Mozarabic Rite
The Mozarabic Rite called the Visigothic Rite or the Hispanic Rite, is a liturgical rite of the Latin Church once used in the Iberian Peninsula, in what is now Spain and Portugal. While the liturgy is called'Mozarabic' after the Christian communities that lived under Muslim rulers in Al-Andalus that preserved its use, the rite itself developed before and during the Visigothic period. After experiencing a period of decline during the Reconquista, when it was superseded by the Roman Rite in the Christian states of Iberia as part of a wider programme of liturgical standardization within the Catholic Church, efforts were taken in the 16th century to revive the rite and ensure its continued presence in the city of Toledo, where it is still performed today. In addition to its use within the Catholic Church, the rite has been adopted by Western Rite Orthodox congregations and the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church. Ritual worship surrounding the Eucharist in the early Church was not scripted with precise rubrics as is the norm today.
One of the earliest known documents setting down the nature of Eucharistic celebration is the Didache, dating from 70–140. Few details are known of early forms of the liturgy, or worship, in the first three centuries, but there was some diversity of practice; as Christianity gained dominance in the wake of the conversion of Constantine I early in the fourth century, there was a period of liturgical development as the communities emerged from smaller gatherings to large assemblies in public halls and new churches. This time of development saw the combination of embellishment of existing practices with the exchange of ideas and practices from other communities; these mutual processes resulted both in greater diversity and in certain unifying factors within the liturgy from the merging of forms throughout major cities and regions. The liturgies of the patriarchal cities in particular had greater influence on their regions so that by the 5th century it becomes possible to distinguish among several families of liturgies, in particular the Armenian, Antiochene, West Syriac Rite and East Syriac Rite families in the East, in the Latin West, the African, Celtic, Ambrosian and Hispanic families.
These settled into stable forms that continued to evolve, but none without some influence from outside. In the West, the liturgy in Roman Africa was lost as the Church there was weakened by internal division and the Vandal invasion, was extinguished in the wake of the Islamic ascendancy. In Gaul, the fascination of the Franks with Roman liturgy led them to begin adopting the Roman Rite, a process, confirmed and promoted by Charlemagne as an aid to imperial unity. From 507, the Visigoths, who were Arian Christians, maintained their kingdom at Toledo; that there was a distinct liturgical tradition in Hispania prior to their arrival is evidenced by the fact that the Hispanic liturgy lacks any Arian influence. Indeed, certain elements of this rite have been interpreted as a reaction to Visigothic Arianism. Though reasonably tolerant, the Visigoths controlled episcopal appointments, which may have provoked the first extant expression of papal concern in Pope Vigilius's letter to the bishop of Braga in 538, dealing with baptism and reconsecration of churches.
Among those sympathetic to Rome was Leander, archbishop of Seville, who had formed a friendship with Pope Gregory the Great while in Constantinople. Leander presided over the Third Council of Toledo in 589, during which King Reccared I formally brought the Visigoths into Catholicism; the same council formally introduced the controversial Filioque clause into the Nicene Creed, which would prove to be an impetus for the Great Schism of 1054. Reccared's conversion marked the integration of Hispano-Romans into one liturgy, it was under Visigothic aegis. Two main traditions emerged as a result of these processes: Tradition A from the northern territories and Tradition B from the south. Isidore, Leander's brother and successor, presided over the Fourth Council of Toledo in 633, which established uniform chants for the Divine Office and the Eucharistic liturgy. Concerns over ritual practices were reflected in his De ecclesiasticis officiis. One notable feature of the Hispanic Rite – the southern Tradition B – is the presence of Eastern characteristics.
