ABSTRACT
Just before the Reformation the priesthood, consisting of beneficed secular clergy, curates and chantry priests, would have accounted for approximately 4 per cent of the English population.1 Graduates of oxford and Cambridge who had studied divinity could get a post in a noble household but most of the parish clergy had a reputation for limited learning and a lack of vocation. Indeed, the majority of the parochial clergy were resident, poorly educated, had no real career structure and little or no group identity.2 A university education was seen as a way of improving the quality of the English parochial clergy: however, the Reformation did not result in an immediate improvement. Indeed, there were more graduates within the diocese of Canterbury during Warham’s time as archbishop (1503-32) than in the 1550s.3 Regardless of their background, the appearance of the parish clergy was defined in three ways: clerical dress, consisting of a gown or cassock and tippet, while not officiating at divine service, the vestments which they wore to celebrate Mass and their private dress, including garments from the secular male wardrobe, which they might or might not wear.
