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After initial ambivalence about distinctive garb for its ministers, early Christianity developed both liturgical garments and visible markers of clerical status outside church. From the ninth century, moreover, new converts to the faith beyond the Alps developed a highly ornate style of liturgical attire; church vestments were made of precious silks and decorated with embroidered and woven ornament, often incorporating gold and jewels. Making use of surviving medieval textiles and garments; mosaics, frescoes, and manuscript illuminations; canon law; liturgical sources; literary works; hagiography; theological tracts; chronicles, letters, inventories of ecclesiastical treasuries, and wills, Maureen C. Miller in Clothing the Clergy traces the ways in which clerical garb changed over the Middle Ages. Miller's in-depth study of the material culture of church vestments not only goes into detail about craft, artistry, and textiles but also contributes in groundbreaking ways to our understanding of the religious, social, and political meanings of clothing, past and present. As a language of power, clerical clothing was used extensively by eleventh-century reformers to mark hierarchies, to cultivate female patrons, and to make radical new claims for the status of the clergy. The medieval clerical culture of clothing had enduring significance: its cultivation continued within Catholicism and even some Protestant denominations and it influenced the visual communication of respectability and power in the modern Western world. Clothing the Clergy features seventy-nine illustrations, including forty color photographs that put the rich variety of church vestments on display.

Church vestments --- Clothing and dress --- Power (Social sciences) --- Authority --- Vêtements liturgiques --- Vêtements --- Pouvoir (Sciences sociales) --- Autorité --- History --- Social aspects --- Religious aspects --- Catholic Church --- Histoire --- Aspect social --- Aspect religieux --- Eglise catholique --- Vêtements liturgiques --- Vêtements --- Autorité --- Clergy --- Empowerment (Social sciences) --- Political power --- Exchange theory (Sociology) --- Political science --- Social sciences --- Sociology --- Consensus (Social sciences) --- Apparel --- Clothes --- Clothing --- Clothing and dress, Primitive --- Dress --- Dressing (Clothing) --- Garments --- Beauty, Personal --- Manners and customs --- Fashion --- Undressing --- Clergy members --- Clergymen --- Indigenous clergy --- Major orders --- Members of the clergy --- Ministers (Clergy) --- Ministers of the gospel --- Native clergy --- Ordained clergy --- Ordained ministers --- Orders, Major --- Pastors --- Rectors --- Religious leaders --- Church costume --- Ecclesiastical garb --- Ecclesiastical vestments --- Vestments --- Costume --- Liturgical objects --- Authoritarianism --- Religious aspects&delete& --- Catholic Church&delete& --- Christianity --- Auktoritet --- Church vestments. --- Kirchliches Leben. --- Kleidung. --- Kläder --- Kyrkoskrud --- Liturgisches Gewand. --- Makt (samhällsvetenskap). --- Pouvoir (sciences sociales) --- Power (Social sciences). --- Präster. --- Textilkunst. --- Vêtements religieux --- Religiösa aspekter. --- History. --- Catholic Church. --- Christianisme --- Clothing. --- Social aspects. --- Sociala aspekter. --- Historia. --- Medeltiden. --- To 1500. --- Europa. --- Europe. --- Diocesan clergy --- Ecclesiastics --- Secular clergy