The establishment of the short-lived Byzantine province of Spania in the south by Justinian I may have contributed to this influence. Further development occurred under the archbishops of Toledo during the mid to late 7th century: Eugenius II, his nephew and successor Ildefonsus, Julian; this concluded the creative development of the Hispanic liturgy before the Umayyad conquest of 711. The Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 711 checked the development of the Hispanic Rite. Although a band of Christians from the north asserted independence leading to the Reconquista, the majority of the Christian population and the religious hierarchy were situated in areas dominated by Muslims; such Christians who lived under Moorish rule, late
Benefice
A benefice or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term beneficium as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered, its use was adopted by the Western Church in the Carolingian Era as a benefit bestowed by the crown or church officials. A benefice from a church is called a precaria such as a stipend and one from a monarch or nobleman is called a fief. A benefice is distinct from an allod, in that an allod is property owned outright, not bestowed by a higher authority. In ancient Rome a benefice was a gift of land for life as a reward for services rendered to the state; the word comes from the Latin noun beneficium, meaning "benefit". In the 8th century, using their position as Mayor of the Palace, Charles Martel, Carloman I and Pepin II usurped a large number of church benefices for distribution to vassals, Carolingians continued this practice as emperors; these estates were held in return for oaths of military assistance, which aided the Carolingians in consolidating and strengthening their power.
Charlemagne continued the late Roman concept of granting benefices in return for military and administrative service to his empire. Thus, the imperial structure was bound together through a series of oaths between the monarch and the recipient of land, he ordered and administered his kingdom and his empire through a series of published statutes called capitularies. The Capitulary of Herstal distinguished between his vassals who were styled casati and non-casati, those subjects who had received a benefice from the hand of the king and those who had not, towards the end of Charlemagne's reign it appears that a royal vassal who had satisfactorily fulfilled his duties could always look forward to the grant of a benefice in some part of the Empire. Once he had received a benefice, he would take up his residence on it. In the year 800 Pope Leo III placed the crown of Holy Roman Emperor on the head of Charlemagne; this act caused great turmoil for future generations, who would afterward argue that the emperor thereby received his position as a benefice from the papacy.
In his March 1075 Dictatus Papae, Pope Gregory VII declared that only the pope could depose an emperor, which implied that he could do so just as a lord might take a benefice away from a vassal. This declaration inflamed Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV and furthered the friction caused in the Investiture Conflict; the expanded practice continued through the Middle Ages within the European feudal system. This same customary method became adopted by the Catholic Church; the church's revenue streams came from, amongst other things and profits arising from assets gifted to the church, its endowment, given by believers, be they monarch, lord of the manor or vassal, also upon tithes calculated on the sale of the product of the people's personal labour in the entire parish such as cloth or shoes and the people's profits from specific forms of God-given, natural increase such as crops and in livestock. The Catholic Church granted buildings, grants of land and greater and/or lesser tithes for life but the land was not alienated from the dioceses.
However the Council of Lyons of 566 annexed these grants to the churches. By the time of the Council of Mainz of 813 these grants were known as beneficia. Holding a benefice did not imply a cure of souls although each benefice had a number of spiritual duties attached to it. For providing these duties, a priest would receive "temporalities". Benefices were used for the worldly support of much of its pastoral clergy – clergy gaining rewards for carrying out their duties with rights to certain revenues, the "fruits of their office"; the original donor of the temporalities or his nominee, the patron and his successors in title, held the advowson. Parish priests were charged with the temporal care of their congregation; the community provided for the priest as necessary as organisation improved, by tithe. Some individual institutions within the church accumulated enormous endowments and, with that, temporal power; these endowments sometimes concentrated great wealth in the "dead hand" of the church, so called because it endured beyond any individual's life.
The church was exempt from all taxes. This was in contrast to feudal practice where the nobility would hold land on grant from the king in return for service service in war; this meant that the church over time gained a large share of land in many feudal states and so was a cause of increasing tension between the church and the Crown. The holder of more than one benefice known as a pluralist, could keep the revenue to which he was entitled and pay lesser sums to deputies to carry out the corresponding duties. By a Decree of the Lateran Council of 1215 no clerk could hold two benefices with cure of souls, if a beneficed clerk took a second benefice with cure of souls, he vacated ipso facto his first benefice. Dispensations, could be obtained from Rome; the benefice system was open to abuse. Acquisitive prelates held multiple major benefices; the holding of more than one benefice is termed pluralism. An Engli
Anchorite
An anchorite or anchoret is someone who, for religious reasons, withdraws from secular society so as to be able to lead an intensely prayer-oriented, ascetic, or Eucharist-focused life. Whilst anchorites are considered to be a type of religious hermit, unlike hermits they were required to take a vow of stability of place, opting instead for permanent enclosure in cells attached to churches. Unlike hermits, anchorites were subject to a religious rite of consecration that resembled the funeral rite, following which they would be considered dead to the world, a type of living saint. Anchorites had a certain autonomy, as they did not answer to any ecclesiastical authority other than the bishop; the anchoritic life is one of the earliest forms of Christian monasticism. In the Catholic Church today, it is one of the "Other Forms of Consecrated Life" and governed by the same norms as the consecrated eremitic life. In England, the earliest recorded anchorites existed in the 11th century, their highest number—around 200 anchorites—were recorded in the 13th century.
