Tam and Cap Establishment

History of the Cap, Tam, and Mortarboard

This commentary follows the evolution of the tam and cap establishment as an item of academic regalia. Tams and caps, and the history of the cap, tam, and mortarboard in the middle ages are covered, along with their variations such as the beefeater, skull-cap, headdress, cappa, pileus, barret, biretum, tudor bonnet, and related items. The article concerns medieval universities and higher learning education in the colleges and schools of europe.

Excerpt from "Academical Dress in New Zealand", 2000, Chap 2: Mediæval Education,
by Noel Cox, LLM(Hons) MA PhD GradDipTertTchg FRHistS FBS, Barrister of the High Court of New Zealand, Professor of Law, and Discipline Chairman of Law, Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand

Caps have caused more controversy than any other single article of academic dress.(1) The history of the development of the headdress of the academic is not free from uncertainty, but a general outline is possible.

The inception, the occasion when the degree of master was conferred, was marked by the new master receiving the insignia of his office from his teacher. These insignia were the black cappa, a ring,(2) and a book. He also received the kiss of peace, and had the magistral cap of the doctor (the pileus or biretta) placed upon his head.(3)

The magistral or academical cap originated in the skull-cap worn by ecclesiastics to protect their tonsured heads. The Synod of Bergamo in 1311 had ordered the clergy to wear the cap "after the manner of laymen". By the later part of the middle ages the hood of the cope, which was tight-fitting and richly ornamented, was rarely worn by clergy. To protect the tonsure the skull-cap could be worn, but more often the cleric wore a cap of soft material with a tuft on top by which it could be easily removed. This was the pileus or birettum.(4) This cap in its turn was a shallow form of the cap of liberty presented to Roman freedmen to cover their newly-shaven heads and to mark their emancipation, the pileus(5). Whether the birettum was adopted in conscious imitation of the pileus of antiquity is, however, doubtful.

Originally, academic usage at Oxford and Cambridge saw only doctors in the superior faculties(6) wearing a cap.(7) This headdress was the pileus, a tight round skull-cap with a little point at the crown. It was fastened with a string behind, to prevent it falling off. As it was essentially a dress of dignity, it was confined to the superior doctors and certain high dignities, who wore red or velvet caps.(8)

The pileus in the thirteenth century was synonymous with the biretum or barret cap.(9) These evolved in the later half of the fifteenth century into the biretta or priest's cap (simply a stiffened, rather taller and squarer pileus),(10) and the velvet academical or doctor's cap of the doctor of theology,(11) the pileus quadratus.(12) This was worn by many ecclesiastics.(13)

The pileus rotundus had formerly been restricted to doctors in sacred theology, canon law, medicine, and civil law.(14) But when, in early Tudor times, a pileus quadratus came to be bestowed upon doctors, a pileus rotundus had begun to be worn by those of lower degree.

These may survive today as part of their full dress (except in theology(15)) as the so-called Tudor bonnet.(16) This consists of a stiff oval brim round a soft oval cloth or velvet top. There is usually a coloured cord ending in tassels around the brim,(17) although at Oxford a twisted silk ribbon replaces the cord. The Injunctions of 1559 required clergy to wear square caps. Archbishop Parker's Advertisements of 1564 also specified square caps, meaning priest's caps.(18) Canon 74 of the constitutions and canons ecclesiastical of 1604 required bishops to wear an episcopal cap out of doors.(19) In 1604 bishops, dignitaries, graduates and all other clerics were required to wear this square cap.

In the century after the adoption of this style the biretum developed in different directions in England and on the Continent. Both types were worn over the skull-cap, but in England the square flat top began to be enlarged in the seventeenth century, forming a rim of thick material projecting beyond the close-fitting cap.

