(Reformed Episcopal) Bishop George David Cummins: "Ecclesiastical Vestme...

When the Reformed Episcopal Church was founded, his first direction was that his Episcopal robes should be ripped up, saying to me, "The material may serve for some other use, and that he never wished to wear them again;" the Surplice he never wore in the Reformed Episcopal Church. Accordingly the robes were taken apart and packed carefully away. When asked by me, at the time, why he had decided no to use them, he replied, "I earnestly hope no minister or bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church will ever wear them, as, judging from my own experience, the use of them fosters pride and vanity." Then he added, "whenever I put on those costly and elegant robes I was conscious of a feeling of superiority -as though the wearing of such a dress made me occupy a higher position than my brethren in the ministry, and this should never be felt in our own Reformed Episcopal Church." At another time, in the latter part of the year 1873, he said to a dear friend "One of the foundation stones of the Reformed Episcopal Church must be that Bishops are not a separate order of clergy - but only holding an office by which certain work for the Church is to be done; then, why is an especial dress, thus making a difference where none really exists?" "For myself, I much prefer the simple black gown as worn by the Reformers in the Swiss and French Churches and also by many if the English Protestants."