From the 12th to the 16th centuries, female anchorites outnumbered their male counterparts, sometimes by as many as four to one, dropping to two to one. The sex of a high number of anchorites, however, is not recorded for these periods; the anchoritic life became widespread during the high Middle Ages. Examples of the dwellings of anchorites and anchoresses survive, a large number of which are in England, they tended to be a simple cell, built against one of the walls of the local village church. In Germanic-speaking areas, from at least the 10th century, it was customary for the bishop to say The Office of the Dead as the anchorite entered his cell, to signify the anchorite's death to the world and rebirth to a spiritual life of solitary communion with God and the angels. Sometimes, if the anchorite were walled up inside the cell, the bishop would put his seal upon the wall to stamp it with his authority; some anchorites, however moved between their cell and the adjoining church. Most anchoritic strongholds were small no more than 3.7 to 4.6 m square, with three windows.
Viewing the altar, hearing Mass, receiving the Eucharist was possible through one small, shuttered window in the common wall facing the sanctuary, called a "hagioscope" or "squint". Anchorites provided spiritual advice and counsel to visitors through this window, gaining a reputation for wisdom. Another small window allowed access to those. A third window facing the street but covered with translucent cloth, allowed light into the cell. Anchorites committed to a life of uncompromising enclosure; those who attempted to escape were returned by force and their souls damned to Hell. Some were burned in their cells, which they refused to leave when pirates or looters were pillaging their towns, they ate frugal meals, spending their days both in contemplative prayer and interceding on behalf of others. Their bodily waste was managed by means of a chamber pot; some anchorholds attached gardens. Servants tended to their basic needs, removing waste. Julian of Norwich, for example, is known to have had several maidservants, among them Sara and Alice.
Aelred of Rievaulx, who wrote De Institutione—the "Rule" for anchoresses—suggested having two maids: an older, sober woman and a younger one. In addition to being the physical location wherein the anchorite could embark on the journey towards union with God, the anchorhold provided a spiritual and geographic focus for people from the wider society who came to ask for advice and spiritual guidance. Although set apart from the community at large by stone walls and specific spiritual precepts, the anchorite lay at the centre of the community; the anchorhold has been called a communal'womb' from which would emerge an idealized sense of a community's own reborn potential, both as Christians and as human subjects. An idea of their daily routine can be gleaned from an anchoritic rule; the most known today is the early 13th century text known as Ancrene Wisse. Another, less known, example is the rule known as De Institutione Inclusarum written in the 12th century, around 1160–62, by Aelred of Rievaulx for his sister.
It is estimated that the daily set devotions detailed in Ancrene Wisse would take some four hours, on top of which anchoresses would listen to services in the church and engage in their own private prayers and devotional reading. Richard Rolle, an English hermit and mystic, wrote one of the most influential guide books regarding the life of an anchoress, his book, The Form of Living, was addressed to a young anchoress named Margaret Kirkby, responsible for preserving his texts. Her connection to the town of Hampole has been associated with Rolle. Rolle’s book is based on the principles of mysticism and divided into twelve chapters: Chapter One: Rolle discusses the three weaknesses of humans: "lack of spiritual vigor, putting bodily desires into practice exchanging a permanent good for a transitory pleasure." Chapter Two: Rolle tells Mary that while her body may be sacrificing, her heart and soul will feel the ultimate pleasure of religious devotion. Chapter Three: Public display of piety does not promise holiness, but people who "follow Jesus Christ in voluntary poverty, in humility, in love and
Asceticism
Asceticism is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from sensual pleasures for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their practices or continue to be part of their society, but adopt a frugal lifestyle, characterised by the renunciation of material possessions and physical pleasures, time spent fasting while concentrating on the practice of religion or reflection upon spiritual matters. Asceticism has been observed in many religious traditions, including Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism. Contemporary mainstream Islam practices asceticism in the form of fasting during Ramadan by abstaining from all sensual pleasures, including food and water from sunrise until sunset; the observation of fasting during Ramadan is purely done for God and to increase one's spiritual connection with God. Sufi tradition has included strict asceticism throughout history; the practitioners of these religions abandoned sensual pleasures and led an abstinent lifestyle, in the pursuit of redemption, salvation or spirituality.
