Cope
(pronounced kohp)
(1) To struggle or deal, especially on fairly
even terms or with some degree of success.
(2) To face and deal with responsibilities,
problems, or difficulties, especially successfully or in a calm or adequate
manner.
(3) To come into contact; to meet (archaic).
(4) A long mantle, especially of silk, worn by
ecclesiastics over the alb or surplice in processions and on other occasions.
(5) Any cloak-like or canopy-like covering (now
rare).
(6) The night sky or the sky (archaic except as a
literary or poetic device, sometimes in conjunction with “heaven”).
(7) In metallurgy, the upper half of a flask.
(8) In woodworking, to join (two molded wooden
members) by undercutting the end of one of them to the profile of the other so
that the joint produced resembles a miter joint.
(9) To form a joint between such members in this
way or to undercut the end of (a molded wooden member) in order to form a coped
joint.
(10) In steel fabrication, to cut away a flange
of a metal member so that it may be joined to another member at an angle.
(11) In falconry, to clip or dull the beak or
talons of a hawk.
(12) In medieval military use, for infantry
forces to meet in battle.
(13) In South Africa, an acronym for Congress of
the People, a political party founded in 2008 by dissident members of the
African National Congress (ANC).
(14) To buy, barter; make a bargain, exchange for
value (obsolete since the seventeenth century.
1175-1225: From the Middle English capa (large outer garment, cloak, mantle)
which by the late thirteenth century acquired the specific ecclesiastical sense
of “large mantle of silk or other material worn by priests or bishops over the
alb on special occasions” from the Medieval Latin capa (cloak), from the Late Latin cappa (hooded cloak) (and source of the Old English cāp and the modern cap). In figuratively use it was used of the night
(the idea of the “cloak” of night's darkness) which was later extended to the "vault
of the sky", the notion of the sky enveloping the earth as a cape covers
the body, hence the late fourteenth century poetic phrase “cope of heaven”. Cope is a noun & verb and coping is a noun, verb & adjective; the noun plural is copes.
In Medieval Europe, meanings evolved in parallel. The verb emerged in the late fourteenth
century as coupen (to quarrel) which in
the early 1400s had meant “come to blows, deliver blows, engage in combat”,
from the Anglo-French & Old French couper,
from colper (to strike; to cut; a
blow hit, punch), from colp (a blow). The meaning evolved and by the eighteenth
century meant “handle (successfully), deal with” and etymologists suspect this
may have been under the influence of the obsolete use of cope to mean “to
traffic, bargain for, buy”, in common use between the fifteenth &
seventeenth centuries in North Sea trade, from the Flemish version of the
Germanic source of English “cheap”. The
construct of København (literally “merchant's
port”) (Copenhagen), the capital of Denmark, was køber (merchant (literally “buyer”)) + havn (port) (thus the idea in English of a port as a “haven in a
storm”). English picked up cope in the
fifteenth century from its sense in Low German of "to buy, barter, make a
bargain”, use lasting until late in the seventeenth. The noun coping dates from the early seventeenth
century as a term in architectural meaning “the top or cover of a wall, usually
sloped to shed water”, an allusion to the function of a priest’s cloak-like cope
in protecting the wearing from rain. By
the 1660s, this technical sense in building extended to a general description
of the form and shape of a typical cope and the verb cope in this context was
used to describe “forming a cope, bend as an arch or vault”. The notion was picked up in carpentry in the
1880s as “coping saw”, a saw with a long, narrow blade used for cutting curved
patterns.
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022; pope 2005-2013, pope emeritus 2013-2022) in red papal cope & mitre, worn when presiding over the ceremonies marking the opening of the Pauline Year, 29 June 2008.
The cope is
a liturgical vestment, a long cloak, open in front and fastened at the breast with
a band or clasp, known as a morse. Always made in a great variety of colors and
patterns, the cope has never been restricted to the clergy and although now, in
its more elaborate forms, it's most associated with bishops and cardinals,
there's no doubt it was originally a functional garment designed for no higher
purpose than to protect the wearer and his clothes from the elements. In Ancient Rome, it was known in Classical
Latin as pluviale (rain coat) or cappa (cape) and in design and construction has changed
little in two-thousand years.
Cardinal George Pell (1941-2023) in Cappa Magna with caudatario.
Among copes, the highlight of any ecclesiastical
fashion parade in the Roman Catholic Church is the silk cappa magna (great cape).
Technically a jurisdictional garment, it’s now rarely seen and worn only
in processions or when "in choir" (attending but not celebrating
services). Cardinals wear red and bishops
violet and both cardinals and papal nuncios are entitled to a cappa magna of
watered silk. Well into the twentieth
century, a cappa magna could stretch for nearly 15 metres, (50 feet) but Pius
XII’s (1876-1958; pope 1939-1958) motu
proprio (literally “on his own impulse”, essentially constitutionally the
same as a royal decree which unilaterally creates law) Valde solliciti (1952) laid down that they should not be longer
than 7m (23 feet) and later instructions from the Vatican banned them from Rome
and curtailed their use elsewhere. Valde solliciti translates literally as “very
worried” and Pius in 1952 was clearly exactly that, concerned at complaints
that the extravagance of the Church’s rituals was inappropriate at a time of
such troubled austerity. There was in
1952 still little sign of the remarkable post-war economic recovery which within
a decade would be critiqued in Federico Fellini's (1920–1993) film La Dolce Vita (the sweet life, 1960). Accordingly, Pius wrote:
Being
greatly troubled by the peculiar conditions of our times, which laborious
experiments and changes make daily more difficult and more difficult, and which
make those wishes worthy of the greatest consideration and care, for the
attainment of which many strive today with a noble anxiety, We have always
thought it opportune and consistent with the duty of Our conscience to respond
to them with warnings which arise from it: namely, that all, and in a special
way from the sacred order of men, are directed to a more sober, moderate and
austere way of life.
