(1) The Oriental, which claimed the authority of St. Paul and consisted in shaving the whole head. This was observed by churches owing allegiance to Eastern Orthodoxy. Hence Theodore of Tarsus, who had acquired his learning in Byzantine Asia Minor and bore this tonsure, had to allow his hair to grow for four months before he could be tonsured after the Roman fashion, and then ordained Archbishop of Canterbury by Pope Vitalian in 668.
(2) The Celtic, which consisted of shaving the whole front of the head from ear to ear, the hair being allowed to hang down behind. An alternate explanation (apparently first described in the modern day in the article On The Shape Of The Insular Tonsure) describes the "delta" tonsure cut as a triangle with the apex at the forehead, and the base from ear to ear at the back of the head. The Roman party in Britain attributed the origin of the Celtic tonsure to Simon Magus, though some traced it back to the swineherd of Lóegaire mac Néill, the Irish king who opposed St. Patrick; this latter view is refuted by the fact that it was common to all of the Celts, both insular and continental. Some practitioners of Celtic Christianity claimed the authority of St. John for this, as for their Easter practices. It is entirely plausible that the Celts were merely observing an older practice which had become obsolete elsewhere.
[image] (3) The Roman: this consisted in shaving only the top of the head, so as to allow the hair to grow in the form of a crown. This is claimed to have originated with St. Peter, and was the practice of the Catholic church until obligatory tonsure was abolished in 1972.
Needless to say, these claimed origins are unhistorical; the early history of the tonsure is lost in obscurity. This practice is not improbably connected with the Roman idea that long hair is the mark of a Freeman, while the shaven head marks the Slave.
Based on Charles Plummer's essay, "Excursus on the Paschal Controversy and Tonsure" (in his edition of Bede's Opera Historica, 1898).
In the "Latin" or Western Rite of the Roman Catholic Church, tonsure referred to the rite of inducting a person into the Clergy. Once a seminarian received the tonsure, which for most consisted of a symbolic cutting of a few tufts of hair or at most a small bald spot toward the back of the head, he was officially considered a Cleric, and in medieval times obtained the civil benefits of clerics. He could then also receive the Minor orders which were prerequisites to the Major orders. Today, though, one becomes a cleric only when one is ordained Deacon. Paul VI adopted this rule in 1972 while simultaneously suppressing obligatory tonsure, the minor orders, and the subdiaconate. It is still maintained, however, by Traditional Catholics including the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, and by some monastic orders, including the Carthusians and Trappists, who have traditionally employed a very full version of tonsure.