04 as the canonical dress of the clergy, has
been continuously, though not universally, worn by the clergy since the
Reformation. It has long ceased, however, to be their every-day walking
dress and is now usually only worn in church, at home, or more rarely by
clergy within the precincts of their own parishes. The custom of wearing
the cassock under the vestments is traceable in England to about the
year 1400.

The old form of English cassock was a double-breasted robe fastened at
the shoulder and probably girdled. The continental, single-breasted
cassock, with a long row of small buttons from neck to hem, is said to
have been first introduced into England by Bishop Harris of Llandaff
(1729-1738). The shortened form of cassock which survives in the
bishop's "apron" was formerly widely used also by the continental
clergy. Its use was forbidden in Roman Catholic countries by Pope Pius
IX., but it is still worn by Roman Catholic dignitaries as part of their
out-of-door dress in certain Protestant countries.

See the _Report_ of the sub-committee of Convocation _on the Ornaments
of the Church and its Ministers_ (London, 1908), and authorities there
cited.

CASSONE, in furniture, the Italian name for a marriage coffer. The
ancient and once almost universal European custom of providing a bride
with a chest or coffer to contain the household linen, which often
formed the major part of her dowry, produced in Italy a special type of
chest of monumental size and artistic magnificence. The cassoni of the
people, although always large in size, were simple as regards ornament;
but those of the nobles and the well-to-do mercantile classes were
usually imposing as regards size, and adorned with extreme richness. The
cassone was almost invariably much longer than the English chest, and
even at a relatively early period it assumed an artistic finish such as
was never reached by the chests of northern Europe, except in the case
of a few of the royal _corbeilles de mariage_ made by such artists as
Boulle for members of the house of France. Many of the earlier examples
were carved in panels of geometrical tracery, but their characteristic
ornament was either _intarsia_ or _gesso_, or a mixture of the two. Bold
and massive feet, usually shaped as claws, lioncels, or other animals
are also exceedingly characteristic of cassoni, most of which are of
massive and sarcophagus-like proportions with moulded lids, while many
of them