For
this reason, which also concerns Us, it was decided to set an example in these
matters: it was decided to moderate somewhat the external rites which belong to
the fulfilment of Our Apostolic office, that is, to reduce the sacred
ceremonies to a simpler and shorter form; and for this reason above all we are
moved with joy, because we see all men of heart, when in the habit of acting of
individuals, as well as in the actions of public life, even in regard to the
clergy, more than pride, we are amazed at the painstaking concern for the needs
of human society.
It is
our intention, therefore, to issue some regulations concerning the vestments of
the Cardinal Fathers, who indeed are very dear to Us, and are present to Us so
much in the whole Church that we govern. Indeed, we know that they do not look
to the admiration of their admirers, but to place their own excellent dignity
and authority in their own light; and in the same way it was seen by Us not
only to abhor them from empty luxury, but rather those who have attributed to
them the piety of the ecclesiastical patrimony of the Christian faithful, and
sometimes also family wealth, to spend liberally in projects of beneficence
when they are deeply convinced of themselves, to respond to the precepts of
evangelical wisdom, as those who the results that remain, even those that arise
from a more moderate way of living and dressing, will be invested in divine
worship, in charity, in the education of the youth, and in apostolic works.
Therefore,
while we honor them with due honor, we think that We will make their laudable
Christian plans and purposes easier by these, which we have established by Motu
Proprio, norms pertaining to the attitude of the Cardinal Fathers:
(1) Of the
robe of the Cardinal Fathers, the cord or tail is to be removed, either of a
red or purple color.
(2) The
string or tail of their cap, which will not be worn in the Supreme Pontifical
Chapels, nor in the Sacred Consistory, should be reduced to half, considering
its size, which is in use today.
(3) Their
clothes of a purple color (talar clothes, mantles, mozeta) are woolen; that the
Cardinal Fathers, who had previously had silk vestments of a purple color, may
continue to wear them for the same period.
(4) The
norms of the ceremonies in the Roman Court will be reintegrated, according to
the habit of those Cardinal Fathers who are recruited into the Sacred College
either from among the Canons Regular, or from the Clergy Regular, or from the
Religious Congregations.
Amanda Seyfried (b 1985) in cloak, Red Riding Hood (2011).
The caudatari need a practical understanding of physics when dealing with the challenge of stairs; note the parabolic curve a Cappa Magna assumes in ascent.
Over the centuries, there was certainly a bit of
mission creep in the cope. Originally
garments like other cloaks of at most of ankle-length, by the
mid-twentieth century, those used by cardinal could trail for 7 metres (23
feet). Formerly introduced as an ecclesiastical
vestment by Pope Nicholas III (circa 1225–1280; pope 1277-1280), even when of
more modest length, in those dustier, muddier times, the need for an aide
(familiar in English as “Page of the Robes”), saw the appointment of those who
would follow behind, carrying the tail of the robe and preventing it dragging
on the ground. The first aides were
laymen but the role was later assigned to junior clerics, often trainee priests
and, in the way of bureaucracy, as bishops and other more junior clerics began to
lengthen their trains, their numbers grew, not least because sometimes two were
required when a cardinal might be negotiating tricky obstacles like stairs. In the Church these aides were styled as caudatario (plural caudatari), (from Italian and literally “train-bearer”) and their
sole role was to carry the train of the cassock or cappa magna during solemn
ceremonies but, again in the way bureaucracies tend to grow, they began to
assume the role of a personal assistant (PA) taking charge of the vestments’
cleaning, repair and storage (the role in England of the “Master of the Robes”)
and during services, holding the cardinal’s cap or books and prompting him to
recall (as required) what came next in the order of service. However, Pope John XXIII (1881-1963; pope 1958-1963),
either moved by the spirit of La Dolce
Vita or responding to cardinals complaining about their sartorial
emasculation, restored things, setting the Cardinals' copes to 12 meters (40
feet) and the bishops’ to 7m (23 feet). One
quirk in the Orthodox Church is the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem is required to don an ermine-lined winter
cappa, because he is bound by the unalterable rules of the Status quo, an 1852 Ottoman firman
(a word from the Persian (فرمان)
meaning "decree") which regulates relations between the various religious
groups caring for sites in the Holy Land.
Lindsay Lohan in Lavish Alice cape. Lindsay Lohan is believed to have good coping skills.
In
modern use, people seem often to use the words cloak & cape interchangeably,
presumably because (1) both are now less common and (2) both are made from a single
piece of fabric (though often lined), is sleeveless and hangs loose. Properly though, capes are shorter, often of
hip-length while cloaks are calf-length or descend to the floor. Perhaps what misleads is the tendency in
popular culture (especially film) to depict super-heroes (Superman and his many
imitators) in flappy capes which extend sometimes almost to the ankles. Cloaks also often have hoods which are less
common on capes. Cloak is from the French
word cloche (bell), implying a wrap
narrow at the top, flaring at the bottom and the envelopment they provide saw the
word adopted to mean conceal, used in fields as diverse as coatings which
resist detection by radar and masking agents used to suppress the presence of
drugs.