The pileus quadratus worn by English prelates of the seventeenth century bore a tuft, and a cross formed by the slightly raised seams.(20)

On the Continent by 1640 the biretum was also strengthened, but the stiffening, an underlining of stiff canvas, was added to the sides rather than the top as in England, to give it a neat appearance. A more solid shape had been adopted than that in England. This eventually became the biretta or priest's cap. Aside from its retention as the trencher cap, the cap of the Oxford Doctors of Divinity, and the biretta, the barret cap survives today as the head-dress for the Lutheran clergy, German lawyers, deans and rectors of Continental universities. It also is basis of the barrette of French judges and barristers, and as the "black cap" of English judges. This latter, which first made its appearance in the time of Elizabeth I, still referred to as the pileus quadratus, is also known as the corner or sentence cap. It was sometimes worn over the coif (the distinctive cap of the now obsolete grade of serjeants at law from whom the common law judges were recruited), sometimes over the coif and skull-cap as well. Sometimes there were earflaps, and sometimes (as now) there was not.

After the Restoration, in order to show loyalty to the newly established church, many clergy emphasised the squareness of the "square cap" of high church Erastianism. The consequent exaggeration of the square top of the cap necessitated a further stiffening, and the joining of the skull-cap and biretta into one cap. A centre tump was formed by 1665. In the eighteenth century the top began to be made of wood or card covered with cloth, and the close-fitting cap proper retreated further from the edges.(21) The knob developed into a tassel in the eighteenth century,(22) and the modern trencher was born.(23)

Although the tassel had originated with the head-dress of the higher doctors, this mark of distinction too was bestowed upon all without regards to its significance. Something of this significance is preserved in the head-dress of university officers,(24) and, until the twentieth century, the gold tassels for those enrolled as noblemen as Oxford.(25)

Originally, doctors of lower faculties, and holders of lower degrees, wore hoods without separate caps, or later, the tena(26) or birretum.(27) The soft round velvet lay cap (the pileus rotundus) had formerly been restricted to doctors in sacred theology, canon law, medicine, and civil law.(28) It had however been used by all graduates in the secular faculties for a time in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The Laudian code of statutes for the University of Oxford in 1636 changed the prescribed headdress. The pileus quadratus was to be worn by doctors of theology.The pileus rotundus, perhaps the John Knox laical cap, was worn by doctors in civil law, medicine, music, etc, instead of the pileus quadratus which they had previously worn. In the Laudian visitation articles of 1634-6, enforcing the canons of 1604, there were two sorts of academical square cap, that of the DD, and the common catercap or college cap.(29)

By the mid-fifteenth century Masters of Arts had a kind of knitted skull-cap, the caleptra.(30) In 1529 a pileus was allowed a candidate supplicating for the degree of Master of Arts.(31) They received the type of square cap which was adopted after 1520 from the University of Paris.(32) This pileus had originally been round, slightly bulging out at the top, and ornamented with a knob (the descendant of the string to hold the hat in place). It had, by the sixteenth century, been modified so as to emphasise the ridges of the sutures, resulting in a square form.

Oxford masters also adopted the pileus quadratus,(33) and it became obligatory for Masters of Arts in 1565.(34)

In 1588 Cambridge foundation scholars and graduates below the grade of doctor wore a square cap of cloth, but this common catercap was obviously not the square cap conferred upon doctors at their creation, nor was it the pileus quadratus of priests, which bore the cross on top.(35) Robinson has argued that the square cap of foundation scholars, first mentioned in 1549, and not the priest's cap, was the ancester of the present trencher.(36) It is not clear, however, that this was distinct from the pileus.

