Pastoral Staff

sometimes also, although not properly, called crosier (q.v.) (Lat. baculus pastoralis, cambuca, pedum, crocia, virga, ferula, cambutta in Gregory's Sacramentary), is one of the insignia of the episcopal office, sometimes also borne by an abbot. It is a tall staff of metal, or of wood ornamented with metal, having, at least in the Western Church, the head curved in the form of a shepherd's crook, as a symbol of the pastoral office. The head of the; pastoral staff of an archbishop, instead of the crook, has a double cross, from which its name of crosier is derived. In the Greek Church the staff is much shorter, and the head is either a plain Greek cross of the form of the letter Tau, or it is a double-headed crook, which sometimes appears in the shape of the upsilon, . It is difficult to determine the time at which the pastoral staff first came into use. The first distinct allusion to it is in St. Augustine's commentary on Psalm 124. Gregory of Tours, in his life of St. Martin, mentions the pastoral staff of St. Severinus, who was bishop of Cologne at the end of the 4th century. From an early time the pastoral staff was connected with the actual possession of the jurisdiction which it symbolizes. The giving of it was one of the ceremonies of investiture; its withdrawal was part: of the form of deprivation; its voluntary abandonment accompanied the act of resignation; its being broken was the most solemn form of degradation. So also the veiling of the crook of an abbot's pastoral staff during the episcopal visitation signified the temporary subjection of his authority to that of the bishop. An abbot being required to carry his pastoral staff with the crook turned inwards, showed that his authority was purely domestic. In the 4th century the pastoral staff resembled a simple cane with a knob, or else a crutch-like staff, like a Tau. After the 12th century the staffs increased in height and ornamentation, but the abbots, especially those of the Order of St. Anthony, long retained the Tau-shaped one. The-pope gave up the use of the staff in the middle of the 12th century, and cardinal-bishops no longer carry it. The early staffs were generally made of cypress-wood. In the later mediaeval period the material was often extremely costly, and, referring to the relaxation of the times, it was said "that formerly the Church had wooden pastoral staffs and golden bishops, but that now the staffs are of gold and the bishops of wood." The workmanship was sometimes extremely beautiful. We annex as a specimen of the highest art the pastoral staff of William of Wykeham, now in New College, Oxford. This is a sample of the Norman pastoral staff. The Saxon was by no means so tall. The Irish pastoral staff is of a type quite peculiar, and some of the 'sculptured specimens preserved in the British Museum, at the Royal Irish Academy, and elsewhere, are very interesting as illustrating the ecclesiastical costume of the period. SEE STAFF.