THE QUESTION NATURALLY arises of why, if all Christendom believed that Jesus rode a donkey, there were so few live donkeys and so many white horses in medieval and early modern Palm Sunday processions. Bishops and other high-ranking clergy had not always been reluctant to ride donkeys. Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria from 328 to 373, reportedly reentered the city on a donkey after one of his several periods of exile. Athanasius was no minor ecclesiastical figure: he is now best known as the leading defender of orthodox Christology against Arianism. Athanasius's biographer, Gregory of Nazianzus, compared the bishop's entry to that of Christ: “He rode on a colt (pōlos: Fr. anôn = little donkey) … as my Jesus did upon that other colt … He was welcomed with branches, and multi-colored garments, rich in flowers, were spread before him, and thrown beneath his feet … Just as at the entry of Christ, those who went ahead of him shouted acclamations and danced.”

Martin of Tours (ca. 335– ca. 400) is also said to have ridden a donkey. The source is an “apparently apocryphal legend,” found not in the saint's biography written by Sulpicius Severus, who knew Martin personally, but in a collection of anecdotes about miracles, saints, and their relics compiled by Martin's sixth-century successor Gregory of Tours. According to Gregory, once when Martin was approaching Clermont, the senators of that old Roman city came out to meet him “with horsemen, coaches, chariots, and wagons. Martin was riding a donkey and seated on a very plain saddle.” Seeing them approach “in this procession,” the saintly bishop said, “What do these people who are approaching us with this magnificence intend for themselves? … It is not my [intention] to enter their city with this ostentatious parade.” Martin immediately “turned the bridle of his donkey around and began to depart on the road by which he had come.” The men of Clermont followed him and “humbly” persuaded him to delay his departure long enough to heal the sick who had come out to him from the city. Whether or not the story is true, it reflects Gregory's own disapproval of clergy who embraced the trappings of “an ostentatious parade” when entering a town.