Remembrance, Liturgy and Status in a Late Medieval English Cistercian Abbey: The Mourning Vestment of Abbot Robert Thornton of Jervaulx (1510-33)

摘要

Exhibited in the newly opened Medieval and Renaissance Galleries of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, is a sixteenth-century English black mourning vestment. It is decorated with the rebus of Robert Thornton, who was twenty-second abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Jervaulx, Yorkshire, between 1510-33. Although in many ways it is a typical example of late medieval English ecclesiastical embroidery, the vestment is unusual in a number of respects. This article discusses the insights it provides into the Cistercian Order's evolving attitudes towards the use of rich fabrics and embroidery in their vestments. In addition, it is the only surviving English vestment which is decorated with images taken from contemporary depictions of the Last judgement. Lengthy texts taken from the Cistercian liturgy appear on the vestment, suggesting that Thornton used the garment to assert his Cistercian identity. The abbot's rebus, which includes a mitre, is prominent on the rear orphrey, a display of Thornton's exalted ecclesiastical and social status but also a visual prompt for prayers from the Jervaulx community assembled for his Requiem Mass. The vestment survived because it continued to be used for Catholic worship after the Reformation but its shape was altered to accord with changing fashions in liturgical dress.