Cowl. Type of robe used by the followers of St. Bernard, the Benedictines, etc. There are two kinds of cowls, one white and very full, used on ceremonial occasions; the other black, which is part of the ordinary habit.

Father Mabillon claims that originally the cowl was the same thing as the scapular. But the author of the Apologia for Emperor Henry IV distinguishes two types of cowls; [1] one was really a robe that reached from the head down to the feet, with sleeves, worn on special occasions, the other was a kind of hood, for every day. The latter is properly called scapular, because it covers only the head and the shoulders. See Scapular ( Scapulaire ).

Cowl is also commonly used to designate a rough piece of cloth, cut and sewn together in a conical shape, or rounded at one end, which the Capuchins, the Recollects, the Franciscans, and other mendicant orders use as a head covering.

The cowl was once the cause of a major war among the Franciscans. The order split into two factions, the spiritual friars and the conventuals. One group wanted a narrow cowl, the other a wide one. The quarrel lasted more than a century and was fought with a great deal of heat and animosity. Four papal bulls, issued by Nicolas IV, Clement V, John XXII, and Benedict XII, were barely able to put an end to the quarrel. Today the members of the order can only recall this dispute with the utmost contempt.

Nevertheless, if anyone should venture today to treat the thought of Scotus as it deserves, such an aggressor would have a lively fight on his hands and become the object of a great many insults, even though the qualities of the clever doctor are even less important than the shape of his disciples' hoods.

Could not, however, a Grey Friar endowed with common sense say with good reason to the others: "It seems to me, fathers, that we are making a good deal of noise for nothing; our insults will not improve Scotus' quibbling. If we wait until sound philosophy, which is spreading its light everywhere, has penetrated into our cloisters, then maybe we shall come to consider the dreams of our doctor as ridiculous as the stubbornness of our predecessors about the size of our cowls." See articles Grey Friars (Cordeliers) , and Scotism (Scotisme) .

Notes

1. This probably refers to the editor, Melchior von Haimenfeld, who wrote under the pseudonym of Goldast. A Swiss historian (1578–1635), he wrote mainly about the ecclesiastical history of the Holy Roman Empire. The work referred to here is Apologiae pro Henrico IV Imp. adversus Gregorii VII papae ... Criminationes (Hanover, 1611).