Asceticism is seen in the ancient theologies as a journey towards spiritual transformation, where the simple is sufficient, the bliss is within, the frugal is plenty. Inversely, several ancient religious traditions, such as Zoroastrianism, Ancient Egyptian Religion and the Dionysian Mysteries, as well as more modern Left Hand traditions reject ascetic practises and focus on various types of hedonism; the adjective "ascetic" derives from the ancient Greek term askēsis, which means "training" or "exercise". The original usage did not refer to self-denial, but to the physical training required for athletic events, its usage extended to rigorous practices used in many major religious traditions, in varying degrees, to attain redemption and higher spirituality. Dom Cuthbert Butler classified asceticism into natural and unnatural forms: "Natural asceticism" involves a lifestyle which reduces material aspects of life to the utmost simplicity and to a minimum; this may include minimal, simple clothing, sleeping on a floor or in caves, eating a simple minimal amount of food.
Natural asceticism, state Wimbush and Valantasis, does not include maiming the body or harsher austerities that make the body suffer. "Unnatural asceticism", in contrast, covers practices that go further, involves body mortification, punishing one's own flesh, habitual self-infliction of pain, such as by sleeping on a bed of nails. Self-discipline and abstinence in some form and degree are parts of religious practice within many religious and spiritual traditions. Ascetic lifestyle is associated with monks, fakirs in Abrahamic religions, bhikkhus, sannyasis, yogis in Indian religions. Christian authors of late antiquity such as Origen, St. Jerome, St. Ignatius, John Chrysostom, Augustine interpreted meanings of Biblical texts within a asceticized religious environment. Scriptural examples of asceticism could be found in the lives of John the Baptist, the twelve apostles and the Apostle Paul; the Dead Sea Scrolls revealed ascetic practices of the ancient Jewish sect of Essenes who took vows of abstinence to prepare for a holy war.
An emphasis on an ascetic religious life was evident in both early Christian practices. Other Christian practitioners of asceticism include individuals such as Simeon Stylites, Saint David of Wales and Francis of Assisi. According to Richard Finn, much of early Christian asceticism has been traced to Judaism, but not to traditions within Greek asceticism; some of the ascetic thoughts in Christianity Finn states, have roots in Greek moral thought. Virtuous living is not possible when an individual is craving bodily pleasures with desire and passion. Morality is not seen in the ancient theology as a balancing act between right and wrong, but a form of spiritual transformation, where the simple is sufficient, the bliss is within, the frugal is plenty; the deserts of the Middle East were at one time inhabited by thousands of Christian hermits including St. Anthony the Great, St. Mary of Egypt, St. Simeon Stylites. In 963 CE, an association of monasteries called Lavra was formed on Mount Athos, in Eastern Orthodox tradition.
This became the most important center of orthodox Christian ascetic groups in the centuries that followed. In the modern era, Mount Athos and Meteora have remained a significant center. Sexual abstinence such as those of the Encratites sect of Christians was only one aspect of ascetic renunciation, both natural and unnatural asceticism have been part of Christian asceticism; the natural ascetic practices have included simple living, begging and ethical practices such as humility, compassion and prayer. Evidence of extreme unnatural asceticism in Christianity appear in 2nd-century texts and thereafter, in both the Eastern Orthodox Christianity and the Western sister tradition, such as the practice of chaining the body to rocks, eating only grass, praying seated on a pillar in the elements for decades such as by the monk Simeon Stylites, solitary confinement inside a cell, abandoning personal hygiene and adopting lifestyle of a beast, self-inflicted pain and voluntary suffering; such ascetic practices were linked to the Christian concepts of redemption.
