Plainchant or plainsong, the traditional monodic chant of the Catholic Church, still uses a four-line stave, and in earlier music the number of lines used varied.
The tassel that graduates transfer from one side of the cap to the other as a sign of their elevation is an outgrowth of the medieval biretta worn by Roman Catholic clergy.
As the Orthodox faith continues its journey away from the Roman Catholic church, the need to establish visual points of difference became apparent, and this leads to a call for more ikonic artists.