The holders of lower degrees wore hoods without separate caps, or later, the tena(37) or birretum.(38) Prior to 1350 the Bachelors of Arts at Oxford were refused any head-dress, even a skull-cap.(39) A head-dress was only adopted by the lower degrees after the Reformation.(40)

The Elizabethan code for the University of Cambridge in 1570 specified a square academical cap (pileo scholastico et quadrato) for fellows and graduates not being fellows- the common academical catercap. The Injunctions of Archbishop Whitgift for the University of Oxford in 1602 required non-graduates and graduates alike to wear the pileus quadratus.(41)

The Laudian code of statutes for the University of Oxford in 1636 changed the prescribed headdress. Pileus quadratus, the common catercap, was worn by graduates, foundation scholars, chorsisters and others. The pileus rotundus was however to be worn by commoners and all who were not on the foundation of the colleges.(42) In 1769, undergraduates at Cambridge, not being foundation scholars, who had been wearing round caps petitioned for square ones, which they were granted.(43)

Most graduates of universities in the English-speaking world use the modern trencher form of the pileus quadratus. However, doctors of divinity at Cambridge retain the earlier form in the flat black velvet square cap, the so-called Bishop Andrewes cap.(44) This should be soft, and surmounted by a tuft in place of the tassel. Scottish doctors in full dress usually wear the John Knox cap, which, like the Bishop Andrewes cap is similar to the trencher, but lacking the stiffening.

The caps of the Oxford Doctors of Divinity may be distinguished from those of the secular doctors in that the former have a squarer shape. In practice, however, the tendency is for all doctors to wear either the trencher or the Tudor bonnet, whether they belong to one of the secular faculties or not. Women graduates (and some undergraduates) may use a soft square Oxford cap with buttons.(45)

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(1) Buxton, LHD & Gibson, Strickland, Oxford University Ceremonies (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1935) 27; Robinson, Rev'd Fr NF, "The pileus quadratus: An enquiry into the relation of the priest's square cap to the common academical catercap and to the judicial corner-cap" (1901) 5 Transactions of the St Paul's Ecclesiological Society 1-16.

(2) The doctoral ring is still found in Sweden.

(3) New Catholic Encyclopaedia (The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, 1967) Vol 5 p 118.

(4) New Catholic Encyclopaedia (The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, 1967) Vol 2 p 574.

(5) Singular, a pilei.

(6) Theology, canon law, and later, physic or medicine.

(7) Clinch, George, English Costume (Methuen & Co, London, 1909) 253.

(8) Franklyn, Charles, "Academical Dress- a brief sketch from the twelfth to the twentieth century, with especial reference to doctors" in (1946-7) 9(2) Oxford 78 at 82; Clarke, EC, "College Caps and Doctors' Hats" (1904) lxi Archaelogical Journal 33.

(9) Robinson, Rev'd Fr NF, "The pileus quadratus: An enquiry into the relation of the priest's square cap to the common academical catercap and to the judicial corner-cap" (1901) 5 Transactions of the St Paul's Ecclesiological Society 1, 10.

(10) By the sixteenth century the birettum was reinforced with an underlining of stiff canvas to give it a neat appearance. See New Catholic Encyclopaedia (The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, 1967) Vol 2 p 574.

(11) Catholic Encyclopaedia (The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, 1967) Vol 1 p 63-64.

(12) This was probably adopted at Oxford and Cambridge by doctors shortly after 1520; Robinson, Rev'd Fr NF, "The pileus quadratus: An enquiry into the relation of the priest's square cap to the common academical catercap and to the judicial corner-cap" (1901) 5 Transactions of the St Paul's Ecclesiological Society 1, 8.

(13) The biretta was adopted by the new Anglican Church, and bishops, dignitaries, graduates and all other clerics were required to wear it. However, it was discarded when the wig came into widespread use in the late seventeenth century. Although the wig passed out of general use by bishops in the reign of William IV, the biretta was re-introduced to a limited extent only at the end of the nineteenth century (and is now also called the Canterbury cap). In the Orthodox Church a tall brimless hat called the kalimankion (kalimankion) is worn by bishops at less solemn events. The biretta is now rarely worn in the Catholic Church. It is used by graduates and undergraduates of the University of Malta, and others in the Near East; Haycraft, Frank, The Degrees and Hoods of the World's Universities and Colleges revised and enlarged by EW Scobie Stringer (4th ed, The Cheshunt Press, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, 1948, first published 1923) 29.