Evagrius Ponticus called Evagrius the Solitary was a educated monastic teacher who produced a large theological body of work ascetic, including the Gnostikos known as The Gnostic: To t
Eucharist
The Eucharist is a Christian rite, considered a sacrament in most churches, as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instituted by Jesus Christ during the Last Supper. Through the Eucharistic celebration Christians remember both Christ's sacrifice of himself on the cross and his commission of the apostles at the Last Supper; the elements of the Eucharist, sacramental bread and sacramental wine, are consecrated on an altar and consumed thereafter. Communicants, those who consume the elements, may speak of "receiving the Eucharist", as well as "celebrating the Eucharist". Christians recognize a special presence of Christ in this rite, though they differ about how and when Christ is present. While all agree that there is no perceptible change in the elements, Roman Catholics believe that their substances become the body and blood of Christ. Lutherans believe the true body and blood of Christ are present "in, under" the forms of the bread and wine. Reformed Christians believe in a real spiritual presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
Others, such as the Plymouth Brethren and the Christadelphians, take the act to be only a symbolic reenactment of the Last Supper and a memorial. In spite of differences among Christians about various aspects of the Eucharist, there is, according to the Encyclopædia Britannica, "more of a consensus among Christians about the meaning of the Eucharist than would appear from the confessional debates over the sacramental presence, the effects of the Eucharist, the proper auspices under which it may be celebrated"; the Greek noun εὐχαριστία, meaning "thanksgiving", appears fifteen times in the New Testament but is not used as an official name for the rite. Do this in remembrance of me"; the term "Eucharist" is that by which the rite is referred to by the Didache, Ignatius of Antioch and Justin Martyr. Today, "the Eucharist" is the name still used by Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Anglicans and Lutherans. Other Protestant or Evangelical denominations use this term, preferring either "Communion", "the Lord's Supper", "Memorial", "Remembrance", or "the Breaking of Bread".
Latter-day Saints call it "Sacrament". The Lord's Supper, in Greek Κυριακὸν δεῖπνον, was in use in the early 50s of the 1st century, as witnessed by the First Epistle to the Corinthians: When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk; those who use the term "Eucharist" use the expression "the Lord's Supper", but it is the predominant term among Evangelical and Pentecostal churches, who avoid using the term "Communion". They refer to the observance as an "ordinance"; those Protestant churches avoid the term "sacrament".'Holy Communion' are used by some groups originating in the Protestant Reformation to mean the entire Eucharistic rite. Others, such as the Catholic Church, do not use this term for the rite, but instead mean by it the act of partaking of the consecrated elements; the term "Communion" is derived from Latin communio, which translates Greek κοινωνία in 1 Corinthians 10:16: The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?
The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? The phrase appears in various related forms five times in the New Testament in contexts which, according to some, may refer to the celebration of the Eucharist, in either closer or symbolically more distant reference to the Last Supper, it is the term used by the Plymouth Brethren. The "Blessed Sacrament" and the "Blessed Sacrament of the Altar" are common terms used by Catholics and some Anglicans for the consecrated elements when reserved in a tabernacle. "Sacrament of the Altar" is in common use among Lutherans. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the term "The Sacrament" is used of the rite. Mass is used in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, the Lutheran Churches, by many Anglicans, in some other forms of Western Christianity. At least in the Catholic Church, the Mass is a longer rite which always consists of two main parts: the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist, in that order; the Liturgy of the Word consists of readings from scripture (the
Castile (historical region)
Castile is a historical region of Spain divided between Old Castile and New Castile. The area covers the following modern autonomous communities: the eastern part of Castile and León, Castile-La Mancha, Community of Madrid as well as Cantabria and La Rioja. Castile's name derives from the Spanish for "land of castles" in reference to the castles built in the area to consolidate the Christian Reconquest from the Moors. An eastern county of the kingdom of León, in the 11th century Castile became an independent realm with its capital at Burgos; the County of Castile, which included most of Burgos and parts of Vizcaya, Álava, Cantabria and La Rioja. became the leading force in the northern Christian states' 800-year Reconquista of central and southern Spain from the Moorish rulers who had dominated most of the peninsula since the early 8th century. The capture of Toledo in 1085 added New Castile to the crown's territories, the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa heralded the Moors' loss of most of southern Spain.
