Black Sandal

Sandals and stockings belong to the liturgical vestments supported by the evidence from the 5th and 6th centuries. Originally the sandals were called campagi and the stockings udones. The shoes were given the name sandalia probably during the eighth to the ninth century, and this name was first applied to them in the north; the designation caligæ for udones came into use in the tenth century, also in the north. As regards the original form and material of the campagi, they were slippers that covered only the tip of the foot and the heel, and must have been fastened to the foot by straps. This slipper was made of black leather. The stockings were, very likely, made of linen, and were white in colour. In the earliest period the campagi and udones were by no means exclusively an episcopal vestment, as they were worn by deacons. Indeed this foot-covering was not reserved exclusively for the clergy, as they were worn as a mark of distinction by certain persons of rank, and were probably copied from the buskins of the ancient senators. Their use gradually became customary among the higher clergy, especially when these appeared in their full official capacity for the celebration of the Liturgy. During the eighth and ninth centuries also the Roman subdeacons and acolytes wore a distinctive foot-wear, the subtalares, which, however, were simpler than the campagi, and had no straps. The sandals and stockings became a specifically episcopal vestment about the tenth century. Apparently as early as the twelfth century, or at least in the second half of the thirteenth century, they were no longer worn even by the cardinal deacons of Rome. The privilege of wearing the sandals and caligæ was first granted to an abbot in 757 by Pope Stephen III. This is, however, an isolated case, as it was only after the last quarter of the tenth century, and especially after the twelfth century that it became customary to grant abbots this privilege. The episcopal sandals are no longer normally seen in the Catholic Church, except for those liturgical ceremonies celebrated according to pre-Vatican II rubrics.

Development of shape

The sandals retained substantially their original form until the tenth century. Then straps were replaced by three or five tongues reaching to the ankle, extensions of the upper leather upon the point of the foot, and these were fastened at ankle by means of a string. In the twelfth century these tongues were gradually shortened; in the thirteenth century, the sandal was a regular shoe with a slit above the foot or on the side to make the putting-on easier. In the sixteenth century there was a return to the earlier form of the sandal; instead of a high shoe it now became once more a low foot-covering, like a slipper, a form which it has retained until the present time. The material of which the pontifical sandals are made was, until the thirteenth century, exclusively leather, at times covered with silk. Since the later Middle Ages, the upper part of the sandals has been made, not of leather, but of silk, velvet, etc. It is not until about 1400, with the exception of entirely isolated earlier examples, that a cross is to be found upon the sandals. The fork-shaped decoration, frequently found on pontifical shoes, especially on those of the thirteenth century, was not a cross, but merely an ornament.