Manipolo

MANIPOLO (Manipulum, Mappula, Fano, Sudarium, Mantile, Manuale, Sestace). - A liturgical vestment, worn on the left forearm so that its two bands hang down on either side, made of the same fabric as the chasuble. The maniple belongs to all the major orders, especially to the subdiaconate, from the time when this began to be counted among the major orders (11th and 12th centuries). It is used, besides at Mass, only at the Epistle and Gospel at the blessing of the palms, and at the Exultet of Holy Saturday; it is never used with the cope. The bishop puts on the maniple at the altar after reciting the Confiteor; the priest after the cincture, before the stole; the ministers after the tunicle or dalmatic.

The maniple, of Roman origin, derives from the mappa or mappula, a kind of pocket handkerchief used by Roman nobles with certain ceremonial costumes (the high offices of state, e.g. consuls in ceremonial dress, as appears from the consular diptychs), held in the hand as an object of etiquette and purely for ornament. This decorative mappula derived from the one in common use (Amalarius, De eccl. off., II, ch. 24). It is not known precisely when the maniple entered into the sacred furnishings. The first mention of the diaconal maniple is found in the lives of the popes Sylvester I (314-24) and Zosimus (417-18) in the Liber Pontificalis; a precious fabric, made of wool or silk on a thread warp, given as a mark of honor, to be worn on the left hand, is called «pallium linostimum». The maniple of the Pope occurs in the Ord. Romanus I (its handing over serves to give the signal to begin the singing of the Introit); the maniple of the subdeacon in the Ordo Romanus VI; sometimes even the acolytes (Ordo Romanus V) used the maniple, but not in the hand, «in sinistro latere ad cingulum»; and the Cluniac monks on feasts; but subsequently the use was reserved to monks of major order (subdeacons, etc.). The maniple was the prerogative of the Roman clergy, but by St. Gregory the Great, at the insistence of Ravenna, it was granted also to the first deacon alone of that Cathedral. In the 9th century the maniple is found in use everywhere in the West. In Rome it is chia-

called mappula, outside Rome "m.": the latter designation became the rule; other names occur: fano (phano-panno) and mantile in Rabanus Maurus, sudarium in Amalarius, sestace at St. Gall.

Until well beyond 1100 (see the 11th-century fresco of St. Clement in Rome) the m. was carried in the left hand; around the 12th-13th century it began to be fastened to the forearm. The m. retained the ancient form of a handkerchief beyond the 9th century; later, folded upon itself, it gradually took on the form of a strip or band; toward the end of the 14th century the present form became current. In the time of Amalarius it was made of wool; silk came to be used later; at the ends fringes were attached, sometimes bells, embroidery or gold threads. The rubric of the Missal prescribes only the ornament of a sign of the cross in the middle. In the Greek rite there is a vestment corresponding to the m., called encheirion, proper to the bishop alone, worn at the right of the cincture, not in or on the hand; later transformed into the rhomboidal epigonation (J. Braun [see bibl.], pp. 550-54).

Pietro Siffrin