The vestments worn by the priest when celebrating mass are then the most important.
In England at the Reformation the alb went out of use with the other "Mass vestments," and remained out of use in the Church of England until the ritual revival of the 19th century.
The popes had, from time to time, sent the pallium or the dalmatic - specifically Roman vestments - as gifts of honour to various distinguished prelates; Britain, converted by a Roman mission, had adopted the Roman use, and English missionaries had carried this into the newly Christianized parts of Germany; but the great Churches of Spain and Gaul preserved their own traditions in vestments as in other matters.
In the Western Church, though from the 9th century onwards the Roman use had been the norm, considerable alterations continued to be made in the shape and decoration of the liturgical vestments.
By the sub-committee of Convocation in their Report (1908) these vestments are wrongly classed as copes, i.e.