Ritual Mules

Renaissance cardinals proclaimed their social and religious status in myriad ways, particularly by their dress, their palaces, and their participation in public ceremonies. Processions were of great importance: when riding on formal occasions, especially when accompanying the pope or royalty, a Renaissance cardinal's preference was invariably to ride on a grandly attired mule. Their use of mules has not been the subject of detailed research despite an interest in rituals surrounding cardinals’ processions from the contemporary accounts of papal masters of ceremonies to modern studies of urban ritual. This clerical grandeur occurred despite long-standing criticisms of elegant horse trappings such as that by Bernard of Clairvaux in 1127 in a letter to Henry Sanglier on the conduct and office of bishops.

A mule is the sterile offspring of a female horse (mare) and a male donkey (jack), ideally combining the elegance, colour, and larger size of its mother with the stoutness and strength of its father. A simple animal, far less imposing than a horse. Yet the desire to combine humility and honour and to signal their exalted status led Renaissance cardinals to spend large sums of money on obtaining, maintaining, and in particular equipping these sturdy steeds. Their equestrian ornamentation included saddles, elaborate bridles, and finely wrought trappings, often covered in crimson velvet, sometimes adorned with elaborate silk tassels and expensive gilded studs.