Ariane Bodin - Representation and Reality of the Outward Look of the Clerics from the Fourth through the Fifth Century in Italy and Africa.

Clement the III^rd or more probably Innocentius the III^rd used to state that the clothes did not represent the monk himself, but only the job. The issues raised by this straightforward assertion should be analyzed since there is a great disjunction between the norms prescribed by Church fathers (such as Ambrosus of Milan, Augustine of Hippo and Jerome of Stridon) concerning the everyday life of clerics and the reality. It would be hard at that time to distinguish at a glance clerics and laymen, since there are no strict clothing rules that may be followed  by the clerics in the whole. Besides, one must not forget that the Church Fathers that we mentioned are converted to asceticism and their speeches are full of rigidity. They attempted to impose as a general rule their prescriptions on their clerics. But their success is limited to their own dioceses. As far as these discrepancies are concerned, it is all a question of being aware that what they wrote does not reflect the main feature of clerics during the fourth and the fifth centuries.