Rationale
rationale
(1) An Episcopal humeral, counterpart of the pallium, worn by certain German bishops in the Middle Ages, somewhat like the ephod of the Jewish high-priest.
(2) Episcopal clasp of precious metal ornamented with diamonds worn over chasuble, like the breast ornament of Aaron. Not long nor widely in use.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Rationale
Rational, an episcopal humeral, a counterpart of the pallium, and like it worn over the chasuble. At the present time it is only used by the Bishops of Eichstätt, Paderborn, Toul, and Cracow. As worn by the Bishops of Eichstätt, Paderborn, and Toul, the rationale is in the form of a humeral collar, ornamented in the front and back with appendages. The one used by the Bishop of Cracow is made of two bands crossing the shoulder and joined at the breast and at the back, having the appearance of a discoid connected by medallions. During the Middle Ages the use of the rationale was affected by a number of German bishops, e. g. the Bishops of Würzburg, Ratisbon, Eichstätt, Naumburg, Halberstadt, Paderborn, Minden, Speier, Metz, Augsburg, Prague, Olmutz, and by the Bishops of Liège and Toul, whose dioceses at that time belonged to the German Empire. There is no account of this rationale being worn by any other bishops except a few in territories adjoining that of Germany (Cracow, Aquileia). Of the above-mentioned bishops many only used it temporarily. The earliest mention of the rationale dates from the second half of the tenth century. The earliest representations are two pictures of Bishop Sigebert of Minden (1022-36), a miniature and an ivory tablet, which were both incorporated in a Mass Ordo belonging to Bishop Sigebert. The form of the rationale during the Middle Ages was manifold. Besides the two forms which have survived to our time, there were two other types, one closely resembling a Y-form pallium, the other like a T-form pallium, with the difference that instead of being striped vertically, it was simply tasselled in front and at the back. There were no rules governing the ornamentation of the rationale, as is clearly seen by representations of it on monuments, and by such rationales as have been preserved (Bamberg, Ratisbon, Eichstätt, Paderborn, Munich). The edges were generally adorned with small bells.
The Rationale is an imitation and an equivalent of the pallium. That this is the case is evident, apart from other papal Bulls, from the Bull of John XIX (1027), conferring on the Patriarch Poppo of Aquileia the pallium and the rationale at the same time, with the condition that he could only wear the pallium on high festivals. It appears, however, that the humeral ornaments of the Jewish high-priests (ephod, etc.) were not without influence in evoking this pontifical adornment, as may be seen from the original rationales preserved at Bamberg and Ratisbon. The name at least is derived from the appellation of the breast ornament of the high-priest Aaron.
From the tenth to the thirteenth century the rationale was also the name of an episcopal ornament similar to a large pectoral clasp, made of precious metal, ornamented with diamonds, and worn over the chasuble. It is frequently met with in pictures of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and is generally square, seldom round in form. Its use was discontinued in the course of the thirteenth century, and it is only at Reims that its use can be traced to the beginning of the sixteenth century. It originated undoubtedly in the pomp developed in episcopal vestments during the tenth century, and took its name from the breast ornament of the Jewish high-priest.
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BRAUN, Die liturgische Gewandung im Occident und Orient (Freiburg, 1907).
JOSEPH BRAUN. Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter Dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIICopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, June 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Rationale
(1.) The chairs of theology and philosophy (during the scholastic ages) were the oracular seats from which the doctrines of Aristotle were expounded as the rationale of theological and moral truth. There cannot be a body of rules without a rationale, and this rationale constitutes the science. There were poets before there were rules of poetical composition; but before Aristotle, or Horace, or Boileau, or Pope could write their arts of poetry and criticism, they had considered the reasons on which their precepts rested, they had conceived in their own minds a theory of the art. In like manner, there were navigators before there was an art of navigation; but before the art of navigation could teach the methods of finding the ship’s place by observations of the heavenly bodies, the science of astronomy must have explained the system of the world. Anthony Sparrow, bishop of Exeter. is the author of a work entitled A Rationale upon the Book of Common Prayer.
(2.) A peculiar form of the bishop’s pallium (pectorale, ), appropriated by the bishops of Rome to themselves from the time in which they began to assume the title of pontifices maximi and the dignity of the high-priests of the Old Testament. It was sometimes sent by the Roman pontiffs to other bishops as a mark of distinction and favor. It was in the form of a trefoil, quatrefoil, or oblong square, like the piece of stuff worn by the Aaronic high-priest. It appears in England on bishop Gifford’s monument at Worcester in 1301. It was worn, perhaps for the last time on record, at Rheims. The pope has a formal, and cardinals and Italian bishops wear superb brooches to clasp their copes. The Greek , worn by patriarchs and metropolitans over the chasuble, is an oblong plate of gold or silver, jewelled.
(3.) The word rationale is also the name of a treatise explaining the meaning, and justifying the continuance, of that ceremonial which it was thought fit to retain in the Church of England in the year 1541. The members of the committee to whom this subject was intrusted were warmly attached to the splendor of the Roman ritual, and, of course, made few alterations. The collects in which prayers were offered for the pope, and the offices for Thomas a Becket and some other saints, were omitted; but so slight were the changes introduced that in many churches the missal and breviary already in use were retained. The Rationale Divinorum Officiorum of Durand, bishop of Mende, written in the latter part of the 13th century, gives the reasons of the forms and ceremonies of Romish worship. See Collier, Eccles. Hist. v, 106; Burnet, Hist. of the Ref. 1, 63; Riddle, Christian Antiq. (see Index).