Splitting Hairs
Peter Harper, Smoke Signals #7, June 1995
Did you ever ponder on the liturgical significance of hair? Well, there is more to it than it would seem at first glance. Humans are mammals, and so glory in their "fleece" as birds do in their plumage. One only needs to consider the care, time and expense both sexes invest in their hair; and the trouble they go to in order to rid themselves of hair where God so often ungraciously makes it grow and to get it to flourish again where God has sadly removed it. And all would agree that a luxuriant mane of hair, particularly in women, does indeed pass on a definite sexual message, but so curiously does its absence: a bald pate in men is the undoubted attestation of a high testosterone level.
In Holy Writ, it is certainly of significance that Esau was "a hairy man" and Jacob "a smooth man", though I cannot say why. And did not Samson get his great strength from his unshaven locks (Judges 16:17)? The colour of hair is also important, and again Esau is described as having come out "red". There is a lot of talk of black, grey and white hair in the Bible. I have of late developed a certain fondness for Psalm 71 from Mattins on the 14th of the month, "Forsake me not, O God, in mine old age, when I am gray-headed" and I get some consolation from Proverbs 20:29, "The beauty of old men is the gray head". I do realize, however, that pretty soon I will be searching for comfort elsewhere, such as in Isaiah 47:4 "Even to hoar hairs will I carry you" and Prov. 16:31, "The hoary head is a crown of glory (if it be found in the way of righteousness)".
Although the earliest pictures of Christ in the Catacombs represent Him beardless (like the god Hermes), nearly all later representations show Him with long hair and a beard. Except in the Orient, where priests wear both long hair and beard, priests, who stand in His stead and thrive to imitate Him in every way, are typically shaved and shorn.
Indeed, priests are traditionally required to wear their hair short and equal, particularly on the forehead and around the ears. There should be no parting nor forelock, and the hair should never be curled, craped or padded ("cucuffatos, crispatos, calamistratos", as the rule has it). Wearing one's hair long on the back of the head is the sure sign of Gallicanism and of open rebellion against authority! And the great Medieval liturgist Durandus remarked that long hair was the symbol of a multitude of sins.
There is good evidence that in the Early Church, clerics wore the simple haircut we usually associate with ancient Romans. And indeed St. Paul reminds the Corinthians "that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him" (1 Cor. 11:14). In 147, Pope St. Anicet reminded clerics in Gaul not to "let their hair grow, and to follow the prescription of the Apostle." And St. Augustine has harsh words against the "criniti fratres (the hirsute brothers)". So much so that a cleric guilty of a crime was required to let his hair grow as a layman. This was in contrast with pagan priests who generally wore special haircuts. In the great cult of the goddess Isis, the priest who carried the jackal-headed god Anubis, the leader of the dead souls, had to shave his head; and when Emperor Commodus (180-192) performed the ceremony, he first shaved his head. In other cults, the hair was cut in various arrangements, some not unlike those worn by present-day teenagers, such as the head shaved except for a long forelock.
By the 4-6th c., however, monks began clipping their hair to form a crown (recalling the shearing of St. Peter's hair in Antioch by the Jews, but also the Crown of Thorns, the Royal Crown of Christians, and the circle of the perfect life). There developed other ways of clipping one's hair, the better known being that of St. Peter (a large shaved circle on the pate) and that of St. Paul (fully shaved head). Other haircuts were seen as heretical, and in particular that said of Simon the Magician, which was later assimilated to the Celtic tonsure worn by the monks of the Celtic Church which both St. Augustine of Canterbury and St. Patrick so strongly opposed. This tonsure was said to go "from ear to ear" and is usually interpreted as indicating that all the hair on the front part of the head was shaved away. St. Patrick apparently traced it back to the swineherd of the Irish king Leogair. When in the 16th c. the Capuchin started wearing a horizontal crown instead of an oblique one as do other friars and monks, they were accused of having revived the tonsure of Simon the Magician.
The practice of clipping one's hair then passed on to the secular clergy, and the tonsure (the cutting of five locks of hair by the bishop) and the vesting of the cassock became the rites of entrance into the clergy. Until recently, this clipping was recalled by a small shaved spot on the top of the head; this was the size of a small wafer bread (2.5 cm) for a simple clerk, a large host (7.5 cm) for a priest. For a bishop, it reached 9.5 cm, for a cardinal 11.5 cm, and a pope 13.5 cm.
Wigs and toupees were not allowed, particularly the powdered kind. The pope could nonetheless allow a wig, if it was simple and prescribed by a doctor, but it had to be removed during Mass. There is the case of a English seminarian at Rome by the name of Edmund Pumer who in 1846 was tonsured by having five locks clipped off... his wig. The validity of the procedure was much debated, but he was not required to be tonsured anew.
Short mustaches were tolerated but beards were generally forbidden. There is the story of a Guillaume Duprat, son of the chancelor of Francis I of France, who was named bishop of Clermont. He had a remarkable beard. When he came to his cathedral, the chapter was waiting with scissors and the book of statutes (which required "barbis rasis"). The bishop-elect would not part with his beard, so he left the cathedral and retired in his castle of Bellegarde, without ever claiming his see. Yet, there was a series of bearded popes, from Clement VII (1543) to Clement VIII (1605) and a series of mustachioed ones: Paul V (1605) to Innocent XII (1700). Since then, popes have been clean shaven. In the 19th c. Anglican Church, priests and bishops generally wore the whiskers fashionable at the time. Ritualist priests, however, did not; and this was the case of the clergy in our church. When in 1871, there was the first great problem with Bishop Oxenden, our curate, the Rev. Mr. Prime, was described by a fellow priest in the newspapers "as all shaven and shorn" a condition he thought was motivated by vanity and desire of notoriety.
Some strict orders (Capuchins and Camaldule Hermits) wear beards and there is a well-known folk-song on the "Venerabilis barba capucinorum!" Still, these bearded priests were expected to shave the lower part of the mustache so as not to touch the Sacrament during Communion. Missionnaries also generally wore beards. I remember in my seminary days that when young priests received their first posting, all other seminarians were curious to find out where each was being sent. These postings were generally handed out in the evening during private interviews with the major superior. As this was during the great evening silence, the good or bad news could not be spread around. Yet, the next day, at morning prayer, we would all check to see who had not shaved, the budding beards identifying those who were to go to the foreign missions.
Thus limited in the wearing of their own hair, clerics have taken quite early on to wearing the hair of others.., well, of other animals. Fur was for a long time a favourite with the clergy, particularly with canons, who had to spend long hours every day singing the office in cold and drafty cathedrals. Indeed, the word surplice comes from "super-pellicem" which means over-the-fur. The last time we saw liturgical fur in our church was a few years back when Fr. Slattery caused a sensation by wearing a whitefur almuce for the Carols and Lessons service. Various kinds of canons, beneficiaries, and prebendaries wore different furs, such as squirrel (vair), Siberian cat, and various types of rabbit. Cardinals generally wore hermine (white), but Capuchin cardinals traditionally used marten (brown), Franciscan cardinals vicuna (grey), Benedictine cardinals black cat or squirrel, Sylvestrine cardinals blue fox... thus retaining the colour of the habit of their order.