The "omophorion" probably developed from the civil "omophorion", a shoulder garment or shawl in general use. Bishops may have introduced directly by a positive precept a humeral cloth resembling the ordinary "omophorion" and called by that name, to be used as a liturgical pontifical badge. Alternatively, bishops may have used the civil "omophorion" as an ornament without any special significance, but in the course of time it gradually developed associations as a distinctively episcopal ornament. Finally it symbolized an episcopal badge of office.