León was reunited with Castile in 1230, the following decades saw the capture of Córdoba and Seville. By the Treaty of Alcaçovas with Portugal on March 6, 1460, the ownership of the Canary Islands was transferred to Castile; the dynastic union of Castile and Aragon in 1469, when Ferdinand II of Aragon wed Isabella I of Castile, would lead to the formal creation of Spain as a single entity in 1516 when their grandson Charles V assumed both thrones. See List of Spanish monarchs and Kings of Spain family tree; the Muslim Kingdom of Granada was conquered in 1492, formally passing to the Crown of Castile in that year. Since it lacks modern day official recognition, Castile no longer has defined borders; the area consisted of the Kingdom of Castile. After the kingdom merged with its neighbours to become the Crown of Castile and the Kingdom of Spain, when it united with the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre, the definition of what constituted Castile began to change, its historical capital was Burgos.
In modern Spain, it is considered to comprise Castile and León and Castile–La Mancha, with Madrid as its centre. West Castile and León, Cantabria and La Rioja are sometimes included in the definition. Since 1982 there have been two nominally Castilian autonomous communities in Spain, incorporating the toponym in their own official names: Castile and Leon and Castile-La Mancha. A third, the Community of Madrid is regarded as part of Castile, by dint of its geographic enclosure within the entity and, above all, by the statements of its Statute of Autonomy, since its autonomic process originated in national interest and not in popular disaffection with Castile. Other territories in the former Crown of Castile are left out for different reasons. In fact, the territory of the Castilian Crown comprised all other autonomous communities within Spain with the exception of Aragon, Balearic Islands and Catalonia, all belonging to the former Crown of Aragon, Navarre, offshoot of the older Kingdom of the same name.
Castile was divided between Old Castile in the north, so called because it was where the Kingdom of Castile was founded, New Castile, called the Kingdom of Toledo in the Middle Ages. The Leonese region, part of the Crown of Castile from 1230, was from medieval times considered a region in its own right on a par with the two Castiles, appeared on maps alongside Old Castile until the two joined as one region - Castile and Leon - in the 1980s. In 1833, Spain was further subdivided into administrative provinces. Two non-administrative, nominally Castilian regions existed from 1833 to 1982: Old Castile, including Santander, Logroño, Valladolid, Segovia and Ávila, New Castile consisting of Madrid, Cuenca and Ciudad Real; the language of Castile emerged as the primary language of Spain—known to many of its speakers as castellano and in English sometimes as Castilian, but as Spanish. See Names given to the Spanish language; the Castilian Kingdom and people were considered to be the main architects of the Spanish State by a process of expansion to the South against the Moors and of marriages, wars and annexation of their smaller Eastern and Western neighbours.
From the advent of the Bourbon Monarchy following the War of the Spanish Succession until the arrival of parliamentary democracy in 1977, the Castilian language was the only one with official status in the Spanish state. Castilian people Old Castile New Castile Crown of Castile Early history of the Kingdom of León Economic history of Spain Later history of Spain List of Castile Kings Castile soap Heraldry of Castile Music of Castile and Leon Castella, a food whose name originates from Castile. Two places in the United States have been named after this kingdom: Village of Castile and Town of Castile. Both are located in the state of New York
Cilice
A cilice known as a sackcloth, was a garment or undergarment made of coarse cloth or animal hair worn close to the skin. It is used by members of various Christian traditions as a self-imposed means of repentance and mortification of the flesh. Cilices were made from sackcloth or coarse animal hair so they would irritate the skin. Other features were added to make cilices more uncomfortable, such as thin twigs. In modern religious circles, cilices are any device worn for the same purposes; the word cilice derives from the Latin cilicium, a covering made of goat's hair from Cilicia, a Roman province in south-east Asia Minor. The reputed first Scriptural use of this exact term is in the Vulgate translation of Psalm 35:13, "Ego autem, cum mihi molesti essent, induebar cilicio.". The term is translated as hair-cloth in the Douay–Rheims Bible, as sackcloth in the King James Bible and Book of Common Prayer. Sackcloth can mean burlap, but is mentioned as a symbol of mourning and was a form of hairshirt.
