Wednesday, December 19
Infant of Prague Redux
If I hear one person make another crack about frilly Baroque prelates looking like the Infant of Prague, a) remember I like medieval vestments and Baroque art, not the other way round, and b) read this story, passed onto us by alert commenter Sacerdos in Aeternum, and remember the main actor in this anecdote was actually a Protestant minister:
My favorite story of non-Catholics' fascination with Catholic vesture involves a certain clerical atelier in a large Midwestern city. A man came in and he wanted to order a vestment -- he was a minister and he wanted to make a good impression on his congregation. They showed him all over the store. They showed him chasubles, and stoles, albs, surplices, rochets, and copes. They showed him cassocks and simars, Bernardin polyester, faile and silk brocade. He was never satisfied, and kept trying to describe for them what he was lookin for. Finally, a curiosity caught his eye -- a little figure in the corner by the window -- it was the Infant of Prague -- this minister wanted to commission the tailor to make him a human-sized "Praguewear", complete with frilly cuffs and exaggerated Elvis collar and all!The mind reels. On the other hand, it would have probably made Zwingli cry, so maybe it's not such a bad idea after all.
![[SMMMHDH]](http://www.mgilleland.com/music/smmmhdh.png){kind=small}
