The pallium, in its present Western form, is a narrow band, " three fingers broad ", woven of white lamb's wool from sheep raised by Trappist monks, with a loop in the centre resting on the shoulders over the chasuble and two dependent lappets, before and behind ; so that when seen from front or back the ornament resembles the letter Y.

Boniface sends the pallium with this letter, adding that it is only to be worn when celebrating " the Holy Mysteries ".

It has also been suggested that the pallium did not indicate Justus was archbishop, since Justus is told the limited circumstances in which he may wear it ; however, the same phrasing occurs in the letter conveying the pallium to Archbishop Augustine, also quoted in Bede.

In this view, Bede has conflated the letter conveying the pallium with the letter congratulating Justus on the conversion, which according to Bede ’ s account was seven or so years earlier ; but the grammatical details on which this suggestion is based are not unique to this letter, and as a result it is usually considered to be a single composition.

The papal letter may also mean that the traditional date of consecration for Honorius may need re-dating, as the long gap between 627, when he is said to have been consecrated, and 634, when he finally received a pallium, is much longer than usually found.

Justus became Archbishop of Canterbury in 624, receiving his pallium — the symbol of the jurisdiction entrusted to archbishops — from Pope Boniface V, following which Justus consecrated Romanus as his successor at Rochester.

One is written to Justus after he had succeeded Mellitus as Archbishop of Canterbury in 624, conferring the pallium upon him and directing him to " ordain bishops as occasion should require.

He writes to Justus to send him the pallium.

In 601 Mellitus, Justus and others brought the pope's replies, with the pallium for Augustine and a present of sacred vessels, vestments, relics, books, and the like.

The story of Ealdred being deposed comes from the Vita Edwardi, a life of Edward the Confessor, but the Vita Wulfstani, an account of the life of Ealdred's successor at Worcester, Wulfstan, says that Nicholas refused the pallium until a promise to find a replacement for Worcester was given by Ealdred.

He went to Rome in 1007 to receive his pallium — symbol of his status as an archbishop — from Pope John XVIII, but was robbed during his journey.

Previously, the pallium worn by the Pope was identical to those he granted to the primates, but in 2005 Pope Benedict XVI began to use a distinct papal pallium that is larger than the primatial, and was adorned with red crosses instead of black.

With the recent election of Benedict XVI in 2005, his personal coat of arms eliminated the papal tiara ; a mitre with three horizontal lines is used in its place, with the pallium, a papal symbol of authority more ancient than the tiara, the use of which is also granted to metropolitan archbishops as a sign of communion with the See of Rome, was added underneath of the shield.

Cnut's possession of England's dioceses and the continental Diocese of Denmark – with a claim laid upon it by the Holy Roman Empire's Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen – was a source of great leverage within the Church, gaining notable concessions from Pope Benedict VIII, and his successor John XIX, such as one on the price of the pallium of his bishops.

Willibrord was most probably instated as archbishop, having received the pallium during his life ; but it is uncertain why and when exactly this title was lost in later times.

The following Sunday, Constans went in state to St. Peter's, offered a pallium wrought with gold, and was present during the Mass celebrated by the pope.

Lyfing was unable to go to Rome for his pallium during King Æthelred's reign, for every bishop that was consecrated during the remainder of the king's reign was consecrated by Archbishop Wulfstan of York.

In 1022 Æthelnoth went to Rome to obtain the pallium, and was received by Pope Benedict VIII.

However, Benedict was deposed in the following year ; the reforming party declared Benedict an anti-pope, and nullified all his acts, including Stigand's pallium grant.

The exact circumstances that led to Benedict granting a pallium are unknown, whether it was at Stigand's request or was given without prompting.

There were three reasons given for Stigand's deposition: that he held the bishopric of Winchester in plurality with Canterbury ; that he not only occupied Canterbury after Robert of Jumièges fled but also seized Robert's pallium which was left behind ; and that he received his own pallium from Benedict X, an anti-pope.

The two latter characteristics seem to be survivals of the time when the Roman pallium was a simple scarf doubled and pinned on the left shoulder.

Only the Papal pallium was to take this distinctive form.