(14) "Loci e Libro Veritatum" or Selections from Dr T Gascoigne ed JE Thorold Rogers (Oxford, 1881) 178; Robinson, Rev'd Fr NF, "The pileus quadratus: An enquiry into the relation of the priest's square cap to the common academical catercap and to the judicial corner-cap" (1901) 5 Transactions of the St Paul's Ecclesiological Society 1, 8.

(15) Who should not wear the so-called "doctor's bonnet", as it is probably a lay pattern head-dress, but instead wear the square cap or mortarboard, as undeniably ecclesiastical in origin.

(16) Though these may be better regarded as lay inventions of the sixteenth century.

(17) This bonnet with a small brim and a low round pleated top was worn by lay doctors from the mid-sixteenth century. The cord, normally of gold, was well established by the Restoration; Hargreaves-Mawdsley, WN, A History of Academical Dress in Europe until the end of the Eighteenth Century (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1963) 117.

(18) Robinson, Rev'd Fr NF, "The pileus quadratus: An enquiry into the relation of the priest's square cap to the common academical catercap and to the judicial corner-cap" (1901) 5 Transactions of the St Paul's Ecclesiological Society 1, 13.

(19) Robinson, Rev'd Fr NF, "The pileus quadratus: An enquiry into the relation of the priest's square cap to the common academical catercap and to the judicial corner-cap" (1901) 5 Transactions of the St Paul's Ecclesiological Society 1, 13.

(20) Robinson, Rev'd Fr NF, "The pileus quadratus: An enquiry into the relation of the priest's square cap to the common academical catercap and to the judicial corner-cap" (1901) 5 Transactions of the St Paul's Ecclesiological Society 1, 9.

(21) Clinch, George, English Costume (Methuen & Co, London, 1909) 248.

(22) Approved for Oxford Masters of Arts 1770; Ward, GRM (ed), Oxford University Statutes (Oxford, 1845-51) vol ii, 1767-1850, pp 9-10.

(23) The terms college cap, cap, square cap, academic cap, trencher, mortar-board are variously used to describe this distinctive head-dress. The term cap itself comes from the Old English cæppe, from the Latin cappa (a hooded cloak, or cap), probably originally from caput (head). Trencher comes from the caps' similarity to the wooden plate formerly used at table; originally, a square piece of board used to cut food on. Mortar-board derives by some process from the implement used by masons to hold mortar. Square cap, college cap, cap, or academic cap are insufficiently precise expressions. Trencher is used by preference as a more dignified expression than mortar-board, particularly since the old meaning of trencher is all but forgotten.

(24) At Oxford, junior university officers are provided with appropriate uniforms. The University Marshal, who is in charge of the Proctor's servants, who are the university police, wears a distinctive black gown, with a silver badge. He also wears a round black bonnet, and carries a silver-mounted ebony staff. The Bedels, of who there are usually four, attend the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor on formal occasions. They play an important part in the running of degree ceremonies. They wear a plain black gown with a round black bonnet, and carry staves. The University Verger helps in the preparations for all university services and ceremonies. He wears a long black gown with a round black bonnet, and carries a small silver-gilt wand when in processions.

(25) Wells, Joseph, The Oxford Degree Ceremony (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1906) 72-73.

(26) A pileus with strings which were tied beneath the chin. It was distinctive of jurists in particular- Buxton, LHD & Gibson, Strickland, Oxford University Ceremonies (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1935) 27.

(27) Buxton, LHD & Gibson, Strickland, Oxford University Ceremonies (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1935) 27.

(28) "Loci e Libro Veritatum" or Selections from Dr T Gascoigne ed JE Thorold Rogers (Oxford, 1881) 178; Robinson, Rev'd Fr NF, "The pileus quadratus: An enquiry into the relation of the priest's square cap to the common academical catercap and to the judicial corner-cap" (1901) 5 Transactions of the St Paul's Ecclesiological Society 1, 8.

