Black Luther Robes vs White Albs/ Cassock & White Surplus At the ELCM Triennial an interesting discussion was held regarding the use of the black robes rather than the White Alb or the Black Cassock and White Surplice. Our guest speaker maintained that the Black Robe - especially the Geneva Robe (Black Preaching Robe) was primarily a robe originated by Pietists. I pointed out that Dr. Luther is often pictured wearing a Black Robe following the return from the Wartburg Castle. In his days as an Augustinian Monk & Priest he wore the Alb and other vestments but once the break with Rome was a reality then he wore the Black Robe. Luther would hardly have qualified for the categorization of Pietist. Certainly those out to the Zwinglian, Calvinist, and Pietist traditions did exclusively use the Black Robe Vestment but Dr. Luthers return from the Wartburg predated much of those traditions. I rediscovered some of the history surrounding the orthodox Confessional Lutheran use of the Black Robe as a Vestment when I read the Biography of Matthias Flacius and the Survival of Luthers Reorm (Vol 1) authored by Dr. Olver Olson. In that Biography Dr. Olson points out that after the triumph of the Roman Catholic Armies over the Lutheran Smallcald League, Philip Melancthon agreed to the terms imposed by the Roman Catholic Emperor that the Lutheran Clergy must begin wearing the White Surplice as a sign of beginning to water down and fazing out Luthers Reform. Fortunately new Reformation leaders had arisen such as Matthius Flacius and he together with old friends of Dr. Luther such as Nicholaus Almsdorf refused to follow the lead of Melancthon. They refused to wear the White and remained with wearing the Black Robe as a vestment. That Vestment came to be known as the Luther Robe and was different from the Geneva Robe. Apparently no one makes the Luther Robe any more so if one wishes to emphasize the Reformation roots of Dr. Luther in there attire as well as their words the choices are either the Black Cassock (Anglican or Latin Style) or the Geneva Style Robe. After reading Dr. Olsons excellent Volume on Matthius Flacius and the survival of Luthers Reform I stopped wearing the Alb and the Cassock/Surplice combo. I had an ancient Luther Robe but it no longer fit me and I have been trying for years, to no avail, to find someone who can replicate it. So I wear a Cassock with the Talle (Boefschen ) these days as I try to emphasize the Reforms of Luther. ELCM, curioiusly has a provision in its constitution and my congregations have the same provision in their constitutions that was discovered by H. M. Muhlenberg in the Dutch Lutheran Constitutions of Colonial New York and New Jersey. Muhlenberg borrowed the concept and introduced it to early Lutheran Congregations in Pennsylvania. It turns out that this originally came from the Orthodox Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Hamburg. Hamburg was in the Hanseatic League and the OELS had significant influence upon the Dutch Lutherans (Nederlanders). A major mentor of the Orthodox Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Hamburg was Pastor Nicholaus Almsdorf, close friend of Luther and then of Matthius Flacius. At any rate those of us in ELCM who make use of the Black Robe as the main vestment for Worship Leadership do not do so out of the Pietist Tradition or the Calvinist or Zwinglian traditions, etc. but do so out of the tradition of Luther, Matthius Flacius and Nicholaus Almsdorf. In ELCM we allow freedom for the pastors and the congregations however to make their own decisions on subjects such as the Vestments worn for worship. It is in most ways an Adiaphoron but there is a good bit of history attached to the color of the Vestment that had to do with the survival of Luthers Reform. It is often assumed that Muhlenberg is pictured in the Black Robe because he was out of the Pietist Tradition of Halle. But Walther also came out of the Halle University. However, Muhlenberg became less Pietistic the longer he served congregations in Pennsylvania and as he reached out to bring very conservative Lutherans into the Ministerium. His connection to the Evangelical Orthodox Lutheran Synod of Hamburg and Nicholaus Almsdorf via his use of the Constitutional provision he discovered among the Dutch Lutherans is a clue that he was open to rediscovering the Reforms of Luther. Pictured here are Dr. Oliver K Olson, Dr. Martin Luther, Dr. Philip Melancthon, and Dr. H. M. Mulenberg.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 14:49:37 +0000
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