Under the 1917 Code of Canon Law, a metropolitan had to receive the pallium before exercising his office in his ecclesiastical province, even if he was previously metropolitan elsewhere, but these restrictions were absent in the revised 1983 Code of Canon Law.

It is impossible to indicate exactly when the pallium was first introduced.

At any rate, the wearing of the pallium was usual in the fifth century ; this is indicated by the above-mentioned reference contained in the life of St Marcus which dates from the beginning of the sixth century, as well as by the conferring of the pallium on St. Cæsarius of Arles by Pope Symmachus in 513.

On Holy Thursday they are shorn, and from the wool is woven the pallium which the pope gives to a newly consecrated metropolitan archbishop as a sign of his jurisdiction and his union with the pope.

In 732, Boniface traveled again to Rome to report, and Pope Gregory II conferred upon him the pallium as archbishop with jurisdiction over Germany.

A metropolitan archbishop may wear his pallium as a mark of his jurisdiction not only in his own archdiocese but anywhere in his ecclesiastical province whenever he celebrates Mass ( Canon 437, Code of Canon Law, 1983 ).

Since the Second Vatican Council ( 1962 – 65 ), the liturgy for the conferral of the pallium as it appears in the liturgical books is to take place at the beginning of the Mass in which the archbishop takes possession of his see ; however, the practice of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI has actually been to summon all new metropolitans to Rome to receive the pallium directly from the hands of the pope on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.

After travelling to Rome to receive his pallium, the symbol of his authority as an archbishop, William discovered that Thurstan had arrived before him, and had presented a case against William's election to Pope Callixtus II.

* A metropolitan archbishop, celebrating Mass within the area of his province over which he has jurisdiction, wears a pallium over the chasuble, as a sign of the special authority over the suffragan bishops, granted by the Pope.

Rufus resigned himself to Anselm's position as archbishop, and at the king's court at Windsor he consented to Anselm being given the pallium.

In 766 Æthelbert succeeded Ecgbert as archbishop ; he was consecrated 24 April 767, and received his pallium from Pope Adrian I in 773.

The archbishop in Lund ( which at that time belonged to Denmark ) was declared primate of Sweden, meaning it was his right to select and ordain the Uppsala archbishop by handing him the pallium.

Lullus became the first regular archbishop of Mainz when Pope Hadrian I granted him the pallium in about 781.

Frequent communications were exchanged with Rome, and in 601 Gregory sent Augustine the pallium, the emblem of his authority as archbishop, directing him to consecrate other bishops and to set up his see in London.

After the death of St. Boniface, Pope Stephen conferred the pallium on St. Chrodegang ( 754 – 755 ), thus making him an archbishop, but not elevating the See of Metz.

During his short pontificate he played the part of a peacemaker ; he came to terms with the Emperor Frederick I in the vexing question of the appointment to the See of Magdeburg and closed the long quarrel, which had raged through four pontificates, about the appointment of William Fitzherbert ( commonly known as Saint William of York ) to the see of York by sending him the pallium in spite of the continued opposition of the powerful Cistercian order.

The Pope sweetened the deal for the Ravenna bishops by abolishing the tax it had been customary for them to pay when they received the pallium.

While there is no difference between the official dress of archbishops, as such, and that of other bishops, Roman Catholic metropolitan archbishops are distinguished by the use in liturgical ceremonies of the pallium, but only within the province over which they have oversight.

The word cailleach ( in modern Irish and Scottish Gaelic, ' old woman ') comes from the Old Irish caillech (' veiled one '), an adjectival form of Old Irish caille " veil ", an early loan from Latin pallium (' cloak ', an ecclesiastical garment worn by nuns ; displaying the expected p > c change of early loans ).

Lanfranc, during a visit which he paid the pope for the purpose of receiving his pallium, obtained an order from Alexander that the disputed points should be settled by a council of the English Church.

Traveling to Rome for the pallium had become a custom, practiced by a number of his predecessors.

The pallium ( derived from the Roman pallium or palla, a woolen cloak ) is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Roman Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the Pope, but for many centuries bestowed by him on metropolitans and primates as a symbol of the jurisdiction delegated to them by the Holy See.

The omophor is a wide band of cloth, much larger than the modern pallium, worn by all Eastern Orthodox bishops and Eastern Catholic bishops of the Byzantine Rite.