Sumptuous materials, vibrant colours and gold-encrusted decoration could not have played much part in the lives of ordinary men and women. The exorbitant expense of desirable fabrics, scarlet cloth costing 15s a yard and silk cloth 1s an ounce, was beyond the reach of most. Moreover, the recurrent sumptuary laws, although probably never enforced, set aclear division between the social classes. Indeed, the very materials from which vestments were created, cloth of gold, velvet, crimson cloth and velvet motley, were specified by the Commons in 1402 when they petitioned that no-one below the rank of banneret should wear such raiment. The Sumptuary Act of 1463 forbade damask or satin to be worn by the rank of esquire and gentlemen or lower, and for those of incomes of less than 40s a year, fustian and bustian were banned; fur, too, was prohibited unless it was black or white lamb. Twenty years later, no man under the estate of a lord was to wear a gown which did not cover his body below the hips, nor wear any woollen cloth made outside the kingdom, which included Calais at this time; but although many fabrics were denied to the majority of society, they were chosen by testators, clerics, churchwardens and parishioners for use within the Church, believing that only the most expensive, the most luxuriant, the most precious and the least attainable for men were fit for God.

Colour, on the other hand, did not depend on the whim of the donor or parish preference. Liturgical colours were probably first defined by Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) and fell into four groups.2 Red was most popular and varied from crimson-purple to pink and was used at Pentecost and the feasts of apostles and male martyrs.