Dress

Rochet

rochet

A rochet is a white ecclesiastical garment worn over a cassock, resembling a surplice.

From the book

The Gods Are Athirst

Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Browse this book’s lexicon →

Meaning

Lemma.

A rochet is a white ecclesiastical garment worn over a cassock, resembling a surplice. The clerics formerly chanted the offices in it, while the present patriots wear red caps in the same nave. The contrast is not a claim that the identical people have simply changed clothes: the building’s remembered religious use and its current political assembly are laid over one another through sound, dress and sight.

Places to read

  1. Chapter I, paragraph 1Frenchchanter en rochet les offices divins: clerical dress in the former worship. The next clause gives the present patriots in red caps.