Note 507 — Chapter V
Reading edition
The pall is a sort of collar, made of lamb's wool, which every metropolitan is required to obtain from the Pope, and without which he cannot exercise his functions. From the end of the eleventh century it has been described in papal bulls as the symbol of "the fullness of the pontifical office" (Catholic Encyclopedia, xi. 428). For the date of Malachy's decision to go to Rome, see p. 72, n. 3.