Posted by Anthony (other posts) on February 10, 2014 at 12:51:07 Previous Next
My attention was brought to an engraving of the medieval liturgy. The title is in German and it seems to be something like the late 15th century or early 16th shortly before Luther's Reformation.
They all have the clerical tonsure (a big round shaved part at the crown of the head where many men go bald), but the hair behind is flowing behind their collars. This is pronounced with the priest standing up against the altar and the cleric walking away from the left of the altar.
The latter cleric seems to have his hair in two layers at the back. The deacon and subdeacon (standing behind the priest's back), also with tonsures, have shorter hair, a kind of page boy style.
Anthony