There is some evidence, based on analyses of both clothing represented in art and preserved skin imprint patterns at Çatalhöyük in Turkey, that the usage of the cilice predates written history. This finding has been mirrored at Göbekli Tepe, another Anatolian site, indicating the widespread manufacturing of cilices. Ian Hodder has argued that "self-injuring clothing was an essential component of the Catalhöyük culturoritual entanglement, representing'cleansing' and'lightness'."In Biblical times, it was the Jewish custom to wear a hairshirt when mourning, but not in order to cause harm to oneself, forbidden in the Jewish religion. In the New Testament, John the Baptist wore "a garment of camel’s hair"; some Christian denominations have worn sackcloth to mortify the flesh or as penance for adorning oneself. Cilices have been used for centuries in the Catholic Church as a mild form of bodily penance akin to fasting. Thomas Becket was wearing a hairshirt when he was martyred, St. Patrick reputedly wore a cilice, Charlemagne was buried in a hairshirt, Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Germany, famously wore one in the Walk to Canossa during the Investiture Controversy.
Prince Henry the Navigator was found to be wearing a hairshirt at the time of his death in 1460. St. Francis of Assisi, St. Ignatius Loyola and St. Therese of Lisieux are known to have used them. In modern times they have been used by Mother Teresa, St. Padre Pio, Pope Paul VI. In the Discalced Carmelite convent of St. Teresa in Livorno, members of Opus Dei who are celibate, the Franciscan Brothers and Sisters of the Immaculate Conception continue an ascetic use of the cilice. According to John Allen, an American Catholic writer, its practice in the Catholic Church is "more widespread than many observers imagine"; some high church Anglicans, including Edward Bouverie Pusey, wore hairshirts as a part of their spirituality. In the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, influenced by the evangelical revival, penitents were dressed in sackcloth and called in front of the chancel, where they were asked to admit their sins. In some Methodist churches, on Ash Wednesday, along with receiving ashes receive a piece of sackcloth "as a reminder of our own sinful ways and need for repentance".
In Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code, one of the antagonists, an albino numerary named Silas associated with the religious organization Opus Dei, wears a cilice in the form of a spiked chain around his thigh. The sensationalized depiction in the novel has been criticized for its inaccuracy in subsequent books and by Opus Dei itself, which issued a press release responding to the movie's depiction of the practice, claiming "In reality, they cause a low level of discomfort comparable to fasting. There is no injury, nothing to harm a person's health, nothing traumatic. If it caused any harm, the Church would not allow it."In Molière's play, the title character is shown to be a hypocrite when he wears a hair shirt with the hair lining facing outward, so that it can be seen, rather than felt. The Marvel Comics character Robbie Baldwin commissioned the creation of a suit with 612 internal spikes to represent each person who died in an explosion for which he felt responsible, so that he would be reminded of their pain in everything he did.
In Gustave Flaubert's "The Legend of St. Julian the Hospitaler", Julian wears a hair shirt with iron spikes to do penance for his parricide. In Flannery O'Connor's novel Wise Blood, the protagonist Hazel Motes is discovered by his landlady to be wearing a barbed wire cilice around his torso after he has blinded himself, she finds that he has been walking miles each day with small rocks and glass in the bottom of his shoes. In George R. R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire, members of the militant branch of the Faith of the Seven known as Warrior's Sons and Poor Fellows wear hair shirts; the High Septon appointed in A Feast for Crows known as the High Sparrow wears one. Martin mentions in his new book Fire and Blood that Aegon the Third known as Aegon the Unlucky or Aegon Dragonsbane, was said to wear a hair shirt under his clothing which added to his melancholy demeanour due to the trauma he experienced during the Dance of the Dragons. In the U. S. WGN America telev
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Jimenes de Cisneros, Francisco". Encyclopædia Britannica. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 415–416.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 