(29) Robinson, Rev'd Fr NF, "The pileus quadratus: An enquiry into the relation of the priest's square cap to the common academical catercap and to the judicial corner-cap" (1901) 5 Transactions of the St Paul's Ecclesiological Society 1, 14.

(30) The hure, or coif; Salter, HE, Registrum cancellarii (OHS, vol xcii, 1932) vol i, 293. In 1414 Cambridge Masters of Arts, both regent and non-regent, were ordered not to wear the pileus; Cambridge University Library MS Mm. 4.47.§148, fo. 229 (23) ff.

(31) Clarke, EC, "English Academic Costume" (1893) i Archaelogical Journal.

(32) Where it was known as the bonnet carré, and replaced the round pileus or stiff biretta.

(33) Hargreaves-Mawdsley, WN, A History of Academical Dress in Europe until the end of the Eighteenth Century (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1963) 126-128; New Catholic Encyclopaedia (The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, 1967) Vol 1 p 63-64.

(34) Buxton, LHD & Gibson, Strickland, Oxford University Ceremonies (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1935) 27; Gibson, Strickland, Statuta Antiqua Universitatis Oxoniensis (1931) 86. It was used at Cambridge from 1559; Heywood, J, A Collection of Statutes for the University and Colleges of Cambridge (1840) 241.

(35) Robinson, Rev'd Fr NF, "The pileus quadratus: An enquiry into the relation of the priest's square cap to the common academical catercap and to the judicial corner-cap" (1901) 5 Transactions of the St Paul's Ecclesiological Society 1, 8-9.

(36) Robinson, Rev'd Fr NF, "The pileus quadratus: An enquiry into the relation of the priest's square cap to the common academical catercap and to the judicial corner-cap" (1901) 5 Transactions of the St Paul's Ecclesiological Society 1, 9.

(37) A pileus with strings which were tied beneath the chin. It was distinctive of jurists in particular- Buxton, LHD & Gibson, Strickland, Oxford University Ceremonies (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1935) 27.

(38) Buxton, LHD & Gibson, Strickland, Oxford University Ceremonies (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1935) 27.

(39) Hargreaves-Mawdsley, WN, A History of Academical Dress in Europe until the end of the Eighteenth Century (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1963) 88.

(40) Foundation choristers and scholars were permitted square caps in 1549, while bachelors and other junior graduates had no caps until 1575-80; Hargreaves-Mawdsley, WN, A History of Academical Dress in Europe until the end of the Eighteenth Century (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1963) 120-121; Mullinger, JD, A History of the University of Cambridge (1873-1911) vol ii, 392, n1.

(41) Robinson, Rev'd Fr NF, "The pileus quadratus: An enquiry into the relation of the priest's square cap to the common academical catercap and to the judicial corner-cap" (1901) 5 Transactions of the St Paul's Ecclesiological Society 1, 13.

(42) Robinson, Rev'd Fr NF, "The pileus quadratus: An enquiry into the relation of the priest's square cap to the common academical catercap and to the judicial corner-cap" (1901) 5 Transactions of the St Paul's Ecclesiological Society 1, 14.

(43) Baker, T History of St John's College, Cambridge ed JEB Mayor (Cambridge, 1869) pt II pp 1046, 1047; Robinson, Rev'd Fr NF, "The pileus quadratus: An enquiry into the relation of the priest's square cap to the common academical catercap and to the judicial corner-cap" (1901) 5 Transactions of the St Paul's Ecclesiological Society 1, 9.

(44) Also referred to as "Canterbury caps"- especially if in scarlet, and the Cranmer cap.

(45) Venables, DR and Clifford, RE, Academic Dress of the University of Oxford 2nd ed 1966 Oxford, 1st ed 1957) 29.

The above excerpt was reprinted with permission of copyright owner.