official occasions, a moderator may add tassels to his personal arms to indicate parity with offices of other churches: three for a moderator of a presbytery, six for a moderator of a regional synod, and ten for a moderator of the General Assembly.[38] Clergy of the Chapel Royal display red tassels.
[edit] CrossThe display of a cross behind the shield is restricted to bishops as a mark of their dignity.[39] The cross of an ordinary bishop has a single horizonal bar or traverse, also known as a Latin cross. A patriarch uses the patriarchal cross with two traverses, also called the cross of Lorraine. The papal cross has three traverses, but this is never displayed behind the papal arms.
Beginning in the 15th century, the cross with a double traverse is seen on the arms of archbishops, and relates to their processional cross and the jurisdiction it symbolizes.[40] Except for cardinals of the Roman Curia, most cardinals head an archdiocese and use an archepiscopal cross on their arms. Other cardinals use a simple Latin cross,[41] as is found in the arms of Joseph Zen, bishop of Hong Kong, because Hong Kong is not an archdiocese.
Today all cardinals are required to be bishops, but priests named cardinal at an advanced age often petition the Pope for an exception to this rule. Since the cross is one heraldic emblem that only bishops have the right to bear, cardinals who are not consecrated bishops do not use it.[42] Notable examples are Cardinals Albert Vanhoye and Avery Dulles, although curiously the latter's arms do display a cross.[43]