ABSTRACT
Unlike their secular counterparts in society, the ecclesiastical elite were not covered by the acts of apparel. The men holding these offices were drawn predominantly from the secular clergy and they took a leading role in the government of the church and the state. They accumulated wealth and property, a habit which had been problematic for theologians from the fourth century AD. In 787 the Council of Nicea ruled that ‘a bishop has responsibility for all ecclesiastical property, and he must administer it as though God is his overseer. It is not lawful for him to appropriate any part of it to himself or to give his relatives things that belong to God.’1 These problems with the use and ownership of finery by the ecclesiastical elite continued to be the focus of Lollardy and Reformation polemic throughout this period.
