Pastoral Staff. often also, although not properly, called Crosier (q.v.), one of the insignia of the episcopal office, sometimes also borne by an abbot. It is a tall staff of metal, or of wood ornamented with metal, having, at least in the Western Church, the head curved in the form of a shepherd's crook, as a symbol of the pastoral office. From an early time the pastoral staff was connected with the actual possession of the jurisdiction which it symbolises. The giving of it was one of the ceremonies of investiture; its withdrawal was part of the form of deprivation; its voluntary abandonment accompanied the act of resignation; its being broken was the most solemn form of degradation. We annex as a specimen of the highest art the pastoral staff of William of Wykeham, now preserved in his foundation, New College, Oxford. A very early form of the pastoral staff is represented at FILLAN (ST).
Pastoral Staff.